Um Farol no Nevoeiro

David Bolick

O outro dia li um texto do rabino Evan Moffic que fez muito sentido. Ele dizia no último parágrafo:

O filósofo Soren Kierkegaard certa vez disse que “a vida é vivida em perspectiva e entendida em retrospectiva”. Nós temos o poder para entender em retrospectiva. Não podemos mudar o passado, mas podemos mudar o seu significado para nós. O que decidimos lembrar ajuda a nos moldar para o futuro.[1]

Um bom exemplo disso foi José, no Antigo Testamento. Ele disse para os irmãos, “Vocês planejaram o mal contra mim, mas Deus o tornou em bem, para que hoje fosse preservada a vida de muitos.”[2]

Já percebi, como o rabino Moffic, a minha tendência a memória seletiva. É como se todas as coisas ruins fossem selecionadas por meio de um filtro, e mesmo que passassem pelo crivo, fossem relegadas a uma posição de menor importância. Não é uma decisão consciente, apenas uma reação automática derivada da convicção de Romanos 8:28[3]—uma das muitas vantagens que tem aquele que pertence ao Senhor.

Mas certas situações exigem um esforço para serem colocadas em uma perspectiva positiva, principalmente quando percebo que a minha memória está enveredando pelo lado escuro e redirecionando meus pensamentos. Sendo assim, mesmo não tendo nada de bom na lembrança, eu crio algo positivo deliberadamente, dou uma colher de chá à pessoa ou à situação que me incomoda, ou enfatizo o pensamento que, mesmo que eu não consiga ver nada de bom a respeito da situação no momento, isso não anula a verdade de Romanos 8:28.

Uma tática muito eficaz para neutralizar a chateação é dizer algo como, “Fulano de tal pisou no meu calo, mas deve ter sido um reflexo da minha atitude com ele, e essa dificuldade na convivência deve ser real para nós dois.” Poderíamos comparar isso ao uso de uma lanterna para determinar em que direção seguir na falta de luz natural. A lanterna não ilumina tanto quanto a luz do sol, mas com ela certamente não vamos ficar tateando no escuro. E já descobri que se eu insistir no uso da luz artificial, em breve a minha percepção natural daquele caminho anteriormente sombrio se torna mais positiva.

Esse princípio tem funcionado comigo não só quando eu sou a vítima, mas também quando sou o vilão. Na verdade, tenho alcançado as maiores vitórias quando percebo o lobo debaixo da minha pele de ovelha e reconheço tanto a necessidade de ser perdoado como a de perdoar.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn compartilhou esse mesmo pensamento por ocasião do seu retorno à Rússia depois de um longo exílio. Ele viajou pelo país todo, tendo contato com muita gente que partilhava da ideologia dos responsáveis pelo seu exílio. Os seus colaboradores criticaram essa atitude e não aprovaram o seu contato com esse tipo de pessoa. Solzhenitsyn disse, “A questão não é apenas a perfídia cometida por indivíduos maus e a necessidade de separá-los do resto de nós e destruí-los. Mas a linha que separa o bem do mal passa diretamente pelo coração do ser humano, e quem vai querer destruir um pedaço do seu próprio coração?”

Tenho percebido cada vez mais a complexidade e a grande quantidade de detalhes relacionados ao viver avida. Devo admitir a minha atitude bastante simplista na avaliação de diferentes questões, e aceitar a realidade de que, no momento, falta-me conhecimento suficiente para julgar retamente diferentes situações. Mas, por outro lado, isso tem colaborado para eu entender melhor pessoas e situações.

Talvez pudesse comparar à maneira como a nossa visão periférica fica mais dinâmica que a visão central em um ambiente pouco iluminado. Pode ser que eu consiga entender muito mais se afrouxar um pouco a maneira como interpreto pessoas e situações por meio da minha limitada percepção, e apoiar-me mais na verdade que conheço sobre elas com base na Palavra de Deus.

Na maioria das corridas das quais participo, geralmente tem alguns deficientes visuais. Apoiando-se na sua capacidade visual, esses atletas jamais conseguiriam acompanhar o ritmo, pois se locomoveriam como o típico cego, batendo a bengala no chão. Mas cada um desses deficientes visuais está conectado por meio de uma pulseira e uma tira de uns 30 cm, ao pulso de um corredor. E eles correm lado a lado, para o segundo direcionar o deficiente -- e tudo funciona otimamente bem.

“Se alguém acha que sabe todas as respostas, está apenas mostrando sua própria ignorância. Aquele, porém que verdadeiramente ama a Deus, esse está em condições de receber o conhecimento vindo de Deus. De igual modo, agora só podemos ver e compreender um pouquinho a respeito de Deus, como se estivéssemos observando seu reflexo num espelho muito ruim; mas o dia chegará quando O veremos integralmente, face a face. Tudo quanto sei agora é obscuro e confuso, mas depois verei tudo com clareza, tão claramente como Deus está vendo agora mesmo o interior do meu coração!”[4]

“Amados, agora somos filhos de Deus, e ainda não se manifestou o que havemos de ser, mas sabemos que, quando ele se manifestar, seremos semelhantes a ele, pois o veremos como ele é.”[5]

Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli. Revisão Tiago Sant’Ana.


[1] http://michaelhyatt.com/we-are-what-we-remember.html.

[2] Gênesis 50:20 Nova Versão Internacional.

[3] Sabemos que Deus age em todas as coisas para o bem daqueles que o amam, dos que foram chamados de acordo com o seu propósito.
(NVI).

[4] 1 Coríntios 8:2–3; 13:12 Novo Testamento Vivo.

[5] 1 João 3:2 NVI.

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The Sad Story of a Life Without God

Georgia Purdom


Over the Christmas break as I was waiting on my daughter to choose some books from our local library, I was intrigued when I saw a book titled My Life without God. The book is an autobiography written by William (Bill) Murray, son of Madalyn Murray O’Hair. Madalyn Murray O’Hair is infamous for her fight to remove prayer from public schools that was achieved through a Supreme Court decision in 1963.

As I read about Bill and Madalyn’s life, I just kept thinking, “How is it possible that a woman who was an avowed Marxist and wanted to defect to the Soviet Union was given so much media attention and influence in the U.S. government?” If Madalyn were alive today, she would be grouped with the “New Atheists.” She was passionate about hating God and wanted all the fame and glory for herself. I’ve often thought that cases to remove “In God We Trust” from U.S. currency and “under God” from the pledge of allegiance were modern battles. However, Madalyn was fighting these very same battles in the 1960s. She wanted every trace of God completely removed from society.

Bill’s story is a very sad account, and at times I wasn’t sure I would be able to finish the book. He endured a lot of abuse physically, mentally, and emotionally. One time, his mother read through his junior high history book and made this comment:


“I can’t believe all the hogwash in there. It treats the parting of the Red Sea just like it really happened. It’s incredible! Later on it talks about Jesus and says he was the son of God, that he performed miracles and rose from the dead. [Expletive] stuff I ever read. It has no place in a public school textbook!”[1]

Having graduated from the public school system, I was shocked that at one time biblical history was part of the history books! The battles Madalyn and others fought with the public school system have made a huge impact on the information taught there over the last 40–50 years. We really shouldn’t be surprised that there is so much violence among children, especially in school. This is the result of children learning that—instead of being created in the image of God—they are nothing more than the result of time, death, and chance.

Bill became very disillusioned about life over the years, but wasn’t willing to give up on atheism yet. He wrote a letter to 400 members of his mother’s atheist organization. He stated the following:


I wrote to them asking for support of positive rather than negative atheism. I suggested we use funds to establish atheist chairs at universities rather than to sue to have religious chairs removed. I recommended the construction of monuments and hospital wings.[2]

And what was the response of the atheists?


A handful of people sent contributions out of habit. But the overwhelming majority of those who answered my letter pelted me with such abuse that I was stunned. Over and over I read that the principal goal of atheism was the destruction of religion and that this was no time to build.[3]

Pure and simple atheism is nothing more than rebellion against God. That is it’s sole goal and purpose. There is nothing in atheism to “build” on. If you think people are nothing more than animals, evolved by random chance, then there is no ultimate meaning and purpose in life. Why build hospitals to save people’s lives? Why bother teaching people anything at all?

These events and others led Bill to believe that God must exist, so he gave his life to Christ at the age of 33. A short while later, Bill wrote a letter to the people of the city of Baltimore where the case to remove prayer in public schools had begun. He wrote as follows:


First, I would like to apologize to the people of the City of Baltimore for whatever part I played in the removal of Bible reading and praying from the public schools of that city. I now realize the value of this great tradition and the importance it has played in the past in keeping America a moral and lawful country. I can now see the damage this removal has caused to our nation in the form of loss of faith and moral decline.[4]

In some ways it is sad to think about the impact that one person with sinful motives and actions can make in this world. But we should rejoice that one person with Christ-centered motives and actions can also make an impact in this world. As we begin 2013, think about ways you can impact the world around you. How can you equip people to defend the authority of the truth of God’s Word? Maybe through a Bible study, Sunday school class, having a conversation with a neighbor or friend, or maybe sending resources to a loved one who has questions. We can all make a difference.

Keep fighting the good fight of the faith!

[1] William J. Murray, My Life without God (New York: Thomas Nelson, 1982) p. 50.
[2] Ibid, p. 228.
[3] Ibid, pp. 228-229.
[4] Ibid, p. 247.

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Germany, for Decades a Pacifist Power, Faces the Need to Play a Military Role

By Nicholas Kulish, NY Times, January 5, 2013
BERLIN—When Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted a recent reception for military families, she greeted parents, wives and children whose loved ones were spending their holidays in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Kosovo and off the Horn of Africa. German deployments overseas, Ms. Merkel said, “will soon encompass the entire globe.”

On that same wintry afternoon, members of Parliament debated whether to add to the nearly 6,000 German troops currently serving abroad by sending up to 400 soldiers to Turkey, where they would operate two Patriot missile batteries to help protect their NATO ally from a potential escalation of the civil war across the border in Syria.

“For decades, we Germans have benefited from the fact that our partners gave us the feeling of reliable security,” Thomas de Maizière, Germany’s defense minister, said during the debate last month. “Now we are in a position and have the duty, even, to make our impact felt.”

Only a handful of shivering protesters passed out fliers in front of the Brandenburg Gate opposing the deployment. The vote easily passed in the Parliament two days later.

It was not that long ago that every German military action brought with it mass demonstrations, public hand-wringing and probing questions about the country’s militarist past. But the shadow of history continues to recede here and Germany is, for better or worse, quietly approaching a normal relationship with its armed forces.

For the past three years, Europe has been preoccupied with economic issues as the debt crisis threatened to sunder the euro currency union. But strategic military questions cannot be ignored indefinitely. The United States is increasingly shifting its focus to the Asia-Pacific region and reducing the number of troops stationed in Europe.

“Europe has more responsibility for its own security, and Germany has to step up to that, particularly considering its new economic power in Europe,” said Constanze Stelzenmüller, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin.

Conscription was suspended indefinitely here in 2011 as part of a drive to professionalize and modernize the armed forces. In August, the Constitutional Court ruled for the first time that the German military could be deployed at home under exceptional circumstances, like in the wake of a terrorist attack.

“Naturally, a great deal has developed further in terms of the acceptance of deployments outside of this country and outside the NATO territory,” said Col. Ulrich Kirsch, chairman of the German Federal Armed Forces Association, which represents the interests of active and former military personnel. “But the Germans are, now as before, difficult to inspire for military operations.”

Military business is another matter. Germany is the world’s third-biggest arms exporter, behind only the United States and Russia, sending weapons not only to NATO members and allies like Israel but increasingly to the Middle East and beyond. As the business grows, critics at home question sales to undemocratic countries like Saudi Arabia.

Germany’s military industry employs an estimated 80,000 people, jobs Ms. Merkel wants to protect, especially less than a year before September’s parliamentary election. In October, German opposition helped doom the proposed merger of two aerospace giants, British-based BAE Systems and the consortium EADS, in part out of concern that German jobs and influence might be lost in the new entity.

Last month Der Spiegel, the influential newsmagazine, showed a grim-faced Ms. Merkel on the cover in a camouflage suit jacket with the headline “German Weapons for the World.” The magazine described the Merkel doctrine as deploying fewer German troops to conflict zones and instead strengthening partners by selling them arms. The German government approved military exports in excess of 10 billion euros, or over $13 billion, for the first time in 2011, the magazine reported.

That is an especially impressive feat considering that military expenditures in Western and Central Europe fell 1.9 percent in real terms that year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Those cuts have “prompted unease in many quarters that European countries risk losing global influence as they fall further behind the United States in military capabilities,” the institute said in its most recent annual report on military spending, “while rising powers such as China rapidly catch up and even overtake them.”

Germany’s path forward could well determine the shape of Europe’s military affairs for years to come. Whether that is through a growing leadership role and the assumption of more responsibility for regional security or a limited, some say cynical, emphasis on protecting its own interests still remains to be seen.

“Germany is back in the game as one of the most important countries in the Western Hemisphere, but the kind of responsibility that goes with that is not really reflected in German government behavior,” said Olaf Böhnke, head of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “If Germany wants to be in a leadership position, you need stronger military engagement.”

German troops have been in Afghanistan for more than a decade, but mostly restricted to the safer northern part of the country. The Bundeswehr, Germany’s army, sent its first Tiger attack helicopters to Afghanistan in December. On Tuesday the army announced that it had not suffered a single fatality in 2012 in Afghanistan.

“This conflict-averse basic attitude still remains, and one has to deal with it,” said Martin Kahl, a political scientist at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. “People feel safer than before. There is no enemy on the European continent who could lead a classic conflict.”

After World War II, West German politicians rejected military force for any goal other than self-defense, and a strong pacifist streak developed in the public. The end of the cold war brought the beginning of a long period of halting change. Allies, particularly in the United States, have repeatedly called for Germany to take more responsibility and a larger share of the burden.

“I don’t think it’s healthy for the future of Europe to give Germany this refuge where Germany handles the economy and doesn’t have to deal with the dirty stuff,” Mr. Böhnke said.

The biggest turning point was probably when Germany participated in airstrikes in the Kosovo war in 1999, a break with the taboo against offensive operations.

Even as Germany exports arms around the world, idealism about the use of force by German soldiers remains. In May 2010, Germany’s president, Horst Köhler, gave an interview to German public radio saying that society needed to recognize the sacrifices and contributions of the military. A broader political discussion was necessary, Mr. Köhler said, about the military’s role.

“A country of our size,” Mr. Köhler said, “with its focus on exports and thus reliance on foreign trade, must be aware that military deployments are necessary in an emergency to protect our interests, for example, when it comes to trade routes, for example, when it comes to preventing regional instabilities that could negatively influence our trade, jobs and incomes.”

A public outcry ensued, and Mr. Köhler resigned. But the German Navy was essentially already doing what Mr. Köhler described in his comments, as part of the multinational mission to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia. The government announced plans to suspend conscription just a few months after Mr. Köhler quit.

Parliament made it official in 2011, toppling in the process another of the remaining hurdles between Germany and a normal military.

“The suspension of conscription officially recognized the fact that the German Army had become a professional army,” said Ms. Stelzenmüller from the German Marshall Fund. “These are people who get paid for putting themselves in harm’s way, just like other Western armies.

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The enemy within: Soldier suicides outpaced combat deaths in 2012

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor, Jan. 2, 2012
More soldiers took their own lives than died in combat during 2012, new Department of Defense figures show. The Army’s suicide rate has climbed by 9 percent since the military branch launched its suicide-prevention campaign in 2009.

Through November, 177 active-duty soldiers had committed suicide compared to 165 during all of 2011 and 156 in 2010. In all of 2012, 176 soldiers were killed in action—all while serving in Operation Enduring Freedom, according to DOD.

Army suicides have increased by at least 54 percent since 2007 when there were 115—a number the Washington Post then called “an all-time record.” An Army spokesman said Wednesday it is uncertain if 177 marks a new annual high (with December numbers still to come), or if suicides have ever outpaced combat deaths in a single year, because the Army has not always tracked suicides.

Some Army families who recently lost members to suicide criticize the branch for failing to aggressively shake a culture in which soldiers believe they’ll be deemed weak and denied promotion if they seek mental health aid. They also blame Army leaders for focusing more heavily on weeding out emotionally troubled soldiers to artificially suppress the branch’s suicide stats versus embracing and helping members who are exhibiting clear signs of trouble.

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A Cluster Bomb Killed My Father

By Nadim Matta, Foreign Policy, January 3, 2013
As he did most days when I was home from university, my dad came into my room at six in the morning and placed a cup of Turkish coffee on my bedside table. He had been awake for a couple of hours, and he was getting ready to head back into the orchard under our house, in Bhamdoun, a picturesque town overlooking Beirut, to water the trees.

I had planned a “cleanliness campaign” that day with our Friends of Nature Club at the village. We had started the club that year as part of a fledgling environmental movement in Lebanon, but in the days following the Israeli invasion of 1982 we turned our attention to clearing up the rubble and debris of the aerial bombing of the Israel Defense Forces.

My dad was visibly worried. He said: “Baba, please be careful. There may still be unexploded bombs on the side of the streets. Be extra careful.”

These were the last words I heard him say. And probably the last words he said.

Later that morning, I took a break from the cleaning campaign to buy additional brooms for the volunteers. I had to go to the next town to pick these up. Curiously, the shop did not have brooms in the showroom, and the owner gave me the key to the storage house to get them. When I got there and turned the key in the keyhole, it broke inside.

Things happened very fast after that. Before I had time to react, a speeding car came to a screeching halt next to me. Militiamen were inside. One of them called my name, with an insistently alarming tone: “We have been looking for you everywhere! Get in the car quickly.” A few minutes later, the militiaman in the passenger seat turned back to me. “You have to be strong now. For the sake of your mother. Ammo Fadel was killed this morning. A cluster bomb exploded. Apparently the bomb got caught in the garden hose as he was dragging it between trees. He died instantly. It is best that you not look at him. His face is completely torn out.” (Ammo Fadel was how my father was known in the village.)

I did not say much for several days after that. And I did not drink Turkish coffee for several months.

In the weeks that followed, we were on the lookout for cluster bomblets in the village. We found hundreds of these in every place imaginable—snuggled underneath car tires, on street corners, inside homes, and of course in orchards and vineyards in our valley and in the thorn and thistle fields in the rugged hills above the village. The variety used at the time by the Israel Defense Forces was a little larger than size D batteries—with a white ribbon hanging from each. We detonated as many as we could.

This was June 1982. Bhamdoun’s strategic location on Mount Lebanon, high above the Mediterranean, made it a favorite spot for “last stand” battles between warring forces trying to control the road between Beirut and Damascus.

Much has happened since then. In September 1983, after the invading Israeli army withdrew from our part of the mountains, Christians and Druze fought a fierce battle in Bhamdoun for control of the mountains. Our village was torched to the ground. Fellow Bhamdounis, along with Christians from neighboring villages, were “ethnically cleansed” and took refuge in other parts of the country. We lived in exile for 15 years.

We have since rebuilt the village, in some cases restoring the old houses one stone at a time. We redid the dilapidated terraces on our land and replaced the orchard under our house with a vineyard. My son Karim, who was born and raised in the United States, graduated from George Washington University in 2012. He is now working in Lebanon to provide assistance to Palestinian refugees—more than 50 years into their own exile.

Karim called me the other day. He told me that he and his friends spent the weekend in the village, and he proudly mentioned that he went up with them on the mountain paths above our house. I was silent for a moment. And then I said: “Karim: Please be careful.… Be extra careful.…”

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The 'war on terror'--by design--can never end

Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian, 4 January 2013
Last month, outgoing pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson gave a speech at the Oxford Union and said that the War on Terror must, at some point, come to an end:

“Now that efforts by the US military against al-Qaida are in their 12th year, we must also ask ourselves: How will this conflict end? … . ‘War’ must be regarded as a finite, extraordinary and unnatural state of affairs. We must not accept the current conflict, and all that it entails, as the ‘new normal.’ Peace must be regarded as the norm toward which the human race continually strives… .

“There will come a tipping point at which so many of the leaders and operatives of al-Qaida and its affiliates have been killed or captured, and the group is no longer able to attempt or launch a strategic attack against the United States, that al-Qaida will be effectively destroyed.”

On Thursday night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow interviewed Johnson, and before doing so, she opined as follows:

“When does this thing we are in now end? And if it does not have an end—and I’m not speaking as a lawyer here, I am just speaking as a citizen who feels morally accountable for my country’s actions—if it does not have an end, then morally speaking it does not seem like it is a war. And then, our country is killing people and locking them up outside the traditional judicial system in a way I think we maybe cannot be forgiven for.”

It is precisely the intrinsic endlessness of this so-called “war” that is its most corrupting and menacing attribute, for the reasons Maddow explained. But despite the happy talk from Johnson, it is not ending soon. By its very terms, it cannot. And all one has to do is look at the words and actions of the Obama administration to know this.

In October, the Washington Post’s Greg Miller reported that the administration was instituting a “disposition matrix” to determine how terrorism suspects will be disposed of, all based on this fact: “among senior Obama administration officials, there is broad consensus that such operations are likely to be extended at least another decade.” As Miller puts it: “That timeline suggests that the United States has reached only the midpoint of what was once known as the global war on terrorism.”

The polices adopted by the Obama administration just over the last couple of years leave no doubt that they are accelerating, not winding down, the war apparatus that has been relentlessly strengthened over the last decade. In the name of the War on Terror, the current president has diluted decades-old Miranda warnings; codified a new scheme of indefinite detention on US soil; plotted to relocate Guantanamo to Illinois; increased secrecy, repression and release-restrictions at the camp; minted a new theory of presidential assassination powers even for US citizens; renewed the Bush/Cheney warrantless eavesdropping framework for another five years, as well as the Patriot Act, without a single reform; and just signed into law all new restrictions on the release of indefinitely held detainees.

Does that sound to you like a government anticipating the end of the War on Terror any time soon? Or does it sound like one working feverishly to make their terrorism-justified powers of detention, surveillance, killing and secrecy permanent? About all of this, the ACLU’s Executive Director, Anthony Romero, provided the answer on Thursday: “President Obama has utterly failed the first test of his second term, even before inauguration day. His signature means indefinite detention without charge or trial, as well as the illegal military commissions, will be extended.”

There’s a good reason US officials are assuming the “War on Terror” will persist indefinitely: namely, their actions ensure that this occurs. The New York Times’ Matthew Rosenberg this morning examines what the US government seems to regard as the strange phenomenon of Afghan soldiers attacking US troops with increasing frequency, and in doing so, discovers a shocking reality: people end up disliking those who occupy and bomb their country:

“Such insider attacks, by Afghan security forces on their Western allies, became ‘the signature violence of 2012’, in the words of one former American official. The surge in attacks has provided the clearest sign yet that Afghan resentment of foreigners is becoming unmanageable, and American officials have expressed worries about its disruptive effects on the training mission that is the core of the American withdrawal plan for 2014… .

“But behind it all, many senior coalition and Afghan officials are now concluding that after nearly 12 years of war, the view of foreigners held by many Afghans has come to mirror that of the Taliban. Hope has turned into hatred, and some will find a reason to act on those feelings.

“‘A great percentage of the insider attacks have the enemy narrative—the narrative that the infidels have to be driven out—somewhere inside of them, but they aren’t directed by the enemy,’ said a senior coalition officer, who asked not to be identified because of Afghan and American sensitivities about the attacks.”

In other words, more than a decade of occupying and brutalizing that country has turned large swaths of the population into the “Taliban”, to the extent that the “Taliban” means: Afghans willing to use violence to force the US and its allies out of their country. As always, the US—through the very policies of aggression and militarism justified in the name of terrorism—is creating the very “terrorists” those polices are supposedly designed to combat. It’s a pure and perfect system of self-perpetuation.

Exactly the same thing is happening in Yemen, where nothing is more effective at driving Yemenis into the arms of al-Qaida than the rapidly escalated drone attacks under Obama. This morning, the Times reported that US air strikes in Yemen are carried out in close cooperation with the air force of Saudi Arabia, which will only exacerbate that problem. Indeed, virtually every person accused of plotting to target the US with terrorist attacks in last several years has expressly cited increasing US violence, aggression and militarism in the Muslim world as the cause.

There’s no question that this “war” will continue indefinitely. There is no question that US actions are the cause of that, the gasoline that fuels the fire. The only question—and it’s becoming less of a question for me all the time—is whether this endless war is the intended result of US actions or just an unwanted miscalculation.

It’s increasingly hard to make the case that it’s the latter. The US has long known, and its own studies have emphatically concluded, that “terrorism” is motivated not by a “hatred of our freedoms” but by US policy and aggression in the Muslim world. This causal connection is not news to the US government. Despite this—or, more accurately, because of it—they continue with these policies.

One of the most difficult endeavors is to divine the motives of other people (divining our own motives is difficult enough). That becomes even more difficult when attempting to discern the motives not of a single actor but a collection of individuals with different motives and interests (“the US government”).

But what one can say for certain is that there is zero reason for US officials to want an end to the war on terror, and numerous and significant reasons why they would want it to continue. It’s always been the case that the power of political officials is at its greatest, its most unrestrained, in a state of war. Cicero, two thousand years ago, warned that “In times of war, the law falls silent” (Inter arma enim silent leges). John Jay, in Federalist No. 4, warned that as a result of that truth, “nations in general will make war whenever they have a prospect of getting anything by it … for the purposes and objects merely personal, such as thirst for military glory, revenge for personal affronts, ambition, or private compacts to aggrandize or support their particular families or partisans.”

If you were a US leader, or an official of the National Security State, or a beneficiary of the private military and surveillance industries, why would you possibly want the war on terror to end? It’s that war that generates limitless power, impenetrable secrecy, an unquestioning citizenry, and massive profit.

Just this week, a federal judge ruled that the Obama administration need not respond to the New York Times and the ACLU’s mere request to disclose the government’s legal rationale for why the President believes he can target US citizens for assassination without due process. Even while recognizing how perverse her own ruling was—“The Alice-in-Wonderland nature of this pronouncement is not lost on me” and it imposes “a veritable Catch-22”—the federal judge nonetheless explained that federal courts have constructed such a protective shield around the US government in the name of terrorism that it amounts to an unfettered license to violate even the most basic rights: “I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the executive branch of our government to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws while keeping the reasons for their conclusion a secret.”

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Our Constant: God´s Word

By M. Fontaine

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The Word and our relationship with the Lord are the constants in our lives as Christians and in our service for the Lord. Everything can change in our lives—our circumstances, our health, our homes, our countries of residence, our ministries—but His Word never fails to guide us and to be an enduring presence in our lives. It is our spiritual ballast, our anchor, our moral and spiritual compass, our lifeblood, our joy, our peace, our hope, our vision, and our comfort. The Word has been—and is—core to who we are, our way of life, our beliefs, our values, our mission, how we raise our children, how we conduct ourselves, and it has sustained us through all the challenges that we have faced throughout the years.

Your connection with the Lord is a priceless treasure, the pearl of greatest price, something that is of immense value. No one can chart the course of your life and faith for you, or tell you precisely how the Lord wants you to operate and the decisions you need to make in your walk with Him. Within that broad tunnel of Christian principles, the Lord wants to accompany you in your personal walk of faith. How He leads you to express your discipleship could be radically different in some ways from how others feel called to express their discipleship—and we should celebrate those differences and empower others to identify their personal calling and path, and support them on their journey.

Although each of us has to personally connect with the Lord and seek His will, the Word of God continues to be the foundation of our faith. God’s Word is the essence of our life of faith. The Word is:
The secret of power and victory and overcoming and fruitfulness and fire and life and warmth and light and leadership.
Food for your soul and strength for the battle.
The most powerful truth on earth.
The very Spirit and life of God Himself (John 4:24).
The spiritual spark of God that ignites us with His life, light, and power.
The primary means by which we receive God’s communication and are made aware of His will, and thereby receive the faith and strength to carry on for Him in this life.
The very life of God that gives us spiritual life and food and nourishment and strength and health.
The secret of victory or of defeat. The secret of success or failure.
Faith is built by faithful study of God’s Word. You have it because you’re full of the Word of God.
If you keep close to the Word and really let it change you, you will grow steadily, and mature into what the Lord wants you to be.
The only way on God’s earth to find true freedom is to continue in God’s Word. His truth and His Word is what makes us free.
The Word of God is your spiritual ballast, your only hope of salvation, the only thing that will keep you steady and on the firm foundation of truth.
The Word is also a light that drives away and defeats the Enemy’s darkness! “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). When you fill your mind with the Word of God, you don’t have room for the darkness.
His Word is the most powerful weapon in the world.
[The Word] can change hearts and change minds and win followers to Christ and His cause.1

Here is a review of some of the Bible verses that are the foundation for our understanding of the crucial role of God’s Word:
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.2
If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.3
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.4
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.5
Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.6
The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.7
Study to show thyself ­approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.8
It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.9
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.10
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.11
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.12
Surely I will pour out My Spirit on you; I will make My words known to you.13
Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven.14

The Word, both new and old, is overflowing with beautiful and timeless promises, prophecies, and words—more than we can even retain and hide in our hearts. There are also many things written in the Word for our instruction, so that we can benefit from the lessons of faith that others have learned.15 There are writings that chronicle the history of God’s people for their time, and their experiences and lessons of faith. We can draw moral or spiritual lessons and principles from these writings and strive to apply these to the context we live in today.

The Lord has taught us a lot through the years about trusting Him, even when things don’t go so well or don’t turn out right in our eyes. I’m sure that for the children of Israel who left Egypt with Moses, things didn’t look too great when they were lacking in basic necessities and wandering in the desert for 40 years. Many of them lost heart and sinned in God’s eyes through complaining about their lot in life, and therefore never even got to enter the Promised Land of their future after forsaking so many things and undergoing such hardship. They couldn’t see the wonderful future God had prepared for His people of faith, which would eventually lead up to Jesus’ coming.

Reading about the lives of the great missionaries like Adoniram Judson, William Carey, Mary Slessor, David Livingstone, Amy Carmichael, etc., if you didn’t look at their lives through the eyes of faith, you could draw the conclusion that things didn’t turn out so great for them a lot of the time. They suffered incredible hardships, lost loved ones, often operated with very little funding or resources, suffered illness, and in many cases, almost unbearable loneliness. Certainly, if they had chosen to live their lives otherwise, their lives could have been much easier. They could have stayed in their homelands, they could have had greater comforts for their families; they might have avoided the loss of their loved ones if they hadn’t been exposed to foreign illnesses or physical hardship.

They were willing to face such hardship because they chose to trust in the God factor. They endured “as seeing Him who is invisible.”16 That was an awful lot of enduring to do, and I’m guessing if you’re like me, you’ve wondered at times if you could endure to the degree that they did. I’m sure many average believers of their day who observed their hardships wondered what the point was in all that sacrificing, if it was really worth it.

These men and women of faith were often almost alone in their quest, following the voice of God and His calling for them with very little support. It all came down to the God factor, seeing God, Him who is invisible. How much faith those words of David Livingstone represented, when he said, “I never made a sacrifice!” Of course, we know by history that he actually made many difficult, heartrending sacrifices that must have been a living death. Becoming one of God’s greats cost him everything, and I’m guessing there were a lot of unanswered “whys” in his life. So even if some things in life are unclear to you or just plain don’t make sense, you can trust that the Lord will continue to be your shepherd, guiding you to green pastures and cool waters of His words that will refresh your soul and strengthen you.

He’s the ultimate in God’s Word! As John said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”17 Jesus is the Living Word, so ask Him to guide you and speak to you personally. He’s the Living Word that always applies to every situation and to every period of history since the beginning of the world and all the way to the end of it.

So if you ever feel like your faith is in crisis, I encourage you to go back to the foundation—Jesus—and find your footing there on the “Rock of Ages.” Ask the Lord to speak to you and give you the answers you seek. Let the Holy Spirit guide you into all truth and bring comfort and peace to your heart.

Faith still comes by hearing the Word of God, and the entrance of His words gives light and understanding.18 These principles are timeless, so please continue to strengthen and ground your faith through reading His words and receiving His inspiration, instruction, and guidance for your personal life and walk with Him.

Originally published November 2010. Updated and republished January 2013.
Read by Bethany Kelly.

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Lights Ahead

A compilation

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I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”­1

We don’t know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. The things we need to know, the Lord tells us, and sometimes the things we want to know, He tells us, but most of the time He throws a veil over the future so it is known only to Him—and that really keeps us close to the Lord.

He’s promised to never leave or forsake us.2 “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”3 He’s also given us the torch of His Word to show us where our path is going. “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”4—David Brandt Berg5

*

Your time on earth is just a small pinpoint in eternity. It's a tiny train stop of a few years when put into the timeline of infinity. And yet this stop is one of the most important times in your existence. It’s the only place that you will be able to do certain things and learn and grow in certain ways.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy6

*

It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.—Edgar Allan Poe

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What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.—James 4:147

*

It may be well to make the best of both worlds, but of this poor world, nothing can be made unless it is viewed in the light of another. This is a poor withering life at the best, for we all fade as a leaf. Unless we purposely live with a view to the next world, we cannot make much out of our present existence. Such rags as this poor present world of time and sense can never be made up into an array in which a man would care to robe himself. At the same time, do not be frightened at the unhandsome form in which this life, at times, appears—it is, after all, but a vapor—and who will be alarmed at it?

Is life so short? Does it only appear for a little time and then vanish away? Then let us put all we can into it. If life is short, it is wisdom to have no fallows, but to sow every foot of ground while we can. It will be prudent to pack our little space as full as possible.

Let us put plenty of life into our existence, plenty of work into our life, plenty of heart into our work, and plenty of warmth into our heart. May God [grant] us to live while we live! May we not only live but be all alive.

Is time so short? Then do not let us fret about its troubles and discomforts. A man is on a journey and puts up at an inn. And when he is fairly in the hostelry, he perceives that it is a poor place with scant food and a hard bed. “Well, well,” he says, “I am off the first thing tomorrow morning and so it does not matter.” This world is an inn and if there are certain discomforts in it, let us remember that we are not tenants for years, but only guests for a day! Let us make the best we can of the temporary accommodation which this poor shanty of a world affords. Our life is removed as a shepherd’s tent, which was a hovel in which the shepherds watched their sheep. A shepherd who has to watch the sheep for a short time does not set to work to build a granite palace or a brick house—he is satisfied with a reed hut—and does not complain of its scant space and slender strength.

Do all that you would like to have done if you knew you would die tomorrow. I like Mr. Whitefield’s order, for he could not go to bed comfortably if his gloves were not in his hat ready for the morning! He felt that he could not tell when he would be called away—but he wished to have everything in its place whenever the summons should come. Must this life vanish away? Then remember it is the beginning of another. The present life melts into the life to come!—C. H. Spurgeon8

*

Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.—Jesus9

*

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.—Apostle Paul10

*

I don’t worry o’er the future,
For I know what Jesus said;
And today I’ll walk beside Him,
For He knows what lies ahead.
Many things about tomorrow,
I don’t seem to understand,
But I know who holds tomorrow,
And I know who holds my hand!
—Ira Stanphill

Published on Anchor December 2012. Read by Simon Peterson.
Music by Daniel Sozzi.


1 Minnie Louise Haskins.

2 Hebrews 13:5.

3 Matthew 28:20 KJV.

4 Psalm 119:105 NKJV.

5 Daily Might. Aurora Production AG, 2004.

6 Originally published 2004.

7 NKJV.

8 From http://www.gospelweb.net/SpurgeonMTP30/spursermon1773.htm.

9 Matthew 6:20–21 NKJV.

10 2 Timothy 4:7–8 NKJV.

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Orações e Bênçãos de Natal

Compilação

No seu íntimo, reine a bênção da alegria…
Sobre você, a bênção da paz cada dia…
Por meio de você que flua a bênção do amor…
Para o Natal e novo ano, todas as bênçãos do Senhor.—Anônimo

*

Debaixo da árvore eu colocaria presentes,
Não tangíveis, mas que o deixem contente
Nada de coisinhas sem sentido,
Mas um presente em bênçãos contido.
O dom da verdadeira amizade,
É o que lhe daria com sinceridade.
Boa saúde, alegria e felicidade,
Para fazê-lo sorrir em qualquer idade.
O dom da paz que vem de Deus,
Com orações por cada passo seu.
E nos momentos de tristeza,
O dom da esperança para lhe dar firmeza.
Estes são os presentes que eu lhe daria.
—Kay Hoffman, adaptado

*

Querido Senhor, este Natal brilha esplendoroso com o Seu maior dom de amor e luz. Que essa luz ilumine nossos corações e seja refletido em nossas palavras e ações. Que a esperança, a paz, a alegria e o amor representados no nascimento em Belém preencham nossas vidas e se tornem parte de tudo o que dizemos e fazemos. Que dividamos com outros a vida que Seu filho nos dá, assim como Ele Se humilhou para partilhar da condição humana.—Richard J. Fairchild, adaptado

*

Ensine-nos a valorizar o que é eterno...
Conhecer a felicidade de ser fraterno…
Vivenciar a paz de uma serena gravura...
Saber que ajudar nos traz formosura...
Renovar neste Natal a convicção…
De que só perdura o que se faz de coração.
—M. D. Winsett

*

Jesus, a luz do mundo, conforme comemoramos o Seu aniversário… que possamos ver o mundo com a Sua compreensão. Você escolheu dar aos humildes, aos desprezados, e aos pobres as melhores notícias do mundo, que nós então possamos adorá-lO em mansidão de coração. Ajude-nos, nesta época de doação, a nos lembrarmos de nossos irmãos menos privilegiados.—Karen L. Oberst

*

Senhor Jesus, mestre da luz e das trevas, envie o Seu Espírito Santo sobre os nossos preparativos para o Natal. Nós, tão atarefados, buscamos lugares sossegados onde possamos ouvir a Sua voz cada dia. Nós, que nos preocupamos com tantas coisas, ficamos na expectativa da Sua presença. Nós, que somos abençoados de tantas formas, ansiamos a alegria plena do Seu reino. Nós, cujos corações estão pesados, buscamos a alegria da Sua companhia. Nós, o Seu povo que anda nas trevas em busca da luz, rogamos, “Venha, Senhor Jesus!”.—Henri J. M. Nouwen

*

Que Deus lhe dê a luz do Natal, que é a fé; o calor do Natal, que é o amor; o esplendor do Natal, que é a pureza; a justiça do Natal, que é a equidade; a crença do Natal, que é a verdade; a plenitude do Natal, que é Cristo.—Wilda English

*

Que você possa conhecer o Cristo do Natal como…
O Deus que canta para você e com você nos momentos felizes,
O Deus que Se alegra por você e com você quando encontra o amor.
O Deus cujos montes explodem em cantoria diante de você, e cujas árvores nos Seus campos batem palmas.
O Deus que caminha ao seu lado, deleitando-Se com você conforme guia todos os seus passos.

Que você possa conhecer o Senhor do Amor como...
O Deus que, como um Pai compassivo, o consola em todas as suas dificuldades
O Deus que fortalece o seu interior pelo Seu Espírito e está sempre ao seu lado.
O Deus que é a sua força, seu refúgio, e um socorro bem presente.
O Deus que é o seu escudo e proteção quando você é atacado.
O Deus onipresente que é a sua paz eterna.—Anônimo

*

A você eu desejo a alegria que o Natal nos traz, que é esperança;
O espírito do Natal, que nos dá paz;
A essência do Natal, que é o amor.—Ada V. Hendricks

*

Homens na antiguidade
Viram a estrela-guia
Alegres acompanharam,
O símbolo que reluzia,
Assim também, nós, Senhor
Sigamos sempre na Sua direção

Alegre e apressadamente
Foram até o local do nascimento,
Prostrando-se muito reverentes
Diante de Quem é nosso fundamento;
Assim também nós, com disposição
Busquemos a Tua misericórdia, Senhor.

Presentes raros ofereceram,
Diante da manjedoura tosca
Assim também nós em bem-aventurança
Livres do pecado e da intolerância,
Entreguemos o que nos é precioso
A Cristo, o nosso Rei poderoso.

Jesus querido, durante toda a nossa vida,
Pelo caminho estreito guie a nossa lida;
E quando as coisas terrenas se forem,
Leve nossas almas resgatadas
Aonde não precisam ser guiadas,
Aonde as nuvens não obstruem a Tua glória.
—William Chatterton Dix

*

Mais um ano para amar
Aquele que há muito eu sigo;
Mais um ano para agradecer
Em louvor triunfante.

Venha o que vier no futuro
Dores, pesares, sofrimento,
O Seu preciso amor perdura
Ele é o mesmo de sempre.

Mais um ano com Jesus!
Senhor, eu agradeço neste dia
Tua presença constante
Nos caminhos penosos da vida.

Guie-me, bendito Redentor,
Ensine-me a fazer Tua vontade,
E cumprir o Teu desígnio
Cada dia da minha vida.
—Avis Christiansen

Publicado no Âncora em dezembro de 2012.

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Strengthening Thoughts for Times of Testing

By Jesus, speaking in prophecy

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It’s wonderful when you come to Me for My help in time of trial. It’s so beautiful to see you depend on Me. It makes Me want to come through for you like never before, because you are leaning so fully on Me. This is just where I want you to be—dependent on Me for strength, focus, and inspiration for your tasks. Keep looking to Me and I will keep working through you all the more, to make your way clear and the path ahead beautiful and glorious.

*

When an attitude of defeat overtakes you and you’re thinking, “That’s it! I’ve fallen so many times, I’ve failed the Lord again and again—there’s no more hope for me. I’ve used up all my chances, even my bonus points. I might as well quit!”—please remember that no matter how many times you fall, if you want to get back up, I will help you to keep going. And if you believe that when you get back up, you can be stronger, then I will make you stronger. What it comes down to is how much you believe in My Word and how much credence you put in the things I have told you. There is no such thing as running out of chances, because I am your chance! Hope and faith are on your side for as long as I live—and that’s for eternity.

*

Everything in life that is worth something costs something; but not only that, it usually takes a lot longer to accomplish something than you had planned or thought it would. You face unexpected delays, losses, and setbacks. Sometimes people get sick, or don’t keep their word, or there are emergencies that take your time, attention, and finances. It’s easy to become frustrated with the lack of progress, and you might even be tempted to quit altogether.

When that happens, the key is to remember how far you’ve come—not to be miserable about how far you still have to go. When you take on a big job, of course it’s going to take time, lots of time, probably more time than you planned for or expected. In such a case, be like the farmer who has a thousand hectares to plant. He just gets started. He doesn’t lament that he’s not finished at the end of the first day. He knew full well he wouldn’t be finished, so to be disappointed that he’s not would be unrealistic and silly. Instead, at the end of each day he feasts his eyes on the part of the field thathas been worked, prepared, and planted. And each day that portion of the field grows and grows. Measure by the progress made, the victories won, and how far you’ve come. Look at where you started, and celebrate the distance covered already.

*

Battles are often won at the very last second, through one final decision to not give up or give in regardless of what happens! Just like you have to hold on in a race until the last lap, and then give it all you’ve got as you’re coming down the last stretch, so it is with a battle. When you feel like you can’t hold on for one more second, that’s when you must give it all you’ve got and praise Me with your whole heart as you sock it to the Enemy—and you will win! I guarantee it.

*

The trials of life will never be able to overtake you; they will never be too much to bear, because I have put a built-in mechanism in your soul, an escape button. I always give a way of escape, I always give a way out, and I always help you to overcome life’s difficulties.1

*

Cast your cares upon Me and let Me handle them all. I’m your 24-hour support line. I’m available and right there at the other end of the line, just waiting for your call and ready to assist you. I always have the solutions, too! Furthermore, I never put you on hold. I’m always right there and available to give you the answers you need. You can fully rely on Me.

*

Your hopes seem shattered right now and all seems lost. I am here to hold you in My arms, to wipe away your tears, to look lovingly into your tender eyes and to tell you that all will be well in due time. I want you to think back on extremely difficult times in the past and remember that I have always brought you through to an even better place, and I will do the same this time as well. That better place is just around the corner. Come with Me now, My love, and we will find it. Don’t give up the fight, and together we will win the victory!

*

My dearest one, come lie with Me and rest a while. You’re tired and spent from your battles; you need rest and reprieve. Come lie down and let Me cradle you in My arms; let Me take you to a place where all is peace and quiet. Let Me renew your spirit as you rest, so that when you go again to face the Enemy, you will be strengthened and fully empowered with My weapons.

*

My love, it hurts Me to see you struggle so; it pains Me to see you go through these things. But it’s a joy to My heart when I see you come through victoriously, praising Me in spite of the problems. These trials are tailor-made from My hand to make you into what I need and want you to be, trials for which you will later be glad. I can and will make it easier to bear, though, as you come to Me and let My love, power, and grace flow into you, giving you the strength to continue on. I love you.

*

Patience. You need patience for many things in this life, and one very important thing that you need patience for is for resting in Me. Yes, it takes patience to allow yourself to rest fully in Me. It takes patience to let your worries and fears go, to place them in My hands, and then to let Me handle them fully in My time and in My way. I don’t always give you the solutions instantly, so have patience. I don’t always heal you the instant that you ask, so have patience. I don’t always pour down My full blessing from heaven the very first time you ask, so have patience. Your patience in Me is a sign of your faith that you know I am in control.

*

Sometimes things go haywire and just don’t work out, and there’s not much you can do about it. When that happens, it’s natural to get very discouraged. When you have worked so hard, put so much into a project or person, and then things don’t turn out as you had hoped, it’s hard to feel motivated to keep trying, keep pressing ahead, and not feel like giving up.

In times like that, you just need to slow down, relax, and let Me put things into perspective for you. Rest in the comfy chair of My arms, and soak your feet in the warm water of My promises. Just stop, lay your head back, close your eyes, and make a conscious effort to release all the cares, pressure, stress and tension.

As you rest in Me, placing your time, schedule, deadlines, and foiled plans in My hands, I’ll take care of everything that concerns you. As you are motionless, doing nothing in your own strength, I’ll gently work out the tension and stress, infuse you with renewed energy, and whisper to you words of guidance, insight, and revelation that will show you the next step to take.

*

Imagine walking through a large jewelry store and marveling at the many delicate-looking and exquisitely jeweled pieces before you. Within each glass case is displayed a dazzling array of precious stones and metals, designed, cut, and set to perfection: rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and more. You name it, this store has it all.

In your hand you hold several of what to you look like dirty old coins. Your eyes then widen as the clerk opens a glass case and selects a very beautiful, very costly necklace that you’ve been admiring. He boxes it, puts it in your hand with a smile, and tells you that it’s yours in exchange for one of these dirty little coins. What’s more, he tells you to come back again tomorrow and he’ll trade another treasure for one of these coins.

Too good to be true?

My love, that “dazzling array of precious stones” that you see before you are the priceless life lessons and experience that those seemingly dirty and almost repulsive coins—the many battles, tests, and trials you are facing right now—are able to purchase. I am that clerk and owner of this storehouse of wealth, and I want to enrich your life. I want to shower you with the jewels of My Spirit! I want your coffers and safes bursting and barely able to contain the spiritual wealth and life experience that I have for you. But this is how you get them: through these trying times of trials, affliction, and hardships. These are the currency that buy the jewels that beautify your life.

Originally published September 2008. Updated and republished December 2012.
Read by Bethany Kelly.


1 1 Corinthians 10:13.

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