The Apologetics of Cornelius Van Til - Joe Boot
Friday, December 13, 2013
Natal É Refletir Jesus
J. R. Miller
A missão do Menino Jesus foi transformar o pecado e a dor existentes na terra em santidade e alegria no Céu. Na noite do Seu nascimento, a terra não tinha semelhança alguma com o Céu. Era um lugar de egoÃsmo, crueldade, contendas, pecado, maldade, opressão, e dor. Milhões viviam em escravidão. A depravação do homem era tal que seu fedor chegava aos céus. Os governos eram tiranos. …Aqui e ali viam-se pessoas de oração que pensavam em Deus, e algumas que conduziam suas vidas de maneira pura e gentil. Mas o pecado reinava no mundo. Quanto ao amor, logicamente existia o amor natural, de mães pelos filhos, e entre amigos. Mas a massa desconhecia completamente o amor no sentido que home nós conhecemos. O amor, amor cristão, nasceu na noite do primeiro Natal. Quando Jesus veio ao mundo, trouxe do Céu o amor de Deus, do próprio Deus, uma faÃsca da vida que Deus nos dá. Christina Rossetti traduz da seguinte maneira:
“O amor descendeu no Natal,
Amor sublime e celestial;
O amor nasceu no Natal,
Anjos e estrelas deram sinal.
“O amor é o nosso hino,
Amor pra ti e para mim,
Amor pra toda a humanidade,
Amor divino e sem fim.”
Essa pequena faÃsca de amor penetrou entre os homens e nações até tocar tudo o que existe na terra, transformando, purificando, tornando mais meigo abrandando. Em parte foi o que Jesus quis dizer quando falou que um pouco de fermento leveda uma grande quantidade de massa, e chega ao mundo todo. Nós temos as… palavras que os anjos cantaram: “Paz na terra aos de boa vontade.” Esse foi o resultado da vinda de Cristo na forma humana. Ele trouxe paz e boa vontade a toda a humanidade.
O nascimento de Jesus colocou a boa vontade em movimento. Durante todos estes séculos na história cristã, muito se tem feito no sentido de colocar esse programa em ação. Nos paÃses cristãos é maravilhoso ver os bons cuidados que recebem os pobres, idosos, órfãos, enfermos e menos privilegiados, além do prevalente espÃrito de gentileza e caridade. Tudo isso é resultado da disseminação do amor de Deus entre a humanidade. ...Mas a obra ainda não está concluÃda. O mundo ainda não está dominado pelas virtudes do Céu, sua doçura, pureza e beleza. Apesar de muito já ter sido feito, ainda há muito chão pela frente.
Podemos trazer a questão para o âmbito pessoal respondendo à pergunta: “Como eu estou participando para efetivar o Natal?” Afinal de contas, isso é o mais importante para nós. Não é possÃvel fazer o que cabe a outro, e outros não vão fazer o que cabe a nós. Por outro lado, algumas pessoas passam tanto tempo cuidando da vida alheia que nem percebem que o seu jardim está cheio de mato e as pragas estão sufocando as plantas e flores. E aquele pedacinho do imenso mundo de Deus que nos foi dado para dele cuidar? Se a missão da igreja é fazer cristãos até nos confins da terra, cada um de nós tem uma pequena parte nesse todo.
Cada pessoa deveria procurar criar o Natal primeiro no seu próprio coração e vida. Natal é refletir Jesus. A vida sagrada e divina veio à terra na forma de Jesus, e teve inÃcio em um lugar muito humilde, que foi onde Jesus nasceu. A nossa vida exibe alguma parcela que seja dessa humildade, gentileza, doçura, pureza e sossego? É uma questão bastante prática. Algumas pessoas têm o sentimento de amor, mas sua conduta, caráter, ou atitude não o evidenciam. O amor de um cristão se revela por meio de obras.
Alguém conta de ter visto um pobre cachorrinho tentando subir na calçada, sem conseguir. Toda vez que tentava ele caÃa para trás no meio fio. Centenas de pessoas passaram por ali e viram a cena, riram do animalzinho tentando e falhando, e seguiram caminho sem nada fazer. Aproximou-se então um homem de aparência tosca, um operário, que se compadeceu do cachorrinho. Ajoelhando-se no meio fio ele ergueu o bichinho, o colocou na calçada, e seguiu seu caminho sem estardalhaço. Aquele homem possuÃa o verdadeiro espÃrito do amor. É o que Cristo teria feito. O amor sem dúvida se revela na maneira como alguém trata um cão e também como se relaciona com o próximo.
Para termos verdadeiramente o amor no coração, devemos aprender a esquecer de nós mesmos e a pensar nos outros. Devemos parar de registrar o que fazemos pelos outros, e nos lembrarmos o que os outros fizeram por nós. Devemos parar de pensar no que outros nos devem e lembrar do que devemos a outros — e que devemos a Cristo e à humanidade o melhor que podemos dar em termos de vida e amor. …Devemos descer da nossa torre de marfim e parar de querer receber atenção, que as pessoas nos honrem e prestigiem, que nos reverenciem e sirvam, e ter uma atitude humilde, começando a servir ao próximo com amor, até mesmo à s pessoas mais simples, das maneiras mais humildes — como fez o nosso Mestre.
Este próximo parágrafo, de autoria de um brilhante escritor, está no seu livro sobre manter o espÃrito do Natal: “Você está disposto a pensar nas necessidades das criancinhas e no que elas desejam ganhar, a se lembrar da vulnerabilidade e solidão dos que estão envelhecendo, a parar de perguntar aos amigos se eles amam você e perguntar a si mesmo o quanto você ama as pessoas da sua convivência, a pensar no fardo emocional que outros carregam, a tentar entender o que verdadeiramente desejam as pessoas com quem você vive sem esperar que lhe digam; a limpar o seu lampião para ele passar mais luz e menos fumaça, e carregá-lo na sua frente para a sua sombra ficar atrás; a enterrar seus pensamentos ruins e fazer um jardim de livre acesso para os sentimentos bons? Você está disposto a fazer essas coisas por um dia que seja? Se assim for, vai conseguir manter o espÃrito do Natal.”
Devemos primeiro criar o Natal no nosso coração para então podermos levar o Natal a outros. A pessoa rabugenta e egoÃsta, o tirano e o déspota, a pessoa insensÃvel e implacável não consegue entrar no espÃrito do Natal ou acrescentar à bênção do Natal na vida de amigos e vizinhos. O Natal precisa começar no nosso Ãntimo, no nosso coração, e ir além; devemos criar o Natal para outros, caso contrário não poderemos criar o Natal para nós mesmos. Precisamos compartilhar nossa alegria, pois se limitarmos o Natal a nós mesmos, perderemos metade da sua doçura. …
Certo homem conta a história: “É muito difÃcil saber como ajudar as pessoas quando não é possÃvel lhes enviar cobertores, carvão para aquecerem suas casas, ou uma ceia de Natal”. É realmente verdade em muitos casos. As pessoas não sabem como ajudar os outros se não for materialmente. No entanto, existem maneiras melhores de fazer o bem, além de simplesmente doar uma ceia, ou roupas, ou um quadro para a parede, ou talheres. Você pode não ter dinheiro para gastar e mesmo assim ser um bom colaborador. Podemos ajudar as pessoas com compreensão, alegria ou encorajamento.
Até onde sabemos Jesus nunca enviou cobertores para aquecer as pessoas, ou combustÃvel para suas lareiras ou aquecedores, nem ceias de Natal ou brinquedos para suas crianças. No entanto, Ele foi o suprassumo em termos de colaboração e auxÃlio. Jesus tinha o dom maravilhoso de ajudar as pessoas a carregarem seus fardos. Saber ajudar com verdadeira empatia é algo incrivelmente poderoso, e Jesus entendia a dor e as dificuldades do ser humano. Ele amava as pessoas, por isso conseguia ajudá-las, esse era o Seu grande segredo. Ele sabia o que era sofrer; Ele foi afligido tanto quanto todos. Alguém disse certa vez: “Se eu fosse Deus, ficaria de coração partido com os pesares e o sofrimento no mundo”. ...O que essa pessoa não sabia é que foi exatamente assim que Cristo Se sentiu, com o coração partido de tanta compaixão, amor, e pesar pelo sofrimento da humanidade, o que O capacitou a tornar-se o nosso Redentor. Jesus foi um colaborador maravilhoso, não de coisas materiais, mas de auxÃlio espiritual. Não tem problema dar presentes no Natal, é bom, se forem bem escolhidos e dados com a intenção de fazer o bem. Mas devemos procurar ajudar também de maneiras mais sublimes.
Autoria J. R. Miller. Trechos de Christmas Making, publicado por The University Press, Cambridge, Mass. EUA, 1910. Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
A missão do Menino Jesus foi transformar o pecado e a dor existentes na terra em santidade e alegria no Céu. Na noite do Seu nascimento, a terra não tinha semelhança alguma com o Céu. Era um lugar de egoÃsmo, crueldade, contendas, pecado, maldade, opressão, e dor. Milhões viviam em escravidão. A depravação do homem era tal que seu fedor chegava aos céus. Os governos eram tiranos. …Aqui e ali viam-se pessoas de oração que pensavam em Deus, e algumas que conduziam suas vidas de maneira pura e gentil. Mas o pecado reinava no mundo. Quanto ao amor, logicamente existia o amor natural, de mães pelos filhos, e entre amigos. Mas a massa desconhecia completamente o amor no sentido que home nós conhecemos. O amor, amor cristão, nasceu na noite do primeiro Natal. Quando Jesus veio ao mundo, trouxe do Céu o amor de Deus, do próprio Deus, uma faÃsca da vida que Deus nos dá. Christina Rossetti traduz da seguinte maneira:
“O amor descendeu no Natal,
Amor sublime e celestial;
O amor nasceu no Natal,
Anjos e estrelas deram sinal.
“O amor é o nosso hino,
Amor pra ti e para mim,
Amor pra toda a humanidade,
Amor divino e sem fim.”
Essa pequena faÃsca de amor penetrou entre os homens e nações até tocar tudo o que existe na terra, transformando, purificando, tornando mais meigo abrandando. Em parte foi o que Jesus quis dizer quando falou que um pouco de fermento leveda uma grande quantidade de massa, e chega ao mundo todo. Nós temos as… palavras que os anjos cantaram: “Paz na terra aos de boa vontade.” Esse foi o resultado da vinda de Cristo na forma humana. Ele trouxe paz e boa vontade a toda a humanidade.
O nascimento de Jesus colocou a boa vontade em movimento. Durante todos estes séculos na história cristã, muito se tem feito no sentido de colocar esse programa em ação. Nos paÃses cristãos é maravilhoso ver os bons cuidados que recebem os pobres, idosos, órfãos, enfermos e menos privilegiados, além do prevalente espÃrito de gentileza e caridade. Tudo isso é resultado da disseminação do amor de Deus entre a humanidade. ...Mas a obra ainda não está concluÃda. O mundo ainda não está dominado pelas virtudes do Céu, sua doçura, pureza e beleza. Apesar de muito já ter sido feito, ainda há muito chão pela frente.
Podemos trazer a questão para o âmbito pessoal respondendo à pergunta: “Como eu estou participando para efetivar o Natal?” Afinal de contas, isso é o mais importante para nós. Não é possÃvel fazer o que cabe a outro, e outros não vão fazer o que cabe a nós. Por outro lado, algumas pessoas passam tanto tempo cuidando da vida alheia que nem percebem que o seu jardim está cheio de mato e as pragas estão sufocando as plantas e flores. E aquele pedacinho do imenso mundo de Deus que nos foi dado para dele cuidar? Se a missão da igreja é fazer cristãos até nos confins da terra, cada um de nós tem uma pequena parte nesse todo.
Cada pessoa deveria procurar criar o Natal primeiro no seu próprio coração e vida. Natal é refletir Jesus. A vida sagrada e divina veio à terra na forma de Jesus, e teve inÃcio em um lugar muito humilde, que foi onde Jesus nasceu. A nossa vida exibe alguma parcela que seja dessa humildade, gentileza, doçura, pureza e sossego? É uma questão bastante prática. Algumas pessoas têm o sentimento de amor, mas sua conduta, caráter, ou atitude não o evidenciam. O amor de um cristão se revela por meio de obras.
Alguém conta de ter visto um pobre cachorrinho tentando subir na calçada, sem conseguir. Toda vez que tentava ele caÃa para trás no meio fio. Centenas de pessoas passaram por ali e viram a cena, riram do animalzinho tentando e falhando, e seguiram caminho sem nada fazer. Aproximou-se então um homem de aparência tosca, um operário, que se compadeceu do cachorrinho. Ajoelhando-se no meio fio ele ergueu o bichinho, o colocou na calçada, e seguiu seu caminho sem estardalhaço. Aquele homem possuÃa o verdadeiro espÃrito do amor. É o que Cristo teria feito. O amor sem dúvida se revela na maneira como alguém trata um cão e também como se relaciona com o próximo.
Para termos verdadeiramente o amor no coração, devemos aprender a esquecer de nós mesmos e a pensar nos outros. Devemos parar de registrar o que fazemos pelos outros, e nos lembrarmos o que os outros fizeram por nós. Devemos parar de pensar no que outros nos devem e lembrar do que devemos a outros — e que devemos a Cristo e à humanidade o melhor que podemos dar em termos de vida e amor. …Devemos descer da nossa torre de marfim e parar de querer receber atenção, que as pessoas nos honrem e prestigiem, que nos reverenciem e sirvam, e ter uma atitude humilde, começando a servir ao próximo com amor, até mesmo à s pessoas mais simples, das maneiras mais humildes — como fez o nosso Mestre.
Este próximo parágrafo, de autoria de um brilhante escritor, está no seu livro sobre manter o espÃrito do Natal: “Você está disposto a pensar nas necessidades das criancinhas e no que elas desejam ganhar, a se lembrar da vulnerabilidade e solidão dos que estão envelhecendo, a parar de perguntar aos amigos se eles amam você e perguntar a si mesmo o quanto você ama as pessoas da sua convivência, a pensar no fardo emocional que outros carregam, a tentar entender o que verdadeiramente desejam as pessoas com quem você vive sem esperar que lhe digam; a limpar o seu lampião para ele passar mais luz e menos fumaça, e carregá-lo na sua frente para a sua sombra ficar atrás; a enterrar seus pensamentos ruins e fazer um jardim de livre acesso para os sentimentos bons? Você está disposto a fazer essas coisas por um dia que seja? Se assim for, vai conseguir manter o espÃrito do Natal.”
Devemos primeiro criar o Natal no nosso coração para então podermos levar o Natal a outros. A pessoa rabugenta e egoÃsta, o tirano e o déspota, a pessoa insensÃvel e implacável não consegue entrar no espÃrito do Natal ou acrescentar à bênção do Natal na vida de amigos e vizinhos. O Natal precisa começar no nosso Ãntimo, no nosso coração, e ir além; devemos criar o Natal para outros, caso contrário não poderemos criar o Natal para nós mesmos. Precisamos compartilhar nossa alegria, pois se limitarmos o Natal a nós mesmos, perderemos metade da sua doçura. …
Certo homem conta a história: “É muito difÃcil saber como ajudar as pessoas quando não é possÃvel lhes enviar cobertores, carvão para aquecerem suas casas, ou uma ceia de Natal”. É realmente verdade em muitos casos. As pessoas não sabem como ajudar os outros se não for materialmente. No entanto, existem maneiras melhores de fazer o bem, além de simplesmente doar uma ceia, ou roupas, ou um quadro para a parede, ou talheres. Você pode não ter dinheiro para gastar e mesmo assim ser um bom colaborador. Podemos ajudar as pessoas com compreensão, alegria ou encorajamento.
Até onde sabemos Jesus nunca enviou cobertores para aquecer as pessoas, ou combustÃvel para suas lareiras ou aquecedores, nem ceias de Natal ou brinquedos para suas crianças. No entanto, Ele foi o suprassumo em termos de colaboração e auxÃlio. Jesus tinha o dom maravilhoso de ajudar as pessoas a carregarem seus fardos. Saber ajudar com verdadeira empatia é algo incrivelmente poderoso, e Jesus entendia a dor e as dificuldades do ser humano. Ele amava as pessoas, por isso conseguia ajudá-las, esse era o Seu grande segredo. Ele sabia o que era sofrer; Ele foi afligido tanto quanto todos. Alguém disse certa vez: “Se eu fosse Deus, ficaria de coração partido com os pesares e o sofrimento no mundo”. ...O que essa pessoa não sabia é que foi exatamente assim que Cristo Se sentiu, com o coração partido de tanta compaixão, amor, e pesar pelo sofrimento da humanidade, o que O capacitou a tornar-se o nosso Redentor. Jesus foi um colaborador maravilhoso, não de coisas materiais, mas de auxÃlio espiritual. Não tem problema dar presentes no Natal, é bom, se forem bem escolhidos e dados com a intenção de fazer o bem. Mas devemos procurar ajudar também de maneiras mais sublimes.
Autoria J. R. Miller. Trechos de Christmas Making, publicado por The University Press, Cambridge, Mass. EUA, 1910. Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
Christmas Is Christlikeness
By J. R. Miller
The mission of the Christ-Child was to change the sin and sorrow of earth into the holiness and the joy of heaven. Earth was very unlike heaven that night. It was a place of selfishness, of cruelty, of strife, of sin, of wrong, of oppression, of sorrow. Millions of men were slaves. There was depravity that reeked to heaven. Governments were tyrannous. … Here and there a few praying souls thought of God, and a few men and women lived pure and gentle lives. But the world was full of sin. Love—of course there was natural love. Mothers loved their children, friend loved friend. But the great multitudes knew nothing of love, as we now understand the word. Love, Christian love, was born that first Christmas night. Love of God, God’s own love, a spark of God’s life, came down from heaven to earth when Jesus was born. Christina Rossetti puts it thus:
“Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.
“Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for gift and plea and sign.”
This tiny spark of love was to work its way out among men, among the nations, until all the life of the earth should be touched by it, changed, purified, sweetened, softened. This is part of what Jesus meant when he spoke of a woman putting a little morsel of leaven in a great mass of dough, that it might work its way through the world lump. We have the … words of angels’ song, “On earth peace, good-will toward men.” That is what the coming of Christ to earth in human flesh was to do—to make peace and to put into all men’s hearts good-will.
Jesus’ [birth] was to set all this good-will to work in the world. A great deal has been done in these long Christian centuries in the carrying out of this program. In Christian lands there is much that is very beautiful in the way that the poor, the old, the blind, the orphans, the sick, and all unfortunate ones are cared for, and in the spirit of kindness and charity, which prevails in society. All this has been brought about by the diffusion of the love of God among men. … But the work is not yet finished. The whole world has not yet been transformed into the sweetness, purity, and beauty of heaven. Where most has been done, there still is much to do.
We may bring the subject closer to home. What is our personal part in the making of Christmas? After all, that is the most important question for us. We cannot do any other one’s part, and no other can do ours. Some people spend so much time looking after their neighbor’s garden that the weeds grow in their own and choke out the plants and flowers. What about the little patch of God’s great world that is given us to tend? If the [mission] of the church is to make Christmas on every part of the earth, one small portion belongs to every one of us.
Each one should seek to make Christmas first in his own heart and life. Christmas is Christlikeness. The life of heaven came down to earth in Jesus and began in the lowly place where he was born. Is there any measure of that same sweet, gentle, pure, quiet, lowly life in us? It ought to be a very practical matter. Some people get the sentiment of love; but the love fails in its working out in their disposition, conduct, and character. The love of a Christian is something that will show itself in deeds.
Someone tells of seeing a little lame dog trying to climb up the curbstone from the street to the pavement. But the poor creature could not quite reach the top—he would always fall back. A hundred people passed by and watched the dog, laughed at his efforts and failures, and went on. No one offered to help him. Then a working man came along, a rather rough-looking man. He saw the dog and pitied him, and getting down on his knees beside the curb, he lifted the little creature up to the sidewalk, and then went quietly on. That man possessed the true spirit of love. That is what Christ would have done. Love is shown quite as unmistakably in the way a man treats a dog as in the spirit he shows toward his own fellows. …
If we would make it really Christmas in our own hearts, we must learn to forget ourselves and to think of others. We must stop keeping account of what we have done for other people, and [instead remember] what other people have done for us. We must cease thinking what others owe us and remember what we owe them, and that we owe Christ and the world the best we have to give to life and love. … We must no longer sit on little thrones and expect people to show us honor, attention, and deference, and to bow down to us and serve us, but, instead, we need to get down into the lowly places of love and begin to serve others, even the lowliest, in the lowliest ways. That is the way our Master did.
A book by a brilliant writer, about keeping Christmas, contains this paragraph, which is worth quoting: “Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children; to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you and ask yourself whether you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front, so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your kindly feelings with the gate open—are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.”
We must make Christmas first in our own heart before we can make it for any other. A grumpy person, a selfish person, a tyrannous and despotic person, an uncharitable, unforgiving person, cannot enter into the spirit of Christmas himself and cannot add to the blessing of Christmas for his friends or neighbors. Christmas must begin within, in one’s own heart. But it will not end there. We must be a maker of Christmas for others or we cannot make a real Christmas for ourselves. We need the sharing of our joy. If we try to keep our Christmas all to ourselves, we will miss half its sweetness. …
In a story a good man says, “It’s very hard to know how to help people when you can’t send them blankets, or coal, or Christmas dinners.” With many people this is very true. They know of no way of helping others save by giving them material things. Yet there are better ways of doing good than by sending a dinner, or clothing, or a picture for the wall, or silverware for the table. One may have no money to spend and yet may be a liberal benefactor. We may help others by sympathy, by cheer, by encouragement.
So far as we are told, Jesus never sent people blankets to keep them warm, or fuel for their fires, or Christmas dinners, or toys for the children. Yet there never was such a helper of others as he was. He had the marvelous power of putting himself under people’s loads by putting himself into people’s lives. There is a tremendous power of helpfulness in true sympathy, and Jesus sympathized with all sorrow and all hardness of condition. He loved people—that was the great secret of his helpfulness. He felt men’s sufferings. In all their afflictions he was afflicted. One said, “If I were God, my heart would break with the sorrows of the world.” … He did not understand that that was just what the heart of Christ did—it broke with compassion, with love, with sorrow, over the world’s woes. Thus he was enabled to become the world’s Redeemer. He was a marvelous helper of others—not by giving material things, but by imparting spiritual help. It is right to give gifts at Christmas—they do good, if they are carefully and wisely chosen and are given with the desire to do good. But let us seek to be helpers also in higher ways.
By J. R. Miller. Excerpts from Christmas Making, published by The University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1910.
The mission of the Christ-Child was to change the sin and sorrow of earth into the holiness and the joy of heaven. Earth was very unlike heaven that night. It was a place of selfishness, of cruelty, of strife, of sin, of wrong, of oppression, of sorrow. Millions of men were slaves. There was depravity that reeked to heaven. Governments were tyrannous. … Here and there a few praying souls thought of God, and a few men and women lived pure and gentle lives. But the world was full of sin. Love—of course there was natural love. Mothers loved their children, friend loved friend. But the great multitudes knew nothing of love, as we now understand the word. Love, Christian love, was born that first Christmas night. Love of God, God’s own love, a spark of God’s life, came down from heaven to earth when Jesus was born. Christina Rossetti puts it thus:
“Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.
“Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for gift and plea and sign.”
This tiny spark of love was to work its way out among men, among the nations, until all the life of the earth should be touched by it, changed, purified, sweetened, softened. This is part of what Jesus meant when he spoke of a woman putting a little morsel of leaven in a great mass of dough, that it might work its way through the world lump. We have the … words of angels’ song, “On earth peace, good-will toward men.” That is what the coming of Christ to earth in human flesh was to do—to make peace and to put into all men’s hearts good-will.
Jesus’ [birth] was to set all this good-will to work in the world. A great deal has been done in these long Christian centuries in the carrying out of this program. In Christian lands there is much that is very beautiful in the way that the poor, the old, the blind, the orphans, the sick, and all unfortunate ones are cared for, and in the spirit of kindness and charity, which prevails in society. All this has been brought about by the diffusion of the love of God among men. … But the work is not yet finished. The whole world has not yet been transformed into the sweetness, purity, and beauty of heaven. Where most has been done, there still is much to do.
We may bring the subject closer to home. What is our personal part in the making of Christmas? After all, that is the most important question for us. We cannot do any other one’s part, and no other can do ours. Some people spend so much time looking after their neighbor’s garden that the weeds grow in their own and choke out the plants and flowers. What about the little patch of God’s great world that is given us to tend? If the [mission] of the church is to make Christmas on every part of the earth, one small portion belongs to every one of us.
Each one should seek to make Christmas first in his own heart and life. Christmas is Christlikeness. The life of heaven came down to earth in Jesus and began in the lowly place where he was born. Is there any measure of that same sweet, gentle, pure, quiet, lowly life in us? It ought to be a very practical matter. Some people get the sentiment of love; but the love fails in its working out in their disposition, conduct, and character. The love of a Christian is something that will show itself in deeds.
Someone tells of seeing a little lame dog trying to climb up the curbstone from the street to the pavement. But the poor creature could not quite reach the top—he would always fall back. A hundred people passed by and watched the dog, laughed at his efforts and failures, and went on. No one offered to help him. Then a working man came along, a rather rough-looking man. He saw the dog and pitied him, and getting down on his knees beside the curb, he lifted the little creature up to the sidewalk, and then went quietly on. That man possessed the true spirit of love. That is what Christ would have done. Love is shown quite as unmistakably in the way a man treats a dog as in the spirit he shows toward his own fellows. …
If we would make it really Christmas in our own hearts, we must learn to forget ourselves and to think of others. We must stop keeping account of what we have done for other people, and [instead remember] what other people have done for us. We must cease thinking what others owe us and remember what we owe them, and that we owe Christ and the world the best we have to give to life and love. … We must no longer sit on little thrones and expect people to show us honor, attention, and deference, and to bow down to us and serve us, but, instead, we need to get down into the lowly places of love and begin to serve others, even the lowliest, in the lowliest ways. That is the way our Master did.
A book by a brilliant writer, about keeping Christmas, contains this paragraph, which is worth quoting: “Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children; to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you and ask yourself whether you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front, so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your kindly feelings with the gate open—are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.”
We must make Christmas first in our own heart before we can make it for any other. A grumpy person, a selfish person, a tyrannous and despotic person, an uncharitable, unforgiving person, cannot enter into the spirit of Christmas himself and cannot add to the blessing of Christmas for his friends or neighbors. Christmas must begin within, in one’s own heart. But it will not end there. We must be a maker of Christmas for others or we cannot make a real Christmas for ourselves. We need the sharing of our joy. If we try to keep our Christmas all to ourselves, we will miss half its sweetness. …
In a story a good man says, “It’s very hard to know how to help people when you can’t send them blankets, or coal, or Christmas dinners.” With many people this is very true. They know of no way of helping others save by giving them material things. Yet there are better ways of doing good than by sending a dinner, or clothing, or a picture for the wall, or silverware for the table. One may have no money to spend and yet may be a liberal benefactor. We may help others by sympathy, by cheer, by encouragement.
So far as we are told, Jesus never sent people blankets to keep them warm, or fuel for their fires, or Christmas dinners, or toys for the children. Yet there never was such a helper of others as he was. He had the marvelous power of putting himself under people’s loads by putting himself into people’s lives. There is a tremendous power of helpfulness in true sympathy, and Jesus sympathized with all sorrow and all hardness of condition. He loved people—that was the great secret of his helpfulness. He felt men’s sufferings. In all their afflictions he was afflicted. One said, “If I were God, my heart would break with the sorrows of the world.” … He did not understand that that was just what the heart of Christ did—it broke with compassion, with love, with sorrow, over the world’s woes. Thus he was enabled to become the world’s Redeemer. He was a marvelous helper of others—not by giving material things, but by imparting spiritual help. It is right to give gifts at Christmas—they do good, if they are carefully and wisely chosen and are given with the desire to do good. But let us seek to be helpers also in higher ways.
By J. R. Miller. Excerpts from Christmas Making, published by The University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1910.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Christmas Reflections-Transformed by beholding
A compilation
Audio length: 10:08
Download Audio (9.2MB)
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”1
I have a little personal conviction that no one can have a really ugly countenance who constantly beholds the face of Jesus; that is, abides in His presence and meditates on His Word. It said, you remember, the prophet of old [Moses], that as he prayed, his countenance was altered.2
Living in the presence of God and fellowshipping daily with the Lord Jesus will transform the heart and soul. But somehow meditation has become a lost art in the mad rush of this generation. This mad rush is accelerated now at the height of the Christmas season; that is, the shopping season. Some will never stop to enjoy anything of life until after Christmas, and then they will fall into bed, sighing, “Well, I’m glad that’s all over.” What a pity! Why don’t we stop and enjoy Christmas just once—really enjoy what it means. Enjoy the beauty; just stop trying to do so much.
There are so many wonderful things about this season and so many beautiful things to see. It’s a shame to miss it all just to meet some people’s expectations or try to keep up with the Joneses, and wrapping this and wrapping that and rushing for this last thing and that, and trying to cook up so many things. We miss the Lord Himself in our feverish rush.
Psalm 16 says, “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”3 He’s near. He is at our right hand. He is within speaking distance. But we will never see Him when we are too busy to notice Him there, and in the mad rush of the Christmas shopping we don’t even notice He’s there.
We’ll not hear the voice of the Lord, for that’s heard only in quiet waiting on Him in a holy hush, when you can have the time to disentangle His voice from the many voices about you. It is a very still, small voice and isn’t often heard on the run. There is an old saying that “the dew never falls on a stormy night.” So the sweetness of Christ’s presence is rarely found by nervous souls in the feverish rush. But the dew of heaven and the choicest blessings fall on that soul that gets quiet and waits for His presence.
I think He may stand today in our busy shopping centers with arms outstretched, saying, “Be still and know that I am God.”4 I was once standing in the doorway of the May Company in Los Angeles enjoying the lovely manger scene in the next window, when a mother and her little girl came hurrying by. The child saw the beauty of the scene, and grasping her mother’s skirt she cried, “Mama, mama, please let me stop just a minute and look at Jesus!” But the mother with some harsh tone reminded her she wasn’t half through with her shopping list and was in too big a hurry to stop.
Those words rang in my ears for a long time after that: “Let me stop a minute and look at Jesus.”—Waiting in His presence, waiting in stillness, waiting in quiet worship. Listening and learning until we become more like Him—transformed by beholding.
Life will always be a long round of rush and activity and feverishness without a personal relationship with the majestic Christ. He alone can bring that peace and rest and quiet to the heart if you’ll only stop and let Him. He says, “I am come that ye might have life, and have it more abundantly.”5 Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” All this you’ll miss if you are too busy to give Him a chance at your heart.
There is an abundant life for you if by faith you accept Him as your Lord and Savior. To live without Him is forfeiting the only real and lasting joy there is in this old world, and that seals your destiny for time, and eternity too. Accept Him as your Savior—it will be a wonderful Christmas for you. Trust Him with your life and He will transform it and completely change it, and give you life eternal.—Virginia Brandt Berg
Finding the “warm and fuzzy” of Christmas
I understand what you’re up against during the Christmas season. You’re faced with a period of extra busyness. And amid all of this you’re feeling dry, and you’re wondering where the “Christmas spirit” has gone and run off to.
You think of movies like White Christmas, or of Christmas stories with portrayals of Christmas days filled with the “warm and fuzzies” that seem to be an integral part of the Christmas season. But right now you feel zero warmth and fuzziness. You wish you had it, because you don’t want to feel draggy during this time of year that is supposed to be a celebration of joy.
You’re trying so hard to look for Christmas in the things that surround you. Perhaps you look for it in the blinking lights, storefront decorations, Christmas carols, eggnog, and whatnot, and then if any of those things are missing, or if they don’t strike the right note in your heart, you feel like this really can’t be what Christmas is about. You’re right, because you’re looking for the spirit of Christmas in the wrong places!
It won’t be found in glittery décor, or in a flurry of Christmas shows, events, or activities. If you’re looking for Christmas spirit, look no further than your own spirit, because as My child, as one who is saved and who knows Me, you are a carrier, a messenger, an ambassador of Christmas spirit. Instead of looking outward for Christmas spirit, look inward, because the spirit of Christmas is in you—it’s Me in you!
This is where it starts. More than decorating a tree or the house, if you adorn your spirit with joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, people will be drawn to you as they would be to the best, most brightly lit Christmas tree they’ve ever seen. They’ll recognize in you true Christmas joy, the real reason for the season. And the fuzziness of Christmas will come with the joy of sharing My love with others.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
Christmas Peace
These are days of uncertainty for many, of fear and concern for the future. There is a need for peace—peace on earth, as well as peace of heart, mind, and spirit for the individual.
At this time of year, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the one known as the Prince of Peace. His life, His message, the example He set for humankind bring peace to the hearts of those who understand the importance of His life, who recognize that His death on the cross and His resurrection made it possible for every individual to have inner peace, both in this life and for eternity.
Faith in Jesus may not make the world any less tumultuous or unsettling, but it can bring peace and security to your spirit to empower you to meet the challenges of life. The assurance of His love and care, His promise of life eternal, can bring certainty even in uncertain times.—Peter Amsterdam and Maria Fontaine
Published on Anchor December 2013. Read by Debra Lee. Music taken from the Christmas Moments album. Used by permission.
1 2 Corinthians 3:18.
2 Exodus 34:29–35.
3 Psalm 16:8.
4 Psalm 46.10.
5 John 10:10.
Bigger Roles for Chaplains on Patient Medical Teams
By Laura Landro, WSJ, December 6, 2011
Doctors and nurses were preparing Kathleen Hynes for a stem-cell transplant at Long Island’s North Shore University Hospital last June when she asked them to page another member of the medical team—hospital chaplain Kimberli Lile.
Ms. Hynes, a 53-year old cancer patient, wanted the chaplain to bless the cells before they were administered intravenously.
Hospital chaplains have long been a source of comfort and succor for patients facing daunting illness.
Chaplains are seeking bigger roles in hospitals and in some cases joining the medical-care team, as new research shows positive spiritual guidance and discussion can help improve a patient’s medical outcome.
Some hospitals are giving patients questionnaires upon admittance to identify who may benefit most from chaplain referrals.
Chaplains, of course, may still pray with patients regardless of denomination, help families make difficult end-of-life decisions or simply offer a sympathetic ear.
As interest rises in the links between religion, spirituality and health, there is a new push to establish chaplaincy in the medical mainstream and apply more rigorous scientific research. The Association of Professional Chaplains, which certifies health-care chaplains, issued its first standards for practice in 2009, including the requirement that chaplains document their work in patient medical records and stay abreast of new research.
Medical schools are adding courses on spirituality and health, and training residents to consider patients’ spiritual needs. Some two-thirds of U.S. hospitals provide chaplaincy services; others rely on local clergy and lay volunteers.
Studies indicate as many as 40% of patients with serious illnesses like cancer struggle with spiritual concerns, which can harm emotional and physical well-being, says George Fitchett, research director in the Department of Religion, Health and Human Values at Rush University Medical Center Chicago.
Patients who have negative thoughts—say, questioning God’s care for them—are more likely to develop worse health outcomes than patients who show positive spiritual coping, such as turning to religion for solace.
Chaplains “are patients’ greatest advocates,” says Harold Koenig, director of Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health. They should work closely with other medical professionals, he says, and help them understand how spiritual beliefs influence patients’ treatment decisions and response.
Studies indicate that chaplain visits can result in less patient anxiety, shorter hospital stays and higher satisfaction. Still, a review in the Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy concludes that many studies haven’t been rigorous enough to test effectiveness and define the best practices of chaplains’ care.
"Every dimension of health care has to be accountable," says Walter Smith, a Jesuit priest and president of the nonprofit Health Care Chaplaincy in New York, which conducted the review and provides chaplains to area hospitals.
"Creating a strong research foundation of what chaplains do in the clinical setting will mark the coming of age of health-care chaplaincy as a profession," he says.
With a $3 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation—whose late founder was an investor interested in the intersection of scientific research and spirituality—the Health Care Chaplaincy will oversee six national research projects on professional chaplains’ role in health and palliative care, Dr. Smith says.
A study published online in July in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that among 3,000 patients hospitalized over a three-year period at the University of Chicago Medical Center, 41% wanted a discussion of religious and spiritual concerns, yet only half of that group reported having one.
Patients who had a spiritual discussion reported being more satisfied with their overall care, whether or not they said they had desired it.
Patients may hesitate to ask for a chaplain’s services out of concern that chaplains will proselytize—even though in many cases they don’t use explicit theological language and “are there to be companionable and offer support,” says Wendy Cadge, associate professor at Brandeis University.
Doctors, she adds, may feel uncomfortable asking patients about spiritual needs, or that it is inappropriate to do so.
At North Shore University Hospital, Ms. Hynes met Rev. Lile, a Health Care Chaplaincy employee, when the chaplain stopped by her room.
Ms. Hynes, a Catholic, had turned to her faith to help her cope with the 2008 death of her husband and the loss of her teaching job. After she was diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma, a rare and often aggressive cancer, Rev. Lile helped Ms. Hynes face some of her fears, she recalls. “She gave me a beautiful prayer, and we sat and talked for an hour. She was so receptive and interested in what I was going through.”
The two spoke often during Ms. Hynes’s hospital stay, laughing over the notion that Rev. Lile, trained as a Lutheran minister, would be blessing Catholic holy water that Ms. Hynes’s son brought to the hospital for the stem-cell transplant.
After the transplant, Ms. Hynes wrote to Rev. Lile to express her thanks: “I feel so blessed to have your encouraging influence during this turning point in my life… . The beautiful prayer and blessing is a memory I will always carry with me.”
Here are some of the screening questions that many health-care professionals use to address spiritual issues with patients.
•Faith, Belief, Meaning. What is your faith or belief? What things do you believe give meaning to your life?
•Importance and Influence. How have your beliefs influenced your behavior during this illness? What role do your beliefs play in regaining your health?
•Community. Are you part of a spiritual or religious community? Is there a person or group of people you really love or who are really important to you?
•Address/Action in Care. How would you like me, your health-care provider, to address these issues in your health care?
Of all the medical treatments that cause extreme pain and deadly risk in pursuit of a cure, few are more daunting than a bone-marrow or stem-cell transplant to treat leukemia, lymphoma and other diseases. Patients get high doses of chemotherapy and radiation to kill cancer cells; then healthy cells are administered intravenously in hopes of building a strong new immune system. Even when it works, patients can suffer terrible side effects, dangerous infections and long-term physical limitations.
On the encouraging side, studies have shown that many transplant patients experience enhanced appreciation for life, re-ordered priorities, increased empathy and higher self-esteem. Yet they also often report lower spiritual well-being. “Negative religious coping”—feeling angry, unloved or abandoned by God, or doubting one’s beliefs—has been associated with anxiety, depression and poorer social and emotional well-being.
Experts say attending to one’s spirituality may help turn spiritual struggle into an opportunity for growth.
Nondenominational Prayers for Healing
My God and God of all generations, in my great need I pour out my heart to you. Long days and weeks of suffering are hard to endure. In my struggle, I reach out for the help that only you can give. Let me feel that you are near, and that your care enfolds me. Rouse me with the strength to overcome my weakness, and brighten my spirit with the assurance of your love. Help me to sustain the hopes of my loved ones as they strive to strengthen and encourage me. May the healing power you have placed within me give me the strength to recover so I may fulfill my journey in the Divine Plan.
*
In sickness I turn to you, O God, as a child turns to a parent for comfort and help. Strengthen within me the wondrous power of healing that you have implanted in your children. Guide my doctors and nurses, that they may speed my recovery. Let the knowledge of your love comfort my loved ones, lighten their burdens and renew their faith. May my sickness not weaken my faith in you, nor diminish my love for other human beings. From my illness may I gain a truer appreciation of life’s gifts, a deeper awareness of life’s blessings, and a fuller sympathy for all who are in pain.
*
Send me, O God, your healing, so that I may quickly recover from the illness that has come upon me. Sustain my spirit, relieve my pain and restore me to perfect health, happiness and strength. Grant unto my body your healing power so I may continue to be able to bear testimony to your everlasting mercy and love, for you, O Lord, art a faithful and merciful healer.
*
Be at Peace
Do not fear the changes of life—
Rather look to them with full hope as they arise.
God, whose very own you are,
Will deliver you from out of them.
He has kept you hitherto,
And He will lead you safely through all things;
And when you cannot stand it,
God will bury you in His arms.
Do not be afraid of what may happen tomorrow;
The same everlasting Father who cares for you today
Will take care of you then and every day.
He will either shield you from suffering,
Or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at Peace—
And put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.
—St Francis de Sales
Doctors and nurses were preparing Kathleen Hynes for a stem-cell transplant at Long Island’s North Shore University Hospital last June when she asked them to page another member of the medical team—hospital chaplain Kimberli Lile.
Ms. Hynes, a 53-year old cancer patient, wanted the chaplain to bless the cells before they were administered intravenously.
Hospital chaplains have long been a source of comfort and succor for patients facing daunting illness.
Chaplains are seeking bigger roles in hospitals and in some cases joining the medical-care team, as new research shows positive spiritual guidance and discussion can help improve a patient’s medical outcome.
Some hospitals are giving patients questionnaires upon admittance to identify who may benefit most from chaplain referrals.
Chaplains, of course, may still pray with patients regardless of denomination, help families make difficult end-of-life decisions or simply offer a sympathetic ear.
As interest rises in the links between religion, spirituality and health, there is a new push to establish chaplaincy in the medical mainstream and apply more rigorous scientific research. The Association of Professional Chaplains, which certifies health-care chaplains, issued its first standards for practice in 2009, including the requirement that chaplains document their work in patient medical records and stay abreast of new research.
Medical schools are adding courses on spirituality and health, and training residents to consider patients’ spiritual needs. Some two-thirds of U.S. hospitals provide chaplaincy services; others rely on local clergy and lay volunteers.
Studies indicate as many as 40% of patients with serious illnesses like cancer struggle with spiritual concerns, which can harm emotional and physical well-being, says George Fitchett, research director in the Department of Religion, Health and Human Values at Rush University Medical Center Chicago.
Patients who have negative thoughts—say, questioning God’s care for them—are more likely to develop worse health outcomes than patients who show positive spiritual coping, such as turning to religion for solace.
Chaplains “are patients’ greatest advocates,” says Harold Koenig, director of Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health. They should work closely with other medical professionals, he says, and help them understand how spiritual beliefs influence patients’ treatment decisions and response.
Studies indicate that chaplain visits can result in less patient anxiety, shorter hospital stays and higher satisfaction. Still, a review in the Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy concludes that many studies haven’t been rigorous enough to test effectiveness and define the best practices of chaplains’ care.
"Every dimension of health care has to be accountable," says Walter Smith, a Jesuit priest and president of the nonprofit Health Care Chaplaincy in New York, which conducted the review and provides chaplains to area hospitals.
"Creating a strong research foundation of what chaplains do in the clinical setting will mark the coming of age of health-care chaplaincy as a profession," he says.
With a $3 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation—whose late founder was an investor interested in the intersection of scientific research and spirituality—the Health Care Chaplaincy will oversee six national research projects on professional chaplains’ role in health and palliative care, Dr. Smith says.
A study published online in July in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that among 3,000 patients hospitalized over a three-year period at the University of Chicago Medical Center, 41% wanted a discussion of religious and spiritual concerns, yet only half of that group reported having one.
Patients who had a spiritual discussion reported being more satisfied with their overall care, whether or not they said they had desired it.
Patients may hesitate to ask for a chaplain’s services out of concern that chaplains will proselytize—even though in many cases they don’t use explicit theological language and “are there to be companionable and offer support,” says Wendy Cadge, associate professor at Brandeis University.
Doctors, she adds, may feel uncomfortable asking patients about spiritual needs, or that it is inappropriate to do so.
At North Shore University Hospital, Ms. Hynes met Rev. Lile, a Health Care Chaplaincy employee, when the chaplain stopped by her room.
Ms. Hynes, a Catholic, had turned to her faith to help her cope with the 2008 death of her husband and the loss of her teaching job. After she was diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma, a rare and often aggressive cancer, Rev. Lile helped Ms. Hynes face some of her fears, she recalls. “She gave me a beautiful prayer, and we sat and talked for an hour. She was so receptive and interested in what I was going through.”
The two spoke often during Ms. Hynes’s hospital stay, laughing over the notion that Rev. Lile, trained as a Lutheran minister, would be blessing Catholic holy water that Ms. Hynes’s son brought to the hospital for the stem-cell transplant.
After the transplant, Ms. Hynes wrote to Rev. Lile to express her thanks: “I feel so blessed to have your encouraging influence during this turning point in my life… . The beautiful prayer and blessing is a memory I will always carry with me.”
Here are some of the screening questions that many health-care professionals use to address spiritual issues with patients.
•Faith, Belief, Meaning. What is your faith or belief? What things do you believe give meaning to your life?
•Importance and Influence. How have your beliefs influenced your behavior during this illness? What role do your beliefs play in regaining your health?
•Community. Are you part of a spiritual or religious community? Is there a person or group of people you really love or who are really important to you?
•Address/Action in Care. How would you like me, your health-care provider, to address these issues in your health care?
Of all the medical treatments that cause extreme pain and deadly risk in pursuit of a cure, few are more daunting than a bone-marrow or stem-cell transplant to treat leukemia, lymphoma and other diseases. Patients get high doses of chemotherapy and radiation to kill cancer cells; then healthy cells are administered intravenously in hopes of building a strong new immune system. Even when it works, patients can suffer terrible side effects, dangerous infections and long-term physical limitations.
On the encouraging side, studies have shown that many transplant patients experience enhanced appreciation for life, re-ordered priorities, increased empathy and higher self-esteem. Yet they also often report lower spiritual well-being. “Negative religious coping”—feeling angry, unloved or abandoned by God, or doubting one’s beliefs—has been associated with anxiety, depression and poorer social and emotional well-being.
Experts say attending to one’s spirituality may help turn spiritual struggle into an opportunity for growth.
Nondenominational Prayers for Healing
My God and God of all generations, in my great need I pour out my heart to you. Long days and weeks of suffering are hard to endure. In my struggle, I reach out for the help that only you can give. Let me feel that you are near, and that your care enfolds me. Rouse me with the strength to overcome my weakness, and brighten my spirit with the assurance of your love. Help me to sustain the hopes of my loved ones as they strive to strengthen and encourage me. May the healing power you have placed within me give me the strength to recover so I may fulfill my journey in the Divine Plan.
*
In sickness I turn to you, O God, as a child turns to a parent for comfort and help. Strengthen within me the wondrous power of healing that you have implanted in your children. Guide my doctors and nurses, that they may speed my recovery. Let the knowledge of your love comfort my loved ones, lighten their burdens and renew their faith. May my sickness not weaken my faith in you, nor diminish my love for other human beings. From my illness may I gain a truer appreciation of life’s gifts, a deeper awareness of life’s blessings, and a fuller sympathy for all who are in pain.
*
Send me, O God, your healing, so that I may quickly recover from the illness that has come upon me. Sustain my spirit, relieve my pain and restore me to perfect health, happiness and strength. Grant unto my body your healing power so I may continue to be able to bear testimony to your everlasting mercy and love, for you, O Lord, art a faithful and merciful healer.
*
Be at Peace
Do not fear the changes of life—
Rather look to them with full hope as they arise.
God, whose very own you are,
Will deliver you from out of them.
He has kept you hitherto,
And He will lead you safely through all things;
And when you cannot stand it,
God will bury you in His arms.
Do not be afraid of what may happen tomorrow;
The same everlasting Father who cares for you today
Will take care of you then and every day.
He will either shield you from suffering,
Or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at Peace—
And put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.
—St Francis de Sales
Snacking Your Way to Better Health
By Jane E. Brody, NY Times, December 9, 2013
Nuts to you! No, that’s not an insult. It’s a recommendation to add nuts to your diet for the sake of your health and longevity.
Consistent evidence for the health benefits of nuts has been accumulating since the early 1990s. Frequent nut consumption has been linked to a reduced risk of major chronic diseases, including heart and blood vessel disorders and Type 2 diabetes.
The newest and most convincing findings, reported last month in The New England Journal of Medicine, come from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which together have followed nearly 119,000 women and men for decades. Both studies repeatedly recorded what the participants ate (among many other characteristics) and analyzed their diets in relation to the causes of death among the 27,429 people who died since the studies began.
The more often nuts were consumed, the less likely participants were to die of cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease, and not because nut eaters succumbed to other diseases. Their death rate from any cause was lower during the years they were followed. (The nuts in question were pistachios, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, peanuts and walnuts.)
Those who ate nuts seven or more times a week were 20 percent less likely to die from 1980 to 2010; even among those who consumed nuts less often than once a week, the death rate was 11 percent lower than for those who did not eat them.
I know what you’re thinking: Aren’t nuts fattening? Yes, an ounce of nuts has 160 to 200 calories, nearly 80 percent from fat.
But in study after study, the more often people ate nuts, the leaner they tended to be.
For example, in a Mediterranean study that tracked the effect of nut consumption on weight gain over the course of 28 months, frequent nut consumers gained less weight than those who never ate nuts, and were 43 percent less likely to become overweight or obese.
How is that possible? First, nuts may be taking the place of other high-calorie snacks, like chips, cookies and candy. And nut eaters may be less likely to snack, period; the fat, fiber and protein in nuts suppresses hunger between meals.
Second, the body may treat calories from nuts differently from those in other high-carbohydrate foods. Third, nut eaters may pursue a healthier lifestyle and burn more calories through exercise.
Whatever the reasons, every study has indicated that nuts make an independent contribution to health and longevity, even after taking other factors into account.
And not just tree nuts. The new study found that peanuts were also linked to a reduced death rate and lower risk of chronic disease. Peanuts are legumes that grow underground, but they share constituents with tree nuts that are believed to protect against a wide range of diseases.
Botanically speaking, nuts are fruits, but most of the nuts we consume are the fruits’ seeds—able to produce a new plant when raw. Like the yolk of an egg, seeds must contain nutrients that support healthy tissues.
Thus, all nuts are powerhouses of biologically active substances, most of which are known to protect and promote health. Penny M. Kris-Etherton, a professor of nutrition at Penn State who has studied the effects of nuts on heart disease, describes them as “complex plant foods that are not only rich sources of unsaturated fat but also contain several nonfat constituents,” including protein, fiber, plant sterols that can lower cholesterol, and micronutrients like copper and magnesium.
Every one of these substances has been shown to ward off one disease or another. The fat content of nuts alone could account for their ability to support heart health. Nuts have less cholesterol-raising saturated fat than olive oil. On average, 62 percent of the fat in nuts is monounsaturated, the kind that supports healthy levels of protective HDL cholesterol and does not raise blood levels of harmful LDL cholesterol.
Nuts contain omega-3 fatty acids that can lower triglycerides and blood pressure, slow the buildup of arterial plaque and prevent abnormal heart rhythms. Walnuts are especially rich sources of alpha-linolenic acid, some of which is converted to heart-protective omega-3 fatty acids.
Most nuts, and especially almonds, are good sources of vitamin E, an antioxidant. Joan Sabaté, a nutritionist at Loma Linda University who has studied the health effects of nuts among Seventh-day Adventists, lists folic acid, selenium, magnesium and several phytochemicals among the compounds in nuts that have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory or anticancer properties.
In both the nurses’ and health professionals’ studies, eating nuts more than five times a week was associated with a 25 percent to 30 percent lower risk of needing gallbladder surgery.
Nuts also contain dietary fiber, about a quarter of which is the type that reduces cholesterol and improves blood sugar and weight control. The nurses’ study and a study of about 64,000 women in Shanghai found strong evidence that frequent consumption of tree nuts, peanuts and peanut butter reduced the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Peanuts and especially pistachios are rich in resveratrol, which is being investigated for possible anti-aging effects. Pistachios are also rich in arginine, which gives rise to nitric oxide, a substance that improves blood flow and can help counter erectile dysfunction.
Including a serving or two of nuts in your daily diet is not challenging. Dr. Kris-Etherton suggests using peanut butter as the protein source in a sandwich, and replacing a cookie snack with a one-ounce serving of mixed nuts. Nuts can also be added to hot or cold cereals, salads, stir fries and desserts.
Nuts to you! No, that’s not an insult. It’s a recommendation to add nuts to your diet for the sake of your health and longevity.
Consistent evidence for the health benefits of nuts has been accumulating since the early 1990s. Frequent nut consumption has been linked to a reduced risk of major chronic diseases, including heart and blood vessel disorders and Type 2 diabetes.
The newest and most convincing findings, reported last month in The New England Journal of Medicine, come from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which together have followed nearly 119,000 women and men for decades. Both studies repeatedly recorded what the participants ate (among many other characteristics) and analyzed their diets in relation to the causes of death among the 27,429 people who died since the studies began.
The more often nuts were consumed, the less likely participants were to die of cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease, and not because nut eaters succumbed to other diseases. Their death rate from any cause was lower during the years they were followed. (The nuts in question were pistachios, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, peanuts and walnuts.)
Those who ate nuts seven or more times a week were 20 percent less likely to die from 1980 to 2010; even among those who consumed nuts less often than once a week, the death rate was 11 percent lower than for those who did not eat them.
I know what you’re thinking: Aren’t nuts fattening? Yes, an ounce of nuts has 160 to 200 calories, nearly 80 percent from fat.
But in study after study, the more often people ate nuts, the leaner they tended to be.
For example, in a Mediterranean study that tracked the effect of nut consumption on weight gain over the course of 28 months, frequent nut consumers gained less weight than those who never ate nuts, and were 43 percent less likely to become overweight or obese.
How is that possible? First, nuts may be taking the place of other high-calorie snacks, like chips, cookies and candy. And nut eaters may be less likely to snack, period; the fat, fiber and protein in nuts suppresses hunger between meals.
Second, the body may treat calories from nuts differently from those in other high-carbohydrate foods. Third, nut eaters may pursue a healthier lifestyle and burn more calories through exercise.
Whatever the reasons, every study has indicated that nuts make an independent contribution to health and longevity, even after taking other factors into account.
And not just tree nuts. The new study found that peanuts were also linked to a reduced death rate and lower risk of chronic disease. Peanuts are legumes that grow underground, but they share constituents with tree nuts that are believed to protect against a wide range of diseases.
Botanically speaking, nuts are fruits, but most of the nuts we consume are the fruits’ seeds—able to produce a new plant when raw. Like the yolk of an egg, seeds must contain nutrients that support healthy tissues.
Thus, all nuts are powerhouses of biologically active substances, most of which are known to protect and promote health. Penny M. Kris-Etherton, a professor of nutrition at Penn State who has studied the effects of nuts on heart disease, describes them as “complex plant foods that are not only rich sources of unsaturated fat but also contain several nonfat constituents,” including protein, fiber, plant sterols that can lower cholesterol, and micronutrients like copper and magnesium.
Every one of these substances has been shown to ward off one disease or another. The fat content of nuts alone could account for their ability to support heart health. Nuts have less cholesterol-raising saturated fat than olive oil. On average, 62 percent of the fat in nuts is monounsaturated, the kind that supports healthy levels of protective HDL cholesterol and does not raise blood levels of harmful LDL cholesterol.
Nuts contain omega-3 fatty acids that can lower triglycerides and blood pressure, slow the buildup of arterial plaque and prevent abnormal heart rhythms. Walnuts are especially rich sources of alpha-linolenic acid, some of which is converted to heart-protective omega-3 fatty acids.
Most nuts, and especially almonds, are good sources of vitamin E, an antioxidant. Joan Sabaté, a nutritionist at Loma Linda University who has studied the health effects of nuts among Seventh-day Adventists, lists folic acid, selenium, magnesium and several phytochemicals among the compounds in nuts that have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory or anticancer properties.
In both the nurses’ and health professionals’ studies, eating nuts more than five times a week was associated with a 25 percent to 30 percent lower risk of needing gallbladder surgery.
Nuts also contain dietary fiber, about a quarter of which is the type that reduces cholesterol and improves blood sugar and weight control. The nurses’ study and a study of about 64,000 women in Shanghai found strong evidence that frequent consumption of tree nuts, peanuts and peanut butter reduced the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Peanuts and especially pistachios are rich in resveratrol, which is being investigated for possible anti-aging effects. Pistachios are also rich in arginine, which gives rise to nitric oxide, a substance that improves blood flow and can help counter erectile dysfunction.
Including a serving or two of nuts in your daily diet is not challenging. Dr. Kris-Etherton suggests using peanut butter as the protein source in a sandwich, and replacing a cookie snack with a one-ounce serving of mixed nuts. Nuts can also be added to hot or cold cereals, salads, stir fries and desserts.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
In an Israeli Plan, Bedouins See a Threat to Their Way of Life
By Jodi Rudoren, NY Times, December 7, 2013
JERUSALEM—As Israel prepares to force thousands of Bedouins to give up land that their families have lived on for generations, officials have struggled to convince residents of the ramshackle communities scattered across the vast Negev desert that moving to new, legal homes will pave a path to a better future.
But after decades of discrimination and neglect, many Bedouins and their supporters see only a plot to destroy their way of life.
“I don’t need gutters,” complained one man during a recent meeting with government representatives in a tin-roofed tent in Abdeh, one of many villages in the desert that Israel does not recognize. “I don’t want a road,” added another. Finally, to be perfectly clear, 70-year-old Swellem al-Kallab, the tribal elder, leaned into his visitors’ faces, took the toothpick from his mouth and traced a circle on the concrete floor. “Where we sit right now, you just draw a line around it,” he seethed. “I want to stay here.”
The fundamental disconnect reflects the increasingly contentious dispute over Israel’s $2 billion plan to resettle its Bedouin citizens as part of a major redevelopment initiative as it moves two huge military bases into the Negev. The plight of the Bedouins has in many circles become a proxy for the broader Arab-Israeli conflict, prompting condemnation from human rights groups, European lawmakers and cultural celebrities. Demonstrations against the plan last weekend left 15 police officers injured and 48 protesters arrested.
As right-wing lawmakers threatened to kill the plan because of the Bedouins’ unwillingness to make concessions, Arab members of Israel’s Parliament sent a letter on Thursday asking Secretary of State John Kerry to help block it.
Proponents of the project say that no state can abide people’s building where and what they wish without approval, and that it promises the Bedouins, by far Israel’s poorest sector, clinics, jobs, education and infrastructure that they sorely lack. Opponents call it insidious racism, ethnic cleansing or even apartheid; complain that the Bedouins were not consulted enough in the plan’s construction; and accuse Israel of a land grab that ignores their culture and traditions.
The Bedouins, seminomadic Arab Muslims, trace their history in the 4,700-square-mile Negev to the seventh century. When Israel became a state in 1948, all but 11,000 of the 90,000 Bedouins fled. Those who remained were granted citizenship but concentrated under military rule in about 10 percent of the area known as the Siyag—Arabic for “fence”—that their advocates liken to a Native American reservation in the United States.
Today, that area is home to 200,000 Bedouins, whose birthrates are the world’s highest. Roughly a third of them are polygamous, and about half live in seven towns that Israel built between 1968 and 1989, where crime is high and streets are strewn with garbage. Israel has in recent years recognized 13 villages, legalizing dwellings long slated for demolition, but has moved slowly, if at all, to modernize them. There remain 35 unrecognized villages like Abdeh, with a total of 70,000 residents, who could face forced relocation.
The most contested element of the plan—known as Prawer-Begin after its authors, Ehud Prawer, the government’s director of planning, and Benny Begin, a former cabinet minister—is its proposed resolution of nearly 3,000 land claims totaling 230 square miles. After Israeli courts rejected 200 such claims, most based on handwritten deeds, the government created a complex formula to compensate Bedouins based on the location of the land, whether they are still cultivating it and how quickly they apply.
Most would get half or a quarter of the land, plus some cash. The rest of the land would be seized by the state for its own use, or redistributed to Bedouins from far-flung areas of what officials call “the diaspora.”
“We are not against development,” said Thabet Abu Rass of Adalah, an advocacy group for Arab rights in Israel. “The question is why, whenever the State of Israel wants to develop the Negev, it’s always at the expense of the Bedouin.”
The Bedouins and their advocates say that they simply want to maintain their small agricultural villages, and have developed an alternative plan to put them on the grid, but that the government has ignored it.
One such place is Alsra, whose residents had a sign made to mark it that uses the same colors and fonts of those that the government places on roads across Israel. But the Bedouins added the phrase “established in the Ottoman Empire,” along with a picture of a bulldozer and a house to symbolize the demolition orders pending since 2006 against the village’s 70 structures.
Khalil Alamour, a high school teacher and father of seven, persuaded Waze, the popular Israeli GPS system, to put Alsra on its maps, and he provides pirated Wi-Fi to his neighbors. A one-inch pipe brings a trickle of water to the 500 residents, who dug 10 cisterns and pay to have sewage pumped out every 18 months.
There is no garbage collection, but solar panels are everywhere: Eight recharge Mr. Alamour’s 12 two-volt batteries, which serve his three-bedroom stucco house, behind which are satellite dishes and the 10 hens that provide his daily breakfast. A math and computer teacher, he said that Israel wanted to condense the Bedouins in urban centers “like a zip drive to compress files.”
“They will take me into a cage and build a house and put me inside of these four walls and say, ‘You are modernized, now you have electricity and washing machine,’ “ Mr. Alamour said. “I have that already. I don’t even need the services, just to live in peace in my father’s land.”
JERUSALEM—As Israel prepares to force thousands of Bedouins to give up land that their families have lived on for generations, officials have struggled to convince residents of the ramshackle communities scattered across the vast Negev desert that moving to new, legal homes will pave a path to a better future.
But after decades of discrimination and neglect, many Bedouins and their supporters see only a plot to destroy their way of life.
“I don’t need gutters,” complained one man during a recent meeting with government representatives in a tin-roofed tent in Abdeh, one of many villages in the desert that Israel does not recognize. “I don’t want a road,” added another. Finally, to be perfectly clear, 70-year-old Swellem al-Kallab, the tribal elder, leaned into his visitors’ faces, took the toothpick from his mouth and traced a circle on the concrete floor. “Where we sit right now, you just draw a line around it,” he seethed. “I want to stay here.”
The fundamental disconnect reflects the increasingly contentious dispute over Israel’s $2 billion plan to resettle its Bedouin citizens as part of a major redevelopment initiative as it moves two huge military bases into the Negev. The plight of the Bedouins has in many circles become a proxy for the broader Arab-Israeli conflict, prompting condemnation from human rights groups, European lawmakers and cultural celebrities. Demonstrations against the plan last weekend left 15 police officers injured and 48 protesters arrested.
As right-wing lawmakers threatened to kill the plan because of the Bedouins’ unwillingness to make concessions, Arab members of Israel’s Parliament sent a letter on Thursday asking Secretary of State John Kerry to help block it.
Proponents of the project say that no state can abide people’s building where and what they wish without approval, and that it promises the Bedouins, by far Israel’s poorest sector, clinics, jobs, education and infrastructure that they sorely lack. Opponents call it insidious racism, ethnic cleansing or even apartheid; complain that the Bedouins were not consulted enough in the plan’s construction; and accuse Israel of a land grab that ignores their culture and traditions.
The Bedouins, seminomadic Arab Muslims, trace their history in the 4,700-square-mile Negev to the seventh century. When Israel became a state in 1948, all but 11,000 of the 90,000 Bedouins fled. Those who remained were granted citizenship but concentrated under military rule in about 10 percent of the area known as the Siyag—Arabic for “fence”—that their advocates liken to a Native American reservation in the United States.
Today, that area is home to 200,000 Bedouins, whose birthrates are the world’s highest. Roughly a third of them are polygamous, and about half live in seven towns that Israel built between 1968 and 1989, where crime is high and streets are strewn with garbage. Israel has in recent years recognized 13 villages, legalizing dwellings long slated for demolition, but has moved slowly, if at all, to modernize them. There remain 35 unrecognized villages like Abdeh, with a total of 70,000 residents, who could face forced relocation.
The most contested element of the plan—known as Prawer-Begin after its authors, Ehud Prawer, the government’s director of planning, and Benny Begin, a former cabinet minister—is its proposed resolution of nearly 3,000 land claims totaling 230 square miles. After Israeli courts rejected 200 such claims, most based on handwritten deeds, the government created a complex formula to compensate Bedouins based on the location of the land, whether they are still cultivating it and how quickly they apply.
Most would get half or a quarter of the land, plus some cash. The rest of the land would be seized by the state for its own use, or redistributed to Bedouins from far-flung areas of what officials call “the diaspora.”
“We are not against development,” said Thabet Abu Rass of Adalah, an advocacy group for Arab rights in Israel. “The question is why, whenever the State of Israel wants to develop the Negev, it’s always at the expense of the Bedouin.”
The Bedouins and their advocates say that they simply want to maintain their small agricultural villages, and have developed an alternative plan to put them on the grid, but that the government has ignored it.
One such place is Alsra, whose residents had a sign made to mark it that uses the same colors and fonts of those that the government places on roads across Israel. But the Bedouins added the phrase “established in the Ottoman Empire,” along with a picture of a bulldozer and a house to symbolize the demolition orders pending since 2006 against the village’s 70 structures.
Khalil Alamour, a high school teacher and father of seven, persuaded Waze, the popular Israeli GPS system, to put Alsra on its maps, and he provides pirated Wi-Fi to his neighbors. A one-inch pipe brings a trickle of water to the 500 residents, who dug 10 cisterns and pay to have sewage pumped out every 18 months.
There is no garbage collection, but solar panels are everywhere: Eight recharge Mr. Alamour’s 12 two-volt batteries, which serve his three-bedroom stucco house, behind which are satellite dishes and the 10 hens that provide his daily breakfast. A math and computer teacher, he said that Israel wanted to condense the Bedouins in urban centers “like a zip drive to compress files.”
“They will take me into a cage and build a house and put me inside of these four walls and say, ‘You are modernized, now you have electricity and washing machine,’ “ Mr. Alamour said. “I have that already. I don’t even need the services, just to live in peace in my father’s land.”
Monday, December 9, 2013
Israel’s Kill List
By Ronen Bergman, Foreign Policy, December 4, 2013
“There’ll be a summit conference in the sky,” smiled an Israeli intelligence official Wednesday morning when he learned of the assassination of Hassan Lakkis, the Hezbollah commander in charge of weapons development and advanced technological warfare, in a Beirut suburb around midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 3. The killing of Lakkis is yet another in the latest in a long series of assassinations of leading figures in what Israeli intelligence calls the “Radical Front,” which comprises two countries—Syria and Iran—and three organizations: Hezbollah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hamas.
“We’re talking about a number of organizations and people involved in nuclear and terrorist activity. [They] do it not only for their countries in various missions, but have created an international network—the most dangerous and most efficient that I have met,” the official added. The Israeli goals: take these men out, one by one.
This isn’t the first time Israel has faced very powerful enemies, of course. But Israeli intelligence officials think this may be the most diverse, most intricately woven set of foes the country has encountered. These foes range from those at the leadership level down to field operatives, according to Mossad and Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman) high-ranking officials. And it all involves deep, intimate cooperation that even spans the religious rifts between Sunnis and Shiites, driven by a single motive force: hostility toward the state of Israel.
Back in 2004, the Mossad began identifying various key figures within this Radical Front—those with advanced operational, organizational, and technological capabilities. While other, better-known personalities in these extremist groups and their state backers dealt with strategy, these were the people who handled the details and the translation of strategy into actual practice.
The Israeli intelligence source, who dealt with the Radical Front, likens the anti-Israel coalition to SPECTRE, the fictional enemies of James Bond. With one difference: “SPECTRE usually did it for money.” Israeli intelligence drew up a list of these men, each one the possessor of highly lethal skills that could be threatening to Israel, even if there had not been a coordinated network embracing of all of them. The list was headed by two men: Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah’s supreme military commander, and Gen. Muhammad Suleiman, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s head of secret special projects, including the building of a nuclear reactor, and the person in charge of Syria’s ties with Iran and Hezbollah. As Meir Dagan, the former Mossad chief, told me: “Gen. Muhammad Suleiman was in charge of Assad’s shady businesses, including the connection with Hezbollah and Iran and all sensitive projects. He was a figure Assad was leaning upon. And these days, he misses him.”
After them came Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, head of missile development for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the export of missiles to Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad; Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas official in charge of tactical ties with Iran; and Hassan Lakkis (also spelled in FBI documents as Haj Hassan Hilu Laqis), who was identified by Aman in the early 1990s as Hezbollah’s weapons development expert. In an article about Lakkis’s death, Lebanon’s Daily Star called him a “key figure in Hezbollah[‘s] drone program.” The Israeli intelligence source continued the analogy with the Bond movies and called him “Hezbollah’s Q.”
According to his Aman file, Lakkis was active in the radical Shiite movement since age 19, enlisting shortly after it was established. He had a certain amount of technical education at a Lebanese university, but most of his skills were acquired from his experience in developing and manufacturing weaponry. Almost from the outset he was the top procurement officer and coordinator with Iran on these matters. Thanks to his efforts, Hezbollah became the most powerful terrorist organization ever—even more powerful than al Qaeda in many ways—with “firepower that 90 percent of the countries in the world do not have,” according to Dagan.
As early as the mid-1990s, there were Aman officers who marked Lakkis as a potential target, believing that he should be eliminated. But Hezbollah was not a preferred target at the time and was considered more of a nuisance than a strategic threat. By the time that this changed in the 2000s, he was already taking extreme precautions to protect himself.
As I detail in my book, The Secret War With Iran, Lakkis was also wanted in Canada and the United States for running Hezbollah cells in those countries in the early 1990s. He had dispatched “elements with criminal tendencies there, and they were therefore happy to send them to North America so that they would not carry on such activities close to the organizations members” in Lebanon, according to a classified Aman paper. These Lebanese criminals settled in Vancouver, North Carolina, and Michigan, where they worked in the wholesale counterfeiting of visas, driver’s licenses, and credit cards, raking in huge profits. Lakkis permitted them to skim off a fat commission, as long as most of the cash was used for the procurement of sophisticated equipment that Hezbollah was finding it difficult to acquire elsewhere, such as GPS and night-vision equipment and various kinds of flak jackets.
In the wake of information conveyed by Israeli intelligence, the FBI and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service mounted a number of operations against these cells, and their members either fled or were arrested and sentenced to long jail terms for offenses including illicit acquisition of weapons and conspiring to attack Jewish targets. Lakkis himself learned about the raids in time and canceled a planned visit to the United States. In the last telephone calls recorded by the FBI before the crackdown, Lakkis was heard rebuking the cell members for not doing enough for Hezbollah and enjoying the good life in America while the organization’s members in Lebanon were being hammered by Israel.
With Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah’s military buildup and preparations for a general campaign against Israel became central in the organization’s doctrine. Lakkis functioned in tandem with and under the command of Hezbollah’s military commander, Mughniyeh. The two were aware of Israel’s sensitivity to casualties in its military and of the lack of preparedness on the Israeli home front for sustained bombardment.
They built a complex array of fortifications in south Lebanon with a double goal: surviving for as long as possible under attack from Israeli land forces, which they were sure would happen sooner or later, and preservation of their own ability to fire as many missiles as possible at Israeli communities.
The formula was a success. In the summer of 2006, Israel lost its war with Hezbollah, thanks, in part, to fortifications equipped with advanced gear like communications, command-and-control systems, and night-vision optics—all of which Lakkis played an important role in acquiring. In effect, it was Israel, the strongest military force in the Middle East, that was badly defeated, failing to achieve any of the goals it had set itself.
On July 20, 2006, the Israelis tried to take Lakkis out with a rocket fired from an F-16 fighter at his apartment in Beirut, but he wasn’t home and his son was killed.
The 2006 war (known as the “Second Lebanon War” in Israel, to distinguish it from the war Israel waged against the PLO in Lebanon in 1982) was the high point of the Radical Front and the coordination between the coalition’s top members. Since then, the wheel has turned a full cycle. Mughniyeh was killed by a bomb in his car in Damascus in February 2008; Suleiman was shot dead by a sniper on a beach in Syria in August of the same year; Mabhouh was strangled and poisoned in a Dubai hotel room in January 2010; Moghaddam was blown sky high along with 16 of his personnel in an explosion at a missile depot near Tehran on Nov. 12, 2011. And on Tuesday night, two unidentified masked men cut Lakkis down in the parking garage of his apartment building in a suburb of Beirut.
Hezbollah was quick to point the finger at Israel; Israel was quick to deny the attack. If indeed the assassins belong to some elite intelligence organization, by now they are most likely to be out of Lebanon, away from Hezbollah’s grasp. But this tactical success—if you can call it that—is not necessarily a strategic one in the Middle Eastern political arena.
To play assassin is to challenge history outright. Some hit jobs proved effective in changing reality, but not all changed it in the manner the perpetrators had hoped for. Take the 1992 assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Abbas al-Musawi. Retaliation attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets after his death cost dozens of lives, and the more radical and more effective Hassan Nasrallah took over as the organization’s leader.
“There’ll be a summit conference in the sky,” smiled an Israeli intelligence official Wednesday morning when he learned of the assassination of Hassan Lakkis, the Hezbollah commander in charge of weapons development and advanced technological warfare, in a Beirut suburb around midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 3. The killing of Lakkis is yet another in the latest in a long series of assassinations of leading figures in what Israeli intelligence calls the “Radical Front,” which comprises two countries—Syria and Iran—and three organizations: Hezbollah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hamas.
“We’re talking about a number of organizations and people involved in nuclear and terrorist activity. [They] do it not only for their countries in various missions, but have created an international network—the most dangerous and most efficient that I have met,” the official added. The Israeli goals: take these men out, one by one.
This isn’t the first time Israel has faced very powerful enemies, of course. But Israeli intelligence officials think this may be the most diverse, most intricately woven set of foes the country has encountered. These foes range from those at the leadership level down to field operatives, according to Mossad and Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman) high-ranking officials. And it all involves deep, intimate cooperation that even spans the religious rifts between Sunnis and Shiites, driven by a single motive force: hostility toward the state of Israel.
Back in 2004, the Mossad began identifying various key figures within this Radical Front—those with advanced operational, organizational, and technological capabilities. While other, better-known personalities in these extremist groups and their state backers dealt with strategy, these were the people who handled the details and the translation of strategy into actual practice.
The Israeli intelligence source, who dealt with the Radical Front, likens the anti-Israel coalition to SPECTRE, the fictional enemies of James Bond. With one difference: “SPECTRE usually did it for money.” Israeli intelligence drew up a list of these men, each one the possessor of highly lethal skills that could be threatening to Israel, even if there had not been a coordinated network embracing of all of them. The list was headed by two men: Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah’s supreme military commander, and Gen. Muhammad Suleiman, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s head of secret special projects, including the building of a nuclear reactor, and the person in charge of Syria’s ties with Iran and Hezbollah. As Meir Dagan, the former Mossad chief, told me: “Gen. Muhammad Suleiman was in charge of Assad’s shady businesses, including the connection with Hezbollah and Iran and all sensitive projects. He was a figure Assad was leaning upon. And these days, he misses him.”
After them came Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, head of missile development for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the export of missiles to Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad; Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas official in charge of tactical ties with Iran; and Hassan Lakkis (also spelled in FBI documents as Haj Hassan Hilu Laqis), who was identified by Aman in the early 1990s as Hezbollah’s weapons development expert. In an article about Lakkis’s death, Lebanon’s Daily Star called him a “key figure in Hezbollah[‘s] drone program.” The Israeli intelligence source continued the analogy with the Bond movies and called him “Hezbollah’s Q.”
According to his Aman file, Lakkis was active in the radical Shiite movement since age 19, enlisting shortly after it was established. He had a certain amount of technical education at a Lebanese university, but most of his skills were acquired from his experience in developing and manufacturing weaponry. Almost from the outset he was the top procurement officer and coordinator with Iran on these matters. Thanks to his efforts, Hezbollah became the most powerful terrorist organization ever—even more powerful than al Qaeda in many ways—with “firepower that 90 percent of the countries in the world do not have,” according to Dagan.
As early as the mid-1990s, there were Aman officers who marked Lakkis as a potential target, believing that he should be eliminated. But Hezbollah was not a preferred target at the time and was considered more of a nuisance than a strategic threat. By the time that this changed in the 2000s, he was already taking extreme precautions to protect himself.
As I detail in my book, The Secret War With Iran, Lakkis was also wanted in Canada and the United States for running Hezbollah cells in those countries in the early 1990s. He had dispatched “elements with criminal tendencies there, and they were therefore happy to send them to North America so that they would not carry on such activities close to the organizations members” in Lebanon, according to a classified Aman paper. These Lebanese criminals settled in Vancouver, North Carolina, and Michigan, where they worked in the wholesale counterfeiting of visas, driver’s licenses, and credit cards, raking in huge profits. Lakkis permitted them to skim off a fat commission, as long as most of the cash was used for the procurement of sophisticated equipment that Hezbollah was finding it difficult to acquire elsewhere, such as GPS and night-vision equipment and various kinds of flak jackets.
In the wake of information conveyed by Israeli intelligence, the FBI and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service mounted a number of operations against these cells, and their members either fled or were arrested and sentenced to long jail terms for offenses including illicit acquisition of weapons and conspiring to attack Jewish targets. Lakkis himself learned about the raids in time and canceled a planned visit to the United States. In the last telephone calls recorded by the FBI before the crackdown, Lakkis was heard rebuking the cell members for not doing enough for Hezbollah and enjoying the good life in America while the organization’s members in Lebanon were being hammered by Israel.
With Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah’s military buildup and preparations for a general campaign against Israel became central in the organization’s doctrine. Lakkis functioned in tandem with and under the command of Hezbollah’s military commander, Mughniyeh. The two were aware of Israel’s sensitivity to casualties in its military and of the lack of preparedness on the Israeli home front for sustained bombardment.
They built a complex array of fortifications in south Lebanon with a double goal: surviving for as long as possible under attack from Israeli land forces, which they were sure would happen sooner or later, and preservation of their own ability to fire as many missiles as possible at Israeli communities.
The formula was a success. In the summer of 2006, Israel lost its war with Hezbollah, thanks, in part, to fortifications equipped with advanced gear like communications, command-and-control systems, and night-vision optics—all of which Lakkis played an important role in acquiring. In effect, it was Israel, the strongest military force in the Middle East, that was badly defeated, failing to achieve any of the goals it had set itself.
On July 20, 2006, the Israelis tried to take Lakkis out with a rocket fired from an F-16 fighter at his apartment in Beirut, but he wasn’t home and his son was killed.
The 2006 war (known as the “Second Lebanon War” in Israel, to distinguish it from the war Israel waged against the PLO in Lebanon in 1982) was the high point of the Radical Front and the coordination between the coalition’s top members. Since then, the wheel has turned a full cycle. Mughniyeh was killed by a bomb in his car in Damascus in February 2008; Suleiman was shot dead by a sniper on a beach in Syria in August of the same year; Mabhouh was strangled and poisoned in a Dubai hotel room in January 2010; Moghaddam was blown sky high along with 16 of his personnel in an explosion at a missile depot near Tehran on Nov. 12, 2011. And on Tuesday night, two unidentified masked men cut Lakkis down in the parking garage of his apartment building in a suburb of Beirut.
Hezbollah was quick to point the finger at Israel; Israel was quick to deny the attack. If indeed the assassins belong to some elite intelligence organization, by now they are most likely to be out of Lebanon, away from Hezbollah’s grasp. But this tactical success—if you can call it that—is not necessarily a strategic one in the Middle Eastern political arena.
To play assassin is to challenge history outright. Some hit jobs proved effective in changing reality, but not all changed it in the manner the perpetrators had hoped for. Take the 1992 assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Abbas al-Musawi. Retaliation attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets after his death cost dozens of lives, and the more radical and more effective Hassan Nasrallah took over as the organization’s leader.
