continued from… Marriage and Adversity – Part I

And God Said – the need of friendship in marriage – part II

Are you marriage friends?

Since the beginning of human history six thousand years ago, mankind has attempted to circumvent every command of God; morally, spiritually, nationally, financially and physically. He continues to fail miserably. The same holds true in the marriage relationship.

Despite God’s standard for marriage intimacy literally being “set in stone”; couples foolishly attempt steer around His precepts anyway – bringing great harm to the marriage, the marriage bed, each spouse and even the extended family.

What then, is God’s standard for marital friendship? The answer is found in the very first chapter of God’s Word – in the Book of Genesis and the creation account:

“And God said…” Genesis 1:3

No marriage will survive very long without both spouses willingness to commit to each other as best friends.

“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Proverbs 17:17

How then, does a married couple “learn” to become best friends when society is pulling them in different directions? The answer is found in the pages of the Bible. God exposes three areas that all married couples need to be aware of and watch out for. We will deal with two of them in this section:

1. Loneliness in Marriage

And God said…

“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” Genesis 2:18

It is stunning how many married couples foolishly believe that spending time apart from one another on a regular basis is an acceptable lifestyle to God. In time, that marriage will suffer because it does not match God’s original design for intimate friendship. Not only does the door swing wide open for either or both individuals hearts being seduced by outsiders, there is the less subtle eroding of intimate communication all together.

It is God Himself who declares that is is NOT good that the man should be alone.

2. Lack of Emotional Support in Marriage

And God Said…

“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.” Ecclesiastes 4:9

At no time in human history have we seen the economic model so commonly practiced today by Christian couples in America – a lifestyle God says is foolish:

“And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.” Luke 12:18-21

Worldly enticements has seduced many a married couple into leaving the labor that used to be performed together on a homestead – for pursuit of individual careers supporting a lifestyle that most of this world’s Christians would consider excessive idolatry.

And God Said…

“For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.” Ecclesiastes 4:10

God designed married couples to be together. With the introduction of modern manufacturing practices at the turn of the last century – the husband left his best friend for the city. Seduced by quick money and an unbridled lifestyle apart from marital accountability – cracks quickly began to form in marriages from sea to shining sea. It was only a matter of time before wives, obligated to support their families as husbands went off to consecutive world wars; became enamored by a new sense of freedom known as woman’s liberation.

Just as Eve was deceived in the Garden of Eden by what she saw, felt and tasted – today’s wife is doing the same. Her liberation had seductively drawn her and her family into a carnal slavery to the world and its psychology.

Over time, each spouse fell and neither was around to pick the other up. Career and material pursuit destroyed marital intimacy – and continues to do so.

And God Said…

“Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?” Ecclesiastes 4:11

One of the sadder commentaries is the lack of physical intimacy between spouses. When a couple commits to a willingness to become best friends in marriage, they quickly find out how wise God is. He designed spouses to touch one another – as they labor together during the day and as they lay together at night. Over time, a closeness develops that transcends the simple act of sex. As the married couple learns to be each others best friend – a fulfillment of God’s design for marriage becomes a reality:

“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Genesis 2:24

A commitment to meet the needs of your marriage partner keeps the marriage from being destroyed by outside influences. This is why God wants married couples to be best friends.

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Are you marriage friends?

The American church is experiencing what, only a few generations ago, would have seemed absolutely unthinkable. Currently, more than 51% of all Christian marriages are ending in divorce annually despite the best efforts of church and para-church organizations to stem the tide.

There are as many misconceptions about marriage as there are reasons for divorce. Here are just a few:

• The largest numbers of divorces occurring today are in the 40-60 year old age group.
• Length of time a couple is married has no bearing on the health of that marriage.
• Social networks, cell phones, emails and geographic mobility has created an environment that makes it easy for a hurting spouse to communicate with others instead of each other.
• A culture of independence and humanism entices a spouse to believe they have a “right’ to practice individuality and deserved happiness apart from responsibility to their spouse.

Couples are trying, with catastrophic results, to reinvent marriage as an institution of individual rights versus mutual submission to God and one another. Most marriages are doomed to fail from the start unless that couple begins understanding the necessity of becoming more than just platonic friends.

If any marriage is going to survive in today’s culture; both spouses must decide corporately to become best friends to one another. Any other objective will doom the marriage to years of heartache and eventual destruction.

“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” I John 3:18

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Have you ever seen something that just blew your mind? Something that made you say, "Hmmm, maybe we’re worse off than I thought." Well, I had my moment just last week. While shopping at Wal-Mart I wandered into the CD section – looking for Air Supply’s greatest hits, of course – and stumbled upon what I believe to be a great travesty. Right before my eyes I saw a gospel tribute CD to President Obama. Some of the tracks include "inspiring words" from our president. Ugh … I still can’t believe it.

What is wrong with this country? In addition to singing about Christ our Lord and Savior, we’re singing praises to Obama. First we had schools teaching our children to worship Obama in song, and now we have gospel choirs doing the same. I would think that a gospel choir’s No. 1 priority would be God, not Obama. I didn’t see any bluegrass albums about President Bush.

Dozens of presidents before Obama have done greater things during their political career, yet he is hailed as a deliverer of hope and change. What is it that he brings hope to? The only thing he’s done is affirm my belief that people are crazy. He has shown me that it doesn’t take much to be considered a hero these days. All you have to do is say the words "hope" and "change" a hundred times a day and BAM! You’ve got yourself a hero. Honestly, here’s a guy who received the Nobel Peace Prize for doing absolutely nothing. If he were a real hero, he would have given that award to someone who actually deserved it. Seriously, his win made that award seem as useless as his presidency.

Obama has driven us further into debt, we’ve lost countless jobs, and he’s thrown his Obamacare agenda to the top of the to-do list. So please tell me, what has he done to be considered a hero? Why does he deserve a gospel tribute? Does a hero take two vacations during a state of emergency like the oil spill? Does a hero take his wife on dates that cost taxpayers thousands of dollars while the rest of the country is slipping further and further into the red? He spent an entire year apologizing to the world on behalf of America. He’s bribed Congress to make way for his agenda. He didn’t create jobs like he said he would. We’ve actually lost 2,000,000 jobs since 2009. His list of failures goes on and on. Am I the only one who recognizes this?

Will someone please tell me what Obama has done that constitutes holy praise? He hasn’t laid down his life for anyone; he hasn’t sacrificed anything. He didn’t even serve his country in the military. In fact, his wife wasn’t even proud of our country until he was running for president.

It’s hard to put into words how this album makes me feel. On one hand, I feel like I have to apologize to Christ. "I’m sorry people are worshiping a mortal man."

It seems like Obama keeps his Christianity in the dark and only brings it out when it’s convenient. Gospel choirs should be honoring true heroes, people who are strong in their faith, people who witness to others. I’m not saying that Obama isn’t a Christian man. He may very well be; I don’t know his heart. But it’s not healthy or appropriate or respectful to idolize him the way people do. He hasn’t done anything to deserve that kind of attention.

My dose of honesty first off is for the people of this country who idolize and praise Obama:

"Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing" (Psalms 146:3-4 NIV).

Men and women are not worthy of worship. Only through Christ can we be delivered from our sins. Only through Christ are we able to survive this wasted economy. There is nothing Obama can do to save us. I don’t know why our children are being taught otherwise, and I don’t know why a gospel choir would think Obama deserves the kind of praise that only our God deserves.

My second dose of honesty is for the president:

"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments" (Exodus 20:4-6).

Obama isn’t blind to the fact that people worship him. He should call them out and remind them that he is only a man and can do nothing without the Lord who strengthens him.

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This unique expression, "in the day of visitation," based on a surprising use of the Greek word episkope, occurs one other time in such a way, when Christ wept over Jerusalem and pronounced its coming judgment.

"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. . . . because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." (Luke 19:42-44)

Now this word, episkope, and its derivatives are usually translated as "overseer or bishop” and it seems strange at first that it could also mean "visitation." However, its basic meaning is "overseer," or "oversight," and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is really the "Shepherd and Bishop of [our] souls" (1 Peter 2:25), as well as that of nations and, indeed, every aspect of every life.

As a overseer ("shepherd") is responsible for the "oversight" of Jesus’ local church, or flock, so Christ is "that great Shepherd of the sheep," the true "Bishop of [our] souls," the overseer of all people in every age. In His great plan of the ages, the Jews, and then the Gentiles, each have been entrusted with a time of "visitation," or "oversight" of God’s witness to the world. Sadly, Jerusalem "knewest not the time of [her] visitation" (Luke 19:44) and, as for Judas, the Lord had to say "[his] bishoprick let another take" (Acts 1:20).

Now in God’s providence, it is the time of Gentile oversight, and it is eternally important that we who know His salvation today glorify God by our good works, with our "conversation [i.e., lifestyle] honest among the Gentiles" in our own "day of visitation."

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The third verse of the hymn "Faith Is the Victory" portrays the attack-phase of the battle. The foe stands in dread array, also poised for the fight. The prepared troops attack without hesitation, with a well-formulated battle plan.

On every hand the foe we find, Drawn up in dread array;
Let tents of ease be left behind, And onward to the fray!
Salvation’s helmet on each head, With truth all girt about:
The earth shall tremble ‘neath our tread, And echo with our shout.

This last line recalls the episode in our text. The entire nation of Israel had marched for six days around the city of Jericho. On the seventh day they marched around the city seven times, and then the priests blew their trumpets and the people shouted. What kind of battle plan was that? But God had specifically instructed them to do it this way. They had seen Him work many stupendous miracles on their behalf and their faith was great.

Their unwavering obedience resulted in a glorious victory!

Today’s warriors of faith have the same Commander-in-Chief, and access to His mighty power. Furthermore, He provides the,

"whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth." (Ephesians 6:13-14)

Faith must be faith in the Truth (Jesus Christ). Faith in a lie (faith in your faith) will not stand.

"And take |literally ‘receive’| the helmet of salvation" (v. 17). Each warrior, saved "by grace . . . through faith" (2:8), immersed in truth and obedient to the Commander, is assured of complete and overwhelming victory!

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When Team Xtreme was invited to participate in the Elav worship conference, organizer Rick Ridings of the 24-hour prayer ministry Succat Hallel was reportedly unaware of Awwad’s Palestinian background. Once Ridings found out, Awwad was asked to share his testimony with the hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian young adults who had gathered there.

Awwad also shared his testimony at the Tiferet Yeshua Messianic congregation in Tel Aviv. Tiferet Yeshua pastor Ari Sorko-Ram, who also heads Maoz Israel Ministries and istandwithisrael.com, had teamed up with Ridings in funding room and board for the young Jewish and Arab participants at Elav.

At Tiferet Yeshua, as he had at Elav earlier, Awwad recounted how despite growing up in an Arab Christian home, he hated the Jews of Israel every bit as much as his Muslim neighbors. He actively took part in the First Intifada, hurling stones and anything else he could get his hands on at Israeli soldiers on a daily basis.

But he received as good as he gave, to flip a common phrase, and was the victim of regular mistreatment by anxious and angry Israeli soldiers. The pressure of the situation began to get to Awwad, and he decided to use the American passport he had thanks to his mother’s American citizenship and spend some time in the US.

While living in the US, Awwad was invited to attend an Arab church, where he was astonished to hear the pastor preach that though the Jews may be their enemies, the Arabs must practice forgiveness and love toward them, as Jesus had taught.

Awwad was even more determined to stay away from Evangelical Christianity, convinced that it was nothing but a Zionist ploy. But God had other plans, and touched Awwad’s heart, forcing him to make a decision between the things he had grown up believing were right, and the truth he could find only in Jesus.

“I gave my life to Jesus then and there,” said Awwad. “For three days I could not eat or drink. I just read the Bible, and in everything I saw Jesus Christ.”

But he still didn’t like Israel very much, so when six months following his transformation the Lord asked Awwad to forgive the Jews, he considered turning his back on God. “If you’ll ask me this even one more time I will never speak to you again!” Awwad said, recalling his reaction to the Lord. “From my perspective the Jews had come from many nations and taken the land that I believed belonged to the Arabs. I was angry.”

Eventually his heart was softened, and Awwad knew he had to surrender to God’s nature of unconditional love and forgiveness.

To demonstrate the fullness of his transformation, Awwad invited every active and reserve soldier in the Tiferet Yeshua congregation to join him on stage, where he embraced and professed his love for them, the very people he had fought hardest to defeat.

“I am a Palestinian – you are Jewish. The world calls us enemies – but we are brothers! Brothers and sisters in Yeshua. Nothing can separate us. The world will not separate us, politics will not separate us, walls will not separate us. We have a place in Heaven. You and I will bow our knees and worship the Messiah Yeshua, our King together! He is the Real Thing!”

Awwad concluded by asking the Israeli soldiers to also forgive him, and was greeted by a great outpouring of love.

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A British Nigerian couple – Ben and Angela Ihegboro – is not aware of any fair-skinned ancestors on either side of their families. Yet they gave birth to a blue-eyed, blond-haired, and fair-skinned baby girl. As the mother herself exclaimed, "What on earth happened here?"

Named Nmachi, which means "Beauty of God," the newborn has eye coloration, so she is not an albino. The Sun reported that while the couple was shocked at her appearance, they nevertheless welcomed the child, calling her their "miracle baby."¹ There is no evidence of an alternate father. Their marriage has been faithful, and even a Caucasian father could not have produced a baby as light-skinned as this one.

Nmachi’s unexpected appearance presents a genetic mystery, but it also provides a clue to the skin, eye, and hair coloration that must have characterized this planet’s first people. Oxford University geneticist Bryan Sykes told The Sun, "As albinoism has been ruled out, it is more likely that there has been some other mutation that’s happened to produce this colouring."¹

This means that it is possible that all blond and fair-skinned people descended from one or a few who had the same or a similar mutation as Nmachi. This would in turn confirm suspicions that the lack of melanin in skin, eyes, and hair that characterizes Caucasians points back at a long heritage of debilitated melanin production.

Nmachi’s presumed mutation would also confirm long-held creation science conjectures about the appearance of the first two people in the world. Adam and Eve must have had medium-tone skin.² Based on currently modeled skin-color inheritance patterns, their many descendants had higher statistical odds of also having medium-tone skin, with an outside chance of having children with very light or very dark skin.³ In this way, all of today’s varieties of human pigmentation could have arisen in only two generations from Adam.

But if the blond and fair traits arose by mutation long after Adam, then it stands to reason that earth’s earliest inhabitants were all darker than today’s fairest-skinned ones.

The human population must have been much smaller at some point for a mutation like this to have become part of large segments of the population today. Although certain Europeans share fair-skinned traits, there are isolated blond populations ensconced among the more melanin-rich groups. Key mutation events were most likely to have happened long after the original "very good" creation at a time when genetic entropy began to hold stronger sway.⁴ For example, a melanin-debilitating mutation could have become fixed into certain peoples after the entire population was bottlenecked down to the eight Flood survivors, just 4,000 or so years ago.

Reconstructions of the past will often be subject to alteration as new information such as this genetic anomaly surfaces. But the Bible’s written account of the past provides certain information that is unambiguous. From this God-spoken record, as well as from current science, one can be confident that all peoples are indeed descendants of a literal Adam and Eve, just as Jesus Himself confirmed.⁵

References

1. Wheeler, V. Black parents…white baby. The Sun. Posted on thesun.co.uk July 20, 2010, accessed July 22, 2010.
2. See Batten, D. et al. 2007. How did all the different ‘races’ arise (from Noah’s family)? The Creation Answers Book. Powder Springs, GA: Creation Book Publishers, 221-237.
3. College biology textbooks have named the human skin coloration inheritance pattern "polygenic inheritance." But since skin coloration is a product of about 12 different–and differently regulated–genes, this "pattern" is likely a statistical approximation.
4. "Genetic entropy" is the relentless loss of genetic information through the accumulation of small mutations that have almost no immediate fitness effect. See Sanford, J. C. 2008. Genetic Entropy & the Mystery of the Genome. Waterloo, NY: FMS Publications.
5. "But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female" (Mark 10:6).

Image credit: © News Group Newspapers Ltd./Peter Simpson & Neil Hall. Adapted for use in accordance with federal copyright (fair use doctrine) law.

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This rebuke was by Moses, as he warned the people of God just before their entrance into the Promised Land. It contains the first use of the Hebrew nabal (translated "fool" or "foolish") in the Bible. Here it is applied to God’s chosen people after they had been delivered out of Egyptian slavery by God. This implies that the most foolish of all people are those who have known about God and His great salvation and yet have turned away from His Word.

Paul writes in similar scathing terms of those who had known of God’s great deliverance of their fathers from the evil world before the Flood, and yet then abandoned Him for idolatry.

"When they knew God, . . . their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." (Romans 1:21-22)

David used the same word about those who decide they can explain things without God, just as do so many intellectuals in modern America.

"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. . . . Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God." (Psalm 53:1, 4)

Even prophets and preachers can become fools if they follow their own wisdom instead of God’s Word.

"Thus saith the Lord God; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!" (Ezekiel 13:3)

Jesus similarly rebuked even those He dearly loved, because they were surprised and discouraged when He was crucified.

"O fools," He said, because they had been "slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." (Luke 24:25)

God help us to maintain believing hearts, not foolish hearts, as we serve Him!

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This is the only verse in the book of Hebrews that refers specifically to Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It occurs at the climactic conclusion of the book (which had previously referred at least 17 times to the atoning death of Christ) and is associated with God’s everlasting covenant with His people.

The covenant theme is strong in the book of Hebrews. The Greek word diatheke, which is also frequently translated "testament," occurs more in Hebrews than in all the rest of the New Testament (or "New Covenant") put together. The word basically means a contract, especially one for disposition of an inheritance.

A number of God’s divine covenants are mentioned in Scripture, but the writer of Hebrews is especially concerned with God’s new covenant (or "new testament"). It is surely the most significant of all covenants.

This new covenant is also called "a better covenant" (Hebrews 7:22; 8:6).

It is best defined in Hebrews 8:10-12, quoting Jeremiah 31:33-34:

"I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: . . . and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."

Christ is "the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." (Hebrews 9:15)

The inheritance is eternal because the covenant is everlasting. The blood of the covenant is the infinitely precious blood of Christ, whom God has raised from the dead, and now;

"he ever liveth to make intercession" for all those who "come unto God by him" (Hebrews 7:25)

Related resource: Institute for Creation Research

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For the first time in Israel, a document has been uncovered containing a law code that parallels portions of the famous Code of Hammurabi. The code is written on fragments of a cuneiform tablet, dating from the 18th-17th centuries B.C.E in the Middle Bronze Age, that were found in Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeological excavations this summer at Hazor, south of Kiryat Shmonah, in northern Israel.

The Hazor excavations, known as the Selz Foundation Hazor Excavations in Memory of Yigael Yadin, are under the direction of Prof. Amnon Ben-Tor and Dr. Sharon Zuckerman of the Hebrew University Institute of Archeology. Previous excavations were directed at the site by the late Prof. Yigael Yadin in the 1950s and 1960s.

The fragments that have now been discovered, written in Akkadian cuneiform script, refer to issues of personal injury law relating to slaves and masters, bring to mind similar laws in the famous Babylonian Hammurabi Code of the 18th century B.C.E. that were found in what is now Iran over 100 years ago. The laws also reflect, to a certain extent, Biblical laws of the type of “a tooth for tooth,” say the researchers.

The Hazor law code fragments are being prepared for publication by a team headed by Prof. Wayne Horowitz of the Hebrew University Institute of Archeology. Thus far, words that have been deciphered include “master,” “slave,” and a word referring to bodily parts, apparently the word for “tooth.” The style of the text is similar to that of the Hammurabi Code, said Prof. Horowitz.

“At this stage, it is difficult to determine whether this document was actually written at Hazor, where a school for scribes was located, or brought from somewhere else,” said Prof. Horowitz. He said that this latest discovery opens an interesting avenue for possible further investigation of a connection between Biblical law and the Code of Hammurabi.

These two fragments are the 18th and 19th cuneiform finds from the Hazor excavations, which now form the largest corpus of documents of cuneiform texts found in Israel. Previous documents dealt with such subjects as the dispatch of people or goods, a legal dispute involving a local woman, and a text of multiplication tables. “These tablets point to Hazor’s importance as a major center for administration and scholarship in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages,” said Prof. Ben-Tor.

The Hazor excavations, sponsored by the Hebrew University and the Israel Exploration Society, take place within the Hazor National Park. The archaeological team is presently about to begin uncovering a monumental building dating to the Bronze Age, where they expect to recover additional tablets.

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The use of the English word "terror" in this verse as a translation of the Greek, phobos (from which we get our word "phobia"), indicates that the frequent Old Testament phrase, "fear of the Lord," means much more than implied in the modern euphemism, "reverential trust."

The only other New Testament use of this phrase is found in the book of Acts:

"Then had the churches rest . . . and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." Acts 9:31

These two passages seem to be informing us that, when a church is "walking in the terror of the Lord," its members will be seeking every means whereby to "persuade men" to come to Christ, and therefore its numbers will increase.

This impassioned persuasion of the lost is motivated by knowledge that "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (II Corinthians 5:10). That is, we know that the Lord Jesus, who died for lost sinners and has commissioned us to tell them of His great salvation, will be highly displeased if we don’t do so, or if our testimony is compromised by our selfish lives.

At His judgment seat, "the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. . . . If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." I Corinthians 3:13,15

The terror of the Lord, when we appear before Him in that day, is not the only motive for witnessing, of course. "The love of Christ constraineth us," and when our testimony is received (our motives being "manifest unto God" and even to the "consciences" of those to whom we witness), then the glorious result is "a new creature" in Christ! II Corinthians 5:14,17

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Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. (Genesis 3:7)

When Adam and Eve sinned the Bible says their eyes were opened. The very next statement says they realized they were naked—and then further, they decided to make clothes.

So their sin affected the way Adam and Eve perceived things (i.e., their eyes were opened). In fact, the shame they now felt was due to sinful nature, because they no longer perceived things in a perfect fashion. Hence, they viewed that their nakedness should be covered.

Note that nakedness was not a sin, but a fallen perception of nakedness and the associated shame was included in the sorrows and mental anguish they now felt.

Even today, nakedness is bonded with shame, as people the world over wear clothes. In fact, this doctrine of clothing that comes out of a literal rendering of Genesis reveals that, by wearing clothes, cultures and religions all over the world are confirming the Bible’s account is true.

For example, an atheistic worldview holds that people evolved from animals and are animals, so why wear clothes? Some would say that we need clothes to stay warm, but some climates do not require any clothing for that purpose. Animals don’t put on clothes. Consider other religions like Hinduism, where nothing is ultimately reality. Why wear clothes? (Islam borrows from the Bible, etc.)

Please do not get me wrong, I am not asking people from these other religions to stop wearing clothes because it is a Judeo-Christian doctrine. In fact, we appreciate that they adhere to this doctrine.

What we would ask is that these people who have been taught their respective religions consider the meaning of wearing clothes and how that goes back biblically to our mutual ancestors, Adam and Eve, and sin. Such things show the validity of God’s Word, pointing toward Christ who conquered sin on our behalf and now offers the free gift of salvation to all who believe (see What Does It Mean to Be “Saved”?).

Related Resource: Answers in Genesis

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One of the most difficult lessons for Christians to learn is how to take criticism. The natural reaction is one either of resentment and desire to lash back, or else one of discouragement and quitting. Neither is honoring to the Lord.

Remembering that "all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28) to the sincere Christian believer, we should first of all consider the criticism as potential "instruction" from God as well as from the critic. We should seek to test the criticism as objectively as possible, in light of our actions and the Scriptures, the most probing critic of all.

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword . . . and is a discerner |literally ‘criticizer’| of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).

If it turns out that the criticism is even partly valid, then the obvious course is to take the appropriate remedial action, and to do it as prayerfully and graciously as possible.

On the other hand, if an honest evaluation of the criticism reveals it to be unwarranted, or perhaps even deliberately false and hurtful, then our example becomes Christ Himself. He never did or said anything to merit criticism (as we do, far too often), but He received it in great abundance.

What was His response?

"When he was reviled, |he| reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:23).

We should remember that "a soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger" (Proverbs 15:1).

By all means, we must not become discouraged into retreating or quitting!

"For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds" (Hebrews 12:3).

Additional Resources: ICR.org

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The economic crisis, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the aftermath of a host of other disasters currently plaguing the world can all be traced to a series of senseless decisions. Yale University professor Laurie Santos has proposed that this propensity for human error may have evolutionary links.

She studied the behavior of capuchin monkeys, which many may recall as a pet of the character Ross Geller on the popular television show Friends. In a choice test, she found that the monkeys made the same irrational decisions that humans are prone to make. Thus, assuming that capuchin monkeys "diverged from the human lineage 35 million years ago," she surmised that humans may make persistent mistakes because of biological limitations. She presented her ideas at the 2010 TEDGlobal conference recently held in Oxford, England.

But one doesn’t have to be a scientist to discover the root causes for repetitive human error. The greatest blunder in history is found three chapters into the book of Genesis. Humanity doesn’t improve from there, as the rest of the Old Testament records people perpetually committing epic errors to which some of today’s gaffes pale in comparison.

No one is immune, not even those with the best of intentions. The apostle Paul wrote to the Roman believers, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing….For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do." He didn’t blame his propensity to err on his genes or his upbringing. He took responsibility for his own choices, calling himself "chief" of sinners.

CNN reported Santos as saying, "We can overcome our biological limitations…but first we have to recognize what they are."¹ But if her theory is correct that human error is ingrained in biology, then there’s nothing that can be done. Evolution will continue as it always has, and humans will make ever dumber decisions. That also contradicts Charles Darwin’s theory that organisms improve with evolution.

There’s no hope, then, of improvement within the evolutionary system. But if it’s true that humans aren’t merely the latest result of random biological processes, then they can "overcome," take responsibility as Paul did, and accept the only invitation that offers any possibility of progress:

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Christian Dao writes for the Institute for Creation Research

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  In an interview with Channel 2 television news, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that there will not be a construction freeze in Jerusalem, and that there is “a full understanding that there must not be preconditions for negotiations.”

“Our policy on Jerusalem will not change,” he said, noting that his government’s policy on the 3,000-year-old Jewish capital was the same as that of all Israeli governments in the last 43 years.

He tried to play down the perception that US President Barack Obama humiliated him in his recent visit to Washington. “He is not humiliating me,” he muttered in an undertone, then asserted: “The United States does not agree with us about everything. There are ups and downs. There are difficult things and there were some even more difficult things. But there is a very strong fabric of relations that lets us overcome these problems.”

The meaning of independence

When pressed by interviewer Yonit Levy on Jerusalem, Netanyahu asked: “Why should I give up in Jerusalem?” Turning from defense to offense, he asked her where she was born. She told him that she was originally from French Hill in Jerusalem. Netanyahu, who may have known the answer in advance, explained that the current argument is over parts of Jerusalem like French Hill, which were unpopulated when they were liberated in 1967.

The United States reportedly wants Israel to freeze construction in the sections of Jerusalem that were under Jordanian occupation from 1948 to 1967.

Asked whether he could trust the US to lead the campaign against Iran, Netanyahu said Israel preferred a scenario in which the Americans take the lead. He reminded viewers, however, that Israel had just celebrated Independence Day – and that Jewish independence meant “first and foremost a Jewish state, and the ability to defend ourselves. Israel will always retain the right of self-defense.”

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It is significant that biblical Christianity is the only Trinitarian religion – and therefore the only true religion – in the world. Most religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, etc.) are pantheistic and humanistic, denying the existence of an omnipotent God who created the space/time cosmos.

There are two other major religions, however, that are monotheistic, believing in the God of creation and in the creation record in Genesis–Judaism and Islam.

However, these two religions fail to understand that the Creator must also be the Redeemer, and therefore they also become humanistic, believing that man must achieve salvation by his own efforts. Further, they also fail to acknowledge that God’s objective work of redemption must be made subjective in each person by the indwelling personal presence of the omnipresent Creator Redeemer.

All this is beautifully revealed in the New Testament in the doctrine of the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – One God in three Persons, incomprehensible to human understanding, perhaps, yet very real (see John 15:26; etc.).

This wonderful revelation of the Godhead was foreshadowed in the very beginning – the Father creating; the Spirit moving; the Son speaking (Genesis 1:1-3). In our text above, again it is the Son (as the living Word of God) prophesying about His coming mission of redemption, saying that "the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me."

Then, when He had finished His work and could return to the Father, He promised the coming of "the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name," and that He would "abide with you for ever" (John 14:26, 16).

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Whatever Happened to the American Dream – 20 Years Later

He seemed so frail, much more so that I remembered him to be. I was shocked by what I observed.

The last time I saw my father was a decade earlier. He was coming through the chain link fenced gate with a spring in his step and a big smile on his face. That was how i usually saw him; so happy a man having just put in a full day’s effort at a job he loved very much – as the lighting engineer working alongside other men and women helping to expand the bounds of space exploration.

Retired several years now, he looked beaten down by time and physically ravaged by his many decades consuming alcohol and cigarettes. I often wondered, now that his body had prematurely aged and degraded, if he regretted all those earlier warning signs trying to tell him that his lifestyle was about to extract a great price – on him and his family.

What I had observed of my father twenty years ago – seems an eerie parallel to what is taking place in America today. My father turned a deaf ear to his children’s plea for his ceasing his drinking and smoking and died much to soon. America too, has turned a deaf ear to those few men and women pleading with her to return to the Living God of our forefather’s faith.

200 years ago, our forefathers were on the brink of destruction; bloodied and beaten to their knees – they were being overwhelmed by a tyrannical King George. But, it was on their knees that they began to earnestly petition the Living God for help. ~ The difference between those early American heroes and we today? They knew GOD was their ONLY hope. We, on the other hand, have placed our hope in OURSELVES.

Is America today, any worse off than those early Americans were? Hardly. In the nineteenth century, the number of men and women who died in our nation’s civil war still far outnumbers all Americans who have died in all the wars fought during the twentieth century. In fact, the “Great Depression” of the 1920’s paled in comparison to what took place in southern America after the civil war when millions of men, women and children died of starvation and disease.

Peter Cartwright, in his excellent book on early American history, “The Light and the Glory”, retells a horrific story of finely adorned southern women walking the streets of a burned out Atlanta. They would greet one another wearing the same dresses and jewelry so befitting their recent glorious southern heritage – seemingly oblivious to the carnage, death and destruction that now surrounded them. It was not an uncommon thing to observe these beautifully adorned women coming upon the rotting carcass of a dead war horse – kneeling down beside it and then, performing the unthinkable. Placing their parasols on the ground beside them, they would pull out a large knife from their dainty purses and then, begin the work of carving up the maggot infested flesh into small chunks. Cupping this bloodied meat into the palms of their hands, they would devour it.

Those these “Southern Belles” still wore beautifully appointed dresses, shoes, purses and parasols, and walked the streets of their fallen cities as if the Civil War had never happened – they couldn’t conceal their starvation.

Most Americans have never witnessed the levels of poverty and death like those our forefathers of early America had. Their stories are warnings to a young and brash United States today – a clarion call to petition the Living God in repentance. America though, is not concerned with the God of our founding fathers but rather; the gods of economics, politics, the sciences, ecologies, entertainment and entitlements.

"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." President George Washington

"No truth is more evident to any mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people." Noah Webster

"The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded." President James Madison

"[A] true patriot must be a religious man. He who neglects his duty to his Maker, may well be expected to be deficient and insincere in his duty towards the public." First Lady, Abigail Adams

May God help us. May God help America. May God help the Christian church in America.

Whatever Happened to the American Dream

• Introduction
• A Brief History Revisited
• Defining the American Dream
• Our Heritage
• What’s Killing Our Economy?
• Trends in Government
• The Three Headed Monster: IRS, EPA and OSHA
• Global Warming and Ozone Myths
• World Hunger
• Blueprint for Disaster
• Regulation by Litigation and the Litigation Lottery
• The Aging of America
• Defining the Problem and How Bad it is Going to Get
• A View of Our Future
• Solutions Ignored – Nationally and Locally
• Preparing for the Worst – the Time has Come!

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Whatever Happened to the American Dream – 20 years later

The year was 1993. After a 17 year marriage, I was suddenly thrust into the unfamiliar role of “single parenting” four teenaged sons, forced to resign my somewhat lucrative position with a well-known property management company because of stress and abandoned by the “church family” who did not know how to effectively minister to the many spiritual, emotional, physical and financial needs of a broken, downcast brother.

Ironically, with so much time on my hands, a catastrophic decline in personal assets and little else to do but read – I turned my thoughts toward a book just released by the late Larry Burkett, the founder of Christian Financial Concepts. What intrigued me was the book’s title, “Whatever Happened to the American Dream.”

When I married in 1978, I thought my life would become an extension of that same, “American Dream” Larry Burkett spoke of. I was going to love my wife, raise my family amongst white picket fenced houses, have two cars in the driveway, work 40 years with one company and then, retire to a relatively comfortable lifestyle propped up with savings accounts, substantial equity in my accumulated assets and out of debt.

In one year, everything about my life, my marriage, my family and my future became a torn, tattered pile of unfulfilled hopes and dreams – scattered across the horizon by the winds of unwelcomed change. Looking back now, I saw the signs – but chose to ignore them.

Today, the American Christian Church specifically and our country’s population generally – is willfully ignoring the many warning signs Larry Burkett brought out in his book two decades earlier. Even though I personally sought out God with all my heart, having been restored in Him – America has gone in the opposite direction.

Unless the American church wakes up out of its slumber immediately; it will soon be lamenting the words of its unsaved neighbor; “Whatever happened to the American Dream?”

+++

Over the several weeks, I will be introducing key warnings given by the late Larry Burkett in his book titled, “Whatever Happened to the American Dream.” Here is a brief list:

Whatever Happened to the American Dream

• Introduction
• A Brief History Revisited
• Defining the American Dream
• Our Heritage
• What’s Killing Our Economy?
• Trends in Government
• The Three Headed Monster: IRS, EPA and OSHA
• Global Warming and Ozone Myths
• World Hunger
• Blueprint for Disaster
• Regulation by Litigation and the Litigation Lottery
• The Aging of America
• Defining the Problem and How Bad it is Going to Get
• A View of Our Future
• Solutions Ignored – Nationally and Locally
• Preparing for the Worst – the Time has Come!

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The remarkable 119th Psalm, with its 22 eight-verse stanzas, is the unique "song of the word," containing 176 testimonies or prayers concerning God’s Word – one for each verse. Eight times the word "meditate" or "meditation" is used, indicating the importance of this practice in relation to the Scriptures. In our text, this word is translated "talk," but its basic thrust is to exhort us to meditate on the wonderful works of God, once we understand the way of His precepts.

The other seven references to meditation in this psalm are as follows:

• "I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways" (v. 15).
• "Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes" (v. 23).
• "My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes" (v. 48).
• "Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts" (v. 78).
• "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day" (v. 97).
• "I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation" (v. 99).
• "Mine eyes prevent |i.e., anticipate| the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word" (v. 148).

There is, of course, a counterfeit form of meditation (e.g., the so-called transcendental meditation and other forms of mysticism such as “Christian Yoga”), not to mention useless daydreaming.

These forms of meditation involve clearing one’s mind of all subjects, and allowing the mind to wander. In contrast, true meditation involves pondering with awe and thankfulness God’s wonderful Word, His ways, and His works – in connection with prayer and the study of the Holy Scriptures.

An exercise of the mind as well as of the spirit, it is an exercise of great blessing, and is most pleasing to God.

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Within a week of His approaching death, Christ sat down with His disciples to talk of the future. He would be leaving, terrible persecution would come, but He would return. Purposefully no date was given. Their curiosity was no doubt great, but Christ had other charges for them. Instead, Christ focused on other issues, and His instructions apply to us just as surely as to the disciples.

Whether things are going well or not, we must not be misled into a false sense of security. The disciples were looking at the beautiful and serene temple and grounds, but Christ predicted unprecedented destruction. "There shall not be left one stone upon another" (v. 2).

Nor should we allow ourselves to be deceived by false prophets (vv. 5-6). Scripture gives ample information to allow us to identify and shun these "wolves in sheep’s clothing." But to our shame, false teachings permeate our churches and television airwaves.

Furthermore, when natural calamities and world turmoil cascade in on us (vv. 7-8), we must not be frozen with fear. These things must come (v. 7). Persecution must come also (vv. 9-12). We must not allow ourselves to be intimidated in our witness or tripped up by bitterness.

Instead, we must "endure" and remain loyal to Him (v. 13). We must be at work to spread the gospel to all nations (v. 10) in spite of the opposition. And, "Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is" (v. 33).

As the events in the Middle East escalate and take on a character which could lead to the sort of conflagration Jesus prophesied, let us commit ourselves to the attitude of heart and life He commanded.

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A billboard reading "One Nation Indivisible" that was recently erected in Charlotte, North Carolina, displayed an additional message on Monday, June 28. Someone had added the words "Under God" in blue paint, along with an arrow indicating where the omitted words should have appeared in the Pledge of Allegiance quotation.¹

The boards are part of an Independence Day project by the Charlotte atheist association. Similar ads have appeared in other United States cities, and this is not the only one that has been vandalized.

Three of ten atheist billboards erected in Sacramento, California, were defaced in February. One board read, "Are you good without God? Millions are," to which the words "also lost?" were added in black paint.²

A series of bus ads in Detroit, Michigan, were also hit around the same time. Messages that read "Don’t believe in God? You are not alone" had the "Don’t" ripped off or scratched out.³

While vandalism should not be condoned, these recent events shed light on what some Americans will do when they feel that their freedom of speech is threatened. An atheist spokesman in North Carolina said their message is needed to "let people know we exist and that there’s a community here."¹

Yet he failed to mention the concerted effort of atheist groups to stop religious Americans from freely exercising their religion.⁴ Not content with having the freedom themselves to worship or not as they see fit, militant atheists increasingly seek to shackle the beliefs of their fellow citizens through their own distorted interpretation of "separation of church and state."⁵

It is perhaps not surprising that some of those fellow citizens object.

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There are several important and very specific words used in this commandment. An expanded translation could well be, "Do not purposely intend to injure or plan to deceive others by repeating a damaging report about one with whom you have established a relationship."

The very idea of a lie originated with the great enemy, Satan (John 8:44; 1 John 2:21), no doubt rendering the lying tongue an abomination to God (Proverbs 6:17-19; 12:22).

The willing false witness will not escape punishment (Proverbs 19:5, 9). Indeed, such a person may die prematurely (Acts 5:4-10).

Untruth is not overlooked by God. In fact, those who are "liars" by practice will likely wind up in hell (Revelation 21:8, 27; 22:15).

While the focus of this commandment prohibits a "formal" false witness against someone – which would result in damage to their person, property, or reputation – the biblical applications are many and varied. Our holy God hates a false witness.

So-called "half truths" are not godly, either.

Flattery and hypocrisy are wrong (Psalm 12:1-3; Proverbs 29:5), as are malicious joking and jesting (Proverbs 26:18-19; Ephesians 5:4). Even deceptive refusals are considered ungodly behavior (Proverbs 3:27-29; 1 John 3:17-18). And, of course, slander, gossip, and "tale bearing" are wrong (Psalm 101:5).

Those who name the name of Jesus Christ are, simply, to speak the truth (Ephesians 4:25), render sound judgment (1 Corinthians 6:1-5), and not to enter into a plot to do evil (Zechariah 7:9-10; Romans 12:9, 17, 21).

The Christian’s "yes" and "no" are to be precise and accurate (James 5:12).

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The word "worship" is used frequently today in Christian circles – in addition to worship services, we now have worship choruses, worship teams, worship manuals, worship seminars, etc. Often, however, the basic meaning of worship is misunderstood as exampled by these instances.

In the original Hebrew and Greek, the respective words translated "worship" simply means to "bow down!" The Hebrew is so translated the first time it is used. When Abraham saw God and two angels approaching, "he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground" (Genesis 18:2). That is, he recognized God’s "worthy-ship" and was submitting himself to do His will!

The last time "worship" is used is when John "fell down to worship before the feet of the angel." He was corrected by the angel with these words:

"See thou do it not: . . . worship God" (Revelation 22:8-9).

Only God, our Creator and Savior, is worthy of true worship, and that worship involves simply bowing down in submission to do His will.

That is why it must be "in spirit and in truth." Our spirit must submit to God who is Spirit and this can only be in truth. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus concerning the Spirit whom He would send to indwell His followers:

"when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: . . . He shall glorify me" (John 16:13-14).

He would do this by revealing God’s Word to the writers of the New Testament, just as He had for the Old (II Peter 1:21). In His prayer to the Father, recorded by John, Christ prayed for us, saying,

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17).

True worship has more to do with our submitting to and doing God’s will as made known by His written Word and the guidance of His Holy Spirit, and less to do with musically induced emotional and physical responses to our Great God and Lord, Jesus Christ – the Son of God.

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A rare 2,000-year-old ritual vessel made of limestone and inscribed with 10 lines of text has been discovered in an excavation near the Zion Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is an unprecedented find, according to Dr. Shimon Gibson, the archaeologist who heads the University of North Carolina team conducting the dig.

“Such stone vessels were used in connection with maintaining ritual purity related to Temple worship, and they are found in abundance in areas where the priests lived,” Gibson reported. “We have found a dozen or more on our site over the past three years. However, to have ten lines of text is unprecedented. One normally might find a single name inscribed, or a line or two, but this is the first text of this length ever found on such a vessel,” he said.

Although the letters are clearly visible it will take some time before their meaning can be discerned due to the style of the writing. Gibson estimated in his preliminary report that it could take up to six months to translate the inscription. “It is written in a very informal cursive hand and is quite difficult to read,” he explained.

Initially, Gibson thought the inscription was written solely in Aramaic. However, a group of experts consulting on the matter was not convinced; they say there is a possibility that the text contains the sacred name of G-d and is deliberately cryptic.

“Stephen Pfann, of the University of the Holy Land, is leaving open the possibility that it is Hebrew. He has also suggested that the text might have had meaning within a closed circle of priests, similar to texts at Qumran,” said Dr. James D. Tabor, co-director of the dig.

The excavations, which lasted several months, were carried out under the auspices of the Jerusalem branch of the Nature and Parks Authority.

At least 30 people per week “sacrificed their own money, time, and hard labor to advance this important effort,” according to Gibson, who said the results “have been simply astounding, the finds quite spectacular, and the whole area has been transformed.”

He added that the excavation site was in ancient times “precisely at the center of Herodian/2nd Temple Jerusalem…we have extraordinarily well preserved ruins from the 2nd Temple period, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE.”

It is that terrible holocaust that is commemorated, as well as the destruction of the First Temple, on the Fast of Tisha B’Av.

Excavations began on June 14, in the same site where previous archaeologists had probed the earth searching for clues to Israel’s history in the 1970s.

This time around, structures from the First and Second Temple periods were discovered, including a mikvah (ritual pool) left almost completely intact, a vault, and a room with two ovens. Buildings from the Byzantine and early Islamic periods were also uncovered, as well multiple coins, intact lamps, ceramic and glass vessels, bits of jewelry and similar items.

Also uncovered were at least half a dozen Murex snail shells with holes drilled through them. “Prior to our excavation one or two such shells had been found in all of Jerusalem,” Gibson said. “That so many would be found at our site further supports our supposition that we are in a priestly residential area.”

Murex snails were cultivated in ancient times at sites along the Mediterranean Sea, and a royal blue dye was extracted from them. “According to some experts this blue color was used for the priestly garments, as well as the tzitzit or threaded tassels worn by all pious Jews of the period,” he explained in his report, referring to the Biblical tekhelet — the thread of blue that G-d commanded male Jews to include in the ritual fringes on the corners of their garments.

“Speak to the Children of Israel and bid them that they make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of each corner a thread of blue (tekhelet). And it shall be for you as a fringe, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of G-d, and do them…” (Numbers 15:38-15:39)

Such fringes are worn by observant Jews to this day, although in most of them, the thread of blue is no longer included, since the precise technology for making the dye has been lost. However, in recent times rabbis have overseen a modern recreation of the tekhelet technique and some Jews have begun using tekhelet in their fringes again.

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There are some prayers that God hates, strange as that may seem. In fact, prayers can even "become sin" when uttered by the man or woman practicing wickedness that is easily seen by God:

“When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.” Psalm 109:7

When one who has deliberately "turned away his ear" from the Word of God (preferring his own way to God’s revealed will as found in His Word) attempts to ask God for blessing or direction, his prayer becomes presumption. God hates such prayers, and those who pray them should not be surprised when He does not give them their request.

"Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear" (Isaiah 59:1-2).

No Christian is sinless, of course – unless, he proclaims purity as the wicked does:

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves" (1 John 1:8).

The obvious remedy is to ask the Lord, through His Word, to "see if there be any wicked way in me" (Psalm 139:24), and then to confess and forsake any sin so revealed and known.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

Then, having been cleansed from our unrighteousness, we are again made righteous, not only through Christ’s imputed righteousness, but also in righteous, daily living. In this light, it is the prayer of the Righteous Christian that is heard and approved of by the Living God, Jesus Christ – then the gracious promises of answered prayer can again become wholly effective, for "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16).

How vital it is to know and obey the Word of God? Without repentance toward the Christ and receiving His gift of salvation through forgiveness – is a matter of one’s eternal life or death! How dangerous it is to turn our ears away from Him? God will not be mocked for long!

"For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil" (1 Peter 3:12).

Editorial Note: Adapted from a devotional from ICR.org – In his original devotional, Dr. Henry Morris mistakenly attributed the prayer of Psalm 109:7 to the believer when in fact, it should have been directed toward those who are controlled by Satan. (see Psalm 109:6)

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This heartbroken lament, uttered by Jeremiah, the "weeping prophet," personifies the devastated city of Jerusalem after the Babylonian invasion. She who had been "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, . . . the city of the great King" (Psalm 48:2), now lay in ruins, and neither the triumphant armies who had ravished her nor the careless peoples living around her cared at all that this was the city of God being chastised for her unfaithfulness.

Many Christians have, at times, felt alone and confused, longing for someone who would care, saying with the psalmist:

"There was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul" (Psalm 142:4).

But no one has ever been so alone or has suffered so intensely and so unjustly as the one who was the very "man of sorrows" (Isaiah 53:3). Jesus Christ was "smitten of God, and afflicted" in the day of God’s fierce anger, for "the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:4,6).

Just as there were those who passed by suffering Jerusalem, some gloating and others unconcerned, so there were those who passed by and viewed the suffering Savior as He hung on the cross.

"And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads" (Matthew 27:39).

There are multitudes who still pass Him by today. Some revile Him; many ignore Him, altogether uncaring that He loved them and even died to save them. Soon, however, "every eye shall see Him, . . . and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him" (Revelation 1:7).

Their indifference will be turned quickly into mourning in that day. "Is it nothing to you?" the Lord would ask.

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“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

55 years ago, one of our nation’s greatest warriors, General George S. Patton – was summarily “relieved of duty” for openly criticizing decisions made by then Presidents Roosevelt during World War II and Truman at war’s end.

Many of the controversial opinions Patton expressed were common (if not exactly popular) at the time and his outspoken opposition to post-surrender denazification is still widely debated today. Many still laud his generous treatment of his former German enemies and his early recognition of the Soviet threat to occupied eastern Europe; and his belief that the greater enemy was the Russians, not the defeated Germans.

History proved Patton correct as Russia challenged the United States to an “arms race”, divided Europe with an “iron curtain” and now, six decades later – contributing to instability in the middle east by providing anti-Israel Islamic ruled countries such as Iran and Syria with military and economic provision.

Patton found himself once again in trouble with his superiors and the American people.

While speaking to a group of reporters, he compared the Nazis to losers in American political elections, and that being a Nazi in Germany was, "like being a Democrat in the States."

Patton was soon relieved of command of Third Army and transferred to the Fifteenth Army, a paper command preparing a history of the war and eventually, into obscurity.

U.S. President Barack Obama – a compatriot of Roosevelt and a fellow democrat, fired yet another outspoken warrior – General Stanley McChrystal, over disparaging remarks recently in a Rolling Stone magazine article. His comments were, at least, an indirect challenge to civilian management of the war in Washington by its top military commander. McChrystal’s firing was Obama’s second termination of a top ranking U.S. General in less than two years.

“Military leaders rarely challenge their commander in chief publicly, and, when they do, consequences tend to be more severe than a scolding.” – Fox News Network

The firing of General McChrystal by a socialist leaning President Obama and the demotion of General Patton 55 years earlier by a socialist President Roosevelt has an obscure common denominator; Russia.

Ignoring General Patton’s warnings about Russian aggression, our political leaders where forced into a “cold war’ build up of arms with them. Believing we drove them economically into the ground by our military and economic superiority, the liberal media began its proliferation of the airwaves with false reports that the Russian bear was finally dead.

But the weakened Russian bear did not withdraw just to die. She regrouped and reorganized.

The Russian political machine seems to understand American politics better than most Americans do. American citizens, lulled into a sense of safety by the lies of a liberal media, have fallen hook, line and sinker for the oldest trick in the book; the “wounded bear trick.” Withdrawing from eastern Europe, downsizing its influence over satellite countries and concentrating its resources in a streamlined form of government – Russia has reemerged as a significant force in the one place the United States believed it controlled exclusively – the resource rich Middle East.

Is it possible that recently fired General McChrystal knows something is amiss – thus becoming as vocal as his contemporary General Patton was decades earlier?

When seasoned, hardcore Generals of the regular United States Army – publicly interject their objections about their Commander-in-Chief’s ability to run a war; they do so knowing their days of military service are numbered. You do not obtain the rank of General by being a “loose cannon”; unable to show discipline and rank allegiance to your superiors.

From a Christian perspective; this latest debacle should cause the church stand up and take notice. Many end-times prophecy teachers point to Russia’s continued influence in the middle east – and its military support of the Islamic nations of Syria and Iran – two countries publicly demanding outright destruction of Israel and the permanent elimination of the Jewish people from off the face of the earth.

Even reformers are perplexed by the exponential increase in cataclysmic events; earthquakes, distress of nations, wars, rumors of wars, hurricanes, economic collapse, celestial threats, sexually transmitted disease, increased famine and even the Gulf of Mexico debacle – and remain hard pressed to explain a world that is becoming more violent and amoral by the day.

America has already reached its glorious apex and is now on a downward spiral into worldwide obscurity. It’s political leadership is in profound disarray, its economy bankrupt and now – we are alienating ourselves from the one nation and people most needing our help – Israel’s Jews.

No where in the Holy Scriptures does God ordain the United States of America as his clarion light to the rest of the world. That responsibility belongs to the true Church alone – the body of Jesus Christ, of which He alone is the Head.

Today’s firing of General McChrystal is a sure indicator that our nation’s leadership has lost its sensibilities and direction as a nation. Even more pressing is this question, “Is the Christian church listening to its Captain?”

And, what of the American Christian? We should be less concerned (and consumed) with saving our homes and resources and more concerned with seeing the lost receive the Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ – while there remains a little daylight. The dark of night is upon our nation and indeed, the whole world.

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Romans 13:11-14

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This is the last of eleven occurrences of "the truth" in Paul’s two letters to Timothy. He was not writing about the importance of being truthful in general, but about a specific body of factual information concerning Jesus Christ and its vital importance. Thus "the truth" was a very important theme in both of Paul’s letters to this young evangel teacher –and, by implication, to all God called evangels.

Paul first speaks of "the knowledge of the truth" as required for salvation (1 Timothy 2:4), then of his own teaching as "the truth in Christ" (1 Timothy 2:7), then of "the church of the living God" as "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), and of Christians as those who "believe and know the truth" (1 Timothy 4:3). He stresses the importance of studying the Bible as "the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15), and also that true repentance requires "the acknowledging of the truth" (2 Timothy 2:25).

Paul also warns of false and covetous teachers who are "destitute of the truth" (1 Timothy 6:5) and who therefore "concerning the truth have erred" (2 Timothy 2:18). There will even be false prophets who "resist the truth" and are "reprobate concerning the faith" (2 Timothy 3:8).

As a result of the teachings of these false teachers, there will be many so-called seekers of truth who are "ever learning" yet who seem "never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7). The reason they never find the truth is because they "turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (2 Timothy 4:4).

The fact is that Jesus said: "I am . . . the truth" and also that "thy word is truth" (John 14:6; 17:17). For any who would say with Pilate, "What is truth?" (John 18:38), there is the definitive answer!

(edited from original)

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Paul’s great ambition was to please his Lord and Savior. In our text, the Greek for "accepted" often also is translated "well-pleasing," and this is the real meaning of the word. Since this also is the great desire of every sincere Christian, let us look at a few of those passages where the Lord tells us specifically how we can please Him.

Consider, for example:

"But to do good and to communicate |i.e., to ‘share what you have with others’| forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased" (Hebrews 13:16; see also Philippians 4:18).

There is a special admonition to children:

"Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord" (Colossians 3:20).

For adults:

"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please |same root word| him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" (2 Timothy 2:3-4).

The same word appears in Romans 12:1-2, translated twice as "acceptable." Paul urges us to present our bodies as living sacrifices, "holy, acceptable unto God," being "not conformed to this world," but transformed by a renewed mind, thereby to prove "that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

The common thread in these and other such passages is that, in order to be pleasing to the Lord, we must be good stewards of all our possessions and all our days, serving Him totally.

"For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable |i.e., ‘well-pleasing’| to God" (Romans 14:18).

This is our reasonable service, and it will be abundantly repaid if we hear Him say in that day:

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21).

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This commandment’s obvious application is for marital fidelity. God created one man and one woman for that man (Genesis 1:26; 2:18; 1 Corinthians 11:9).

Adam recognized the sanctity of marriage (Genesis 2:23-25). Christ verified and reaffirmed this fidelity (Matthew 5:27; 19:4-6). Adultery "murders" a marriage and was punished with the death penalty (Leviticus 20:10).

The Bible also gives several parallel restrictions. Pre-marital sex is forbidden (Deuteronomy 22:20-21; 1 Corinthians 6:13-18), as is the practice of prostitution (Leviticus 19:29). The perversion of homosexuality is forbidden (Deuteronomy 23:17-18), as was the practice of religious sexual rites (Hosea 4:12-14).

The purpose of these social restrictions in the Mosaic Law is to set a clear and visible distinction between God’s people and the rest of the nations. God abhorred such behavior (Leviticus 20:23) because these sins defiled the land (Leviticus 18:24-28). Perhaps even more damning than the physical sins was the false worship of other gods (Jeremiah 3:20).

The Lord Jesus clearly equated lust and adultery (Matthew 5:28), noting that the heart is the source of all evil actions (Matthew 15:19). In fact, in the New Testament, any worldly association is whoredom and such friendship is enmity with God (James 4:4).

Unfortunately, we are surrounded by an overt promotion of such behavior, enticing all to engage freely. It is distributed to us through books, movies, TV, Internet, music, fashion, and associations.

Surely, it is clear that the Christian must conform to biblical standards, not the world’s tolerance or permission (1 John 2:15-17).

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This seems like a strange testimony. Affliction is often accompanied by complaining or discouragement, but seldom by a statement of satisfaction and thankfulness, such as in our text for today.

Nevertheless, in terms of the long-range goal of character development, afflictions are often good for us, helping to make us more Christ-like, and preparing us for our ministry of service to Him in the age to come (Revelation 22:3), if only we profit from them and submit to them as we should.

"Before I was afflicted I went astray," testifies the psalmist, "but now have I kept thy word. . . . This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me" (Psalm 119:67, 50).

Such testimonies have been echoed innumerable times throughout the centuries, as godly men and women have drawn closer to the Lord through His comforting Word during times of affliction than they ever were during times of ease.

In fact, afflictions often draw even the unsaved to the Lord. They would never come when things are going well, but many do come when, in times of sorrow or rejection, they are forced to the end of their resources. It is then that:

"godly sorrow |literally, ‘sorrow from God’| worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of" (2 Corinthians 7:10).

As for those instances when God’s people suffered in ancient times, it was said:

"In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them" (Isaiah 63:9).

Although no such affliction "for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby" (Hebrews 12:11).

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This promise in our text is followed in a later Pauline epistle by two nuanced commands in the letter to the church at Galatia.

"This I say then," Paul says, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). Then again, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).

Although they appear to be the same command in English, there is a significant distinction in the original Greek language in which Paul penned the letters.

Both the Romans 8:1 and the Galatians 5:16 passages use the word perepeto, which carries the connotation to "walk around" and to "be at liberty."

The second iteration in Galatians 5:25 uses stoicheo, which means to "step precisely," to "march," or to "go in procession." Same command, but different emphasis.

The context of Galatians 5 stresses the difference between a lifestyle of fleshly behavior and a life controlled by the Holy Spirit.

The "fruits" of the flesh and the "fruit" of the Spirit are diametrically opposed. They cannot exist together; they are not harmonious (Romans 8:5-8). We either "mind" the things of the flesh or the "things of the Spirit" (Romans 8:5).

The Christian walk has great liberty (Romans 8:21), but that liberty must "step precisely" in honesty (Romans 13:13), good works (Ephesians 2:10), and in truth (2 John 4-6).

Our walk is expected to be by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7) and we are to conduct a spiritual warfare in the Holy Spirit’s power (2 Corinthians 10:3-5) protected by the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). HMM III

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The timing is perfect,” said Amir Gissin, Israel’s consul general in Toronto. “Today Canada is a very close friend of Israel, with both a friendly government and opposition; we just had the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, in Israel.” McGuinty’s visit focused on increasing trade with Israel but also included a meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

The enthusiastic welcome expected in Canada will give Prime Minister Netanyahu a positive send-off for his quick visit to U.S. President Barack Obama later in the week and in the wake of the American President’s departure from a 40-year U.S. policy not to pressure Israel to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s planned participation in the march has thrilled the country’s Jewish community, and B’nai Brith Canada is publishing full-page national advertisements thanking Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his support for Israel. The ads also call on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to ensure that Jerusalem remains the eternal undivided capital of the Jewish State.

Frank Dimant, B’nai Brith Canada’s Executive Vice President, noted “the pressure being applied by the Obama Administration on Prime Minister Netanyahu to make concessions to the divided and uncompromising Palestinian factions….The Israeli Prime Minister will be heading to a meeting with President Obama right after his trip to Canada, so it is important that he understands that his position for a united Jerusalem is supported by Jews around the world.”

Shimon Fogel, chief executive officer of the Canada-Israel Committee, stated, “Iran represents the most pressing threat to global security today. The international community cannot allow itself to be distracted from addressing the threat Iran represents, not just to Israel or to regional stability – but in a very real sense to Canada and Canadians both at home and abroad.”

The Canadian Conservative government has been a staunch supporter of Israel since taking office in 2006. “I welcome the opportunity to spend time with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a leader of vision and conviction and a great friend of Israel and a champion of peace,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said before arriving Friday for a four-day visit. “The friendship between Israel and Canada is exceptionally warm. We are sister democracies that seek peace with security, progress and prosperity.”

“What Netanyahu is trying to do is cement the base,” said Dr, David Bercuson, the director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary and author of Canada and the Birth of Israel. The Al Jazeera satellite network quoted him as saying, “The Israeli diplomatic position is deteriorating and he’s trying to keep the stalwarts in place.”

Canada was the first country in the world to boycott the de facto Hamas government in Gaza in 2006 when it forced out the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in a militia coup. “Not a red cent to Hamas,” said then-Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay.

Canada also stood four-square behind Israel’s retaliatory actions in the 2006 Second Lebanon War. “I think Israel’s response under the circumstances has been measured,” Prime Minister Harper said at the time. He called Hizbullah and Hamas “genocidal.”

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Israel’s Foreign Ministry (MFA) has prepared a “counter-attack” to the flotilla of anti-Israel “humanitarian” ships scheduled to arrive in Gaza later this week: a detailed account and list of aid Israel provides Gaza. Israel’s proposed blockade is internationally justified, given the state of armed conflict in effect between Israel and Hamas.

The article on the MFA website, entitled “Behind the Headlines: The Israeli humanitarian lifeline to Gaza,” begins with this introduction: “Despite attacks by Hamas, Israel maintains an ongoing humanitarian corridor for the transfer of food and humanitarian supplies to Gaza, used by internationally recognized organizations including the United Nations and the Red Cross.”

Well over a million tons of humanitarian supplies entered Gaza from Israel over the last 18 months, equaling nearly a ton of aid for every man, woman and child in Gaza. International food aid worth millions of dollars continually flows through the Israeli humanitarian apparatus, ensuring that there is no food shortage in Gaza.

The list of Israeli aid to Gaza is so impressive that the question has been asked why Israel is doing so much for an entity with which it is in a state of armed conflict. The question is made more acute in view of the promises the Israeli government made regarding “total separation” in order to make the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza more palatable to the Israeli public.

Large quantities of essential food items like baby formula, wheat, meat, dairy products and other perishables are transferred daily and weekly to Gaza. Fertilizers that cannot be used to make explosives are shipped into the Strip regularly, as are potato seeds, eggs for reproduction, bees, and flower industry equipment.

Photos in local newspapers show local markets aplenty with fruit, vegetables, cheese, spices, bread and meat.

In the first quarter of 2010, 94,500 tons of supplies were transferred in 3,676 trucks to the Strip: 48,000 tons of food products; 40,000 tons of wheat; 2,760 tons of rice; 1,987 tons of clothes and footwear; 553 tons of milk powder and baby food.

At holiday times, Israel increases transfers. During the Muslim holy days of Ramadan and Eid al-Adha, Israel shipped some 11,000 heads of cattle into the Strip.

No Palestinian is denied medical care in Israel. However, if the Hamas regime does not grant permits for medical care, the Israeli government can do nothing to help the patient. Israel will facilitate all cases of medical treatments from Gaza, unless the patient is a known perpetrator of terrorism.

Since 2005, Palestinians exploited medical care arrangements more than 20 times to carry out terror attacks.

While the import of cement and iron has been restricted into Gaza because they are used by Hamas to cast rockets and bunkers, monitored imports of truckloads of cement, iron, and building supplies such as wood and windows are regularly coordinated with international parties. In the first quarter of 2010, 23 tons of iron and 25 tons of cement were transferred to the Gaza Strip.

On May 13 of this year, Israel allowed approximately 39 tons of building material into Gaza to help rebuild a damaged hospital.

The UN report of May 2010 states that while 10% of Gaza’s electricity comes from Egypt and 18% is home-made, nearly 3/4 of Gaza’s electricity needs – 72% – is supplied by Israel. Since January 2010, the supply of electricity has deteriorated because the Hamas regime is unwilling to purchase the fuel to run the Gaza City power station.

Israel transferred 41 trucks of equipment in 2009 for the maintenance of Gaza’s electricity grid.

In 2009, 127 trucks containing more than 3,000 tons of hypochlorite entered the Gaza Strip for water purification purposes, with Israel-UN coordination.

The U.S., Israel, Canada, and the EU have frozen funds to the PA Hamas government since 2006, recognizing it as a terror organization. Israel has taken measures to support trade and commerce, the banking system, and the existing financial market in the Gaza Strip.

During 2009, 7.5 million tons of flowers and 54 tons of strawberries were exported from Gaza with Israeli cooperation.

In 2009, 1.1 billion shekels (close to $300 million) were transferred to Gaza for the ongoing activity of international organizations and to pay the salaries of PA workers. 40 million damaged bank notes were traded for new bills, and at the request of the Palestinian Monetary Fund, 282.5 million shekels were transferred from Gazan to Israeli banks.

Israel transfers school equipment supplied by UNRWA including school bags, writing implements and textbooks. Israel is currently coordinating the transfer of 200,000 laptops for Gaza children and the shipment of 74 maritime containers for conversion into Gaza classrooms.

In the first quarter of 2010, Israel transferred 250 trucks with equipment for the UNWRA summer camp, including arts-and-crafts equipment, swimming pools, inflatable toys, ice cream machines, musical instruments, clothing, sports equipment.

About 20% of the population in Gaza owns a personal computer, more than in Portugal, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Russia. They have access to ADSL and dial-up Internet service, provided by one of four providers. About 70% of Gazans own a TV and radio and have access to satellite TV or broadcast TV from the PA or Israel. Gaza has well-developed telephone landlines, and extensive mobile telephone services. 81% of households in Gaza have access to a cell phone.

Despite the inherent dangers involved, Israel permits Gazans and visitors to travel between Gaza and Israel, from Gaza to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), and even abroad for medical treatment, religious pilgrimages, and business trips.

In addition to medical travel, 21,200 activists from international organizations and over 400 diplomatic delegations were permitted entry into Gaza.

National Post correspondent Tom Gross revealed this week that the Gaza Strip is actually not as impoverished as is commonly believed. “Western journalists refuse to report on this because it doesn’t fit with the simplistic story they were sent to write,” he notes. He reported specifically on a new Olympic-size swimming pool recently built in a Gaza town, something that “most Israeli towns don’t have,” and on a popular Gaza City restaurant serving gourmet meals and whose owner says business is booming.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: THE LIES ABOUT GAZA CONTINUE – IT’S TIME TO PUT A STOP TO IT, AND THANK ISRAEL FOR ALL IT IS DOING IN SPITE OF ALL THE CRITICISM – WHICH IS FULLY UNJUSTIFIED!)

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One of Paul’s major messages to his young disciple Timothy was to strive for purity in every area of his life.

Compromise and impurity were not to be glossed over; they were to be vigorously opposed.

Concerning purity in doctrine, Paul charged:

"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (II Timothy 2:15).

He was to "charge" his followers not to wrangle over trivial issues, and not to listen to false teaching (v.14). They were to "shun" vulgar and empty talk, knowing that such will only lead to more impurity and doubt (vv.16-18). Furthermore, he was to actively "oppose" those who taught or lived by any other code, doing everything possible to "recover" those ensnared by satanic lies (vv.25-26).

A prerequisite for an effective battle for purity in doctrine is purity in character. A Christian leader must be prepared for the work. "If a man therefore purge himself from these |i.e., false teaching, practices, and attitudes|, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work" (v.21).

Finally, a Christian leader must have proper and pure relationships with both those who are under his influence and those who must be opposed. "The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves" (vv.24-25).

This is a difficult task, but as in our text, our foundation is sure, and we are known fully by the one who leads and empowers us in the work ahead.

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