Stand with Israel...

I just got an email from Liberty Counsel asking for help and for my signature on a letter of solidarity with our ally Israel; if you already signed it, good; if not, I dare you to do it.  Here is the invitation:

Dear Friend,

I have signed a letter of support for the Nation of Israel which will be delivered to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Ambassador Susan Rice, and members of Congress.
which will be hand delivered.

 In light of the current Middle East chaos and our current government's failed foreign policies, this letter issues an unwavering statement of support for Israel.

I encourage you to join me in this cause. Simply go here to sign the letter:

http://www.libertyaction.org/370/petition.asp?PID=37543871&NID=1

God bless you!



http://makariotes.blogspot.com

You have a purpose.....

“Since the finite creation through its whole range exists as a medium through which God manifests His glory, and since it is absolutely dependent on Him, it of itself could originate no conditions which would limit or defeat the manifestation of that glory. From all eternity God has purposed to do just exactly what He is doing.” Lorraine Boettner.

In other words: Nothing escapes God's attention, nothing moves or breathes without God's hand moving to make it happen, in the midst of the billions and billions of grains of sand on the beaches of this earth, not a single one moves without His all seeing power behind it, in all the billions and trillions, and infinite-illions of stars in the universe, and the countless atoms that form everything in the created order, not a single one is missing and it is in the exact position in which God intended it to be; from eternity past to eternity future.  You are reading this because He wants you to know it.

My faith tells me it's true, and my daily experience confirms it is true, God reigns just as He says He does.  The bible says that God directs the hearts of men as if they were rivers of water, He directs them in whatever way He wants, just as He did on election day; in the book of Daniel says that to YHWH all the inhabitants of this earth are as a drop in a bucket, as the dust on the scales, counted as nothing, and that He reigns over the armies of heaven and earth, and no one can stay His hand, or ask Him "what are you doing?".

Sometimes things happen in this world that affect our lives directly, as is the case of this past Tuesday; and the only way to not get discouraged or depressed, the only way to continue to trust in God's omnipotence and divine providence, is to get a massive dose of God's sovereignty; I need to inject it right into my brain.

Last night God reminded me of Romans 9, read it and you will know exactly what I'm thinking about; but it says there that the reason why Pharaoh was raised up into power was just so that God's awesome power and glory would be manifested, and that all the earth would know about it; all the earth knew it in fact, and God, the Great YHWH, is famous because of that one event.

God is even more famous now; the apex of the glory of His grace, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus about two thousand years ago, split time in two; now every single human being acknowledges that event when they look at the calendar or write the date down; the fact that all the earth knows that today is November 09 of the year 2012, demonstrates that God is sovereign. 

His awesome power and glory will shine again when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.  I am a witness of the events that are setting the stage for Jesus awesome and grand return, you are also a witness of that fact.

But I am a witness also of God's glorious grace and mercy; He has delivered me from the darkness of this world, my eyes have been opened, my heart of stone has been replaced with a heart of flesh, and God's love has been shed abroad in it through His Spirit that seals me unto the day of redemption; you and I have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise and nothing can separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus.  We are walking miracles of His grace in action.

You and I have been predestinated to become sons and daughters of the Almighty King of Heaven and earth; He created us for such a time like this.  You and I were born and raised exactly in the place and time of His choosing; He gave us the parents He chose, the brothers and sisters He chose, He has given us the children He chose (if you have kids); He determined beforehand what kind of lifestyle we would lead, what kind of experiences we would go through; and at the appointed time, He called us out of the darkness and translated us into the kingdom of light of His dear Son.

All the people in our lives have been predestined to be in our lives; we live in a country, a state, a county, a city, a neighbourhood and a street address that He has chosen for us; even when we think that we have made all those decisions, we haven't.  We have a certain amount of money and a very specific job He has placed us in, all without us giving Him any help.

Every day we can see how He turns this earth so that we can see the light of the sun, every night He displays His handiwork for all to see and be in awe of Him; every single night we close our eyes and go to sleep and He takes care of waking us up in the morning.  The whole earth is full of His glory.  The animal kingdom gets its daily sustenance without Him breaking into sweat; God is full of mercy and grace for His creatures.  He blows my mind.

While we remain in this world we have a mission, a purpose, we are part of the grand design of the God who reigns over all; so be strong, and be courageous; you cannot fail; walk in His ways and love people with the love of Jesus, stand in the gap for those who are being delivered to the slaughter, fight on your knees, and be satisfied in God above all things; He is most glorified we we are.

Remember your chief end: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Have a nice day, and be blessed.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

How do I love?

Last time I asked the question, how do you decide whom to love?  And as I was thinking about it, God reminded me that I already know the answer to it.   I'm supposed to love God first, then my neighbor as myself, period, there is no decision to be made.  It is not any more complicated than that; the hard part is embracing the idea that I need to, no, I have to, love others; and the hardest part of that is figuring out how to do it.  The thing about it is that there is nothing to be figured out; it is something you just do.

Jesus said this in Luke 6:35  'But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil'.

Ok, the way I read that, is that it is a direct commandment to love even my enemies, to do good, and lend.  Really?  Is it not a suggestion?  Or a 'would be nice if you do' kind of a thing?  Nope, it is a command, to love your enemies.  That's hard.  It is not hard, it is impossible.

Yeah, it is election day, election night by now, and I am over here pounding on this keyboard trying to take the issue apart; I should be glued to the T.V. watching the media coverage just like at least half of this country is doing right now, and trying to figure out how the electoral college works; but no, I had to debate with myself as to what is the best way to put into practice what I have already been gifted with.  So I warn you, this might turn into a long post (ok, maybe not) since I don't have cable and I don't watch T.V., which in a way is a blessing. I think Obama is going to be re-elected anyway and this is more important to me right now.

Anyway, so how do I love others the way Jesus commands me to do it?  You read the verse above, it is clearly a commandment to be obeyed, isn't it?  But in order to put this reasoning of mine into perspective I need to add the whole context of Jesus' words; so here it is:


Luke 6:26-49  "Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
"But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.
Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.
And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
"If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
"Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;  give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you."
He also told them a parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?
A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.
"For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn-bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?
Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."

There is no possible way that I could talk about every single verse in the passage above, but one thing becomes obvious to me right away; if everybody speaks well about you then something is wrong, but in a way it is impossible to know what others say or think about you. Then Jesus says "but I say to those of you who hear"; it reminds me of the other many times that He said "he whom has ears to hear, let him hear"; this obviously refers to those who are able to "hear" His words, and that means the ones who have been born again, the righteous, the saints; you, and I.  I know this because later He says, 'even sinners do the same'; which of course indicates that those who "hear" are not in the same group as the "sinners".

Those who hear are the same people in John 6:44-45  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me-- .  Do you see that?

Then all these action words come in rapid succession: love, do good, bless, pray, offer, wish, do, lend, be merciful, forgive, give. And in the negative; 'condemn not', 'judge not', 'expect nothing'.  Of course it takes to be God in human flesh to be able to put all those words in such a beautiful way; and to pack such a great self-sacrifice in such a short paragraph.  Are you seeing what I am seeing here?  I hope so.

The way of love is the way of the Son of God, it is God's way; and it is God's love that has to be practiced; this is why I said that it is impossible to do it, because I can't do it on my own strength, I need God to love through me, His way.

To love is to do good, with thoughts and actions; it is to bless others by the way I speak about people and to people; to love is to pray for them, even when I don't want to, to pray that God would open their eyes to see His beauty and His majesty, His grace and mercy, and His love demonstrated by Jesus dying on the cross; to love is to offer myself first to God as a living sacrifice, and then to others to help them, to comfort them, to be the shoulder on which they can cry and lean on; to love is to do good as He did good at every possible opportunity, it is to lend not only my money but my mind and heart, my words, my thoughts, my ears, my hands and my attention; it is to be merciful, putting myself in the shoes of those who suffer and who are sad, and depressed about their lives and their losses; yeah, to love is to forgive those who have hurt me, either in  real or imaginary ways and to remember that I have received more mercy than I have ever deserved; to love the way Jesus says to love is to condemn not, to judge not, and when needed, to judge with righteous judgement; and my friend, to love His way is above all, to expect nothing in return, ever; knowing that in Him I own all things and that my reward is already great in living one more day on this earth.

Oh how I want to love the way Jesus loves me; how I pray that He will be pleased when I do it!

This is my challenge and I pose it to you the same way, to love is a one way road; a narrow and straight road that ends at the foot of the cross of Jesus; stay on it.

Have a nice day tomorrow, and be blessed.


http://makariotes.blogspot.com

From politics to immortality.....

I had a conversation with a young man yesterday, which ended in total frustration; what made it worse was the fact that the young man in question is my daughter's boyfriend; I really thought he was brighter, or I should say smarter, but it turned out that he is being deceived, along with thousands of other young men and women around this beautiful country.

I almost exploded when to the question: you think the government should be bigger?.....he responded: 'well, yeah, of course'.  Say what?  We should have a bigger government?  My, oh my.

I know, it is all my fault for instigating the conversation; and like a fool, I ignored my daughter's warnings; but hey, when someone thinks and believes that Qaddafi, or however you spell his name, is the president of Saudi Arabia, then you know the guy is pretty misinformed.

The cuspid of irritation came when I asked if the loss of billions of dollars of tax-payer's money, (your money, his money, my money), caused by the government investing in "renewable energy" companies bothered him; he responded that it was actually a good thing because it generated research in new technologies.  The waste of billions of dollars is a good thing when is done in "research" for new batteries; it is laughable.

He is also against "big businesses" like Walmart; gee, he sounded just like the dudes from "occupy Wall Street", I was dumbfounded, he went on to explain how big businesses like Walmart force the little guy to close its doors, and of course he blamed Bush for that, I'm serious, he did.

Like I said, it is my fault for asking if he was going to vote on Tuesday (he said the election was already decided); who am I to ask something like that?  It is almost like asking: are you going poo tomorrow?  It is a private thing you know.

It really bothers me, it bothers me so much that I haven't stopped praying for him; it is obvious he voted for Obama 4 years ago; what a shame.  I ended the conversation by saying goodbye, closing my garage door, and reminding him how screwed he will be when the full impact of Obamacare hits him on the face next year; that is all I could do....the last words I heard were from my daughter: I love you Dad.

Apart from that, nothing has changed, really.  I am still satisfied with knowing that God is still on the throne and He reigns supreme over this earth and the universe, and it is Him that ultimately appoints the rulers of this earth.  I just pray for His mercy on my daughters and my grand kids.

I wish I could choose my daughter's boyfriends, but I can't.  It is one of those mysterious things in the universe; how do you decide whom to love?  I can't make that kind of decision, I can decide whom to vote for, but not whom to love; I just love people, I just do and I don't question why; do you?

What I mean is, how do you decide who it is whom you must love?  I know I must love God, with all my heart, mind and strength, but that is all I know.  Of course it is obvious that I must love those people whom God has placed in my life, and I think I have done that, to the best of my ability, I have.  Even though some of them have tested my patience.

Then I have that other mystery of loving someone who is not interested in me at all, yeah we are friends, but that is all.  I have expressed my intentions, my feelings, my thoughts, I have even demonstrated them, maybe coarsely sometimes, but I have; and there is no response; it baffles me; until I appear before God, and then I understand that it is not in me to cause love; it has to be God who inclines the heart of a person towards another; there is no way to force the issue.  So I stopped pursuing and continued waiting.  So be it.  Maybe it is my destiny to be remain alone, maybe it's just infatuation; the heart is deceitful above all things.....

As you can tell, my mind is kind of spinning from one topic to another; this life is really a trip, and human nature is a mystery, another mystery.  Life is full of mysteries, it is fascinating.

I am 53 years old and life has gone by so extremely fast, insanely fast; does that happen to you?  Life appears to fly by?  It is weird.  It all seems like a dream, those are the same words I just said to my mom over the phone, life is just like a dream; she heartily agreed, she is 81.

But really, according to Psalm 90, the measure of our days is 70 years, or maybe 80; and according to experience, it is true; 25,550 days is all we've got; think about it, only about 4 thousand weekends; yeah I said it before in another post, I repeat myself a lot lately; but it is enlightening to see life that way, and just like Moses says in that Psalm, a thousand years in God's calendar is just like a dream; then he humbly asks for the ability to know the measure of our days so that we can attain a heart of wisdom; it is wisdom indeed to know our frame.

In view of the above I can either be depressed or be blessed; it all depends on my frame of mind at the moment I think about it; I can easily get depressed to know that I only have about a thousand weekends left, or I can be excited to know that soon I will see the King face to face.

Anyway, I'm done rambling.  I hope you have a great week, and please, don't waste your life.

Be blessed.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Abortion and the campaign for immorality..

Nothing to say, just that I so agree; it is a shame and we need to make people aware of this; it is up to you to share with as many people as possible.
Pray for this nation.
Click on the video to start, if you are getting this via email, go to the blog and watch it there, or go to GTY.ORG

http://makariotes.blogspot.com