Christians Awake! Call to Prayer in the United Kingdom

The following 'Call to Prayer' comes from the newsletter of the Maranatha Community:

A VERY URGENT CALL TO EVERY CHRISTIAN IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
9th August 2011

A STRUGGLE IS NOW TAKING PLACE FOR THE SOUL OF OUR NATION AT THIS TIME OF CRISIS

This call is made in the name of many thousands of members of the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Salvation Army, United Reformed, New and Independent Churches right across the UK

WE STRONGLY BELIEVE THE UNITED PRAYER OF GOD'S PEOPLE WILL HAVE AN IMMEDIATE AND POWERFUL INFLUENCE UPON THE STATE OF OUR NATION TODAY.

It is urgent that, as Christians, we take our positions as members of the Body of Christ and PRAY earnestly for the United Kingdom.

The current riots across the land hold up a mirror to the moral and spiritual  sickness of our nation. The issues facing us today are not primarily political or social but spiritual. This is yet another manifestation of the consequences of our nation turning its back on God and His ways. It follows the exposure of corruption in the banking system, the Parliamentary expenses scandal, the phone hacking inquiry and corruption in the police. We believe that God, in His mercy, is shining the light of His Truth on to the ugly wound of our nation which is in need of cleansing and healing. The riots are the fruit of our betrayal of our younger generations whom we have robbed of hope and purpose.

The police, politicians and others in positions of worldly authority are desperately searching for ways to bring the rioters under control. In this situation it is the mandate of the people of God to exercise spiritual authority through united prayer.

WILL YOU PLEASE TAKE IMMEDIATE STEPS TO JOIN WITH CHRISTIANS FROM OTHER CHURCHES IN YOUR AREA TO PRAY FOR THE NATION:

• For those in positions of authority - MP's, Local councils, Police, Community leaders - to be given wisdom and Godly advice.
• For church leaders to speak with one voice, identifying clearly the spiritual nature of what is happening.
• For confusion of spiritual communication between demonic forces and a collapse of mob formation.
• For protection of people, their lives and their property in areas of rioting, and protection of police and those enforcing law and order.
• For cleansing and healing of the underlying causes of our national sickness.

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING THOSE WHO ARE PRAYING ON THE STREETS OF OUR CITIES DURING THE DAYTIME AND GATHERING IN CHURCH BUILDINGS AND HOMES TO PRAY AT NIGHT

WE HAVE A GOD-GIVEN OPPORTUNITY TO BRING HOPE TO OUR NATION

'Saved for Glory' : a Hymn for Today

Saved for Glory 87 87
Tune: All to Jesus
Saved for glory by the Saviour,
Christ is all in all to me;
I will tell the wondrous story,
How He came to set us free.Saved by Christ alone!
Saved by Christ alone!
Saved for glory by the Saviour,
Saved by Christ alone!

He came down to bring us freedom,
From man’s own self-righteous law;
Came to grant us free salvation,
Tell it out from door to door.

Saved by Christ alone!
Saved by Christ alone!
Saved for glory by the Saviour,
Saved by Christ alone!

Christ, the one Son of the Father,
God incarnate came to earth;
When you claim through Him redemption,
Through God’s Spirit get rebirth.

Saved by Christ alone!
Saved by Christ alone!
Saved for glory by the Saviour,
Saved by Christ alone!

You can claim this glorious blessing,
You receive the bounty free;
You can sing the Saviour’s story,
Tell it out aloud like me.

Saved by Christ alone!
Saved by Christ alone!
Saved for glory by the Saviour,
Saved by Christ alone!

Tell the world you’re saved for glory,
That in heav’n one day we’ll meet;
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
We will worship at their feet.

Saved by Christ alone!
Saved by Christ alone!
Saved for glory by the Saviour,
Saved by Christ alone!
©  2006 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

Deirdre Shannon sings 'Crucán na bPaiste'

This song, sung in Gaelic, is taken from Deirdre Shannon's latest album. For those who don't know, Deirdre has been part of Celtic Woman during the times Méav was on maternity leave.

Crucán na bPáiste means "Burial place of the children". The song was written by Brendan Graham, who is both a songwriter and an author, and it was written for the principal character in his trilogy of books:

1)The Whitest Flower
2) The Element of Fire
3) The Brightest Day, The Darkest Night

The song is the story of Ellen Rua, from East County Mayo, a county where the people suffered greatly in the Famine, with one third of the population dying as a result. Many more, weakened by the famine, died of fever and dysentery. Babies conceived and born in this era were malnourished, and often did not live long. There were so many victims that they were buried in mass graves. However, local people could not bear the thought of their little ones being placed in mass graves with everyone else, so they made a special place ... Crucán na bPaiste.

In this lament, Ellen Rua is mourning her "little redheaded girl" lying in the cold ground of Crucán na bPaiste. She is devastated that she could not save her child, and asks the Lord to take her too. She cannot stay in Ireland without her child … so she leaves on one of the Famine ships to Australia. Eventually she travels to Boston, to a new life … but her strength is again tried by tragedy.

A very sad song ... and it is sung with great feeling by the talented Deirdre.

Translation:

Broken my heart
Lonely my life
With my darling child lying here and me tormented
It is the end of my world
My little red-haired girl
Laid out in Crucán na bPáiste 

She will not see again
The dew on the grass
Nor the snow in the glens of Maamtrasna
No sun on her face
No sweet song of the birds
Only the cold earth of Crucán na bPáiste

Chorus:
In the name of the Father
And in the name of the Son
And Mother Mary full of grace
In the name of the Holy Spirit
Don't leave me alive
With my little angel in Crucán na bPáiste 

There is sadness on the mountains
Anger on the Mask ( Lough Mask - a lake nearby)
But much worse am I that didn't save her
And for the time I am alive
Never more will I stand
In Ireland or in Crucán na bPáiste
With my little angel in Crucán na bPáiste

UK Riots: Time to reclaim our Nation

The riots in the UK over the last few days emphasise the urgency of the need to reclaim our Nation in the name of the Lord. No sane person, considering the events that have unfolded, can find any excuse for them Sure, some politicians have tried to divert the tragedy of it all by claiming that it's caused by poverty, deprivation, unemployment or some such similar lame excuse, but the facts of the matter are that it is down to criminal behaviour by thugs who have been molly-coddled by our Society into believing that they can do anything they want without fear of retribution. 


They may have got away with their behaviour for the moment but they will all pay the price for it ultimately, if not in this life, then in the next. Unless these people, regardless of their age, change their behaviour drastically, they are destined to join the power that motivates them in the very pit of Hell itself. Then they will find that the infernos that have been witnessed over the past few days are as nothing when compared with the fires of Hell, and that's one place where they can only get a one-way ticket to. The only way is 'IN' and once there, there is no escape.


The true fault lies with the politicians who have constantly ignored the need to set a proper example for our children; who have handed, by virtue of an assortment of so-called 'Human Rights' laws, power over to children. When I was a youngster the power was in the hands of the parents and adults in general, no matter that it was often abused,  but now, thanks to a series of laws passed by zealously liberal politicians more intent on self-promotion than the interests of the people who voted them into power, it is the children who tend to rule over the parents and other adults who are involved in their upbringing.


All of this needs to change. There is no easy fix, and without doubt it would require very painful change if the situation is to be righted. 


There is a need for the whole Nation to repent of the ways in which God has been rejected in favour of people doing their own thing rather than living the way that God has dictated. The resultant Society is one in which we are beset by a whole assortment of sexual misbehaviour that are  rampant. Daily we hear of instances of child abuse, of gang warfare, of killings and a wide variety of criminal behaviour. Laws have been enacted that are diametrically opposed to God's laws, simply in order to allow people to behave as they want to rather than as they should. Children are born to single mothers, often several children to one woman from liaisons with different fathers. Homosexual practices are paraded as the acceptable norm, despite the fact that all fornication is an abomination to God. Increasingly, the referral of civil partnerships between same-sex couples as being a marriage, occurs in certain areas of the media, despite the fact that marriage is the union of a man and a woman, usually believed to  be for the procreation of children. 


We live in a Society in which a large part of it exists as a result of the 'Benefit Culture', seeing no need to work because they can exist on benefits paid out by the State. Today there are families which are third-generation 'Benefit Families', members of which refuse to work and offer a variety of excuses for there failure to integrate properly into the system. 


Despite much trumpeting about the Education System, the sad fact is that it is simply not good enough, and huge numbers of youngsters leave school ell-equipped as a result of poor teaching methods and an over-indulgent system. Large numbers of students leave school or University with a great deal of knowledge, yet do not have the ability to apply that knowledge in everyday living.


Some idiot in a past era suggested that criminal behaviour was the result of children having under-privileged backgrounds, and this has subsequently been latched onto as a convenient peg  on which to hang every misdemeanour that unfolds. The Far Left of the political circus have much to answer for.


The end result is that we now live in  a Society that is badly damaged. It's not yet beyond repair, but it's certainly rapidly heading to a state of mortification. The atrocious behaviour that has seen our streets become battlefields and blazing infernos, ruled over by feral yobs who have no regard for anything or anyone, and who have no respect for others because they have no respect for themselves, is the tip of the iceberg. It is time for the authorities to take charge and impose authority. It is time that politicians realised that reducing the power of the police force by cutting their budgets and thereby reducing their numbers is a policy that is not only unworkable but is also unacceptable.


More than anything, I believe that it is time for this Nation, from the Government down, publicly repents of all of the things that are wrong, seeks God's forgiveness, and earnestly prays for God's help to put things right, and that means living according to His Word and not letting people do as they please with no thought for others.

More Great Christian Quotes

"To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive withot breathing."
- Martin Luther

"Revivals begin with God's own people; the Holy Spirit touches their heart anew, & gives them new fervor & compassion, & zeal, new light & life, & when He has thus come to you, He next goes forth to the valley of dry bones.Oh, what responsibility this lays on the church of God!"
- Andrew A. Bonar

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their Melancholy, for what we leave behind is part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another."
- Anatole France.

"We want to be saved, but insist that Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of Mansoul and wear our tinsel crowns with all the pride of a Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility."
- A.W.Tozer.

"Theologians today are mostly concerned with protecting what little we have left rather than fighting to regain all that we have lost."
- Micheal King

"There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives."
- A.W. Tozer.


"Far be it from me to imagine that Zion contains none but Calvinistic Christians within her walls, or that there are none saved who do not hold our views."
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

"I have a passion, and it is He, He only"
- Count Zinzendorf

"If God is not going to do it, nothing is going to happen"
- Gerhard Du Toit

"Everywhere there is apathy. Nobody cares whether that which is preached is true or false. A sermon is a sermon whatever the subject; only, the shorter the better."
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

"Religion today is not transforming people; rather it is being transformed by the people. It is not raising the moral level of society; it is descending to society's own level, and congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because society is smilingly accepting its surrender."
- A.W. Tozer

"A man can not lead others where he is not willing to go himself. Therefore, beware of the prayerless church leader who no longer readily admits his own need for more of the person and power of Jesus Christ. Only a seeking, praying heart can truly encourage spiritual HUNGER in others!"
- David Smithers.

Urgent National Call to Prayer for our Nation

I join with the churches who are calling for a National Day of Prayer for the healing of our community. The unprecedented rioting, looting and arson that has taken place over the past three nights is already expected to be repeated again tonight as the situation spirals further out of control. The prospect of bloodshed on our street increases every minute that the situation exists.

I believe that it is part of the struggle between the forces of darkness and the forces of light. In other words, part of the continuing spiritual battle in which Satan increases his hold on the young people of our nation. For so long this nation has rejected God and His ways, and now we can see that the price for doing so is very high. The only way to deal with this situation is through the power of prayer, calling out to God with repentant hearts for rejecting Him and pleading for Him to save our nation.

This call is to every God-fearing member of the nation, irrespective of denomination.

Maranatha Community

A VERY URGENT CALL TO EVERY CHRISTIAN IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

9th August 2011

A STRUGGLE IS NOW TAKING PLACE FOR THE SOUL OF OUR NATION AT THIS TIME OF CRISIS

This call is made in the name of many thousands of members of the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Salvation Army, United Reformed, New and Independent Churches right across the UK

WE STRONGLY BELIEVE THE UNITED PRAYER OF GOD'S PEOPLE WILL HAVE AN IMMEDIATE AND POWERFUL INFLUENCE UPON THE STATE OF OUR NATION TODAY.

It is urgent that, as Christians, we take our positions as members of the Body of Christ and PRAY earnestly for the United Kingdom.

The current riots across the land hold up a mirror to the moral and spiritual sickness of our nation.  The issues facing us today are not primarily political or social but spiritual. This is yet another manifestation of the consequences of our nation turning its back on God and His ways.  It follows the exposure of corruption in the banking system, the Parliamentary expenses scandal, the phone hacking inquiry and corruption in the police. 

We believe that God, in His mercy, is shining the light of His Truth on to the ugly wound of our nation which is in need of cleansing and healing.  The riots are the fruit of our betrayal of our younger generations whom we have robbed of hope and purpose.

The police, politicians and others in positions of worldly authority are desperately searching for ways to bring the rioters under control.  In this situation it is the mandate of the people of God to exercise spiritual authority through united prayer. 

WILL YOU PLEASE TAKE IMMEDIATE STEPS TO JOIN WITH CHRISTIANS FROM OTHER CHURCHES IN YOUR AREA TO PRAY FOR THE NATION:

·         For those in positions of authority - MP's, Local councils, Police, Community leaders - to be given wisdom and Godly advice.

·         For church leaders to speak with one voice, identifying clearly the spiritual nature of what is happening.

·         For confusion of spiritual communication between demonic forces and a collapse of mob formation.

·         For protection of people, their lives and their property in areas of rioting, and protection of police and those enforcing law and order.

·         For cleansing and healing of the underlying causes of our national sickness.

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING THOSE WHO ARE PRAYING ON THE STREETS OF OUR CITIES DURING THE DAYTIME AND GATHERING IN CHURCH BUILDINGS AND HOMES TO PRAY AT NIGHT

WE HAVE A GOD-GIVEN OPPORTUNITY TO BRING HOPE TO OUR NATION

Is the Bible True?

IS THE BIBLE UNRELIABLE? 

by Peter J Williams

A friend of mine who runs a youth group in a rough area told me that he often finds that one of his eight-year-old kids knows absolutely nothing about the Bible … and yet feels quite sure that it’s a pack of lies! This is partly because there has been a long-term publicity campaign against the Bible coming not only from the media and parts of the educational establishment, but sometimes even from within churches. Some of the most common objections to the Bible often run rather like this:

We don’t even know what the proper Bible is.
Who decided which books should be in?
Hasn’t it been changed?
Don’t different Bibles contain different things?

It’s important to stress that all Bibles have the same New Testament books, whether Protestant, Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox, but – amazingly – these books were not decided by some great human authority such as a Roman emperor. Every one of the books can be shown to have been accepted by Christians before they had any political power. We know, for instance, that the four gospels were accepted across the church before there was any central authority: a manuscript coming from southern Egypt and dating to around AD 225 contains the four gospels and Acts; Irenaeus, a church father from France, a disciple of a disciple of John the apostle, said around the year AD 185 that having four gospels was as natural as having four directions of wind.

In other words, it’s easy to show the acceptance of the four gospels over a vast geographical region over a century before the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, before the first major church council, and before the church had any political power base. That fits with the view that the four gospels were not chosen by humans, but had their own authority which a wide range of people were forced to recognise. As for the certainty of the text, even the most sceptical scholars would only argue against the presence of a small number of verses in the New Testament.

For the Old Testament, evangelicals and other Protestants have exactly the same books as you would find if you went to any local synagogue. Catholics and Eastern Orthodox have some additional books (Apocrypha), but not the same selection as each other. But some parts of these books make it clear that they are not meant to be taken as the word of God (see 2 Maccabees 15:38).

'There’s no evidence that the Bible is true'
There is significant external confirmation for many things in the Bible – for political figures in the New Testament or for kings in the Old Testament. Indeed, some of the kings of Assyria were first known to the Western world from the Bible, and only subsequently were their records found by archaeologists and their language deciphered. This is not what you would expect from fairy stories.

On the other hand, there is even more material that you will only find in the Bible. Far from this being a weakness of the Bible, it is in fact a feature of every valuable historical source. A valuable historical source doesn’t simply tell you what the other ones say. The Bible is good history because it tells us lots of important things that have been forgotten by other sources.

What is more, the Bible is unlike other ancient records. Read the records of the ancient kings of Egypt, Assyria, or Babylon and you’ll find that they are all telling you how great they were. If you believed them, you would think that there were no bad kings (except perhaps their predecessors). Then turn to the Bible and you see that the Old Testament is clearly not nationalistic propaganda for Israel, telling you how wonderful Israel was, nor is it propaganda for one of the kings, telling you how wonderful he was. Nor could we say that the gospels or Acts are propaganda telling you how wonderful all the early disciples were. In contrast to other ancient sources, the Bible gives us a true but unflattering picture of what humans are really like.

'The Bible is immoral'
Whenever someone says that something is immoral, we have to ask what their standpoint is. How do they know what’s right and wrong if they don’t believe in a God who has spoken to us? The most common objection I come across is that the destruction of the Canaanites by the Israelites would have been immoral because it would have been genocide. People now draw parallels between God’s command to Joshua to destroy the Canaanites and the belief of the 9/11 terrorists that God had told them to launch a terror-attack.

This requires a longer answer, but I’ll say just this: normally when people object to what the Old Testament says about the Canaanites, they isolate the destruction of the people from some rather important points in the narrative: (1) the Canaanites were sacrificing their own children and if any of their culture had been allowed to continue an endless cycle of this violence would continue (this in fact happened because the Israelites did not fully carry out the command); (2) the author of the command was the one who has right over all life because he gave it.

It is not merely that Joshua thought God had commanded him like some deluded religious fanatic. The text says that Joshua and the preceding generation had seen the greatest display of public miracles in the whole Old Testament period. Then God spoke to over 600,000 men from Mount Sinai, dried up the River Jordan, and made the sun stop in the sky at Joshua’s command. To claim that the Bible might encourage us now to wipe out other races is simply wrong. According to the Bible the command was given in such a way that neither a Canaanite then nor a sceptic now could have had any doubt that the Israelites were not acting under their own authority, but with the authority of the only person who can give life. This is nothing like any modern or recent conflicts.

'The Bible may be a special book from God, but that doesn’t mean I have to trust all of its details, or when its values are out-of-date.'
This form of the objection is more likely to be found among professing Christians. They may like the idea that the Bible contains the word of God or that parts of the Bible are inspired and that the Old Testament represents inferior morality, such as when men had multiple wives.

However, Jesus’ own attitude to the Old Testament scriptures of His day was very positive. He taught that not even the smallest stroke of a pen could pass away (Matt. 5:18) and that is why he could quote the Old Testament to solve moral problems. Moreover, Jesus taught us to distinguish between what God tolerated or regulated in the Old Testament, and what the Old Testament actually condoned (Matt. 19:8). Anyone reading the Old Testament and reading of Abraham, Jacob, Elkanah, David, or Solomon having multiple wives should realise that the same passages also show that every time this happened there were disputes and domestic problems. In other words, the Old Testament had it right all along.

'Can the Bible be trusted?'
Yes, the Bible can be trusted and should be trusted. Not only do the objections against the Bible not stand up, but its own testimony provides quite enough evidence for us to believe it.
Peter Williams is the warden of Tyndale House, Cambridge

Old Guys Rule - Hysterical Rap!

If you liked the Dad Life you will love this adorable and funny tribute to church elders. As Christians, we affirm our older generation as people we admire, look up to, and want to emulate. Take time to get to know the elders in your community...you could learn a thing or two!

Katie Rhodes sings 'Somebody's Angel'

Anyone who logs on to my Blog with any degree of regularity will know that I love Country Music, and that I'm always on the lookout for great Country artists. Well, here's one to make your day! Katie Rhodes comes from Manchester, UK, and is a fabulous Country singer in my opinion. Here she is to blow away your mind with her rendition of Somebody's Angel. You can find lots more videos of Katie on Youtube by following this link.

Do you trust Jesus?

It's one thing loving Jesus, but when it comes to trusting him --- well that's often much harder for people to do, and yet without trust there can be no real submission. Check out this short video.

Rationalizing Paedophilia in Islam

     The commentary below highlights a recent fatwa issued by a top Saudi cleric regarding child brides and sex with female children.
     Note this statement from the fatwa, regarding how old girls should be before marriage. Dr. Salih bin Fawzan asserts that “…the only criterion is that they are capable of being placed beneath and bearing the weight of men.”
     For those who claim this can’t be happening in America, we have seen reports of Muslim men immigrating to Europe, the UK, and to the United States, and identifying their child brides as relatives, such as daughters, in order to avoid scrutiny from Western laws that prohibit pedophilia.
     We have no doubt this is happening here. Just one more example of how sharia law is penetrating and threatening America.

---

Rationalizing Paedophilia in Islam
by Raymond Ibrahim
Jihad Watch
 July 29, 2011
http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10011/rationalizing-pedophilia-in-islam

Earlier this month we saw — or rather, were once again reminded — that Islam permits paedophilia in the guise of "marriage": Top Saudi cleric, Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for girls to marry, "even if they are in the cradle," and that the only criterion is that "they are capable of being placed beneath and bearing the weight of the men."

Admirable patience to childish antics

While this practice speaks for itself, it is interesting to witness the great lengths some Muslims go to justify or rationalize it — or even to turn it into a source of pride.

Consider, for example, this Muslim cleric discussing Muhammad's marriage to the child Aisha when she was nine. Far from blushing for shame, the cleric actually uses this anecdote to boast of the prophet's "patience" and "magnanimity." Translation of relevant excerpt follows:

The story of the prophet's marriage to Aisha reveals to us aspects like the prophet's conduct with Aisha, and more importantly the aspect regarding the relationship between the husband and wife, to show how one should treat his wife, just as the prophet did with Aisha.

We know that Aisha's mother went to take her down from the swing that she was playing on to fix her hair and prepare her for the prophet so he could enter her [have sex with her]—and she did that all on the same day.

Aisha's own account in Sahih Bukhari is telling enough: she talks about how her mother hurriedly prepared her and then "handed" her over to Muhammad, and how "nothing surprised me but the coming of Allah's Apostle to me in the forenoon."

The cleric continues:

So you see, she was playing with her fellow playmates even though her day of consummation was that very same day—and all that they did was to fix her up for the prophet so he could have sex with her.

Now what do we see when the prophet married Aisha? Did he go to her and say "Okay that's it, you're married, you're now a grown up, you're supposed to be mature, you need to do this and that; you need to forget about your toys and your little friends; you are now a wife of a man, you have to see to my needs" and that's it?

No. The prophet allowed her to continue playing with her toy dolls—indeed, the prophet even sometimes gave her such things to play with. [This hadith has more details, including how Aisha's little girl friends would "hide themselves" whenever the prophet came to her until he called them out.]

It should be noted that the cleric recounted the above with much awe and amazement—as if to say, "Look how indulgent and open-minded our prophet was!"

In fact, such was the cleric's whole point: to show that Islam, according to the example of Muhammad, expects older Muslim husbands to be patient with their younger wives: "The older husband should not expect the younger wife to be at his level of maturity; rather, he should go down to her level, for he is capable, whereas she is not."

As "gentlemanly" as this ostensibly sounds, it is yet another example of how Muslim scholars deal with Muhammad's lifestyle: because they cannot condemn or ignore his practices, they inevitably go to great lengths to rationalize or justify them—to find the good in every situation their prophet was involved in, while being oblivious to all the bad.

Thus here we have a cleric straining to finding a positive aspect to Muhammad's pedophilia—that he was patient and indulgent of his child-bride—while ignoring the heart of it: that the man Islam is built around desired to have sex with a child in the first place. 

Levi Coby sings 'Am I Dreaming'

Here's a great song written and sung by Levi Coby who lives in a small village in Clackmannanshire in Scotland. I like his sound and the Country flavour. I could listen to this over and over. 

Joanne Lowe's Meditations

NO MORE

"And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

Matthew 26:39 (King James Version)

      Do you realize what would happen to us if Jesus had said to His Father "I'm not going to take these insults and the rejection and the ridicule and the cursing any more.  I'm not going to the cross."  If Jesus hadn't died on the cross for us, we would be on our way to hell for all eternity.

      Jesus loves us so much that not only was He obedient to His Father, He was also willing to endure the pain, the shame and the agony on the cross for us.  Jesus did not have to stay on the cross for us.  All the nails in the world couldn't have kept Him on the cross if He had chosen to come down from the cross.

      Songwriter Ray Overholt wrote an inspiring and heart touching song about our precious Saviour "Ten Thousand Angels".  "He could have called ten thousand angels, To destroy the world and set Him free.  He could have called ten thousand angels, But He died alone, for you and me". 

      Jesus was human just like we are and I believe there were many times when He was here on earth that He wanted to give up and say "no more".  "I am not going to be humiliated any more."  Just as you and I get tired of being ridiculed, rejected and cursed,  Jesus also got tired of it.

      Jesus, thank You for loving us so much that You not only went to the cross, You stayed on the cross.  You are so precious to my heart.  I love You.  How I long for the day when I will have the privilege of seeing You face to face.  Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Joanne Lowe

joannelowe8@cox.net

www.joanne-ourprecioussaviour.blogspot.com

From my Archives . . .

Here's a story that I originally posted on this Blog back in March 2009, and which I thought my many new readers might be interested in. It is set in the small town in Wiltshire where I grew up as a young boy. I hope that it evokes a few memories for some of you and gives an insight into a way of life that has long since gone, and one which is mourned by many, despite the technological advances of the modern world.


Who remembers Harry Dew delivering milk from his horse and cart in post-war Corsham? It was a very different world in the 1950's when Farmer Dew and Blackie delivered milk door to door, with far less traffic in those days for a horse to worry about. A real treat for me as a lad was to be allowed to ride on the cart as it made its way along Corsham High Street, Blackie knowing just where to stop for the milk to be delivered. Farmer Dew would ladle the milk from the churn into waiting jugs, covering the top afterwards with the little bead-edged muslin nets that people provided for that purpose. I'm sure that the Health & Safety folk would have a fit if anyone delivered milk these days in the same manner! Back then it was perfectly normal, and I wouldn't think that anyones' health was the worse for it. It always fascinated me that the horse knew exactly where to stop, missing out the houses which Harry didn't supply.

There are many things like this from the childhood years that are now only distant memories, for the world we live in, with supermarkets and hyper-markets supplying most of the things that the combination of shops and suppliers provided back then. To me these vast food emporiums are a sign of the way in which w have lost the art of leisurely shopping, and with it a way of life that will probably never return. To some extent I suppose that a remnant of that way of life still exists in villages lucky enough to retain a Village Store, but those are few and far between these days, the successful ones being gobbled up by one of the small cooperative food chains with their look-alike livery, or else closed down one day to open a short time later as a 'Tesco Extra'.

Gone are the days when the womenfolk, (okay, maybe a few menfolk as well!), walked along Corsham High Street filling their wicker baskets with the assortment of 'needs' for that day. Most homes didn't have refrigerators back then, although many, like us, had a larder with a cold slab of marble, which was very efficient. I wonder how many people still remember the open window at Shergold's with the wet fish display tempting the passer-by, or the wonderful fragrance of newly baked bread from Joe Damond's bakery or Johnson's bakery which was just up from the Post Office, near to Neate's the shoe repairers. And what about Hobb's Cycle shop with its permanent smell of oil and metal, where old Mr Hobbs would repair broken bicycles for a shilling or two? Saturday mornings, at a time when food coupons were still the norm, this small boy would skeeter down to Watt's Sweet Shop at the bottom end of the High Street, near the junction with Church Street, and purchase a couple of ounces of dolly mixtures or some other sweet delight, usually for the grand sum of a penny ha'penny.

At the top end of the High Street you turned into Pickwick Road where another line of shops supplied the town with much needed merchandise or services. Pickwick Papers were a good place to find small toys that pocket money could be used up by, whilst further up the road was Bulson's, the television & radio shop. Still further along, past the Greengrocers, was the Clarke's Shoe Shop, competition for Ken Davies' shoe shop in the High Street, and also William Hardwell's at number 27 Pickwick Road, where many a child was photographed.

All of these shops bring to mind the people of the day who either ran them or shopped in them, now mostly passed on and the way of life with them. Is it a good thing, this change that has come about over the last few decades? Well, to answer that I guess that you need to look long and hard at the society in which we live. Whilst there is much to praise and to be grateful for nowadays, there is also much that can be missed about the old days.

Back then children did pretty well what they were told for fear of being disciplined by their parents. Nowadays it's almost the reverse, with parents doing pretty well what is demanded by their children, for fear of what might happen if the children decide to report them to the authorities. From the 1960's an era of freedom was ushered in that has ultimately removed the word 'respect' from most people's vocabulary, and with it the idea of responsibility.

Perhaps, after all, those days of wicker baskets were able to offer much more than we ever realised. 

A Question of Loyalty to America

Abdo's Loyalty to Muslims Always Meant Disloyalty to Americans
Posted By Raymond Ibrahim On August 3, 2011
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/abdo%e2%80%99s-loyalty-to-muslims-always-meant-disloyalty-to-americans/
To anyone familiar with Muslim doctrine, Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo's actions -- from refusing to deploy to Afghanistan lest he kill fellow Muslims to plotting a terror attack to kill fellow Americans -- make perfect sense and accord well with Islam's dichotomous doctrine of wala wa bara [1], often translated as "loyalty and enmity."

Built atop numerous Koran verses and backed by Sharia, wala requires Muslims to be loyal to fellow Muslims, and explains why Abdo refused to deploy to Muslim nations.

While loyalty may appear admirable, it has a flipside, bara, which requires Muslims to disassociate themselves from non-Muslims -- to be disloyal to them (see al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri's 60 page treatise titled "Loyalty and Enmity" in The Al Qaeda Reader [2] for details).

For example, Koran 5:51 literally warns Muslims against "taking the Jews and Christians as friends and allies ... whoever among you takes them for friends and allies, he is surely one of them," i.e., he becomes an infidel; 58:22 states that true Muslims do not befriend non-Muslims -- "even if they be their fathers, sons, brothers, or kin."

Now consider the progress of Abdo and how his actions reveal great doctrinal consistency:

First, he objected [3] to participating in any war in any Muslim country, claiming "conscientious objector" status:

I don't believe I can involve myself in an army that wages war against Muslims. I don't believe I could sleep at night if I take part, in any way, in the killing of a Muslim. ... I can't deploy with my unit to Afghanistan and participate in the war -- I can't both deploy and be a Muslim.

He would not be the first to object to combating fellow Muslims: Major Nidal Hasan [4], who went on a shooting spree in Fort Hood in 2009, killing thirteen --and who Abdo heroizes [5] -- considered himself to be "a Muslim first and an American second [6]"; the idea of deploying to a Muslim nation, his "worst nightmare [7]," threw him "over the edge." Then there was Sergeant Hasan Akbar [8], who killed two American soldiers and wounded fourteen in Kuwait "because he was concerned U.S. troops would kill fellow Muslims in Iraq."

Next, though Abdo had no problem openly evincing loyalty to Muslims, trusting that tolerant or sentimental Americans would indulge him, he hid his enmity and disloyalty for those same Americans, in accordance to taqiyya [9] -- a doctrine that permits Muslims to deceive infidels. In fact, the Koran's primary justification for deception is in the context of "loyalty and enmity":

Let believers not take for friends and allies infidels [non-Muslims] instead of believers. Whoever does this shall have no relationship left with Allah -- unless you but guard yourselves against them, taking precautions (3:28).
Mainstream Muslim reference Tabari interprets this verse thusly:

Only when you are in their [non-Muslims'] power, fearing for yourselves, are you to demonstrate friendship for them with your tongues, while harboring hostility toward them. But do not join them in the particulars of their infidelities, and do not aid them through any action against a Muslim.

Accordingly, while Abdo did not aid Americans against Muslims, he certainly made use of his tongue: to support his "conscientious objector" status, he pointed to "the peace that Islam preaches [10] 221;; he claimed [11] that he wanted to fight "Islamophobia" and "put a good positive spin out there that Islam is a good, peaceful religion"; and though he tried to murder Americans by emulating the Fort Hood massacre, Abdo originally condemned it [12], calling it "an act of aggression by a man and not by Islam," insisting that it ran against his beliefs as a Muslim.

Even so, anyone reading between the lines should have noticed his enmity: like Hasan before him, who made no secret of his hatred for infidels [13] in statements in front of classmates, Abdo also made anti-American remarks [10] in class.

Unfortunately, few Americans are aware of doctrines like wala wa bara and taqiyya; worse, they often project [14] their own beliefs and values -- from Christianity to secular humanism--onto Islam and Muslims.

For instance, Western people associate piety and religious observance with peace and goodwill: as with Hasan before him -- who was described as an "observant Muslim who prayed daily [15]" and "very serious about his religion [16]" -- acquaintances shocked at Abdo's terror plot argue that he was "very devoutly religious [17]."

Yet, the fact is there is no inconsistency between piety and prayer on the one hand, and jihad and deceit on the other: all are equally codified in Sharia. Moreover, upholding one doctrine often leads to upholding another: thus loyalty to fellow Muslims is a sure sign of disloyalty to non-Muslims. 

Andrea Warnock sings ' Take Me By The Hand'

Andrea Warnock has just released this great new Country song, Take Me By The Hand, which was written by her as well. I think she doe a great job and has given us a great Country dance song.

The Beauty of Mathematics

Advertise your CD on Sheer Joy Music FREE-OF-CHARGE!

     Here is a message for all of my creative musical readers out there. On the revamped Sheer Joy Music website we are launching a section called The Music Store Billboard, where we are offering the opportunity to publicise you CD absolutely FREE-of-CHARGE. I promise you that there are no strings attached. 
     We are happy to include Christian, Gospel, Country and Country Gospel CDs and also those which fit into the Classical/Crossover genre.  As well as an image of your CD cover, which we will link to your website, we will show the Track Listing and also a short bio, and it really is absolutely FREE-of-CHARGE!
     All you need to do is to email me with the details or any questions about this great opportunity.

John Piper - Should a pastor marry non-believers?

     Arguments often rage in churches as to whether or not unbelievers have a right to be married by a member of the clergy in a church. So, what is the answer to this somewhat thorny question. Is a Minister, Pastor or Vicar right or wrong to officiate at a marriage ceremony for unbelievers, or should they politely refuse and direct the couple to the nearest Registry Office for a Civil Ceremony?  In this video, John Piper answers the question.
     John Piper is the Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, where he first sensed God's call to enter the ministry. He went on to earn degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary and the University of Munich.  For six years he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem.  John is the author of more than 30 books, and more than 25 years of his preaching and teaching is available free at desiringGod.org.  John and his wife, Noel, have four sons, one daughter, and an increasing number of grandchildren.

Charley Pride sings 'Kiss an Angel Good Morning'

Here is a great classic Country song sung by one of Country Music's great singers. I hope you enjoy listening to it today.