World media, pro-Israel… yeah right
On May 31, Israeli navy commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara, a part of a flotilla of ships aiming to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and deliver supplies to the Hamas-ruled territory. The commandos were met with violence and the ensuing confrontation left nine Turkish activists dead, and dozens of people hurt.
Once again, the world screamed foul and unanimously condemned Israel for its actions fueling anti-Israel sentiment amongst the masses… emotional outbursts, protests, riots, anger, hate.
With this in mind I wish to ask us some questions…
Why are we so quick to believe everything we see and hear?
Does the world’s ‘unbiased’ media report events with a predetermined bias?
Are we being conditioned to have a specific attitude toward Israel?
Why do certain sectors of global society hate Israel so much?
Now, the real truth surfaces (see video below), but as history proves time and time again, the damage has been done, and antisemitism has had it’s booster shot.
Funny, how the media moguls never retract their damning news-flashes, and what we should be seeing on the front-page headlines are only seen in insignificant, but intelligent publications and blogs 
.
Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
Old Folk rock!
The other day my wife and I were the guest speakers at our church’s ‘Senior Saints’ group.
We sang vintage chorus’s with great gusto (helped along by a piano accordion) had yarns and laughs and listened to amazing stories (like hiding-from-Nazis-in-wartime-Holland).
We were sad to leave, but eventually had to (laden with gifts and cake).
Very good times indeed.
As a kid I never spent much time with Old Folk — and to be honest, I was a bit scared of them. Call me a slow learner but nowadays I’ve realised a priceless truth:
Old Folk are just like us ‘young folk’… only older.
Yep… I must declare that Old Folk Rock! (Especially the happy ones that love the Lord and laugh at my jokes.)
Drake’s prayer
My name is Drake… Symon Drake. I’m a descendant of Sir Francis Drake. Actually a descendant of one of his brothers, as he never had children. I’ve tracked my direct ancestry back to the 1700s so there is a bit of a gap to get back to Francis – but his name has been in our family for hundreds of years, and one day hopefully the blanks will be filled in.
Anyway – I didn’t even know Sir Francis was a man of faith until today, when I heard a prayer of his.
A brief history lesson:
Francis Drake was an adventurer and essentially a legal pirate (hero of the English, arch-villain of the Spaniards). He wrote this prayer as he departed Portsmouth to raid Spanish gold on the west coast of South America. He eventually returned to England (the long way – via circumnavigation) with loot worth over a half million pounds sterling, and received his Knighthood for it.
Sir Francis Drake’s Prayer (1577)
Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.
Pretty awesome great great great+ uncle if you ask me
New Zealand, the uttermost?
All my life I’ve heard that New Zealand is the farther-most country from Israel. This is rather exciting in the light of scriptures like:
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. (Psalm 2:8)
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
Recently however I’ve been hearing an interesting update on the fact: Not only is New Zealand the ‘uttermost part of the earth’ concerning Israel, but that if one would dig a hole in Jerusalem, bore through the center of the earth, and keep digging, that they would come out almost in Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand. Exciting stuff to say the least, especially if you live there and are aware of the awesome revival prophecies regarding NZ’s North.
Perhaps I’m getting a bit too cynical in my old age (and have received one too many well meaning but absurd viral emails), but I figured there must be some tool available out there that could prove or disprove this fact once and for all.
Antipodr (“Find the other side of the world!”)
It just so happens that the exact opposite of Jerusalem is about the middle of the South Pacific Ocean (see here).
The exact opposite of Whangarei, New Zealand happens to be the town of Tangier, Morocco (see here).
Mythbusted.
Contemporvant
In our pursuit of making our faith relevant to our culture, are we missing the point somewhat? Don’t get me wrong – I am passionate about presenting the Good News in a way that our culture can understand, but I must ask the question: Are we more concerned with the packaging than we are with the content?
Put another way… if a person was dying of thirst, would he care what the bottle looked like? Of course not.
The real challenge is then, not making the packaging more desirable, but how to convince our culture that Jesus is the only person that will give them thing that will truly quench their thirst.
10 Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who I am, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
11“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this is a very deep well. Where would you get this living water? 12And besides, are you greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his cattle enjoyed?”
13 Jesus replied, “People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. 14But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
15 “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me some of that water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to haul water.” John 10:10-15 (NLT)
1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.
2 I thirst for God, the living God. Psalm 42:1-2a (NLT)
Comic relief below.
Bootcamp studies
Bootcamp is a compilation of ten studies covering the foundational teachings of Christianity. Written for new and growing Christians in a relevant, easy to understand format. … Continue Reading
The Book Of Eli… coming soon
Eli (Denzel Washington, a devout Christian in real-life) has been on a journey for 30 years, walking west across America after a cataclysmic war that turned the earth into a total wasteland. The world has become lawless and violent, where people must kill or be killed. Eli is a peaceful man who only acts in self defense, and becomes a warrior with unbelievable killing skills when he is challenged. After the war, Eli was guided by a ‘higher power’ to a hidden book and given the task of protecting the book and taking it to its final destination. Eli guards the book with his life, because he knows that the book is the only hope that humanity has for its future.
Three guesses as to what ‘the book that is the only hope for humanity’ is? Hollywood has got it right for once!
Needless to say, I simply cannot wait to see this one. Someone has finally cottoned on to the fact that there is a lot of people who will pay good money to see movies with Biblical (and moral) themes.
Relevant Magazine reviewed the film (It’s screened in the US of A already). This is what they said…
Our reviewer says the new, hyper-violent Denzel Washington film is one of the most overt faith-films out there.
Think of Christian films, and you might conjure up images of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, with Jesus being brutally pummeled and crucified until he dies. Or you might think of countless lesser-known movies filled with sappy storylines, bad acting and moral messages that are themselves pummeled into the audience.
But the new movie The Book of Eli doesn’t fit either of those molds. In fact, this wildly entertaining, ultra-violent, post-Apocalyptic tale of a lone wanderer named Eli who will defend the mysterious book in his possession at all costs is one of the oddest yet most forthright faith-based films to ever come out of a major studio. Read the full review here.
So, let’s hope it’s a goodun. At least the good guy isn’t a vampire for once .
Who enjoys life more?
Continuing with my them of the popular Atheist slogan…
I think I handled the “There’s probably no God” reasonably enough in my last post. Now for an intelligent exposition of the second half…
Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.
The phrase implies that those that believe in God… A) worry and B) don’t enjoy life.
It is said that the person with the experience is never at the mercy of the person with the argument. So, speaking from experience…
I worry exponentially less now as a follow of Christ, than when I lived for my own selfish desires. I enjoy my life exponentially more now as a follower of Jesus, than when I lived for my own selfish desires. I know I’m not an isolated case.
I get extremely annoyed at secular media propagandizing that Christians live dull, boring and pleasure-starved lives. It’s a lie.
I know people living life to fulfill their own selfish desires – and most of them (although they would rarely admit it) aren’t truly fulfilled. Sure, they have a form of happiness, but it is never lasting and is only shallow at best.
Is the porn addict really happy?
Is the P user really happy
Is the adulterer really happy?
Is the tycoon really happy?
I really don’t think so. I’m not saying all of these people are atheists, but I dare say most of them would claim to have no faith nor belief in God. The truth (that we again rarely hear) is that sexual liberation does not bring happiness – only a downward spiral into more degrading practices. I have never met a drug addict who loves their life. Does Tiger Woods look like he’s enjoying his life right now? How many of the rich and famous are confused and depressed? To be quite honest, why does a person crave the bottle, the needle, the encounter? Isn’t it just to serve as a temporal reprieve from an otherwise sad life?
In stark contrast, I know people who are genuine followers of God – who have such a deep sense of fulfillment that suffering couldn’t dislodge. I think that is true happiness.
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness. (Jesus Christ)
So, please let me know (and be honest about it) who you follow and if you are truly happy with your life. I’d love to know .
