New Earth Community KAP

MY STORY

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Thriver Thinking ..... From Survivor to Thriver:

I had a severe brain injury as a result of falling off a boogie-board

in shallowwater in the surf at Peregian Beach on the Sunshine

Coast of Queensland, Australia in December 1995 .... as simple as

that. That was over thirteen years ago. I have written my story ' which

outlines howto be a victor though the worst situations in life .......

'The Rose Water Story' can be downloaded as

The Rose Water Story 6 KB.

I attribute my ongoing recovery primarily to my Christian Spirituality

which has brought healing, restoration and transformation of life

purpose. A Christian spirituality comes as a consequence of having

a ChristianWorldview. It isn'tanother Spirituality in the Post

Modern Culture of many spiritualities which areall seen to be equal.

It is a unique Spirituality whichintegrates the whole of life..... of

the Inner, Middle and Outer Persons {Spirit, Soul (= mind, will

and emotions) and the Body}. It means being a disciple of the

Person of Jesus Christ, not a follower

of a Church as a Corporation. Christian Spirituality could

also be termeda Spirituality from Jesus Christ. The heart of a

Christian spirituality is having an new identity through Jesus Christ.

When you have an identity, you then have a purpose for being here.

The link between an identity and purpose is the structural

axis for restoration from a brain injury or maintaining a healthy

direction in life for anyone. Late in 2005 I was talking to my friend

Wayne Spyve. He mentioned this really wonderful concept to

which something within me immediately responded. He said I should

move from seeing myself as being a Brain Injury Survivor, and

think of myself and others who had been through similar challenges,

to seeing myself as a Brain Injury Thriver. This radically changed the

way I saw myself, my relationships and my ability to influence others.

My spirit kept calling out "You are a Thriver, not just a Survivor".

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The Context Of My Brain-injury: I ran a small Landscape Design

and Construction Company called ‘New Earth Systems P/L’

for 20 years doing very creative, individual designer gardens for

wealthy residential clients around Brisbane . I was an artistic sort

of person, a lateral thinker ..... more artist than businessman.

I thought of landscape it as a three-dimensional piece of space

which people walked through. This space changed with time as

it grew with the time of day: shadows vs. sun patterns, boulders,

colour, plants, trees, earth-forms, solid structures and water.

These were the ingredients in a subtle flow of landscape design

and construction. Rather an intangible product to sell and run

a business with!!

From this I built a structure for my life: my marriage with Harriet,

business and the house plus we had a family.

See the website on the house here. However as I had a focus

on creativity rather then on a successful business outcomes,

this led to fragmentary results.

My severe brain injury was over thiteen years ago. I am now in a

new season of life. I went through a real transformation of life

whereby I went from being:

1. Physical Gardener (Outer Sustainability)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 2. Inner Life Gardener

(Inner Sustainability)

Inner Sustainability: In an ongoing personal sense of core value

from within. Sustainability I have come to see, has to be a

wholistic view on life of Inner, Middle and Outer Persons. Problems

come because things do not change from the Outside to Inside but

from the Inside to the Outside. This side of the accident, I have come

\to see all people as made in the image or likeness of God. Even

though people may be broken people, we can all be restored through

Jesus Christ back into that image of God again.

The result of my accident was such that I was:

o In a coma for four weeks for six months. I felt like a three year

old child in the first week after I woke up from the coma with

no control over my actions o Had to learn to walk, talk, eat

solid food all over again I had to learn everything over again

.... how dress myself etc. Get my brain back together from

a very scrambled state I lost a lot of intuitive ability to feel what

other people are saying ..... although that has come back now

The one major thing that has come out of this accident is that I

am on a permanent life-long Income Protection Policy where I

went from virtually no work in 1995 to where I didn't have to ever

work again. I talk more about this in my story 'The Rose Water Story'.

That is real God-coincidence as to how I came to have that in place

four months before the accident I didn't know I was going to have.

Now you cannot get these policies at all in Australia for business

people. That is God.Thirteen years on, I wouldn't doing a fraction

of what am doing now with principle of being synergistically

linked to others. This has occurred in the following ways:

Harriet my Wife: First and foremost is my wife Harriet

who would drive every day to see me ..... for six months even
while I was in a four week coma. Harriet drove from Chambers Flat
from where we live, to Woolloongabba at the Princess Alexander
Hospital. Finding a park outside the hospital and walking in made
journey of at least an hour. That was a journey of 30 kms. each way.
After the visit she had the long journey home again. This generous
support which I received, was a very important part of my recovery.
Many other patients are not so fortunate.

My Family: In 2008 (now thirteen years on) it has become very

close again like a little community in and of itself, all members working
for the common good. This is because we all share in a common, a
sustainable life of structure, spirituality and social network. I have
two children .... Claire and Anthony .... they have been very supportive of me.

Support from Friends: I not only had excellent support from my wife

but many, many friends throughout my hospitalisation where nearly
100 ++ people came to see me over six months. Some people I

hadn't seen for fifteen years. My mind was not very good then but

some friends would sit and read for hours beside my bed

Money from Friends: As soon as my injury occurred in

December 1995, friends who I hadn't from for years,
phoned Harriet from down south even in other states to see
how I was. People began to send notes of encouragement to
her with sometimes gifts of money.

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Inner and Outer Life: Everyone of us has a private space in our

lives that we carefully guard. I call it ‘The Garden of Life’ A garden

is a personal space you can go out into and to enjoy the peace, the

cool air, the shadows of trees, the sun shining with translucent light

through tree leaves and palm fronds, the perfume of beautiful

blossoms. No one else comes there except yourself and your family.

Even friends do not just drop in. They are invited out there with you

after you have let them into your house. Strangers who come are

intruders and will be dwelt with by the police. It is the same with

relationships.You have enter someone’s inner life with their consent.

You do thisby valuing the person and listening intently to what

they say. Bylistening intently (consciously in a rational way and

unconsciouslywith your intuition), you are as it were gently

knocking on the door of their inner house. If that person trusts

you, they will then invite youinto the garden of their life. Then

you can talk gently back and forth, establishing a relationship

with them. They will then open their door of their inner life at a

later time if you knock. Keeping that process going is a Sustainable

Relationship. If I act suspiciously or try and crash the door with a

sledge hammer, I will not be let in. That is what I call an

Unsustainable Relationship.

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Transformation of life purpose: I have developed a passion

to build inner community with many people around the world,

especially by e-mail. As I am on a permanent life-long Income,

I have time to spend with people in a way I could never do in

my busy business. Even though I cannot drive at the moment

after thirteen years, I have learnt to drive on the Internet and

see hundreds of people at the same time. Since 2001, I have started

the following three e-mail broadcasts plus websites which have been designed free of cost for me:

Brain Injury Survivor Network (BISN) for Brain Injury People': I help facilitate the

Brain Injury Survivor Network and an international blog site through Blogger (see http://www.blogger.com).

I have brain injury survivors all over the world I am in contact with:

Australia
England
America
Singapore
Canada
Zimbabwe etc.

Statistics for brain injury in QLD: There are apparently 11,000 people a year in Queensland (one of seven states in Australia) who finish up with a brain injury from various causes.

Of those who survive, 4000 of these people will be permanently disabled in some way with reduced brain function capabilities. Less than two hundred of these can expect to receive the quality of care and further rehabilitation they need let alone deserve. Of those with a permanent brain injury, up to fifty percent of marriages and relationships will fold up. It is a big silent epidemic in our community. You can see someone in a wheelchair but you cannot see all the invisible changes that have gone on with a brain-injury.

· 'Ken and Harriet’s Place' e-mail broadcast See http://kenandharrietsplace.blogspot.com/..... to lighten up your day .... bring some fun, laughter and a different perspective on life.

·‘New Earth Community’ e-mail broadcast: A website on a new community around the world called ‘New Earth Community’ …. A community linked by the Internet in Cyberspace. This community is meant to bring a new sense of belonging with the a real discovery or affirmation of identity through the Sustainable Life. The basis of this life is one which has the ability to be continually renewed and maintained. This life has three elements to it:

Structure gives order, direction, aims and overall purpose

Spirituality gives ultimate significance. It is the inner room of your life which answers such questions as: Who are we as people?, What is the meaning of life?, Are we significant?, What values should I live by?, what gives identity and destiny

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2009-02-14T12:16:00.000-08:00

..... New Earth Community .....
A community of new being and friendship ....
based on a Christian Worldview.

....for a Vision of Wholeness with Sustainable Solutions for life

which will continue to work in the years to come ......

..... a life motivation and encouragement Blog Site.

* Spirituality ..... gives ultimate significance .... The window of light and life ….. like a large glass window at eye level …. Is the inner room of your life which will provide plenty of understanding of your life…. Answers such questions as: Who are we as people?, What is the meaning of life?, Are we significant?, What values should I live by?, What gives identity and destiny. Life is an 'Inside-Out Approach ' to life rather than 'Outside-In Approach' to life

* Social Network .... The people around us .... giving a feeling of belonging ....… multiplication and complementary effect of effort: Family & friends, Clubs and Organisations, Associations, Churches, General Community

* Structure .... Like the Body without a backbone, so is life without structure: Gives order, direction, aims and achievable objectives i.e. overall purpose.

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Welcome to the New Earth Community

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‘New Earth Community’ is a global Cyberspace Community facilitated by Ken Aitken in Australia. It is community of people who have chosen to follow Jesus Christ and we have a Christian Spirituality. We believe and act in the understanding that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago, brought us into being a new way of life. This new way was demonstrated by Jesus when He here on Earth and will come to fruition when He returns.

The focus of Jesus was on an internal, invisible change of heart and not on an external, visible keeping of certain standards and religious laws. The life He presented was an internal one which flowed out in external, visible actions.

The purpose of this community is to provide further thoughts in what it means to follow Jesus Christ in the modern context. There is a great cultural world similarity between the Roman Empire of the First Century and the cultural situation of today’s culture. This is due to the great emphasis of finding ones identity instead of relying on what Father God thinks about you.

New ideas affect our constructs of the mind and these affect the practical outcomes of our life style. What the world needs is actions of people who believe so much with their whole lifestyle in another world that they cannot help but begin enacting now.

Imagine what effect one person applying these principles can have on others. A multiplication effect influencing thousands of people. This could be you. Interested? Join this community at: aitkken@gmail.com now.

Contact Details:

Ken Aitken (B.Sc.)

E-mail: aitkken@gmail.com
Australia

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A Tip on Reading Blog Sites ....

2009-02-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

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A tip on reading blogs: After you have read the main blog writing, remember to read all the separate posts .... they do not automatically come up the main blog writing. To view photographs with a larger screen size, just click on the particular photograph and will come up a larger screen size. You can the save them if you wish by clicking 'Save Image As' in your mouse dialogue box.

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The New Spirituality

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New Spirituality People:

There are two religious spiritualities vying for the modern mind:

1. A Spirituality from Jesus Christ …. there is a great need to equip the Church to answer, in the power of the gospel, the questions emerging in a culture dominated by planetary paganism, for the sake of her evangelism and her intentional Christian living. There is a further need:

To train a new generation of scholars and leaders to understand and inform the Church of the challenge of global paganism.
To understand the richness of the Christian gospel and the Bible’s worldview in light of the post-modern pagan option.
To instruct members of Christ’s Church around the world about the implications of living in and witnessing to a pagan world.
To give an understanding of the counter-cultural character of the Christian worldview to the next generation of Christians, born into a paganized culture that claims to be just and normative, and dismisses Christianity as mere bigoted “traditionalism,” by giving Christian youth an understanding of the timeless character of the Christian/pagan antithesis.

2. The New Spirituality: This spirituality is quite different to the Spirituality from Jesus Christ as described above in where they are coming from. Each is vying for the modern mind.

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The New Spirituality global paganism: There are five distinguishing characteristics of this spiritualty:

1. All is One and One Is all …. The Universe is one living organism …. The circle is used as a symbol of the unity of the Universe ….

2. All Humanity is One …. People are in the Circle and therefore need to consider other human beings as part of God. In this view, ‘You are wonderful’.

3. All Religions are One ….. They are like giant pizza. Each Religion has a piece of the pizza with a common centre with the mystical union of the divine with our humanity.

4. There Is Only One Problem For Mankind …. There are many problems in the world and these are caused by people who do not realise who they really are ….. they are lost in a metaphysical sense ….. they do not remember their divine self. They compound the problems by having illusions of who they are ….. seeing themselves as distinct from others. By realizing the divine whole of all things again, we then realise there is only one problem ….. We have lost our true self of soul and body whereby our inner and outer parts are reunited …. A healing process needs to take place

5. There Is Only One Solution …….. words are the least way to communicate with others. We need to get in touch with our feelings so stop talking. Instead get yoked together with God to go within ourselves through the sacred technologies. In so doing, we reconfigure ourselves by getting in touch with our true selves.

A useful resource paper is given below:

Out of Spirituality into a Relationship with the infinite - personal God … Some Spirituality Comparisons between the New Spirituality the Spirituality from Jesus Christ … by Ken Aitken some_spirituality_comparisons 247 KB

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The Beginnings of a Christian Heresy Called Gnosticism:

In the time soon after Jesus in the 2^nd & 3^rd Century, a heresy of Gnosticism came amongst the later followers of Jesus Christ. This heresy led to a split or dualism in all things. There was a split between the upper more superior spiritual world and a lower downstairs material world. The material world was seen as evil. You had to get of the evil material world and be more occupied by the superior spiritual world. Special knowledge or ‘gnosis’ would lead to this awareness. The purpose of Jesus Christ coming into the world was to bring this ‘gnosis’.

Gnosticism was a blending of Christianity, Roman Mystery cults and Eastern spiritualities. The believers in Gnosticism formed themselves into communities and wrote extensively on their beliefs. This view of life was firmly put to death by the writings of the Disciples of Jesus Christ and various Christian leaders which formed the New Testament.

The 2^nd & 3^rd Century Christian Heresy lay dead for 1500 years then was brought to life again. Neo – Gnosticism began in 1945 when 50 texts discovered in clay pots in Egypt. These were translated into English by very liberal Christian scholars who saw these writings as being an alternative but valid view on Jesus Christ. This Neo – Gnosticism eventually became the New Spirituality of our age. It is really the Old Spirituality dressed up in new western clothes. The Old Spirituality of Self Enlightenment where ‘you will be as God, you will know good and evil and you will not surely die’ is found in (Genesis 3: 1-7). This was the original Temptation and Fall of Man in the Garden.

This spirituality has become very global …. a rising tide of neopaganism is on the increase. I recently heard Dr. Peter Jones address this issue speaking at a Conference on this theme in Queensland, Australia. He is part of a global organisation called Christian Witness to A Pagan Planet (CWiPP). CWiPP desires to be a global communication centre that broadcasts a gospel - driven, worldview response to pagan spirituality as well as recruiting, equipping, and mobilizing a network of fearless Christian leaders. The goals of CWiPP are:

To train a new generation of scholars and leaders to understand and inform the Church of the challenge of global paganism.
To understand the richness of the Christian gospel and the Bible’s worldview in light of the post-modern pagan option.
To instruct members of Christ’s Church around the world about the implications of living in and witnessing to a pagan world.
To give an understanding of the counter-cultural character of the Christian worldview to the next generation of Christians, born into a paganized culture that claims to be just and normative, and dismisses Christianity as mere bigoted “traditionalism,” by giving Christian youth an understanding of the timeless character of the Christian/pagan antithesis.

See the website at: http://www.cwipp.org/ Dr. Peter Jones has written and has many books which are available in the Online Store section of the website. See http://www.cwipp.org/Library.asp for viewing archives of CWiPP Newsletters.

See the section for viewing his online books at http://www.cwipp.org/shop.asp?action=cat&catID=7965 Two of his excellent books are:

· ‘Gnostic Empire Strikes Back’ by Peter Jones .... Gnostic Empire Strikes Back sounds the alarm of the New Age threat, comparing it to the ancient Christian heresy of Gnosticism.

'Spirit Wars by Peter Jones' …. Spirit Wars demonstrates that at the dawn of a new millennium, two world views (the only two) collide: pagan monism and theism–the earth goddess or the God who made heaven and earth. At the heart of our culture wars are Spirit Wars.

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The Historical Influence of Jesus Christ

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Too many Christians appear almost apologetic about their faith. Christians have cause for celebration. Christianity gave the world the principles of social justice, equality, freedom and democracy, and such institutions as schools, hospitals, orphanages, and the Red Cross, the world's greatest charities, foreign aid missions.

Christianity introduced such humanitarian concepts as abolition of slavery, abolition of slums, reduction of poverty, prison reform, abolition of cruelty to animals and abolition of child labour, unsafe factories and long working hours. No other religion has such a record of humanitarian social justice.

See this Blog Site which explores in detail the historical Influence of Jesus Christ .... The Christian heritage.

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A Spirituality from Jesus Christ

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So what is understood then by “A Spirituality from Jesus Christ”?
Included in this section ....

• A Biblical Spirituality
• The Roman Empire
• The Christian Church Sequence
• Back to the Future
• The Historical Influence of Jesus Christ
• The Newly Emerging Church

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A Biblical Spirituality….. an Overview of a spirituality from Jesus Christ:

A Christian Spirituality is based on what God has revealed through His son Jesus Christ and His Word the Bible.

It is based on an everlasting covenant that God initiated when He created man in the beginning. This covenant

exemplifies God’s unconditional love for us, His grace and His mercy towards us through the death and resurrection

of His son Jesus Christ. He has made a way for us to be accepted for who we are and not what we have done.

The essence of a Spirituality from Jesus Christ is God coming to us in the human form of Jesus Christ.

it isn’t about making us so we can find God or Jesus Christ being another spiritual prophet leading us to

God. God wants us to be with Him forever ….. He is passionate about us ….. He comes to us.

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A Spirituality from Jesus Christ results from a Biblical Spirituality which begins with the Bible. There is a truth concerning God and the whole of life. It was a

‘True Truth’ communicated by God who sees the whole Cosmos as the large picture plus you and me as part of the detailed small picture. Seeing God is

the Creator of all things, God knows the final truth. This truth was communicated by prophets and seers over many years and finally in person in Jesus of

Nazareth who was God Himself in human form. These truths were collated in the Bible which consists of sixty six books written by people who didn’t often

know each other over 1500 years ++, yet whose writing manifests an amazing unity. In this unity there is even a mathematical sequence which flows from

beginning to the end.

The books of the Bible are divided into two sections: The Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the story the nation of Israel which

predicts the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah came in the person of Jesus of the New Testament as the New Israel. There are some striking parallels

like an intricate Biblical clockwork within the bigger Biblical clockwork. This gives us even great confidence in the Word of God as the Word for the Old and

New Testament.

The Covenant a Biblical Overview … In the Old Covenant of the Old Testament is the New Concealed and in the New Covenant in the New Testament

is the Old Revealed … Jeremiah 31: 31 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.

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A Christian Spirituality ...... new covenant with the house of Israel .....

A Christian Spirituality is built on anunderstanding that you and all things around you are here by a Special Creator who is the Infinite Personal God. See the Blog Site which discusses this understanding in detail: http://christianspiritualitykog.blogspot.com/

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Resources

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These pages are given to highlight further issues of building Christian community around the world. Jesus Christ needs to be at the centre of all efforts to building that community. Then there needs to be a wholistic emphasis on the inner person (our spirit), middle person (our soul of mind, will and emotions) and our outer persons (our physical body), as being necessary for building effective community.

There are several categories here as part this Resources page:

Websites
Recommended Books ….. still under construction
Past E-mail Broadcasts ….. still under construction

Websites:

These websites have been grouped initially into two broad sections then four finer categories in the last section of four categories based on the ideas below:

1. JESUS CHRIST ….. THE ORIGIN OF ALL THINGS: see the Blog Site: http://jesuschristwebsites.blogspot.com/

2. INNER PERSON (our spirit): see the Blog Site: http://2innerpersonourspirit.blogspot.com/

3. MIDDLE PERSON (our soul of mind, will and emotions): see the Blog Site: http://3middlepersonoursoulofmind.blogspot.com/

4. OUTER PERSON (physical body) …. Practical application of our Christian Worldview And The Outer Created Order .. how did we get here? ….. through Evolution or a Special Creation?): see the Blog Site: http://4outerperson.blogspot.com/

…. An application of Paul in Romans ….. Rom 1:18-21 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness

- Are you a Reason, a Season or a Lifetime?
- The Cab Ride
- Against All Odds
- Keep Your Fork
- Just Checking In, a different type of prayer
- Should Our Fellowship Be In The Form of Community Or Corporation?
- Are we listening?
- A Trick

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Wherefore God also gave^,them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

For this cause God gave^,them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

v28 And even as they did not like to retain God intheir knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.

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Recommended Books: ….. still under construction

A Recommended Book Available From Koorong in Australia (http://www.koorong.com) or another Christian bookstore in another country

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Heavenly Man, The by Hattaway Paul, Brother Yun.

Publisher Descriptions

The true story of how God took a young, half-starved boy from a poor village in Henan Province, China, and used him to preach the gospel despite intense persecution.
[Publisher]

The Heavenly Man is the intensely dramatic story of how God took a young, half-starved boy from a poor village in Henan Province and used him mightily to preach the gospel despite horrific opposition. Brother Yun is one of China’s house church leaders, a man who despite his relative youth has suffered prolonged torture and imprisonment for his faith. His account challenges any complacency about the situation in China, where international economic investment ignores the brutal fact that religious persecution is still a daily reality for millions. Instead of focusing on the many miracles or experiences of suffering, however, Yun prefers to emphasize the character and beauty of Jesus. This astonishing book will form a watershed in your spiritual life.
[Publisher]

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Call To Conversion, The (Revised and Updated 2005) … (Why Faith Is Always Personal but Never Private)

Wallis Jim (Author of the New York Times bestselling God’s Politics)

Paperback

Koorong’s Price: $19.95 [less 15%] you pay: $16.96

Description	Publisher Descriptions
Put Your Faith into Action! A leading voice at the crossroads of faith and politics offers a prophetic appeal for our times: faced with a growing gap between the rich and poor, bombarded by national security alerts that ratchet up our stress levels, taxed by a govern-ment that spends billions of dollars on war - where do we find hope? In this revised and updated edition of his classic, Jim Wallis insightfully critiques contemporary culture and politics, inspiring us with stories to convert our way of thinking and point to a solution to our current social and political dilemmas. - Publisher

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God’s Politics

Wallis Jim (Author of the New York Times bestselling God’s Politics)

Hardback

Koorong’s Price: $34.95 [less 15%] you pay: $29.71

Description	Publisher Descriptions
Since when did believing in God and having moral values make you pro-war, pro-rich, and pro-Republican? And since when did promoting and pursuing a progressive social agenda with a concern for economic security, health care, and educational opportunity mean you had to put faith in God aside? While the Right in America has hijacked the language of faith to prop up its political agenda - an agenda not all people of faith support - the Left hasn’t done much better, largely ignoring faith and continually separating moral discourse and personal ethics from public policy. While the Right argues that God’s way is their way, the Left pursues an unrealistic separation of religious values from morally grounded political leadership. The consequence is a false choice between ideological religion and soulless politics. The effect of this dilemma was made clear in the 2004 presidential election. The Democrats’ miscalculations have left them despairing and searching for a way forward. It has become clear that someone must challenge the Republicans’ claim that they speak for God, or that they hold a monopoly on moral values in the nation’s public life. Wallis argues that America’s separation of church and state does not require banishing moral and religious values from the public square. In fact, the very survival of America’s social fabric depends on such values and vision to shape our politics - a dependence the nation’s founders recognized. God’s Politics offers a clarion call to make both our religious communities and our government more accountable to key values of the prophetic religious tradition - that is, make them pro-justice, pro-peace, pro-environment, pro-equality, pro-consistent ethic of life (beyond single issue voting), and pro-family (without making scapegoats of single mothers or gays and lesbians). Our biblical faith and religious traditions simply do not allow us as a nation to continue to ignore the poor and marginalized, deny racial justice, tolerate the ravages of war, or turn away from the human rights of those made in the image of God. These are the values of love and justice, reconciliation, and community that Jesus taught and that are at the core of what many of us believe, Christian or not. In the tradition of prophets such as Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, and Desmond Tutu, Wallis inspires us to hold our political leaders and policies accountable by integrating our deepest moral convictions into our nation’s public life. - Publisher.

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Velvet Elvis … Repainting the Christian Faith Rob Bell. Paperback Koorong’s Price: $16.95

Description	Publisher Descriptions	Author Bio
“Somewhere in my basement sits a Velvet Elvis - a painting of the King himself, air-brushed onto black velvet in a wooden frame. What if the painter of my Velvet Elvis announced there was no more need to paint, that he had painted the ultimate painting? We would think he had lost his mind because of our instinctive understanding that art is never done - it’s the endless process of learning, exploring, shaping and forming. And it’s no different with faith. The Christian faith will never be complete. We will always be exploring and discovering what it means to live in harmony with God and each other. If we don’t, our faith may end up in the basement. This book is about the endless need to keep painting. . .Rob Bell.” - Publisher.

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Irresistible Revolution, The

Claiborne Shane.

Paperback

Koorong’s Price: $14.95

Average review rating is:

PAST E-MAIL BROADCASTS ….. See the following stories:

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PAST KEN AND HARRIET PLACE E-MAIL BROADCASTS ….. E-mail broadcasts to lighten up your day …. bring some fun, laughter and a different perspective on life.

From a Christian Spirituality: Proverbs 15:13-15 “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness. All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.”

Mountain Wings

The Power of Creativity

The Dam

Africa Flying

CHRISTIAN HUMOR

The Loan Officer

Title 7%

Ken and Harriet’s Place ….. many past e-mail like the ones above

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PAST MISCELLANEOUS E-MAIL BROADCASTS FORWARDED ON ….. to encourage or inform people in a thoughtful way.

The House Church Movement in America

House Church Movement In Asia

House Churches Are More Satisfyingslamic theology and Iraqi Christians - Part I

The Barnabas Fund ….. Hope and Aid For The Persecuted Church

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The Christian Church Sequence

2009-02-12T03:10:00.000-08:00

http://thechristianchurchsequence.blogspot.com/

This Blog Site documents how the Christian Community became the Christian Church with an emphasis on a Christian Philosophy with good Christian Principles ie. not a Christian Spirituality but as Christian Religion. The Church changed from being Community to one of being a Corporation. This began to emerge in the 3rd and 4th Centuries as Christendom in the Western World.

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The Roman Empire ..... the Context

2009-02-11T22:14:00.000-08:00

http://furtherreadingpart2.blogspot.com/

http://theromanempireinthefirstcentury.blogspot.com/

The Roman culture was such that physical life didn’t matter at all:

• The Romans would go to take over whole countries and just take them over: England, North Africa, Spain, Europe etc. …. Whether they liked or not …… possibly burn their cities to the ground and take their people back to Rome as slaves as happened in Jerusalem in AD 70.

• If certain slaves showed promise, they could go through the gladiator school and provide live sport for thousands in the watching stands ….. to the death with other gladiators or wild animals …. The rewards were great for successful gladiator

• In later centuries, they executed Christians without mercy when they wouldn’t acknowledge Caesar as God and fed them to the lions in a public spectacle in the Sporting Arenas or burned them as pitched soaked night-time garden candles in the Emperor’s garden.

• Along the highways leading into Rome as the Capital of the Empire, there would be a mile of people who had been crucified leading right to the city walls. This said to people: ‘do not mess with this Empire or this is what happen to you’.

• Roman culture had a variation on wholesale abortion …. Babies would come to full term …. then if mothers didn’t want them, they would left by the roadside for wild animals or vultures to eat or they would die of exposure or they throw them in the river to drown …. Maybe 1 in 3 occurred this way especially they were girl babies

• Homosexuality was common …. Older men often had young boys as sex slaves

I explore this early Roman Culture at this Blog Site ......

Jesus Christ: where do find one record of Him ever bagging the Roman Empire and its hideous practices? Did he ever speak against slavery and any other practice that we would find offensive?

He kept His eye on the goal of the Kingdom of God ...... an eye for the final goal. What He finally taught, overthrew the Roman Empire entirely.

A Spirituality from Jesus Christ began in the first century which was set in the context of the Roman Empire. In the first century, life in the Roman Empire began to change. People who had been influenced by Jesus Christ who later became known as Christians began arriving in Rome. They spread from 120 people meeting together in an upper room in Jerusalem and spread to the four corners of the then known world. Their influence took over the Roman Empire, went to Turkey and Egypt and the Apostle Thomas even went to India.

The major difference that the teaching of Jesus Christ through his followers made in sequential centuries, is astonishing. In the book: ‘How Christianity Changed The World’, Alvin Schmidt looks in detail at how the secondary consequences of first century Christians coming to Rome made in such areas as:

• The great value given to every human life …. Rich or poor, slave or freeman, gladiator or citizen, both men and woman, the disabled and the babies (infanticide was totally acceptable)
• The elevation of Sexual Morality and the value of Marriage
• Woman Received Freedom
• Dignity Charity and Compassion replaced the Greco-Roman cultural ethos of uncompassion for the sick and dying and anyone who couldn’t offer the Emperor something
• The advent of Hospitals and Health Care
• The imprint on the value of Education for everyone, not just the sons of the privileged citizens
• Labour and Economic Freedom dignified
• Science and its commencement
• Slavery being abolished
• The stamp on Art and Architecture
• The Sound of Music

The values that produced these aspects have affected our Western world for the last 2,000 years ….. we take them as normal standards. However, it came at great cost as there were severe persecutions of Christians in the second and third centuries by the Roman Emperors. The values and practices of these people turned the Roman Culture upside down …. Woman equal to men? …. Slaves equal with all people?

There are stories of how these 1st century Christians actually turned the Roman Culture upside down:

Plagues: In some of the Roman towns, plagues would occur and so the whole town population would leave the town and go out into the countryside. They would leave the sick, old people, the handicapped and the children behind. These people would die not from the plague but from neglect. Often Christians would go into these towns and look after these people. Some of the Christians would die from the plague. When the plague was over, the families would come back and wonder why their relatives had become Christians.

Finding abandoned babies: Christian woman going through the snowy forests in the middle of winter to find abandoned babies ….. taking them back as part of their own family

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The Islamic Empire

2009-02-11T19:44:00.000-08:00

PICTURES FROM LONDON ... THIS IS BEYOND SCARY ......

Makes you wonder doesn't it ... Can you imagine having a Christian demonstration against Islam in downtown Baghdad. View the pictures below and decide how you really feel about the future of the Western World.

These pictures are of Muslims marching through the STREETS OF LONDON during their recent 'Religion of Peace Demonstration'!

Why would anyone think that we should be at war with such nice, peaceful Muslims?

All Christians need to know. You need to forward this one to everyone! These pictures tell it all!

Muslims have stated that England will be the first country they take over!

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Maker of Dutch film "Fitna" to face trial

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/01/middle-east-dut.html

Geert Wilders will now stand trial for inciting hatred and discrimination against muslims!

Did you watch his movie??? FITNA

Wow, check it out and see who's inciting hatred and violence against whom!!!!

Here's the article again below...

America as the Last Man Standing

Speech by Geert Wilders, chairman of the Party for Freedom, the Netherlands, 25 September 2008, Hudson Institute

Dear friends, Thank you very much for inviting me.

I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The danger I see looming is the scenario of America as the last man standing. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe. In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe? Patriots from around Europe risk their lives every day to prevent precisely this scenario form becoming a reality.

The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks. The Eiffel Tower and Trafalgar Square and Rome's ancient buildings and maybe the canals of Amsterdam. They are still there. And they still look very much the same as they did a hundred years ago.

But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world, a world very few visitors see – and one that does not appear in your tourist guidebook. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighbourhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corner. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighbourhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, city by city.

There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.

Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighbourhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities. In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims. Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear "whore, whore". Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin. In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can in many cases no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity. In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighbourhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because he was drinking during the Ramadan. Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run from the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel. I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.

A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe. San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.

Half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France.

Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The PewResearch Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favour of a worldwide caliphate. A Dutch study reported that half of Dutch Muslims admit they "understand" the 9/11 attacks.

Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. And this is how we give them respect. Our elites are willing to give in. To give up. In my own country we have gone from calls by one cabinet member to turn Muslim holidays into official state holidays, to statements by another cabinet member, that Islam is part of Dutch culture, to an affirmation by the Christian-Democratic attorney general that he is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey.

Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behaviour, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. Some prefer to see these as isolated incidents, but I call it a Muslim intifada. I call the perpetrators "settlers". Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies, they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.

Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighbourhoods, their cities, their countries.

Politicians shy away from taking a stand against this creeping sharia. They believe in the equality of all cultures. Moreover, on a mundane level, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.

Our many problems with Islam cannot be explained by poverty, repression or the European colonial past, as the Left claims. Nor does it have anything to do with Palestinians or American troops in Iraq. The problem is Islam itself.

Allow me to give you a brief Islam 101. The first thing you need to know about Islam is the importance of the book of the Quran. The Quran is Allah's personal word, revealed by an angel to Mohammed, the prophet. This is where the trouble starts. Every word in the Quran is Allah's word and therefore not open to discussion or interpretation. It is valid for every Muslim and for all times. Therefore, there is no such a thing as moderate Islam. Sure, there are a lot of moderate Muslims. But a moderate Islam is non-existent.

The Quran calls for hatred, violence, submission, murder, and terrorism. The Quran calls for Muslims to kill non-Muslims, to terrorize non-Muslims and to fulfill their duty to wage war: violent jihad. Jihad is a duty for every Muslim, Islam is to rule the world – by the sword. The Quran is clearly anti-Semitic, describing Jews as monkeys and pigs.

The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behaviour is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages – at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. He advised on matters of slavery, but never advised to liberate slaves. Islam has no other morality than the advancement of Islam. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad. There is no gray area or other side.

If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.

Quran as Allah's own word and Mohammed as the perfect man are the two most important facets of Islam. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means 'submission'. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.

This is what you need to know about Islam, in order to understand what is going on in Europe. For millions of Muslims the Quran and the life of Mohammed are not 14 centuries old, but are an everyday reality, an ideal, that guide every aspect of their lives. Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam "the most retrograde force in the world", and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran.

Which brings me to my movie, Fitna.

I am a lawmaker, and not a movie maker. But I felt I had the moral duty to educate about Islam. The duty to make clear that the Quran stands at the heart of what some people call terrorism but is in reality jihad. I wanted to show that the problems of Islam are at the core of Islam, and do not belong to its fringes.

Now, from the day the plan for my movie was made public, it caused quite a stir, in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. First, there was a political storm, with government leaders, across the continent in sheer panic. The Netherlands was put under a heightened terror alert, because of possible attacks or a revolt by our Muslim population. The Dutch branch of the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir declared that the Netherlands was due for an attack. Internationally, there was a series of incidents. The Taliban threatened to organize additional attacks against Dutch troops in Afghanistan, and a website linked to Al Qaeda published the message that I ought to be killed, while various muftis in the Middle East stated that I would be responsible for all the bloodshed after the screening of the movie. In Afghanistan and Pakistan the Dutch flag was burned on several occasions. Dolls representing me were also burned. The Indonesian President announced that I will never be admitted into Indonesia again, while the UN Secretary General and the European Union issued cowardly statements in the same vein as those made by the Dutch Government. I could go on and on. It was an absolute disgrace, a sell-out.

A plethora of legal troubles also followed, and have not ended yet. Currently the state of Jordan is litigating against me. Only last week there were renewed security agency reports about a heightened terror alert for the Netherlands because of Fitna.

Now, I would like to say a few things about Israel. Because, very soon, we will get together in its capitol. The best way for a politician in Europe to lose votes is to say something positive about Israel. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I, however, will continue to speak up for Israel. I see defending Israel as a matter of principle. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel. First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.

Samuel Huntington writes it so aptly: "Islam has bloody borders". Israel is located precisely on that border. This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh in Indonesia. Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.

The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.

Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West. It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they can get everything. Therefore, it is not that the West has a stake in Israel. It is Israel.

It is very difficult to be an optimist in the face of the growing Islamization of Europe. All the tides are against us. On all fronts we are losing. Demographically the momentum is with Islam. Muslim immigration is even a source of pride within ruling liberal parties. Academia, the arts, the media, trade unions, the churches, the business world, the entire political establishment have all converted to the suicidal theory of multiculturalism. So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as 'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'. The entire establishment has sided with our enemy. Leftists, liberals and Christian-Democrats are now all in bed with Islam.

This is the most painful thing to see: the betrayal by our elites.

This is the most painful thing to see: the betrayal by our elites. At this moment in Europe's history, our elites are supposed to lead us. To stand up for centuries of civilization. To defend our heritage. To honour our eternal Judeo-Christian values that made Europe what it is today. But there are very few signs of hope to be seen at the governmental level. Sarkozy, Merkel, Brown, Berlusconi; in private, they probably know how grave the situation is. But when the little red light goes on, they stare into the camera and tell us that Islam is a religion of peace, and we should all try to get along nicely and sing Kumbaya. They willingly participate in, what President Reagan so aptly called: "the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom".

If there is hope in Europe, it comes from the people, not from the elites. Change can only come from a grass-roots level. It has to come from the citizens themselves. Yet these patriots will have to take on the entire political, legal and media establishment.

Over the past years there have been some small, but encouraging, signs of a rebirth of the original European spirit. Maybe the elites turn their backs on freedom, the public does not. In my country, the Netherlands, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat to our national identity. I don't think the public opinion in Holland is very different from other European countries.

Patriotic parties that oppose jihad are growing, against all odds. My own party debuted two years ago, with five percent of the vote. Now it stands at ten percent in the polls. The same is true of all similarly-minded parties in Europe. They are fighting the liberal establishment, and are gaining footholds on the political arena, one voter at the time.

Now, for the first time, these patriotic parties will come together and exchange experiences. It may be the start of something big. Something that might change the map of Europe for decades to come. It might also be Europe's last chance.

This December a conference will take place in Jerusalem. Thanks to Professor Aryeh Eldad, a member of Knesset, we will be able to watch Fitna in the Knesset building and discuss the jihad. We are organizing this event in Israel to emphasize the fact that we are all in the same boat together, and that Israel is part of our common heritage. Those attending will be a select audience. No racist organizations will be allowed. And we will only admit parties that are solidly democratic.

This conference will be the start of an Alliance of European patriots. This Alliance will serve as the backbone for all organizations and political parties that oppose jihad and Islamization. For this Alliance I seek your support.

An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might forAmerica - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs.

This endeavor may be crucial to America and to the West. America may hold fast to the dream that, thanks to its location, it is safe from jihad and sharia. But seven years ago to the day, there was still smoke rising from ground zero, following the attacks that forever shattered that dream. Yet there is a danger even greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem.

Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe's children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so.

This is not the first time our civilization is under threat. We have seen dangers before. We have been betrayed by our elites before. They have sided with our enemies before. And yet, then, freedom prevailed.

These are not times in which to take lessons from appeasement, capitulation, giving away, giving up or giving in. These are not times in which to draw lessons from Mr. Chamberlain. These are times calling us to draw lessons from Mr. Churchill and the words he spoke in 1942:

"Never give in, never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy".

22 Jan 2009
BANGLADESH: Pastor's Wife Gang-Raped, Home Robbed

The pastor of a Baptist church in this village about a 100 kilometres south of Dhaka said that earlier this month local Muslims tied him and his wife up, robbed his living quarters on the church property and gang-raped his wife. The Rev. Shankar Hazra, 55, of Chaksing Baptist church in Gopalganj district, said that before leaving, the assailants desecrated the church building.

PAKISTAN: Sisters Abducted, Forced to Convert to Islam
The ordeal of two teenage Christian sisters in Pakistan is over after Muslims allegedly abducted and raped them and forced them to convert to Islam, but they fear a future of societal rejection.
Saudi Arabia – Saudi Man Killed Daughter for Converting to Christianity
Recently, a Saudi member of the religious police cut his daughter's tongue off and burned her to death for converting to Christianity.

The father, who works for the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, killed his daughter following a debate on religion, according to a report by the United Arab Emirates-based Gulf News.

Media organizations in Saudi Arabia are reporting that the victim wrote a blog under the name "Rania" a few days before her murder. According to the Saudi Arabia Ukhdoud news website, the victim wrote that her life became an ordeal after family members grew suspicious about her after a religious discussion with them. She said her brother found some Christian articles written by her as well as a cross sign on her computer screen. Since then he started to insult her and blamed the Internet for pushing her to change her religion, Gulfnews.com reported.
Sources close to the victim have said that the father is being investigated for "honour killing" rather than "murder", because it is deemed that he had to "wash the shame of dishonour" from his family brought about by the unbecoming behaviour of the daughter.

Saudi religious scholars frequently warn against the dangers of Christian Web sites and satellite television, which they say attract young Muslims to change their faith. They [Muslim scholars] decreed that watching these channels or browsing these websites which call for conversion to Christianity by various means is against the teachings of Islam, the Web site reported.

"Our contacts have told us of new Christians simply disappearing when their families learned of their conversion," said Todd Nettleton, Director of Media Development for The Voice of the Martyrs, "but now even Arab media outlets confirm the violent response of radical Muslims to Christianity. We pray that someday this man will come to know Christ, and find forgiveness for ending his daughter's life. Our hope is that someday he will see his daughter again, in heaven."
The Voice of the Martyrs supports the evangelism efforts of Christians in Saudi Arabia, despite the great cost.

"We call on Christians everywhere to pray for believers facing intense persecution in Saudi Arabia because of their faith," said Nettleton. "Pray God will encourage them and give them boldness to stand up for Christ."

4 Dec 2008
PAKISTAN - 20-year-old Arrested & Falsely Accused
Church elder Gulsher and his 20-year-old daughter Sandal were arrested on 9 October 2008 and falsely accused and charged with violating section 295-B of the Pakistani legal code, the "blasphemy" law, for ripping pages from the Koran after a mob from the local mosque surrounded their house. Loudspeakers from different mosques broadcast accusations that Christians had disgraced the Quran, calling Muslims to attack and burn their homes. The angry crowd threw stones and set fire to Sandul's home. Christians believe Sandul and her father were targeted and arrested because they were actively winning villagers to Christ.
"Kill them! These infidels must die!" screamed members of the mob as they hurled stones and bottles of kerosene at the house and nearby church.

Gulsher and his wife Suria have eight children ranging in age from 8 to 20 years. Sandal is their eldest and like her father, she is a strong Christian and an active member of her church. She loves to sing and regularly leads worship and reads the Bible in church services. She also runs prayer meetings and has been reaching out to neighbours and friends with the Gospel.
As the mob attacked their home, Sandal comforted her mother and siblings by saying, "Don't worry. Let's pray to the Lord - He can help us in this difficult time." The whole family prayed together and Sandal read from Matthew, chapter 5.

Police came and put Sandal and her father in protective custody. Then they charged her with violating section 295-B of Pakistani law. The charge of desecrating the Koran calls for life imprisonment. It is likely that Sandal will spend at least four years in prison. According to one of our workers, "The whole thing was a set-up because Sandal and her father were aggressively winning villagers to Christ."

Two or three days before the arrest, Gulmer's eight-year-old son had found pages lying on the ground near the house and brought them inside. The pages were from the Koran or an Islamic book. Sandal gave the pages to her Muslim neighbour, saying, "We found these on the ground. You can have them if you like - we have no need of them."

Our team in Pakistan are doing everything they can to help Sandal and her father. The team was on the scene during the riot and helped move the rest of the family to a different village for safety. They have met with Suria and her other children to counsel and encourage them through prayer, sharing from the Scriptures and emergency financial support. Please pray for Gulmer and Sandal who are in prison. Pray too, for Suria and the family during this difficult time.
Image removed by sender.

Sandul has written several letters to her family from prison. In her latest letter she says, "I am praying a lot that God releases me from here and I can meet you, but I don't know when. He will give answers for our prayers. Please pray for me." If convicted, Sandul faces at least four years in prison. She and her family desperately need your prayers and encouragement.

The Voice of the Martyrs has supported Sandul and her family both financially and spiritually through this difficult time. VOM encourages you to lift this family up in prayer and ask God to encourage them. VOM has featured Sandul on the group's Christian prisoner Web site, www.prisoneralert.com. VOM encourages you to visit this Web site and compose letters of encouragement and mail them to Sandul. You can also send letters to the Pakistani government requesting Sandul be released.
15 Jan 2009

TURKEY: 19 year Old Sentenced for Stabbing Priest in Izmir
A judge in Turkey sentenced a 19-year-old Muslim to four-and-a-half years in prison on 5 January for stabbing a Catholic priest in the coastal city of Izmir in December 2007.

Iraq – Two Christian Sisters Killed
On Nov. 12, two sisters were killed and their mother wounded by a gang of Islamic extremists in the Al Qahira section of Mosul, Iraq, according to VOM contacts. The gunmen shot one of the sisters as she was waiting for a bus outside their home. They then stormed into the home, killed the other sister and injured their mother. A bomb placed by the assailants at the entrance of the house detonated as police arrived on the scene, injuring several officers.
This incident is the latest in a series of attacks on Christians that have occurred in Mosul, in recent weeks. Since October, more than seven Christians have been killed and more than 200 families displaced. The Christian community in Iraq is estimated to be 3 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, or about 800,000. Some Christians believe they are being targeted in an effort to wipe out the Christian community's economic activity and drive believers from the area. Since 2003, Christian leaders, churches and businesses in Iraq have been targeted by Islamic extremists. As a result, many believers have fled.

Guerrilla Fighter Turns Gospel Follower
Image removed by sender. Ismael excelled quickly through the ranks of the FARC guerrilla movement. At age 17 he was recruiting others in the surrounding villages and at 21 he was commanding a gang of 12 guerrillas. Ismael's commander dared his gang to massacre a group of civilians. Ismael complied. He was promoted and sent for further training in explosives and kidnapping. 'I kidnapped many people, including foreigners,' Ismael said. Saul of Tarsus, Ismael learned to hate Christians.

During one attack, Ismael stopped a bus filled with passengers, they were ordered out of the bus. One elderly woman was told to leave and the remaining 26 were told to kneel with their hands behind their backs so the guerrillas could tie them up. Amidst the pleas of the frightened victims, a man named Alex began singing. 'I knew they were going to shoot all of us,' Alex said, 'so I began to sing to God. I thought this is how a Christian should meet God with a song.' All 26 passengers were shot. Then Ismael told his men to make sure all the workers were dead. Alex had been shot in the face. Ismael strode up to Alex's limp body and struck his neck with a machete. 'I remained as still as possible,' Alex said, 'but I was bleeding into my throat and could not breathe. I felt bad that I might die and had not shared Jesus with these guerrillas.' Miraculously, Alex survived. He lost one eye and most of his sight in the other. Ismael was eventually arrested and sent to Bella Vista prison to serve a 32-year sentence. 'A man named Weimer was preaching to the imprisoned guerrillas,' Ismael said. 'I began to think of all the people I had hurt, and I began to cry. I said I wanted to accept Christ.' Weimer gave Ismael a New Testament to read.

As Ismael studied the Bible he met Alex, a volunteer at the prison, and they became friends. 'Over time, I heard what had happened to Alex and realised I was the one who did this to him. I became very afraid.' Through a veil of tears, Ismael told Alex the truth: he was the one who had hurt him; he had ordered the attack on the bus, and he had personally struck Alex with his machete. 'Could you ever forgive me?' Ismael asked. Alex described how he felt at that moment. 'I held no hard feelings. My greatest joy was that I could teach Ismael forgiveness by example. I thought, 'Wow! I can die happy because Ismael loves the Lord!'' Recently, Ismael spoke on national TV in Colombia asking his former comrades to stop kidnapping and killing. He announced he had found true freedom. Praise God, this former enemy of the Gospel is now a witness for Christ.

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http://awarningfromexmuslimstohumanity.blogspot.com/

Dear fellow human,

Today humanity is being challenged. Unthinkable atrocities take place on daily basis. There is an evil force at work that aims to destroy us. The agents of this evil respect nothing; not even the lives of children. Every day there are bombings, every day innocent people are targeted and murdered. It seems as if we are helpless. But we are not!

The ancient Chinese sage Sun Zi said, "Know your enemy and you won't be defeated". Do we know our enemy? If we don't, then we are doomed. Terrorism is not an ideology, it is a tool; but the terrorists kill for an ideology. They call that ideology Islam. The entire world, both Muslims and non-Muslims claim that the terrorists have hijacked "the religion of peace" and Islam does not condone violence. Who is right? Do the terrorists understand Islam better, or do those who decry them? The answer to this question is the key to our victory, and failure to find that key will result in our loss and death will be upon us. The key is in the Quran and the history of Islam.

Those of us, who know Islam, know that the understanding of the terrorists of Islam is correct. They are doing nothing that their prophet did not do and did not encourage his followers to do. Murder, rape, assassination, beheading, massacre and sacrilege of the dead "to delight the hearts of the believers" were all practiced by Muhammad, were taught by him and were observed by Muslims throughout their history.

If truth has ever mattered, it matters most now! This is the time that we have to call a spade a spade. This is the time that we have to find the root of the problem and eradicate it. The root of Islamic terrorism is Islam. The proof of that is the Quran.

We are a group of ex-Muslims who have seen the face of the evil and have risen to warn the world. No matter how painful the truth may be, only truth can set us free. Why this much denial? Why so much obstinacy? How many more innocent lives should be lost before YOU open your eyes? A nuclear disaster is upon us. This will happen. It is not a question of "if" but "when". Oblivious of that, the world is digging its head deeper in the sand.

We urge the Muslims to leave Islam. Stop with excuses, justifications and rationalizations. Stop dividing mankind into "us" vs. "them" and Muslims vs. Kafirs. We are One people, One mankind! Muhammad was not a messenger of God. It is time that we end this insanity and face the truth. The terrorists take their moral support and the validation for their actions from you. Your very adherence to their cult of death is a nod of approval for their crimes against humanity.

We also urge the non-Muslims to stop being politically correct lest they hurt the sensitivities of the Muslims. To Hell with their sensitivities! Let us save their lives, and the lives of millions of innocent people.

Millions, if not billions of lives will be lost if we do nothing. Time is running out! "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing." Do something! Send this message to everyone in your address book and ask them to do the same. Defeat Islam and stop terrorism. This is your world, save it.

.... The ex-Muslim Movement

www.faithfreedom.org

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Pat Condell on Islam ..... only watch if you are on Cable Internet. Youtube comes in very slowly otherwise in fragmented buffering .....

* http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=y9dXGJ2rYdA&NR=1

* http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=OxbYBIlT6VE

* http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ox2-Wun2dIg&feature=related

* http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=HhN6CG1zCRc&feature=related

* http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=H1ZLXbKeL2U&feature=related

* http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=9NhWT0_SRZc&feature=related

* http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=XUTFcgE1F7w&feature=related

* http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=mHh0NdR5Jh0&feature=related

And then there are his views on ALL Religion...!

* http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=GXzladhscMQ&feature=related

* http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=atTSwau9fwM&NR=1

* http://www.patcondell.net/

* http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/

* http://au.youtube.com/user/patcondell

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Subject: The techniques that Islam uses to infiltrate our country

http://www.downundernewslinks.com/2008/09/09/what-islam-is-not/

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How To Live in the Present World

2009-02-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

If we have moved from the Church Age back to the Kingdom Age with the simple teachings of Jesus Christ, what does that mean for us today?

http://keepyourforknecom.blogspot.com/

There was a young woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given three months to live. So as she was getting her things "in order," she contacted her pastor and had him come to her house to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes. She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, what scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in.Everything was in order and the pastor was preparing to leave when the young woman suddenly remembered something very important to her. "There's one more thing," she said excitedly.

"What's that?" came the pastor's reply.

"This is very important," the young woman continued. "I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand.

http://arewelistening.blogspot.com/

A young man had been to Wednesday night Bible Study. The Pastor had shared about listening to God and obeying the Lord's voice. The young man couldn't help but wonder, "Does God still speak to people?"

After service he went out with some friends for coffee and pie and they discussed the message. Several different ones talked about how God had led them in different ways. It was about ten o'clock when the young man started driving home. Sitting in his car, he just began to pray, "God...If you still speak to people speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey."

http://thecabride.blogspot.com/ THE CAB RIDE ... are you part of a community of abundance?

Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. When I arrived at 2:30 a.m., the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a minute, then drive away. But, I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door.

http://banmeatavillage1999.blogspot.com/ THE STORY OF THE BAN MEATA CHRISTIAN CHILDREN’S VILLAGE Ban Meata (Thai: Barn Meata = house of Mercy) … a house of mercy, hope, joy, happiness, new life for the children of Thailand. In October 1999, I was able to visit the North Thailand Ban Meata Christian Children’s Village (Thai: Barn Meata = House of Mercy). I went as a volunteer Permaculture facilitator and planner for self-sufficiency in their food gardens. Since my brain injury in December 1995 and my rehabilitation, my going to Thailand alone, was a major undertaking. While I was there, I set up a long-term plan for self-sufficiency in the food gardens. This involved writing a fifteen-page report which can be evaluated over time by e-mail and added to as the project is implemented. I am currently writing a section on no-dig gardens since my personal success with this method over recent months.

http://attitudeattitudeofthe92-yearold.blogspot.com/ ATTITUDE ....

The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.

Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. "I love it," she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

http://frommotherteresaofcalcutta.blogspot.com/ From Mother Teresa of Calcutta .... how to deal with other people

http://thiswillmakeyoucry.blogspot.com/ Flowers For MY Friend READ THIS!!!

And then reread it. Especially the last part... I walked into the grocery store not particularly interested in buying groceries. I wasn't hungry. The pain of losing my husband of 7 years was still too raw. And this grocery store held so many sweet memories. He often came with me and almost every time he'd pretended to go off and look for something special. I knew what he was up to. I'd always spot him walking down the aisle with the three yellow roses in his hands. He knew I loved yellow roses.

http://areyouareasonaseasonoralifetime.blogspot.com/ Pay attention to what you read. After you read this, you will know the reason it was sent to you! People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which one it is, you will know what to do for each person. When someone is in your life for a REASON. It is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually.

They may seem like a godsend, and they are! They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrong doing on your part, or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered. And now it is time to move on.

http://againstalltheoddsnecom.blogspot.com/ Against All Odds "We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival."—Winston Churchill

In January 1982, American Steven Callahan set sail from the Canary Islands in a small sailboat he'd built himself, his plan to cross the Atlantic. He was 30 years old, fit, capable and looking forward to the voyage that had been his dream since boyhood. Six days later while he slept content in his berth, the boat struck something big, most likely a whale, and capsized. Awakened by the collision, Callahan had only a few precious seconds to grab what he could before scrambling to position himself safely aboard a five-foot inflatable dinghy.

http://thepeastory.blogspot.com/ Babs Miller was bagging some early potatoes for me. I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprising a basket of freshly picked green peas. I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes.

http://lifeattitudescruiseship.blogspot.com/ ...... Life Attitudes: Cruise Ship .... a modern day parable on the current nature of the Western Church in the 21st Century ....

http://thedarttest.blogspot.com/ Dart Test ... THIS IS A POWERFUL MESSAGE. PLEASE READ ALL OF IT. I AM PASSING IT ON BECAUSE I AM CERTAINLY NOT ASHAMED TO DO SO.

http://theoldphoneinformationplease.blogspot.com/ When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember the polished, old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother talked to it.

Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person. Her name was "Information Please" and there was nothing she did not know. Information Please could supply anyone's number and the correct time.

http://godsyellowpages.blogspot.com/ Where to look when ......

http://potatochipsviavivienne.blogspot.com/ A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with a bag of potato chips and a six-pack of root beer and started his journey.

When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park, just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her some chips. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him.

http://themanwhoplantedtrees.blogspot.com/ JEAN GIONO Translation from french by Peter Doyle

In order for the character of a human being to reveal truly exceptional qualities, we must have the good fortune to observe its action over a long period of years. If this action is devoid of all selfishness, if the idea that directs it is one of unqualified generosity, if it is absolutely certain that it has not sought recompense anywhere, and if moreover it has left visible marks on the world, then we are unquestionably dealing with an unforgettable character.

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The Inside - Out Life VersusThe Outside - In Life

2009-02-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

A NEW WAY OF LIFE ..... to my Christian and New Spirituality Friends Around the World .....
There is a big difference between the outlook of the Christian Church as derived from Jesus Christ and the way your country is administrated through politics, jurisdictions, bureaucratic frameworks, economics and pragmatics as with other Western Cultures around the world. These are largely derived from a Christianised framework developed over centuries.

My central thesis in what I write here is that Jesus in what He taught and stood for, never intended to make a ‘Jesus Framework’ that would take over existing administration systems in the Jewish Culture. At the time Israel was administered by the Roman Empire ..... from Rome.

Jesus never taught a system of ethics as with the Dharma of Buddhism or teaching or the way but rather He was the Way, the Truth and the Life and ethics and a whole attitude to life which flows from that understanding. It was an Inside – Outside Life vs. an Outside – In Life. He came to teach a new Kingdom Order that was not left of centre or right of centre. His approach was a third alternative to these two.

Jesus set out a basic ground of verbal teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:17-42), for His new Kingdom Order where he taught His disciples principles like:

Message Bible: Luke 6:17-42:

You're Blessed

17 -21 Coming down off the mountain with them, he stood on a plain surrounded by disciples, and was soon joined by a huge congregation from all over Judea and Jerusalem, even from the seaside towns of Tyre and Sidon. They had come both to hear him and to be cured of their ailments. Those disturbed by evil spirits were healed. Everyone was trying to touch him—so much energy surging from him, so many people healed!

Then he spoke:

You're blessed when you've lost it all. God's kingdom is there for the finding. You're blessed when you're ravenously hungry. Then you're ready for the Messianic meal. You're blessed when the tears flow freely. Joy comes with the morning.

22 -23" Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—skip like a lamb, if you like!—for even though they don't like it, I do . . . and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this.

Give Away Your Life

24But it's trouble ahead if you think you have it made. What you have is all you'll ever get.
25And it's trouble ahead if you're satisfied with yourself. Your self will not satisfy you for long.
And it's trouble ahead if you think life's all fun and games. There's suffering to be met, and you're going to meet it.

26"There's trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.

27 -30 "To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with
the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, gift-wrap your best coat and make a present of it.
If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

31 -34 "Here is a simple rule of thumb for behaviour: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable,
do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that.
If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that's charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

35 -36 "I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You'll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives
toward us, generously and graciously, even when we're at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.

37 -38 "Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don't condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you'll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you'll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity."

39 -40 He quoted a proverb: "'Can a blind man guide a blind man?' Wouldn't they both end up in the ditch? An apprentice doesn't lecture the master. The point is to be careful who you follow as your teacher.

41 -42 "It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbour's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you, ' when your own face is distorted by contempt? It's this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbour.

…… not strong qualities to take over the world. The Politics of Jesus are contained in the Kingdom of God values.

See the Blog Site: http://aninsideoutchange.blogspot.com/ Spirituality from Jesus Christ: An Inside - Out Change and not an Out - Inside-Change ....... An Inner New Spiritual Birth .....

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The Roman culture was such that physical life didn’t matter at all:

• The Romans would go to take over whole countries and just take them over: England, North Africa, Spain, Europe etc. …. Whether they liked or not …… possibly burn their cities to the ground and take their people back to Rome as slaves as happened in Jerusalem in AD 70.

• If certain slaves showed promise, they could go through the gladiator school and provide live sport for thousands in the watching stands ….. to the death with other gladiators or wild animals …. The rewards were great for successful gladiator

• In later centuries, they executed Christians without mercy when they wouldn’t acknowledge Caesar as God and fed them to the lions in a public spectacle in the Sporting Arenas or burned them as pitched soaked night-time garden candles in the Emperor’s garden.

• Along the highways leading into Rome as the Capital of the Empire, there would be a mile of people who had been crucified leading right to the city walls. This said to people: ‘do not mess with this Empire or this is what happen to you’.

• Roman culture had a variation on wholesale abortion …. Babies would come to full term …. then if mothers didn’t want them, they would left by the roadside for wild animals or vultures to eat or they would die of exposure or they throw them in the river to drown …. Maybe 1 in 3 occurred this way especially they were girl babies

• Homosexuality was common …. Older men often had young boys as sex slaves

I explore this early Roman Culture at this Blog Site ......

Jesus Christ: where do find one record of Him ever bagging the Roman Empire and its hideous practices? Did he ever speak against slavery and any other practice that we would find offensive?

He kept His eye on the goal of the Kingdom of God ...... an eye for the final goal. What He finally taught, overthrew the Roman Empire entirely.

A Spirituality from Jesus Christ began in the first century which was set in the context of the Roman Empire. In the first century, life in the Roman Empire began to change. People who had been influenced by Jesus Christ who later became known as Christians began arriving in Rome. They spread from 120 people meeting together in an upper room in Jerusalem and spread to the four corners of the then known world. Their influence took over the Roman Empire, went to Turkey and Egypt and the Apostle Thomas even went to India.

The major difference that the teaching of Jesus Christ through his followers made in sequential centuries, is astonishing. In the book: ‘How Christianity Changed The World’, Alvin Schmidt looks in detail at how the secondary consequences of first century Christians coming to Rome made in such areas as:

• The great value given to every human life …. Rich or poor, slave or freeman, gladiator or citizen, both men and woman, the disabled and the babies (infanticide was totally acceptable)
• The elevation of Sexual Morality and the value of Marriage
• Woman Received Freedom
• Dignity Charity and Compassion replaced the Greco-Roman cultural ethos of uncompassion for the sick and dying and anyone who couldn’t offer the Emperor something
• The advent of Hospitals and Health Care
• The imprint on the value of Education for everyone, not just the sons of the privileged citizens
• Labour and Economic Freedom dignified
• Science and its commencement
• Slavery being abolished
• The stamp on Art and Architecture
• The Sound of Music

The values that produced these aspects have affected our Western world for the last 2,000 years ….. we take them as normal standards. However, it came at great cost as there were severe persecutions of Christians in the second and third centuries by the Roman Emperors. The values and practices of these people turned the Roman Culture upside down …. Woman equal to men? …. Slaves equal with all people?

There are stories of how these 1st century Christians actually turned the Roman Culture upside down:

Plagues: In some of the Roman towns, plagues would occur and so the whole town population would leave the town and go out into the countryside. They would leave the sick, old people, the handicapped and the children behind. These people would die not from the plague but from neglect. Often Christians would go into these towns and look after these people. Some of the Christians would die from the plague. When the plague was over, the families would come back and wonder why their relatives had become Christians.

Finding abandoned babies: Christian woman going through the snowy forests in the middle of winter to find abandoned babies ….. taking them back as part of their own family
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Jesus’s Politics of the Centre

• Change the heart of a person and a culture which flows out of that change and you will change the culture forever.
• Change the root of life and the fruit will be different (parable of the fig tree)
• If you keep picking off the bad fruit off a fruit tree, it still will keep producing bad fruit
• Change the nature of the tree by cutting down that tree …. Replace with a good tree and you will get good fruit
• Jesus never taught a system of ethics as with the Dharma of Buddhism or teaching or the way but rather He was the Way, the Truth and the Life and ethics and a whole attitude to life which flows from that understanding.
• Change the inner life first then the way of life will change eg. Zacchaeus the tax collector
• Good fruit comes when you change the roots of life.

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Stories and Principles… a sample:

• You are Salt and Light of the earth
• If a Roman Soldier asks you to take his pack one mile (as was the legal requirement), go with him two miles
• If someone smites on the cheek, turn the other one to him also
• If someone wants your outer tunic (which kept the cold out), give him your under tunic as well
• Murder and adultery begin in the heart …. Not in the act itself
• You are to love your enemies
• Don’t do your charitable deeds before men where everyone sees them , do them only before God ….. He only sees them
• Do not worry …. Your Heavenly Father will provide
• Do not judge others
• Go through the narrow way vs. the broad way
• You will know people by their fruits
• Giving a cup of cold water in my name
• Parable of the Sower
• Parable of the Wheat and Tares
• Parable of the a tiny mustard seed in the culture
• Parable of the leaven
• Parable of the Pearl of Great Price
• Parable of the Dragnet

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THE REBEL MAN

Jesus had a problem with the contemporary Jewish Church of his day. The Christian church today is very similar. Jesus would get a similar reaction to one he received from the Jewish Church. The Jewish Church had graded people into two categories:

• Those within the framework of the church who lived and believed closely and acted closely with the whole Jewish religious system ...... they were acceptable people of God
• Those outside the framework of the church who lived / believed and acted outside the whole Jewish religious system ...... they were NOT acceptable people of God

Jesus was loved by the people but he was seen as a real rebel to the people who ran the church or were very closely involved in it. It is an issue of Christ as being in the form of Community or as a Corporation. It is ultimately about Identity versus Destiny issue ie. who is valuable to God?... as determined by God above or by the Church as an organisation?

By Community, I mean a Religious Community with attributes such as being personal, being social, being personally known and connected to other people and being committed to those people in a definite way. In the final end, it being there for the common good of everyone else. In the end this expression of the Religious Community emphasises the Infinite - Personal God, as the God who is more personal, tangible and amongst us. (Immanent).

By Corporation, I mean a Religious Corporation with attributes such as religious intuitionalism, hierarchy, traditional worship, set forms of worship, beauty offered to God and a sense of permanence. The expression of a Religious Corporation attempts to express the Christian viewpoint of God into visible, ritualistic forms that have a long-term permanence about them. In the end, this expression of the Religious Corporation emphasises the Infinite - Personal God, the God who is more infinite, intangible and beyond us (transcendent).

Before Jesus died on the Cross, He set up his followers as a Community. Two thousand years later, we largely experience Jesus life and teaching in a Corporation sense. Should our fellowship be in the form of Corporation or that of a Community? I look at these issues in these Blog Sites:

• The Form of our Fellowship ..... see http://shouldourfellowshipbeintheform.blogspot.com/
• Christ Or Church? .... see http://christorchurch.blogspot.com/
• House Churches Are More Satisfying .... see http://housechurcheskap.blogspot.com/
• Christ Church and Community .... see http://christchurchandcommunity.blogspot.com/
• The Christian Church Sequence .... see http://thechristianchurchsequence.blogspot.com/

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Results of what Jesus taught:

• The Church leaders of the day conspired with the pagan Roman rulers to silence Him in a mock trial.
• He was given a criminal’s death on a cross.
• His followers were hounded throughout the Empire to be put to death …. They hid in the burial caves or catacombs near Rome ….. but turned the world upside down in the final end.
• They spread Christianity to utter most parts of the world and we are still talking about Jesus 2000 years later …. All the Roman Caesars are dead and largely forgotten about.

Implications for us in 2009:

• Should we think about saving the world and speaking against politics, republican vs. monarchistics issues, aboriginal injustices, the freedom of homosexuals, abortion issues etc. etc.
• What is the central issue with Jesus and His followers? How should we think Christianly about our world?

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In conclusion, we live between the past and the future. This is the results of Jesus life, death and resurrection of the past and the future cosmic recreation of this whole Earth … with all its new systems. We called as the followers of Jesus to be salt and light of this new way of being.

Jesus never taught a system of ethics as with the Dharma of Buddhism or teaching or the way but rather He was the Way, the Truth and the Life and ethics and a whole attitude to life which flows from that understanding. It was an Inside – Outside Life vs. an Outside – In Life. He came to teach a new Kingdom Order that was not left of centre or right of centre. His approach was a third alternative to these two.

Jesus set out a basic ground of verbal teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:17- 42),

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