January 29, 2009
Thank you for all the emails that conveyed your blessings. I was away for 5 days overseas during CNY. I have no access to the internet. Now I am backed home and would like to send you a greeting.
The Chinese would know that CNY has always to do with superstition. Over the festive period the media in my country talked much about Feng Shui and the Chinese Astrology.
This year is the Year of Bull or Ox. In many shopping malls, a golden bull was set up for display. It reminded me of the sin of the Israelis during the exodus when they persuaded Aaron to build them a golden calf and subsequently worshipped it as their god.
The irony, Moses was up on the mountain receiving the tablets of The Ten Commandments. The first two commandments God cautioned them that: 1 - You shall have no other gods before Me; 2 – You shall not make for yourself a carved image. God knew beforehand what His people were about to do.
The golden bull has become an icon for the Chinese during CNY. They prayed that the bull will bring those lucks. By doing so they repeated the folly of the Israelis.
But the Chinese who was the descendant of Shem, one of Noah’s sons, worshipped Jehovah God when they first migrated to China. They created their language in pictorial forms. There are thousands of Chinese characters. Besides creating words based on the stories of Genesis, they received revelations from Him.
A few days ago I received the Rhema that the Year of Bull has some significance for the Chinese. I did not read this from any other source. You know the word Bull（牛）is made up of a Cross （十）carrying a Man （人）on its top. What does that speak? It speaks that when the children of God made the golden bull, they offended their Master. Consequently they needed Christ to carry them up. Christ is the way of redemption. By the way, you will discover that there are umpteen crosses （十）in the Chinese characters.
Again, another awesome Rhema I received was that the word Year（年）is made up of the bull（牛）carrying a Man（人）on its top. In the OT, you read a lot about Bull Sacrifice during Israeli festivals. The bulls were sacrificed as a mean of sin redemption as well as festive celebrations. In the olden days of China, bulls were helpful animals for crop fields. Bulls, sheep and goats were slaughtered as sacrifices. When a Bull was sacrificed, it was not the Bull that gave forgiveness but God. The Chinese stopped eating beef when they embraced Buddhism. Beef is a forbidden food for its believers. But the people in Northern China where Buddhism is not prevailing are still consuming it.
As Christians we do not belong to any of the animals in the Chinese Zodiac. We belonged to the Almighty God. God is the source of our blessing. God really loves the Chinese. He wanted to see the 1.3 billion souls come to salvation. So this Year of the Bull would be very meaningful for all the yellow-skinned Chinese worldwide. Our Lord Jesus is coming soon. The economy downturn presently is one of the end-time signs. Let us see many Chinese come to salvation. God has crowned the year with redemption.
Lastly, I wish you a Blessed Niu Year. (Remember the word “Niu” is Bull or Ox, and it has the same pronunciation as the word “New”.)
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
新年无休
日前光顾一间餐馆，抢眼的大大个告示牌写着“新年无休”。它最适合用粤语来读，就变成“新年无忧”。春节都是讲好意头的嘛，这年头来全世界闹经济不景，真的怕老板叫你长休（不必来上班了）！
至于报纸，原本年初一和年初二是无报的，现在只在年初二无报。世界每个角落不因报馆休假而没有新闻，人为了满足知欲，一日无资讯不欢。所以报馆削减报业假期，也是为了读者的利益。世界变迁，互联网资讯就弥补了报馆休假的不便。
上了年纪的人都会回忆以前农历新年，人不会太拼搏的。许多行业都会休长假的，新年头几天你很难找到熟食的。尤其是干“三行”（建筑业）的，不过了元宵节都不开工的。
现在大马的环境变了，社会竞争日益激烈，你不勤劳一点就给人抢走饭碗的了！竞争激烈，无论做大小生意的人，自从1997年南亚金融风暴以来，都感叹生意越来越难做。所以许多商人小贩宁愿在春节牺牲休息，希望多挣几个钱。不要说酒楼餐馆新年无休，连传统的茶餐室也纷纷新年无休。
城市人不防在春节头几天逛逛购物广场，其热闹程度一点都不逊平常日子呢！我在吉隆坡电脑城购物，我问那华裔员工春节休息多少天，他回答说年初二开工。我说新年哪里有人来买电脑产品。他说他们要做其他种族的生意嘛。对呀！几十年前城市都以华裔为主的，那时新年当然就多休息几天，因为人都在过年，不会出来购物的。不经不觉，其实城市已经不再由华裔己有了，非华裔从乡下迁入城市，种族人口参杂，是社会生活状况变迁的因素之一。
大马的多元种族环境，往后春节的气氛就与纯华人环境的中港台鸿沟越拉越大。过往大马被誉为一个春节气氛浓厚的国家，但我们国人新年不休的情况就变得越来越不像过年了，因为春节生活作息与平常日子无异。人们为了干活，春节不回乡了，即使家乡是在本地的，也难跟父母家人团圆。人的生活变得繁忙而忽略了亲情。倘若“新年无休”情形才持续下去的话，再多几年，大马春节浓厚的气氛就不再了！
我不是说春节必须像以前那般休假长，而是说应该休息，但不要太长。人在社会拼搏，必须记住我们的血肉之躯是需要休息的。最基本就是每个星期最少休息一天。而在拼搏的同时，必须顾虑身边亲人的利益。或者在新春忙碌完毕不防安静下来思考，重新评估我们人生的价值观。
至于报纸，原本年初一和年初二是无报的，现在只在年初二无报。世界每个角落不因报馆休假而没有新闻，人为了满足知欲，一日无资讯不欢。所以报馆削减报业假期，也是为了读者的利益。世界变迁，互联网资讯就弥补了报馆休假的不便。
上了年纪的人都会回忆以前农历新年，人不会太拼搏的。许多行业都会休长假的，新年头几天你很难找到熟食的。尤其是干“三行”（建筑业）的，不过了元宵节都不开工的。
现在大马的环境变了，社会竞争日益激烈，你不勤劳一点就给人抢走饭碗的了！竞争激烈，无论做大小生意的人，自从1997年南亚金融风暴以来，都感叹生意越来越难做。所以许多商人小贩宁愿在春节牺牲休息，希望多挣几个钱。不要说酒楼餐馆新年无休，连传统的茶餐室也纷纷新年无休。
城市人不防在春节头几天逛逛购物广场，其热闹程度一点都不逊平常日子呢！我在吉隆坡电脑城购物，我问那华裔员工春节休息多少天，他回答说年初二开工。我说新年哪里有人来买电脑产品。他说他们要做其他种族的生意嘛。对呀！几十年前城市都以华裔为主的，那时新年当然就多休息几天，因为人都在过年，不会出来购物的。不经不觉，其实城市已经不再由华裔己有了，非华裔从乡下迁入城市，种族人口参杂，是社会生活状况变迁的因素之一。
大马的多元种族环境，往后春节的气氛就与纯华人环境的中港台鸿沟越拉越大。过往大马被誉为一个春节气氛浓厚的国家，但我们国人新年不休的情况就变得越来越不像过年了，因为春节生活作息与平常日子无异。人们为了干活，春节不回乡了，即使家乡是在本地的，也难跟父母家人团圆。人的生活变得繁忙而忽略了亲情。倘若“新年无休”情形才持续下去的话，再多几年，大马春节浓厚的气氛就不再了！
我不是说春节必须像以前那般休假长，而是说应该休息，但不要太长。人在社会拼搏，必须记住我们的血肉之躯是需要休息的。最基本就是每个星期最少休息一天。而在拼搏的同时，必须顾虑身边亲人的利益。或者在新春忙碌完毕不防安静下来思考，重新评估我们人生的价值观。
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
An Inverted Fu
An inverted Fu
A normal Fu
Chinese put up red posters with auspicious words (Chun Lian) during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) at their door posts. They also hang red cloth over the lintel. What they practiced resembles the practice of the Israelites. Israelites posted scriptures all over their door posts. In fact if you visit Christian homes in China, you will see that many homes used scriptures for their Chun Lian.
To the Chinese, red cloth symbolizes salvation and deliverance. For the Israelites, the blood of the lamb symbolizes these too. Remember the story of the Passover in the book of Exodus? The blood of the lamb was put on the lintel and door posts. When the angel of death sees the blood, he will spare the household from death. Could that be coincident? Not at all, because God loves the Chinese. There are over 200 Chinese characters which matched the stories in the book of Genesis. It proved that the descendants of Noah who migrated to
Fu is the Chinese character for "Luck". Chinese often put up a poster with the character Fu upside down on walls and doors during Spring Festival without knowing why. It is the only time when a Chinese character is posted upside down intentionally. Once I dined at a Chinese restaurant. The owner had posted three posters with the word Man (Full), two of which were posted upside down. I laughed because if you do so, you are in fact draining out everything you have! People inverted other Chinese characters has to do with ignorance about an inverted Fu.
In the past the word Fu mainly meant “luck and fortune”. But today it means “happiness, auspiciousness and blessing”.
The legend goes like this: Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644), planned to kill a family whose man insulted Empress Ma his wife. Zhu marked the family with the character Fu on their door. The Empress was worried. In order to avoid bloodshed, without the knowledge of Zhu she asked all families to post the character of Fu on their doors too. Unfortunately an illiterate family had posted the character upside down.
When Zhu’s palace guards were sent out to do the execution, they were confused by the deluge characters of Fu, and they lost track with the targeted family. They reported to the emperor about what they saw, including about a family who posted an inverted Fu.
Zhu was angry. He then ordered the family who posted Fu in the wrong way to be executed instead. Empress Ma quickly made a petition with him. She reasoned with the emperor, “The family knew that you would come and visit them today. That is why they posted the Fu upside down intentionally. You are the Fu (Luck) who comes to town today.” The words “come” and “invert” have the same pronunciation as Dao. Playing around with words of similar pronunciation, Fu Dao would mean “Luck has come”.
The explanations of Empress Ma had pacified the emperor, and thus bloodshed was avoided. From then on, Chinese families would post the Fu upside down. There are two reasons for the practice. Firstly, it serves to attract blessings into the family. Secondly, it serves to commemorate the wisdom of Empress Ma.
Personally I feel that blessings would not come just by the way we post the Fu upside down. I am sure you do not want to repeat that person’s mistake whose ignorance had almost cost him his life, do you? Chinese characters should be written and posted in their proper manner. Otherwise they are meaningless at all! On this auspicious festive occasion, I would like to convey a message that all blessings come from God the Creator of the universe. And also God wants us to work hard in order to achieve them. No matter how many inverted characters of Fu we have posted all over our household compound, if we are lazy, we would reap nothing. I wish you a Blessed Chinese New Year!
A normal Fu
Chinese put up red posters with auspicious words (Chun Lian) during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) at their door posts. They also hang red cloth over the lintel. What they practiced resembles the practice of the Israelites. Israelites posted scriptures all over their door posts. In fact if you visit Christian homes in China, you will see that many homes used scriptures for their Chun Lian.
To the Chinese, red cloth symbolizes salvation and deliverance. For the Israelites, the blood of the lamb symbolizes these too. Remember the story of the Passover in the book of Exodus? The blood of the lamb was put on the lintel and door posts. When the angel of death sees the blood, he will spare the household from death. Could that be coincident? Not at all, because God loves the Chinese. There are over 200 Chinese characters which matched the stories in the book of Genesis. It proved that the descendants of Noah who migrated to
Fu is the Chinese character for "Luck". Chinese often put up a poster with the character Fu upside down on walls and doors during Spring Festival without knowing why. It is the only time when a Chinese character is posted upside down intentionally. Once I dined at a Chinese restaurant. The owner had posted three posters with the word Man (Full), two of which were posted upside down. I laughed because if you do so, you are in fact draining out everything you have! People inverted other Chinese characters has to do with ignorance about an inverted Fu.
In the past the word Fu mainly meant “luck and fortune”. But today it means “happiness, auspiciousness and blessing”.
The legend goes like this: Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644), planned to kill a family whose man insulted Empress Ma his wife. Zhu marked the family with the character Fu on their door. The Empress was worried. In order to avoid bloodshed, without the knowledge of Zhu she asked all families to post the character of Fu on their doors too. Unfortunately an illiterate family had posted the character upside down.
When Zhu’s palace guards were sent out to do the execution, they were confused by the deluge characters of Fu, and they lost track with the targeted family. They reported to the emperor about what they saw, including about a family who posted an inverted Fu.
Zhu was angry. He then ordered the family who posted Fu in the wrong way to be executed instead. Empress Ma quickly made a petition with him. She reasoned with the emperor, “The family knew that you would come and visit them today. That is why they posted the Fu upside down intentionally. You are the Fu (Luck) who comes to town today.” The words “come” and “invert” have the same pronunciation as Dao. Playing around with words of similar pronunciation, Fu Dao would mean “Luck has come”.
The explanations of Empress Ma had pacified the emperor, and thus bloodshed was avoided. From then on, Chinese families would post the Fu upside down. There are two reasons for the practice. Firstly, it serves to attract blessings into the family. Secondly, it serves to commemorate the wisdom of Empress Ma.
Personally I feel that blessings would not come just by the way we post the Fu upside down. I am sure you do not want to repeat that person’s mistake whose ignorance had almost cost him his life, do you? Chinese characters should be written and posted in their proper manner. Otherwise they are meaningless at all! On this auspicious festive occasion, I would like to convey a message that all blessings come from God the Creator of the universe. And also God wants us to work hard in order to achieve them. No matter how many inverted characters of Fu we have posted all over our household compound, if we are lazy, we would reap nothing. I wish you a Blessed Chinese New Year!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Respect the Earth By Respecting Your Body
by Kathryn Jean Lopez
Friday, January 16, 2009
According to a survey commissioned by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com, 20 percent of teenagers say they have sent nude or semi-nude pictures or videos of themselves by e-mail or posted them on the Internet. Who knows how accurate that figure is? Presumably most kids won't actually admit to an adult that they have engaged in such behavior. But a recent piece in the Cincinnati Enquirer caught my attention. "If I were to go through the cell phones in this building right now of 1,500 students, I would venture to say that half to two-thirds have indecent photos, either of themselves or somebody else in school," one high-school resource officer told the reporter. A principal at another school thought about half at hers had.
Kids are supposedly using the pictures as pickup lines. (We've come a long way from "Happy Days.") Unsurprisingly, the national study also revealed that 44 percent of teens say it's common for "sexually suggestive text messages" -- sexting -- "to get shared with people other than the intended recipient."
In the Enquirer article, one high-school senior who understands this is not a good thing says: "And when a guy gets a picture like that, he's not just going to keep it between him and the girl. He's going to take that and show every guy that he knows that knows that girl. And every time somebody looks at her, it's going to be a loss of respect for her." R-E-S-P-E-C-T has not penetrated the psyches of these teenagers -- or the adults who are aware of what they're doing.
Worried about losing scholarships and being rejected from jobs after a potential employer does a Google search, "many kids have 'wised up,' taking photos of body parts, but not faces, to avoid detection," the Enquirer article explains. Wising up, of course, involves much more than leaving your face out of the picture. One can't help but think of the whole debate over sex-ed again. When young people have no context for understanding their own sexuality other than "sex is something you are programmed to do, so adults will provide mechanisms to help prevent the consequences and eliminate those consequences should they occur," it's not surprising that dignity doesn't have a place in their worldview. If abstaining from the exploitation of their own sexuality is not understood to be a normal, responsible, self-respecting thing to do -- and instead seen as only for prudes -- it's a wonder there are any limits to their behavior at all.
Odds are, the public-high-school kids who are sexting are not anxiously awaiting an evaluation of their behavior from the pope, but that's exactly who made a point recently that is remarkably relevant to their lives. Pope Benedict XVI talked about respecting the "ecology of man" -- our very selves: "The rain forests certainly deserve our protection, but man as creature indeed deserves no less." It's about respecting the natural order of things. He recalled Pope Paul VI's prescient 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which warned that disrespect for our bodies, and manipulation of our sexuality, would lead down a slippery slope.
As the pope was saying this, I happened to glance at the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Britney Spears -- no model of self-respect, sexual or otherwise -- was featured. So was a teaser for "Green Sex Toys" -- a story about sex-toy recycling programs.
Everybody wants to save the world, but what about man and woman? How about we stop toying around with this most beautiful gift we have, as precious as our lives?
While we get all apocalyptically worried about saving the earth, we give little thought to ourselves, beyond looking perfect. We could afford to put some more thought into the fundamentals of our existence. Love and marriage are a good building block. Figuring out this ecology is the stuff of religion, which is why we hear about it from Rome: Why are we here, and what are we here to do? But you don't necessarily have to follow the pope to get with the program.
Later in the Enquirer article, the director of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center's Postponing Sexual Involvement program observes: "Teens are trying to figure out how to express their sexuality appropriately. They are learning, and they are learning from adults."
If adults engage in sexual acts with little regard for the context of love, marriage and family, or casually keep pornography around the house, there's going to be little respect inculcated in children for sexuality. There's going to be little reason for them not to exploit and manipulate it -- instead of respecting themselves enough to honor their bodies and one another.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
别叫选民太沉重
瓜拉登嘉楼国会议席补选，回教党的华希恩都以2631多数票胜出国阵巫统的万阿末。据统计分析，308大选支持反对党的华裔，这次却回流支持国阵。
我对于我国的投票和计票方式感到纳闷了很多年，投票不是所谓“秘密”的吗？那么为什么国人对于投票结果能够分析某某族群支持某某政党的呢？他们又怎样知道多少巴仙的某某族群支持谁呢？原来其中弊病之一就是计票的方式。
我们在每个选区，计票中心都设立许多的计票柜台，当计票时当然是知道是哪一箱是来自哪一个投票站的。基于选民册让人知道各投票站的种族比率，该站哪个种族占的比率最高，所以从它的投票结果，可以分析这些族群支持的对象。
这次华裔回流国阵，据分析乃因为华裔受到很大的压力。基于华裔在登嘉楼是少数民族，而州政府又是国阵，所以华裔不想被责怪为造成国阵败阵的罪人，免得日后华裔不获得政府发展的支持。在这般的投票情况下，选民，尤其是少数民族选民，实在感到太沉重。所以若说瓜拉登嘉楼大多数的华裔是支持国阵的，华裔实在情况未必就是真的如此的。
我认为大马已经独立了51年，在选举制度上应该改革得更公平，民主及透明。既然每个票箱已经在投票结束后被密封，在双方的监督下，在运输的过程不可能会增多或减少的。选委会可以先计算每个箱收回来多少张票，但不要按个别箱子来计算。那么我们就应该在每个选区计票中心只有一个柜台就够了。负责人把所有箱子的票都倒在一起，搅杂后才来计票。这般的计票工作，选民才不会顾虑秋后算帐的烦恼。它也会使到政治人物玩弄种族课题的情况减少。他们会减少对这个族群讲一套话，对那个族群讲另一套话的情况。
这样做，执政党也大大减少了利用国库拨款来讨好选民的心这般的权力滥用。无论全国大选或补选，国家的财库必须不可被牵涉在内。执政党不可利用在政府里的便利执行部门工作来赢取民心。在大马的国情，大多数的情况是以族群为对象。执政党一旦宣布了对族群有利的政策，那些族群若不投给它的话，这些利益可能就因此一江春水往东流了。
正确的情况，就是无论那个选区是属哪个政党的，政府利用国库发展国家乃是应该的。国人对政治意识越来越成熟了，在选举时才来大派糖果的作法已经在许多选民心中行不通了。在许多国家，金钱政治经常是民主的致命伤。大马也不例外，我们要成为先进国，必须大刀阔斧地改进国家的选举制度，以便减低金钱政治手法。
我对于我国的投票和计票方式感到纳闷了很多年，投票不是所谓“秘密”的吗？那么为什么国人对于投票结果能够分析某某族群支持某某政党的呢？他们又怎样知道多少巴仙的某某族群支持谁呢？原来其中弊病之一就是计票的方式。
我们在每个选区，计票中心都设立许多的计票柜台，当计票时当然是知道是哪一箱是来自哪一个投票站的。基于选民册让人知道各投票站的种族比率，该站哪个种族占的比率最高，所以从它的投票结果，可以分析这些族群支持的对象。
这次华裔回流国阵，据分析乃因为华裔受到很大的压力。基于华裔在登嘉楼是少数民族，而州政府又是国阵，所以华裔不想被责怪为造成国阵败阵的罪人，免得日后华裔不获得政府发展的支持。在这般的投票情况下，选民，尤其是少数民族选民，实在感到太沉重。所以若说瓜拉登嘉楼大多数的华裔是支持国阵的，华裔实在情况未必就是真的如此的。
我认为大马已经独立了51年，在选举制度上应该改革得更公平，民主及透明。既然每个票箱已经在投票结束后被密封，在双方的监督下，在运输的过程不可能会增多或减少的。选委会可以先计算每个箱收回来多少张票，但不要按个别箱子来计算。那么我们就应该在每个选区计票中心只有一个柜台就够了。负责人把所有箱子的票都倒在一起，搅杂后才来计票。这般的计票工作，选民才不会顾虑秋后算帐的烦恼。它也会使到政治人物玩弄种族课题的情况减少。他们会减少对这个族群讲一套话，对那个族群讲另一套话的情况。
这样做，执政党也大大减少了利用国库拨款来讨好选民的心这般的权力滥用。无论全国大选或补选，国家的财库必须不可被牵涉在内。执政党不可利用在政府里的便利执行部门工作来赢取民心。在大马的国情，大多数的情况是以族群为对象。执政党一旦宣布了对族群有利的政策，那些族群若不投给它的话，这些利益可能就因此一江春水往东流了。
正确的情况，就是无论那个选区是属哪个政党的，政府利用国库发展国家乃是应该的。国人对政治意识越来越成熟了，在选举时才来大派糖果的作法已经在许多选民心中行不通了。在许多国家，金钱政治经常是民主的致命伤。大马也不例外，我们要成为先进国，必须大刀阔斧地改进国家的选举制度，以便减低金钱政治手法。
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Four Ways Our Culture Is Brainwashing Us
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Forces in our culture want to rip the foundations of Christian faith right out from under America. Here are four lies we must challenge.
This past week I spent four days preaching at Emmanuel College, a Christian liberal arts school in northeast Georgia. I love speaking to college students because they are spiritually hungry, they love passionate worship and I don’t have to wear a tie.
On the third night (after a young man got saved and delivered of drug addiction—yeah God!) I told the kids I needed to get brutally honest. They gave me permission to shoot straight. Because I genuinely care about them—and because they will be spiritual leaders before too long—I warned them about four lies they must confront.
Every Christian in this country must learn to dissect these lies using the Word of God. The devil is working overtime today to gain control of our nation’s soul. We are in a life-and-death struggle. This is not a time for Christians to be squishy in their faith or spineless in their convictions. We must plant our feet on the bedrock principles of the Bible and oppose each of these lies:
"We must start preaching about hell again instead of worrying about who might leave our church or how it might affect our TV ratings."
1. Hell does not exist. Jesus preached about hell more than anyone in the Bible. His words dripped with love, but He didn’t soft-pedal when addressing the eternal consequences of sin. When He began His ministry, he read from the book of Isaiah, announcing that He had come not only to “proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” but also “the day of vengeance of our God” (Is. 61:2, NASB).
The real gospel is a double-edged sword that offers both the “kindness and severity of God” (Rom. 11:22, emphasis added). That’s why hell is one four-letter word we should use more often—not to condemn people in mean-spirited judgment but to warn them that mercy has a time limit.
The world rejects the concept of hell because it’s too exclusive. Our Oprah-ized culture insists that everyone deserves a warm and fuzzy life free of consequences. “How can a loving God send anyone to hell?” people ask. If we truly love them we will explain that hell is not a metaphor—it is a real place of dreadful separation from God that sinners choose when they reject Him. We must start preaching about hell again instead of worrying about who might leave our church or how our unpopular message might affect our TV ratings.
2. God didn’t create the world. 2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, so you can be sure the scientific community will bombard us this year with more “proof” of this sketchy theory. The mainstream media and academia insist that evolution is pure fact. Anyone who dares to challenge it is considered a religious idiot.
What people don’t realize is that Darwinism, besides being laughably lacking in scientific basis, has roots in spiritualism. Welsh naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace shared many of Darwin’s beliefs and encouraged him to publish his book. Wallace believed in spirit guides, participated in séances and was intrigued by all things paranormal. He promoted the “science” of evolution because it supported his anti-God views. Is it any wonder, then, that this doctrine he and Darwin propagated has been used to undermine Christianity ever since?
The world does not want to believe in a Creator because if He is real, then He has ultimate authority over His creation. On the flip side, man has no moral responsibility if he crawled out of a primordial soup, grew fins, then legs, and then became a talking ape. Evolution is not really about science at all—it is about rebellion against God’s rule over us.
3. All religions lead to God. This isn’t a new lie, but it is enjoying a revival today. President Bush has obviously flirted with the idea, since he has told reporters that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Barack Obama attended a church for 20 years that teaches that Jesus is not the only way to salvation—and he has publicly acknowledged that he believes this.
The doctrine of universalism—which states that all people will ultimately gain salvation and enjoy heaven—has become the religion of the masses. Even some charismatic and Pentecostal preachers such as Carlton Pearson of Oklahoma and D.E. Paulk of Atlanta have abandoned biblical orthodoxy to embrace this heresy. They are now on a crusade to rewrite Christian theology—and they have allies in some mainline denominations (such as the Episcopal Church) where the authority of Scripture is denied.
Christians who embrace universalism are like the prophets of Baal in Jezebel’s court who had been neutered. They preach a powerless message that cannot change anyone. We must arise in the spirit of Elijah to confront this deception and prove to the world that the one true God answers by fire.
4. Man can redefine morality. This is perhaps the most deadly lie of all. Everywhere we look today, leaders in media, politics, education and entertainment are plotting the virtual overthrow of conventional morals. They want a hedonistic world with no rules and no guilt. This was most obvious last month when Newsweek published a cover story brazenly claiming that the Bible approves of same-sex marriage.
A lying spirit has invaded many mainline churches and is convincing weak Christians to change their views about homosexuality, abortion and fornication. Evil is called good while those who stand for the biblical values of purity and traditional marriage are labeled bigots.
If we ignore these lies they will engulf us. We need a zero-tolerance policy for spiritual compromise. While we must demonstrate overwhelming compassion and love for sinners, God requires us to oppose cultural brainwashing. We cannot be silent on the issues the devil is attacking.
If you are wavering in your faith on any of these four fundamentals, get honest about your doubts, repent of your lukewarmness and dig in God’s Word until your mind is renewed. Don’t become a brainwash victim.
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
Forces in our culture want to rip the foundations of Christian faith right out from under America. Here are four lies we must challenge.
This past week I spent four days preaching at Emmanuel College, a Christian liberal arts school in northeast Georgia. I love speaking to college students because they are spiritually hungry, they love passionate worship and I don’t have to wear a tie.
On the third night (after a young man got saved and delivered of drug addiction—yeah God!) I told the kids I needed to get brutally honest. They gave me permission to shoot straight. Because I genuinely care about them—and because they will be spiritual leaders before too long—I warned them about four lies they must confront.
Every Christian in this country must learn to dissect these lies using the Word of God. The devil is working overtime today to gain control of our nation’s soul. We are in a life-and-death struggle. This is not a time for Christians to be squishy in their faith or spineless in their convictions. We must plant our feet on the bedrock principles of the Bible and oppose each of these lies:
"We must start preaching about hell again instead of worrying about who might leave our church or how it might affect our TV ratings."
1. Hell does not exist. Jesus preached about hell more than anyone in the Bible. His words dripped with love, but He didn’t soft-pedal when addressing the eternal consequences of sin. When He began His ministry, he read from the book of Isaiah, announcing that He had come not only to “proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” but also “the day of vengeance of our God” (Is. 61:2, NASB).
The real gospel is a double-edged sword that offers both the “kindness and severity of God” (Rom. 11:22, emphasis added). That’s why hell is one four-letter word we should use more often—not to condemn people in mean-spirited judgment but to warn them that mercy has a time limit.
The world rejects the concept of hell because it’s too exclusive. Our Oprah-ized culture insists that everyone deserves a warm and fuzzy life free of consequences. “How can a loving God send anyone to hell?” people ask. If we truly love them we will explain that hell is not a metaphor—it is a real place of dreadful separation from God that sinners choose when they reject Him. We must start preaching about hell again instead of worrying about who might leave our church or how our unpopular message might affect our TV ratings.
2. God didn’t create the world. 2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, so you can be sure the scientific community will bombard us this year with more “proof” of this sketchy theory. The mainstream media and academia insist that evolution is pure fact. Anyone who dares to challenge it is considered a religious idiot.
What people don’t realize is that Darwinism, besides being laughably lacking in scientific basis, has roots in spiritualism. Welsh naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace shared many of Darwin’s beliefs and encouraged him to publish his book. Wallace believed in spirit guides, participated in séances and was intrigued by all things paranormal. He promoted the “science” of evolution because it supported his anti-God views. Is it any wonder, then, that this doctrine he and Darwin propagated has been used to undermine Christianity ever since?
The world does not want to believe in a Creator because if He is real, then He has ultimate authority over His creation. On the flip side, man has no moral responsibility if he crawled out of a primordial soup, grew fins, then legs, and then became a talking ape. Evolution is not really about science at all—it is about rebellion against God’s rule over us.
3. All religions lead to God. This isn’t a new lie, but it is enjoying a revival today. President Bush has obviously flirted with the idea, since he has told reporters that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Barack Obama attended a church for 20 years that teaches that Jesus is not the only way to salvation—and he has publicly acknowledged that he believes this.
The doctrine of universalism—which states that all people will ultimately gain salvation and enjoy heaven—has become the religion of the masses. Even some charismatic and Pentecostal preachers such as Carlton Pearson of Oklahoma and D.E. Paulk of Atlanta have abandoned biblical orthodoxy to embrace this heresy. They are now on a crusade to rewrite Christian theology—and they have allies in some mainline denominations (such as the Episcopal Church) where the authority of Scripture is denied.
Christians who embrace universalism are like the prophets of Baal in Jezebel’s court who had been neutered. They preach a powerless message that cannot change anyone. We must arise in the spirit of Elijah to confront this deception and prove to the world that the one true God answers by fire.
4. Man can redefine morality. This is perhaps the most deadly lie of all. Everywhere we look today, leaders in media, politics, education and entertainment are plotting the virtual overthrow of conventional morals. They want a hedonistic world with no rules and no guilt. This was most obvious last month when Newsweek published a cover story brazenly claiming that the Bible approves of same-sex marriage.
A lying spirit has invaded many mainline churches and is convincing weak Christians to change their views about homosexuality, abortion and fornication. Evil is called good while those who stand for the biblical values of purity and traditional marriage are labeled bigots.
If we ignore these lies they will engulf us. We need a zero-tolerance policy for spiritual compromise. While we must demonstrate overwhelming compassion and love for sinners, God requires us to oppose cultural brainwashing. We cannot be silent on the issues the devil is attacking.
If you are wavering in your faith on any of these four fundamentals, get honest about your doubts, repent of your lukewarmness and dig in God’s Word until your mind is renewed. Don’t become a brainwash victim.
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
“这一生最美的祝福”诗歌用词有误
目前中文教会时下最流行之一的诗歌，“这一生最美的祝福”，曲调很好，我也很喜欢。然而美中不足的是，我认为“祝福”一词有欠妥当。
在无数的黑夜里
我用星星画出你…….
这一生最美的祝福
就是能认识主耶稣
这一生最美的祝福
就是能信靠主耶稣
神将他的福分或福气给人，叫做“赐福”。而人希望别人得到神的福分，叫做“祝福”。所以，神并不祝福，而是赐福。相反的，人并不赐福，而是祝福。赐福乃由至高权柄者才可以作的，譬如以前封建时代的君王或皇帝，但现在民主社会，这类的权柄已经不存在了。
诗歌出错，因为许多作词者没有神学和修辞学的背景。不像以前的圣诗（HYMNS）作者，他们都有神学知识及有一定的语文掌握能力的。上述诗歌出错，这一生最美的祝福，“祝福”是一个动词，与前面的“最美的”形容词格格不入，句子出现问题。形容词之后须用名词，所以应该改为“福分”或“福气”（Blessing）。
讲开来，我发觉到教会圈子里还有许多牧师和信徒搞不清楚“祝福”和“赐福”，我常常听到他们说“神祝福你”。其实，神并不祝福，而是赐福。你不信看看我们的中文圣经，你不会找到“神祝福”的子词和句子的，只找到“神赐福”。
尤其是神学院教师，必须弄清楚这点，不然真的贻笑大方！我们作教师和牧者的，都希望我们的学生和羊群是有质的吧？我们在错误中不纠正的话，就会把错误继续传染下去。我遗憾只是往往教会太不严谨，认为无需吹毛求疵。就是因为这样，教会通常很难吸引学者信耶稣，现在是时候我们需要改善，让他们对我们另眼相看吧！
若认同，请转送给其他人。
在无数的黑夜里
我用星星画出你…….
这一生最美的祝福
就是能认识主耶稣
这一生最美的祝福
就是能信靠主耶稣
神将他的福分或福气给人，叫做“赐福”。而人希望别人得到神的福分，叫做“祝福”。所以，神并不祝福，而是赐福。相反的，人并不赐福，而是祝福。赐福乃由至高权柄者才可以作的，譬如以前封建时代的君王或皇帝，但现在民主社会，这类的权柄已经不存在了。
诗歌出错，因为许多作词者没有神学和修辞学的背景。不像以前的圣诗（HYMNS）作者，他们都有神学知识及有一定的语文掌握能力的。上述诗歌出错，这一生最美的祝福，“祝福”是一个动词，与前面的“最美的”形容词格格不入，句子出现问题。形容词之后须用名词，所以应该改为“福分”或“福气”（Blessing）。
讲开来，我发觉到教会圈子里还有许多牧师和信徒搞不清楚“祝福”和“赐福”，我常常听到他们说“神祝福你”。其实，神并不祝福，而是赐福。你不信看看我们的中文圣经，你不会找到“神祝福”的子词和句子的，只找到“神赐福”。
尤其是神学院教师，必须弄清楚这点，不然真的贻笑大方！我们作教师和牧者的，都希望我们的学生和羊群是有质的吧？我们在错误中不纠正的话，就会把错误继续传染下去。我遗憾只是往往教会太不严谨，认为无需吹毛求疵。就是因为这样，教会通常很难吸引学者信耶稣，现在是时候我们需要改善，让他们对我们另眼相看吧！
若认同，请转送给其他人。
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
拉务廉航终站的利弊
拥有自己的飞机群，自己的飞机场和一切航空设备，这就是亚洲航空公司的传奇。亚航基于吉隆坡机场公司的廉航终站将在两年后饱和，加上机场公司的租金高昂不划算，亚航决定自己另觅出路，即在拉务辟地自己建造机场。
我认为交通部给予亚航建造机场的轻易批准有点仓促，假设日后我国会有更多廉航业获得成立以符合全球化的自由竞争原则的话，基于政府为亚航开了先例，那么它们都要建造自己的机场，岂不是越建越多机场？
亚航在成立以来，让人的印象就是它特别获得政府的厚待。我认为航空公司不应该被允许拥有自己的机场，恐怕它会变成一个王国。做得越大，风险就越高。正确作法，政府应该促使机场公司扩充，凡航空公司都必须在一个屋檐下操作。也促使机场公司收费大众化，以获得更多外国航班使用它。
我也感到惊讶拉务居民很平静，没有抗议。拉务是个发展蓬勃的地区，人口稠密，它的居民看来是基于以日后搭飞机方便作考量而平静吗？而并不是以环境污染及噪音作考量而有异议吗？另者国人并没有看到政府在整个事件上让居民来评价利弊，当消息一公布时，亚航工程都已经在动工。我是梳邦市居民，这里的居民曾是经历飞机飞行带来弊病的过来人，所以当亚航一度要申请梳邦机场大规模运作为廉航终站时，我们都极力反对。
至于拉务机场离开人们出发点的距离方面，虽然亚航主席东尼说它更靠近吉隆坡，离市中心仅58公里。但搬到新地点，肯定有人欢喜育人愁的。以梳邦市为例，目前雪邦廉航终站车程40分钟，而去拉务则需要一小时。若路程太远的话，往返西马的城镇，或许使用公路更方便。不然，到时西马航线给马航的飞萤廉航抢摊也不定！因为那里地点对人们更方便。
至于转飞机方面也是个未知数，虽然说有完善的铁轨衔接隆机场和拉务机场，但基于两者距离相当远，肯定耗时。有搭机经验的人都知道通常转机相当匆促，又要携带孩子和老人家，又要搬行李，加上航班延误是普遍事。所以到时，从外国飞来的转机的搭客，会不会宁愿选择那些降落隆机场的航空公司呢？
所以，亚航这般的改变，到底会为它带来蓬勃还是倒退呢？这点没有人能预测。当然做生意的人都有远见，但经验告诉我们，有不少大公司因着一点小小错误决策而倒闭的也不少。拉务新机场为亚航的成败，就让我们拭目以待吧！
我认为交通部给予亚航建造机场的轻易批准有点仓促，假设日后我国会有更多廉航业获得成立以符合全球化的自由竞争原则的话，基于政府为亚航开了先例，那么它们都要建造自己的机场，岂不是越建越多机场？
亚航在成立以来，让人的印象就是它特别获得政府的厚待。我认为航空公司不应该被允许拥有自己的机场，恐怕它会变成一个王国。做得越大，风险就越高。正确作法，政府应该促使机场公司扩充，凡航空公司都必须在一个屋檐下操作。也促使机场公司收费大众化，以获得更多外国航班使用它。
我也感到惊讶拉务居民很平静，没有抗议。拉务是个发展蓬勃的地区，人口稠密，它的居民看来是基于以日后搭飞机方便作考量而平静吗？而并不是以环境污染及噪音作考量而有异议吗？另者国人并没有看到政府在整个事件上让居民来评价利弊，当消息一公布时，亚航工程都已经在动工。我是梳邦市居民，这里的居民曾是经历飞机飞行带来弊病的过来人，所以当亚航一度要申请梳邦机场大规模运作为廉航终站时，我们都极力反对。
至于拉务机场离开人们出发点的距离方面，虽然亚航主席东尼说它更靠近吉隆坡，离市中心仅58公里。但搬到新地点，肯定有人欢喜育人愁的。以梳邦市为例，目前雪邦廉航终站车程40分钟，而去拉务则需要一小时。若路程太远的话，往返西马的城镇，或许使用公路更方便。不然，到时西马航线给马航的飞萤廉航抢摊也不定！因为那里地点对人们更方便。
至于转飞机方面也是个未知数，虽然说有完善的铁轨衔接隆机场和拉务机场，但基于两者距离相当远，肯定耗时。有搭机经验的人都知道通常转机相当匆促，又要携带孩子和老人家，又要搬行李，加上航班延误是普遍事。所以到时，从外国飞来的转机的搭客，会不会宁愿选择那些降落隆机场的航空公司呢？
所以，亚航这般的改变，到底会为它带来蓬勃还是倒退呢？这点没有人能预测。当然做生意的人都有远见，但经验告诉我们，有不少大公司因着一点小小错误决策而倒闭的也不少。拉务新机场为亚航的成败，就让我们拭目以待吧！
Friday, January 9, 2009
Israelis and Palestinians: Who's David, Who's Goliath?
by Larry Elder
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Much of the world buys the line -- peddled by the Palestinians and the Arab Muslim world and, indeed, many Western countries -- that paints Israel as the bad "Goliath" that "stole" the land from the "Palestinians."
Israel gave Gaza self-rule in 1994, unilaterally withdrawing the last of its citizens and soldiers from Gaza in 2005. Hamas, voted into power via free elections in 2006, fought and defeated their political and military rival, Fatah, to seize de facto control of Gaza in 2007. In the past eight years, Hamas has fired more than 10,000 rockets and mortars into Israel -- 7,000 of them after Israel's 2005 withdrawal. With improved technology -- reportedly assisted by Iran -- Hamas' rockets can now fly 24 miles before impact and explosion, thereby threatening, injuring and killing more and more Israelis living in southern Israel.
But why the "disproportionate" response by Israel? Reportedly, more than 600 Palestinians have been killed, some civilians. Set aside for the moment that Hamas' charter specifically calls for the "obliteration" of the state of Israel. And set aside the fact that the Palestinian "militants" fight in heavily populated areas, assuring, indeed encouraging (for PR purposes) civilian casualties.
We turn our attention to the "stolen" allegation.
Israel lies in the ancient Fertile Crescent's southwest corner, with some of the oldest archeological evidence of primitive towns and agriculture. Historians and archeologists believe the Hebrews probably arrived in the area in the second millennium B.C. The nation itself was formed as the Israelites left Egypt during the Exodus, believed to be in the late 13th century B.C.
The 12 tribes of Israel united in about 1050 B.C., forming the Kingdom of Israel. David, the second king of Israel, established Jerusalem as Israel's national capital 3,000 years ago. Jewish kingdoms and states existed intermittently in the region for a millennium.
After conquests by Babylonians, Persians and Greeks, an independent Jewish kingdom was briefly revived in 168 B.C., but Rome took control in the next century, renaming the land of Judea "Palestine" after the Philistines, historical enemies of the Israelites'.
Invading Arabs conquered the land from the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantines) in A.D. 638 and attracted Arab settlers. Within a few centuries, the Arab language and Islam prevailed, but a Jewish minority remained. After a brief period of prosperity, waves of invasions and changes of control followed, including rule by the non-Arab empires of the Seljuks, Mamelukes and European crusaders, before becoming part of the Ottoman Empire from 1517 until 1918.
The crusaders massacred thousands of Jews, along with Muslims, in the 11th century. But soon thereafter, European Jews established centers of Jewish learning and commerce. By the time the Ottoman Turks occupied Palestine in the 16th century, according to British reports, as many as 15,000 Jews lived in Safed, which was a center of rabbinical learning. Many more Jews lived in Jerusalem, Hebron, Acre and other locations. By the middle of the 19th century, Jews constituted a significant presence -- often a majority -- in many towns.
Still, in the 19th century, the Holy Land looked mostly like a vast wasteland. When Jews began to return to their "promised land" early in the 20th century, the desert literally began to bloom under their industry. Arabs followed, coming in large numbers for the jobs and prosperity.
After four centuries of Ottoman rule, Britain took the land in 1917 and pledged in the Balfour Declaration to support a Jewish national homeland there. In 1920, the British Palestine Mandate was recognized. A declaration passed by the League of Nations in 1922 effectively divided the mandated territory into two parts. The eastern portion, called Transjordan, would later become the Arab Kingdom of Jordan in 1946. The other portion, comprising the territory west of the Jordan River, was administered as Palestine under provisions that called for the establishment of a Jewish homeland.
The United Nations, in 1947, partitioned the area into separate Jewish and Arab states along meandering and indefensible boundaries. The Arab world, insisting that any Jewish claim to Palestine was invalid, staunchly refused to compromise or even discuss the subject.
When Israel's independence was declared in 1948, Arab forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq combined to crush the 1-day-old country. They lost. Still, Egypt occupied most of the Gaza Strip, and Transjordan (calling itself "Jordan") held most of the West Bank and half of Jerusalem. Neither Arab country gave the "Palestinians" a state.
The word "Palestinian," as employed today, is a relatively recent term. Until the end of the British mandate over Palestine, in 1948, all inhabitants of the area west of the Jordan River were known as "Palestinians." A Jewish person living in what is now Israel was a "Palestinian Jew." An Arab living in the area was a "Palestinian Arab." Likewise, a Christian was known as a "Palestinian Christian."
Israel won more land after a series of wars, land since returned or offered for return in exchange for peace. The Jews "stole" nothing.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Where Have All The Leaders Gone?
The church today faces a serious leadership crisis. The only way to solve it is to embrace three forgotten virtues.
The people of Israel faced a leadership crisis during their sojourn in the wilderness. From morning until evening, dozens of people would line up outside Moses’ tent to ask him to resolve a dispute. When his father-in-law, Jethro, saw the crowds outside his door, he pulled Moses aside and gave him wise advice that ended up being recorded in Scripture.
Jethro warned his son-in-law that he would burn out if he continued to govern the nation by himself. He told Moses: “You shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens” (Ex. 18:21, NASB).
In the middle of the Sinai desert Jethro taught the first management seminar. But his counsel was not just about the principle of delegation; he was also stressing the importance of godly character in leaders. In fact, he makes it clear that people who lack character should be excluded from leadership positions.
"True spiritual revival will not come to the American church until we take Jethro’s counsel seriously, remove corrupt leaders from their positions and replace them with those who match the biblical standard."
Jethro could have identified other qualities as prerequisites for leadership. He could have mentioned charisma, sex appeal, preaching ability, musical talent, intellect, organizational skills, business know-how, wealth, pedigree or high ratings in political polls. But none of those are God’s requirements. Jethro mentioned three qualities that we desperately need in the church as well as in mainstream culture.
1. Leaders who fear God. A person who fears God lives in a continual attitude of reverence—whether he is alone or in front of a crowd. He is aware that God is watching his actions and weighing his words. Because this person cares more about pleasing God than people, he takes God’s moral standards seriously—and he depends on the Holy Spirit to help him make right choices.
You don’t have to look far to see that the American church has fallen short when it comes to the fear of God. In 2008 one popular charismatic preacher led a series of revival meetings and then ran off with another woman after four months. Another popular minister from Atlanta assaulted his wife in a parking lot and was arrested; after his divorce he cavalierly announced that he wanted a new wife who was “sensual.” Another preacher in Baltimore fathered a child with a mistress and then bragged from the pulpit that he was “still the man” even though he had committed adultery. And one preacher in Florida carried on an affair with a stripper and then divorced his wife when she found out about it.
If we apply the Jethro principle, every one of these men should be out of the ministry today. The sad truth is they are all still preaching—and they have large crowds following them.
A person who fears God is never flippant about morality. Because he keeps his conscience clean he is immediately convicted if he makes an unkind remark, entertains a lustful thought or sets a bad example. He’s also aware that if he doesn’t quickly repent when he grieves the Holy Spirit, his conscience could become callous. So he regularly examines his motives, conversations, appetites and relationships to make sure he’s not veering off-course.
God, give us leaders who fear You!
2. Leaders who tell the truth. In 2008 we heard the tragic story of Australian worship leader Mike Guglielmucci, author of the popular worship anthem “Healer.” He told audiences that he wrote the song after he had been diagnosed with cancer. He even performed on stage with an oxygen tank while telling his fans that he was in intense pain from his treatments. But he admitted last summer that he made up the whole story to mask a pornography addiction. Today Guglielmucci faces a possible criminal sentence for fraud because he used the bogus story to raise money.
We live in a dishonest culture. The current financial crisis was triggered, in part, by people who lied when they applied for home loans. Bank executives have admitted that mortgages were even granted to people who worked service jobs and yet claimed six-figure salaries. When people who lied about their incomes couldn’t pay their mortgages, they defaulted on their loans and the system imploded. The greedy financial sharks who sold those loans lied too. Now taxpayers are paying for the ensuing meltdown.
Our moral system will suffer a similar collapse if we don’t return to truth. The church should set the standard for integrity—and that includes honest accounting practices, full financial disclosure and an end to the “evangelastic” stretching of the truth that is so common in our ranks. If we realized that heaven keeps a record of “every careless word” we speak (see Matt. 12:36), we would stop exaggerating our ministry reports.
God give us leaders who tell the truth!
3. Leaders who hate dishonest gain. Most of us breathed a collective sigh of disgust last month when we heard about Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s outlandish bribery scandal. After being arrested for attempting to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat, the embattled Illinois politician dug in his heels and insisted on appointing state Attorney General Roland Burris to the vacant spot. Blagojevich turned the evening news in December into a three-ring circus.
You know it’s bad when the governor of a populous state gets caught telling people that he wants a wad of money in exchange for a political appointment. It shows how deep moral corruption has infected our system. What’s worse is that this corruption is mirrored in many of our churches.
Greed has actually been morphed into a virtue in some charismatic circles, where pastors take hour-long offerings and guest speakers require limousines and five-figure honorariums to maintain their celebrity lifestyles. It’s especially bad on some Christian TV channels, where spiritual extortionists sell medieval-style indulgences disguised as “Day of Atonement offerings” and use other ridiculous ploys to rob Christians.
God give us leaders who hate dishonest gain!
It’s time for a leadership reformation. God requires us to drive the greedy moneychangers out of His house. True spiritual revival will not come to the American church until we take Jethro’s counsel seriously, remove corrupt leaders from their positions and replace them with those who match the biblical standard.
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
The people of Israel faced a leadership crisis during their sojourn in the wilderness. From morning until evening, dozens of people would line up outside Moses’ tent to ask him to resolve a dispute. When his father-in-law, Jethro, saw the crowds outside his door, he pulled Moses aside and gave him wise advice that ended up being recorded in Scripture.
Jethro warned his son-in-law that he would burn out if he continued to govern the nation by himself. He told Moses: “You shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens” (Ex. 18:21, NASB).
In the middle of the Sinai desert Jethro taught the first management seminar. But his counsel was not just about the principle of delegation; he was also stressing the importance of godly character in leaders. In fact, he makes it clear that people who lack character should be excluded from leadership positions.
"True spiritual revival will not come to the American church until we take Jethro’s counsel seriously, remove corrupt leaders from their positions and replace them with those who match the biblical standard."
Jethro could have identified other qualities as prerequisites for leadership. He could have mentioned charisma, sex appeal, preaching ability, musical talent, intellect, organizational skills, business know-how, wealth, pedigree or high ratings in political polls. But none of those are God’s requirements. Jethro mentioned three qualities that we desperately need in the church as well as in mainstream culture.
1. Leaders who fear God. A person who fears God lives in a continual attitude of reverence—whether he is alone or in front of a crowd. He is aware that God is watching his actions and weighing his words. Because this person cares more about pleasing God than people, he takes God’s moral standards seriously—and he depends on the Holy Spirit to help him make right choices.
You don’t have to look far to see that the American church has fallen short when it comes to the fear of God. In 2008 one popular charismatic preacher led a series of revival meetings and then ran off with another woman after four months. Another popular minister from Atlanta assaulted his wife in a parking lot and was arrested; after his divorce he cavalierly announced that he wanted a new wife who was “sensual.” Another preacher in Baltimore fathered a child with a mistress and then bragged from the pulpit that he was “still the man” even though he had committed adultery. And one preacher in Florida carried on an affair with a stripper and then divorced his wife when she found out about it.
If we apply the Jethro principle, every one of these men should be out of the ministry today. The sad truth is they are all still preaching—and they have large crowds following them.
A person who fears God is never flippant about morality. Because he keeps his conscience clean he is immediately convicted if he makes an unkind remark, entertains a lustful thought or sets a bad example. He’s also aware that if he doesn’t quickly repent when he grieves the Holy Spirit, his conscience could become callous. So he regularly examines his motives, conversations, appetites and relationships to make sure he’s not veering off-course.
God, give us leaders who fear You!
2. Leaders who tell the truth. In 2008 we heard the tragic story of Australian worship leader Mike Guglielmucci, author of the popular worship anthem “Healer.” He told audiences that he wrote the song after he had been diagnosed with cancer. He even performed on stage with an oxygen tank while telling his fans that he was in intense pain from his treatments. But he admitted last summer that he made up the whole story to mask a pornography addiction. Today Guglielmucci faces a possible criminal sentence for fraud because he used the bogus story to raise money.
We live in a dishonest culture. The current financial crisis was triggered, in part, by people who lied when they applied for home loans. Bank executives have admitted that mortgages were even granted to people who worked service jobs and yet claimed six-figure salaries. When people who lied about their incomes couldn’t pay their mortgages, they defaulted on their loans and the system imploded. The greedy financial sharks who sold those loans lied too. Now taxpayers are paying for the ensuing meltdown.
Our moral system will suffer a similar collapse if we don’t return to truth. The church should set the standard for integrity—and that includes honest accounting practices, full financial disclosure and an end to the “evangelastic” stretching of the truth that is so common in our ranks. If we realized that heaven keeps a record of “every careless word” we speak (see Matt. 12:36), we would stop exaggerating our ministry reports.
God give us leaders who tell the truth!
3. Leaders who hate dishonest gain. Most of us breathed a collective sigh of disgust last month when we heard about Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s outlandish bribery scandal. After being arrested for attempting to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat, the embattled Illinois politician dug in his heels and insisted on appointing state Attorney General Roland Burris to the vacant spot. Blagojevich turned the evening news in December into a three-ring circus.
You know it’s bad when the governor of a populous state gets caught telling people that he wants a wad of money in exchange for a political appointment. It shows how deep moral corruption has infected our system. What’s worse is that this corruption is mirrored in many of our churches.
Greed has actually been morphed into a virtue in some charismatic circles, where pastors take hour-long offerings and guest speakers require limousines and five-figure honorariums to maintain their celebrity lifestyles. It’s especially bad on some Christian TV channels, where spiritual extortionists sell medieval-style indulgences disguised as “Day of Atonement offerings” and use other ridiculous ploys to rob Christians.
God give us leaders who hate dishonest gain!
It’s time for a leadership reformation. God requires us to drive the greedy moneychangers out of His house. True spiritual revival will not come to the American church until we take Jethro’s counsel seriously, remove corrupt leaders from their positions and replace them with those who match the biblical standard.
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
God on the Front Lines: A Testimony from Iraq
January 7 2009
A special reader letter from Army Staff Sergeant Michael Cumming, who is currently serving in Iraq, describes how God is at work even in the most horrible of circumstances.
I've been a reader of New Man for years and have found lots of encouragement in the articles. I'm a staff sergeant in the Army, currently serving another go-round in Iraq and have been going to seminary with hopes of getting out and becoming a young-adults pastor. I wanted to write and share a story from the front lines.
A young soldier came to me about a year before our last deployment. As I got to know him, I found out he was from a missionary family and was running as far from God as he could.
Over the time I knew him we had many discussions about faith and God. He was convinced that God was real and was the only way to heaven. But he always said he wasn't ready to give up the strip clubs, the drinking and all the other things of the world that he was caught up in. He would tell me he was having too much fun sinning to give it up yet.
When we got to Iraq, I felt like God told me that before we came home this young soldier would be saved. I felt so strongly about this that I even called his parents back in the United States to let them know.
About two months after that, we were in a big firefight. This soldier was shot in the chest, and we had to medevac him out. We found out that he died about two hours later on the operating table.
I felt so defeated and let down by God, initially, after this because I was so sure he would be saved before we left Iraq. I called my pastor in the U.S. and talked to him about it, and he told me this was one of those times I had to leave it all in God's hands—and he reminded me that I didn't know what might have happened before the soldier died.
About a week after this, another one of my soldiers—who had been injured in a previous incident—went to the hospital so he could be put back on full duty and rejoin us. While he was at the hospital, he had an opportunity to talk to the flight surgeon who worked on my friend. He asked the surgeon if the soldier had said any last words he could tell us about.
The surgeon said an amazing thing happened. He said that he heard the young soldier clearly say, with a tracheotomy in his throat and above the roar of the helicopter: "Tell Mike I know God."
This made the whole deployment to Iraq worth it to me. It also drove home the fact that I can't afford the risk of not sharing the gospel with anyone.
Thanks for taking the time to read my story.
Mike Cummings
Staff Sergeant
United States Army
A special reader letter from Army Staff Sergeant Michael Cumming, who is currently serving in Iraq, describes how God is at work even in the most horrible of circumstances.
I've been a reader of New Man for years and have found lots of encouragement in the articles. I'm a staff sergeant in the Army, currently serving another go-round in Iraq and have been going to seminary with hopes of getting out and becoming a young-adults pastor. I wanted to write and share a story from the front lines.
A young soldier came to me about a year before our last deployment. As I got to know him, I found out he was from a missionary family and was running as far from God as he could.
Over the time I knew him we had many discussions about faith and God. He was convinced that God was real and was the only way to heaven. But he always said he wasn't ready to give up the strip clubs, the drinking and all the other things of the world that he was caught up in. He would tell me he was having too much fun sinning to give it up yet.
When we got to Iraq, I felt like God told me that before we came home this young soldier would be saved. I felt so strongly about this that I even called his parents back in the United States to let them know.
About two months after that, we were in a big firefight. This soldier was shot in the chest, and we had to medevac him out. We found out that he died about two hours later on the operating table.
I felt so defeated and let down by God, initially, after this because I was so sure he would be saved before we left Iraq. I called my pastor in the U.S. and talked to him about it, and he told me this was one of those times I had to leave it all in God's hands—and he reminded me that I didn't know what might have happened before the soldier died.
About a week after this, another one of my soldiers—who had been injured in a previous incident—went to the hospital so he could be put back on full duty and rejoin us. While he was at the hospital, he had an opportunity to talk to the flight surgeon who worked on my friend. He asked the surgeon if the soldier had said any last words he could tell us about.
The surgeon said an amazing thing happened. He said that he heard the young soldier clearly say, with a tracheotomy in his throat and above the roar of the helicopter: "Tell Mike I know God."
This made the whole deployment to Iraq worth it to me. It also drove home the fact that I can't afford the risk of not sharing the gospel with anyone.
Thanks for taking the time to read my story.
Mike Cummings
Staff Sergeant
United States Army
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Pressing into the New
by Cindy Jacobs
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
In the message below, prophetic intercessor Cindy Jacobs echoes Barbara Wentroble's word from last week about becoming a new wineskin.
As I have been seeking the Lord for a word for 2009, one seems to leap out to me in my spirit. It is the word "transition." This is a season [during which] we are going from the old to the new—from old wine to new wine. What do I mean by "new wine"? [I mean we are going] from what doesn't work to what does work or from the nonproductive to the productive.
It seems as I am sharing with Christians around the world there is a frustration with the old. People know that what they are doing isn't producing the results they want to see, but they don't know what to do.
This is what I am sensing: God is forming a new wineskin for your life that is a good fit. You are being pressed into the new. No one likes that feeling. It is uncomfortable and, at times, stressful. Stress can actually be productive. It is when we get into (dis)stress that it becomes nonproductive.
One of the most difficult things to do in the midst of pressure is to still your spirit so God can speak to you. At times, when [you] are in that condition, God will use the prophetic voice to come alongside you in your distress to comfort you and help you.
This is what I am hearing God say for you, "You are coming into the most creative time of your life. The Holy Spirit, the Creator of the world, is going to fill you with His Spirit in a way beyond your understanding to help you go to a new level of anointing. He is going to fill you with His new wine to overflowing. Do not let fear paralyze you and stop up the flow He is wanting to release within you."
Here is a strategy to get to the new places God wants you to go:
1. Pray with others
Take time to surround yourself with friends who will corporately press into the new places that God has for you through prayer. The Bible says that the new wine is found in the cluster (see Is. 65:8). Revelation is found as you pray with others.
2. Search the Word
God wants you to have fresh bread for a new season. God is going to feed you with wisdom and revelation to give you strength to go through your transition.
3. Don't panic!
Satan is hitting your panic button and having a good time doing so! Stand up to him and resist his game. Hit the faith-walk instead of panic.
4. Trust God
Speak God's promises out loud to still your soul. Tell your mind that it will not control your spirit with thoughts of fear and desperation (see Prov. 3:5-6).
The truth is this: The only thing that can negate the will of God for your life is listening to Satan and following his "panic advice" rather than God's Word.
5. Sow
I believe that if we want to see what we've never seen, we have to do what we've never done. This includes sowing. Sowing into a word releases harvest, so follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in your giving and watch God begin to expand His kingdom through you.
Become a Reformer
by Barbara Wentroble
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Eighteenth-century statesman Edmund Burke is credited with saying, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” It is time for “good men”--the church—to arise and let their voices be heard. The spirit of reformation must arise in God’s people and turn this nation back to righteousness and to God.
The media often portrays our nation as one devoid of Judeo-Christian values. A news commentator recently stated that culturally, America has reached an all-time low. Members of the body of Christ, particularly a number of prominent Christian leaders, have contributed to the nation’s decline through moral failures and carnal living. It is time for the church to embrace the lifestyle and values of God’s kingdom culture rather than those of the culture of the world.
One of the ways the enemy uses to change culture is to remove every trace of Christianity from public buildings. In recent years we have seen “Christmas” replaced with “Holiday Season” in ads, on signs and in shop windows. The Ten Commandments and nativity scenes have been removed from public areas. We have no plumb line to use as a measuring rod for right and wrong. We are living in a time when every man does what is right in his own eyes (see Judg. 21:25).
A clear definition of right and wrong must be in place for a disciplined society to protect its citizens. In the Old Testament, God made a promise to the Jews. As long as they obeyed Him, He would bless them as a nation. “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deut. 7:9, NKJV).
God’s view of a corporate covenant with a nation has never changed. The first settlers to America believed they were a corporate people called to continue the Israelite’s covenant relationship with God and with one another. Today, in view of the moral and spiritual decay of our nation, we must rediscover our spiritual moorings. We must align ourselves with the corporate covenant this nation has with God.
As believers, we cannot remain nonchalant. We must become new wineskins that have embraced the spirit of a reformer.
After becoming a lawyer in London, Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi studied all religions, including the Bible. Although not a Christian, he was a reformer, and he said something we need to be reminded of today: “Mankind is notoriously too dense to read the signs that God sends them from time to time. We require drums to be beaten into our ears before we would wake from our trance and hear the warning.”
I believe reformers are hearing the warning to awake! The destiny of a nation is waiting for them to arise and let their voices be heard. God will use men and women to release prophetic decrees that will snap the chains of death wherever God sends them.
Moses was sent as an ambassador and a reformer. Spiritual protocol required him to know two important things: He had to know who he was and who sent him. We are required to know the same things in order to fulfill God’s purpose for our lives.
Like Moses, we need new identities to be positioned as reformers. Too often we live not out of who we truly are in Christ but out of diseased feelings, attitudes or images of self that are not real. For reformation to come to the culture, reformation must already reside within us.We cannot be the same people in the new season that we were in the old.
We must know who we are and who sent us. This knowledge authorizes us as reformers to fulfill our assignments. It makes us ready to receive new anointings and become new wineskins.
Our new anointing is the anointing of the reformer! What Jesus said of Himself is true of us: “‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord’”(Luke 4:18-19).
This is your acceptable, or as some translations say, “favorable,” year. Go forth in 2009 as a new wineskin! Be who you really are. Be anointed with the spirit of the reformer and change the world you live in!
(The writer is a gifted apostolic and prophetic minister)
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Girls Need a Dad and Boys Need a Mom
by Janice Shaw Crouse
Monday, January 05, 2009
The latest issue of The Journal of Communication and Religion (November 2008, Volume 31, Number 2) contains an excellent analysis of the importance of opposite-sex parent relationships. The common sense conclusion is backed up with social science data and affirmed by a peer-reviewed scholarly article: girls need a dad, and boys need a mom.
Not surprisingly, the study also found that communication is an essential building block for all family relationships — family interactions are the crucible for attitudes, values, priorities, and worldviews. Beyond the shaping and modeling of these essential personal characteristics, the family shapes an individual’s interpersonal system and self-identity.
Further, stable homes include specific talk about religion and support for children’s involvement in religious activities. These families create high-quality relationships by specific communication behaviors, such as openness, assurance, and dependency. Those same characteristics, not incidentally, are powerful predictors for marital success or failure.
The authors, G.L. Forward, Alison Sansom-Livolsi, and Jordanna McGovern, stress the fact that a family is more than merely a group of individuals who live under the same roof. They cite numerous studies indicating that parents play a crucial role in a child’s personal and social development. In fact, a child’s relationship with his or her parents is the single most important factor in predicting that child’s long-term happiness, adjustment, development, educational attainment, and success. Beyond that general information, studies indicate that girls get better support from the family than do boys. Girls feel closer to their parents, perhaps because parents converse with and express emotion more readily with daughters than with sons. In general, mothers spend far more time with daughters than with sons. Likewise, fathers spend more time with sons than with their daughters. Yet, father-daughter and mother-son relationships tend to have greater impact on a child’s future intimate relationships than their relationship with the same-sex parent.
All of this information has greater significance today than ever before because family structures are changing more rapidly than at any previous time. The National Center for Health Statistics reported in 2006 that 48 percent of all marriages in the United States ended in divorce. Other studies indicate that cohabitation, delayed marriage, serial marriages, and numerous blended family structures are affecting relationships and expectations between family members. Studies conclude that after a divorce mothers are less affectionate and communicate less often with their children. Long term erosion of family relationships is common, with the father-child relationship being the most endangered relationship following family turmoil.
The survey, given to students at two private, church-related universities in Southern California, asked students to evaluate their family’s relationship satisfaction, religiosity, and communication behaviors with the opposite-sex parent. Specifically, the study looked at the openness, assurance, dependency, and religiosity between the student and his or her mother or father.
Dependency — The authors define dependency as the attachment and emotional bonding that provides security that continues throughout a child’s lifetime. Healthy dependence is essential for autonomy. Ironically, parent-child dependency provides the foundation that enables the child to separate from the parents as he or she matures and becomes an adult. Social and emotional growth stems from a secure attachment — having a safe haven with parents enables a child to move away from their secure base to explore autonomy and independence as an adolescent and emerging adult. In other words, the more secure the base, the easier it is for a child to leave the nest; they know that the parents are there and feel secure enough to transition into a confident adulthood.
Openness — When parents and children openly and comfortably share their thoughts and emotions, the transition into healthy adulthood is easier. Further, such openness assists the child in decision-making. Greater interaction leads to fewer family problems. Parents who express love, offer frequent praise, and encourage give-and-take produce adolescents who are less likely to engage in dangerous behaviors when alone or with friends.
Assurance — A child’s self-esteem is strongly linked to parental assurance of worth. A vote of confidence from parents is particularly significant to adolescents. In fact, the ability to communicate assurance to a child is identified as a key to parental success. Successful parents give a child a sense of worth and lovability; coercive parents imply untrustworthiness and incompetence. These communication patterns especially affect girls; a father’s open encouragement and supportive attitude makes a daughter feel confident and creates a greater sense of personal worth.
Religiosity — The authors cited numerous studies that link religious beliefs and practices to a strong family unit and noted the fact that the most noticeable impact of religiosity is during adolescence. The majority of studies found an inverse relationship between religiosity and high-risk adolescent behaviors (drinking, drug use, sexual activity, depression, etc.). Other studies indicate a strong relationship between the family’s religious belief and practice and a teen’s emotional health and family well-being. This is especially true of teenage boys.
While family communication and interaction is critical to high-quality relationships for children and adolescents, this study suggests that the opposite-sex parent is especially important in making children feel validated and encouraged. This is true of boys as well as girls, but it is especially true of daughters. Fathers have the greatest impact on their daughters’ vitality as an adolescent college student. Daughters with a strong relationship with their father are more self-confident, self-reliant, and are more successful in school and career than those who have distant or absent fathers. Finally, the study validates the old adage, “The family that prays together, stays together” — even during those stressful adolescent and teen years.
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