T. Austin-Sparks
How many times has the Spirit broken loose and moved in a new and free way only to have that way brought under man’s control and crystallized into another form, creed, organization, denomination, sect, order, community, or the like! The invariable result has been that the Spirit’s free movement and life has been cramped or even killed by the prison of the framework into which He has been drawn or forced.
Every time we seek to express something divine in word or form, we at once limit it. When that expression or form becomes the established and recognized formula, we have, in effect, put fetters on the Spirit. God gives a vision, and every God-given vision has unlimited potential and possibilities. But all too soon the vision is laid hold of by men who never received it by the Spirit. Then the grapes of Eschol turn to raisins in their hands. So very many of the living fruits of the heavenly country have suffered in this way and become dried, shrunken, and unctionless shadows of their early glory.
Successors, sponsors, or adherents build an earthly organization on a living movement of the Spirit, born with fire in the heart of some prophet. They imprison the vision in a tradition. A message becomes a creed; a heavenly vision becomes an earthly institution; a movement of the Spirit becomes a work, which must be kept going by the steam of human energy and maintained by man’s resourcefulness.
Any real (or seeming) departure or diversion from the recognized and traditional order of creed or practice will sooner or later become heresy, to be violently suspected, repressed, and cast out. What was, at its beginning, a spiritual energy-producing living organism, expressing something that God really wanted and to which He gave birth has too often become something which the next generation has to sustain and struggle hard at to keep going. The thing has developed a self-interest, and it will go hard with anyone or anything interfering or seeming to interfere with it. The Spirit has become the prisoner of the institution or system, and as a result the people become limited spiritually.
All along the way the Spirit must be referred to and deferred to. In anything in which the Spirit may have His liberties limited, the Spirit will be a rebel. And if He is in us, He will make us to rebel against unspiritual restrictions.
Tags: Add new tag, grieving holy spirit, quenching holy spirit, t. austin-sparks, tradition, traditions of men
Faith Is……reliance on the certainty that God has a pattern for my life when everything else seems meaningless.
Faith Is……depending on the fact that God is love - not on my ability to figure out "why?" in the midst of smashed hopes, and tragedy.
Faith Is……keeping on when I’m dog tired, discouraged, disillusioned, deserted, dusty, and dry and I’m cast on His strength alone.
Faith Is……realizing that I am useful to God, not in spite of my scars, but because of them.
Faith Is……accepting the truth that, in spite of the wreckage and grief I’ve caused, God has wiped the slate clean & delights in me!
Faith Is……recognizing that God is the Lord of time when my idea of timing doesn’t agree with His.
Faith Is……not a vague hope of a happy hereafter but an assurance of eternal life based on Christ’s Cross on which He took away the sin of the world.
Faith Is……remembering that, though my way is as dark as night to me, God can see and is guiding me unerringly.
Faith Is……doing the right thing regardless of the consequences knowing God will turn the ultimate result into good.
Faith Is……the conviction that The Promisor keeps His promises!
Tags: faith, Jesus Christ, overcoming, patience, trust, winning
Jimmy Carter:
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
"Tragically, the international community too often ignores the cries for help and the citizens of Palestine are treated more like animals than like human beings," he said Tuesday as he toured the war-torn, blockaded Gaza Strip.
"The starving of 1.5 million human beings of the necessities of life — never before in history has a large community like this been savaged by bombs and missiles and then denied the means to repair itself," Carter said at a U.N. school graduation ceremony in
He was referring to the blockade that
The
"Palestinian statehood cannot come at the expense of
Carter, who brokered the historic 1979 peace treaty between
The offensive killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis and left large swathes of the coastal strip sandwiched between
"I have to hold back tears when I see the deliberate destruction that has been wracked against your people," he said earlier at a destroyed American school, decrying the fact that the school was "deliberately destroyed by bombs from F16s made in my country."
"I feel partially responsible for this as must all Americans and Israelis."
Carter also is to meet Ismail Haniya, prime minister of the
He is expected to pass on a letter from the parents of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier that
In an interview with an Israeli daily published earlier in the week, Carter urged
Shortly after entering
The massive destruction in the area has made it a regular stop for the succession of foreign dignitaries who have come to
As Carter briefly got out of his vehicle to take a look at the damage, one resident ran up, yelling he wanted to talk to the former US leader, and getting into a brief shoving match with bodyguards.
"They all come here and look at us like we’re animals and then they go home," said Majid Athamna. "We’re not animals, we’re human beings."
"If he wants to come and visit us, he has to listen to us."
© Agence
Tags: genocide, Israel, Jimmy Carter, Palestine, racism
Please Tell Me, Where is Israel Headed?
By John J. Mearsheimer
March 31, 2009 "FP"
Benjamin Netanyahu is in the final stages of putting together Israel’s next government, which will be opposed to a two-state solution. Most importantly, the new prime minister and his Likud Party are firmly against a Palestinian state. The Labor Party, which will be part of the governing coalition and which has been identified with the two-state solution for the past two decades, did not insist that Likud support that policy as a condition for joining the government. Its leader, Ehud Barak, merely asked for and got a vague statement saying that Israel was committed to promoting regional peace. Avigdor Lieberman, who heads Yisrael Beiteinu, the other major party in the ruling coalition, is not likely to push to give the Palestinians a viable state of their own. His main concern is "transferring" the Palestinians out of Israel so that it can be an almost purely Jewish state.
Tags: Christian Zionists, Israel, Lieberman, Likud Party, Mearsheimer, Netanyahu, Obama, Palestinians
Get informed, American news media will not give you the truth.
Tags: holocaust, Israel, media bias, Palestine, racism, zionism
Invoking the Holocaust to Defend the Occupation
By John Mearsheimer
For American readers, the great virtue of Avraham Burg’s important new book is that he says things about Israel and the Jewish people that are hardly ever heard in mainstream discourse in the United States. It is hard to believe how stunted and biased the coverage of Israel is in the American media, not to mention the extent to which our politicians have perfected the art of pandering to the Jewish state. The situation got so bad in the recent presidential campaign that journalists Jeffrey Goldberg and Shmuel Rosner — both staunch defenders of Israel — wrote pieces titled "Enough about Israel Already."
Let’s hope that The Holocaust is Over is widely read and discussed, because it makes arguments that need to be heard and considered by Americans of all persuasions, but especially by those who feel a deep attachment to Israel. The fact that Burg wrote this book also matters greatly. He cannot be easily dismissed as a self-hating Jew or a crank, as he comes from a prominent Israeli family and has been deeply involved in mainstream Israeli politics for much of his adult life. Moreover, he clearly loves Israel.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Germany, holocaust, Israel, john mearsheimer, Nazi, occupation, Palestine
Last night I watched a video message given by William P. Young author of The Shack published by Windblown Media. It was very powerful. His book, originally self-published has sold close to five million copies as of this writing and still going strong. There are plans for a movie and distribution into over 20 other countries. This book is having a tremendous impact upon Christians and non-Christians alike. It’s a book that leads folks to the message we, at Tentmaker Ministries, have been teaching for a long time. This instantly successful author is changing lives.
I also recently was given some short videos by a man named Rob Bell. Rob is pastor of a large church called "Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan. He is marketing these short videos under the brand name "Nooma." He, too, is having a huge impact on Christians and non-Christians alike. These videos are very powerful even though they are short, usually 12 minutes in length. While the messages both these men are presenting are revolutionary when compared to the traditional church’s teachings, they are closer to the heart of Jesus than the hundreds of churches I’ve attended in my lifetime. While the traditional churches are emptying in record numbers quickly catching up to the empty Cathedrals of Europe, spirituality focused on simply Jesus is making a big come-back. These folks impacted by guys like William P. Young and Rob Bell may usher in a brand new kind of Christianity, a Christianity filled with the life and power of the Holy Spirit sent by the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, not filled with the "traditions of men which make the word of God of no effect." Matt. 15:6-9
I highly recommend buying a copy of The Shack and visiting your local Christian book store on the Nooma page and catching a few Noomas. They grab the heart.
Oh, stay tuned for a new book by Tentmaker Ministries entitled Whatever Became of Melanie? We have picked up the rights to publish this book. We feel it may have an impact similar to the two mentioned above. A Christian woman’s teenage daughter dies in her own vomit at a party from drinking too much. The daughter was not a "born again" Christian. Where is she? Is she in Hell tormented forever? This book wrestles with this subjected that has tormented millions throughout all ages. We hope to get it in print by the end of 2008. See link below. Pray for this book. Gary Amirault
http://www.nooma.com/Info/About.aspx
http://www.windblownmedia.com/
Tags: Allan Chevrier, everlasting punishment, hell, Nooma, Rob Bell, Tentmaker Ministries, The Shack, Whatever Became of Melanie, William P. Young, Windblown Media