Signs of the Times

Sometimes we can become so obsessed with politics, especially if you’re a junkie like me, that lots of other news slips by unnoticed. News that really should be critically important, especially to those who are spiritually sensitive.

We all should know that oil reached another record high of 115 dollars a barrel today, but do we realize what the ripple effects of our paracitical relationship with ‘liquid energy’ is causing?

In our attempts to find eco friendly replacements for oil, much of our food producing farmland has become fuel producing terrain, (corn for ethanol) and the ripple effect of that is finally reaching our store shelves.

I’m sorry, but I’ll give up my car, before I’ll give up my bread.. it’s ridiculous!

An alarming article was published in New York in the last few days, detailing the very real impact that corn production for fuel, along with other natural factors impacting the agriculture sector, is having on our food production. The quote following the link details the reporter’s eye witness report of food rationing in progress at a Costco on the east coast. Please read the entire article, it is a real eye opener.

http://nysun.com/news/food-rationing-confronts-breadbasket-world

Most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag [of rice]. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap.

“Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history,” a sign above the dwindling supply said.

Shoppers said the limits had been in place for a few days, and that rice supplies had been spotty for a few weeks. A store manager referred questions to officials at Costco headquarters near Seattle, who did not return calls or e-mail messages yesterday.

An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour.

This is in America people!! How is this happening? We are the breadbasket of the world!

In another related story that got the drive by treatment this election year, there are RIOTS taking place all over the third world because of food shortages!

In Cameroon, 24 people have been killed in food riots since February, while in Haiti, protesters chanting, “We’re hungry” forced the prime minister to resign this month.

In the past month, there have been food riots in Egypt, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Madagascar.

The World Bank now believes that some 33 countries are in danger of being destabilised by food price inflation, while Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, said that higher food prices risked wiping out progress towards reducing poverty and could harm global growth and security.

(see source below)

Nothing new you say, there’s always been hunger in the third world…but wait… we don’t usually get to the stage of riots because generous countries like the US ship flour and rice overseas to those in need.

Do you think we have food for humanitarian aid when our wholesale depots are running out of produce for local consumption?

I’m not trying to be a fearmonger, in fact, I’m fairly sure it’s possible for things to stabalize, at least here in the U.S. IF individuals stop thinking about their individual bottom dollars, and start thinking about the good of the country as a whole.

Forget growing food for fuel… we can’t eat the ozone, if it comes down to that immidiate choice. There are other alternate energy sources that will not neccesitate ration lines at the checkout.

It is very sombering to think that we could propel ourselves into a social and economic meltdown that will have international ramifications, because everyone wants to get rich quick. Who needs a biblical famine, when we can induce one ourselves by man made means?

Lest we forget though, there is nothing new under the sun, and nothing that catches a soverign God by surprise. Almost 2000 years ago, the apostle John recorded in the book of the Revelation:

Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!” (Revelation 6:6)

That’s the same as paying 50 plus dollars (@ minimum wage) for a quart of flour. According to scripture, its coming. The wise and the spiritually attuned will be prepared.

I am not by any means obsessed with the apocolypse… but when signs of the times start staring me in the face, I’m not one to ignore them either. Just in case

Time to spend a little more time on my knees, and to buy an extra bag of flour!

His Handmaiden

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/04/22/scifood122.xml

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmOrrlNsq91JgRERInIgzRXDagzg

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C04%5C23%5Cstory_23-4-2008_pg5_26

The Advocate

I am currently experiencing just a shadow of what Jesus probably feels when He stands before the Father’s throne to advocate on our behalf.

I have been mentoring a student teacher at work. She has really invested her energies, time and passion into embracing and enhancing the spirit of our school. She is a wonderfully creative teacher, participates in extra curricular activities, is the first to volunteer for the task no one else wants and even teaches a yoga class for the staff after work once a week.

A vacancy has come up in our department, and I was almost sure that she would be a shoe in for the spot. I mean what could any unknown off the street offer to challenge the good that we already know?

But I can’t shake the feeling that the top brass aren’t sold on her, and that feeling was confirmed by the appointment email that popped up today asking me to sit in on an interview with another subject.

I suppose that by law vacancies have to be advertized, but I guess some little part of me was expecting the “wink and nod, she’s in, don’t worry” routine.

So now, I’m her advocate. I probably know her best, have spent time with her, seen her up days and down days, seen her brilliant ideas and her stupid ideas. Of everyone on that campus I probably am most aware of her instructional strengths and weaknesses, and most of all she is petitioning to be a part of MY family, my department, so I would hope that my opinion and feedback would matter.

Even if on her own merit, she does not satisfy whatever invisible ‘requirement’ it is that the administrators are looking for, I am hoping that the trust that those individuals have in me, and my judgement, will be enough to atone for whatever is missing and open the door for a lifetime carreer in a place that she loves to work.

It’s a heavy burden. I feel the discomfort of having to acknowlege to her that she appears not to be ‘good enough’ on her own, yet the comfort of of knowing that I will do everything in my power to see that she gets a fair shake.

Why?  Because I want her to be a part of my team. 

And my earthly stress is but a pale shadow of our Lord’s.

He too must help us understand that we are not ‘good enough’ on our own. Even with all of the good works and kind deeds that we have done. He too has to stand as an advocate before the throne and say forgive them their failings for my life’s blood sake. You entusted me with their spirits at Calvary, in time they will grow to spiritual maturity. Do not turn away from them in anger.

My bosses are under no obligation to accept my advocacy. In the end, she really is on her own, unless she committs her way to the Lord and asks Him to open a closed door. (if it really is closed)

Thankfully, Jesus’ death and resurrection marked the beginning of a blood covenant between God and His creation, and it’s our Lord’s full time job to intercede and advocate on the behalf of those who believe, before the throne.

Thank God that our heavenly advocate has an eternity’s worth more influence than that of any earthly advocate that we may ever have.

And I sure do keep Him busy!

His Handmaiden

Contagious Christianity

“A Christian, an atheist, a lesbian and a New Ager walk into a restaurant.”

Sounds like the start of a really bad joke right?

Nope, that was the reality of my lunch date today with fellow teachers in our ‘transition time’ before heading out to some professional development workshops.

The funny thing is when we walked through the door to sit down, all I knew about them was that they were really pleasant workmates and that we were killing some time together.

What happened between walking in the door and out? A very politically incorrect, (in liberal education circles anyway) conversation about the role of religion and faith in society from our multiple viewpoints.

God sure has precision timing.

I’ve just started a study with our church’s youth group that is directed at helping them to discover and apply their unique evangalism styles in an attempt to build personal relationships that will open doors for them to share the gospel. It’s called Contagious Christianity, and teaches the kids how to work around the stereotypes of what evangelism is seen to be, to find their own approach to peer evangelism.

The study provides simple strategies for creating and building sincere longterm relationships, and provides tips on how to make that transition from secular to spiritually infused conversations in their daily lives.

I’m learning as much as the kids are, and today God provided me with a master class opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone in ministering to my liberal workmates.

Oh.. there was no ‘Come to Jesus or else’ moment. Rather I had an amazing opportunity to present myself as a believer who cared about them regarless of their non traditional religious or lifestyle viewpoints.

Our very secular conversation about the sensational ‘pregnant man’ evolved into a discussion on the limitations placed on adoption for gay couples, and one teacher expressed frustration at the roadblocks thrown up by religious conservatives to the rights of others to be happy.

I felt led at that point to remind them that Jesus did not himself judge and throw up roadblocks to the happiness of others, in fact he went to parties with the very folks that the traditional religious society of his time rejected.

My faith in God, and my perception of the character of Christ and how He sees people in a non-judgemental and loving light, opened the door for future one on one conversations when other aspects of our accountability to God could come up.

It is not easy to talk to others about God, to share the love of Christ in a non religious environment, especially environments where those topics are taboo, but we need to try.

All of my tablemates revealed that they had been exposed to the overly agressive and pushy evangelism efforts of parents and friends, and that it had pushed them away from, rather than drawn them closer to God.

I never sought these individuals out for friendship, they kind of found me. Perhaps the Lord sent them? My own mission field on the job? Maybe I’m one of the few christians that they will have the opportunity to connect with personally?

Whatever the reason, I don’t take my opportunity to minister lightly. They are not projects, but acquaintences who could become friends. They are also individuals who could be my workmates until I retire in 20 years.

That’s a long time to share God’s love and message of hope

We should all be looking for ways to be contagious christians in our daily lives. Sometimes our mission field is right under our noses.

His handmaiden.

Huck PAC is Born!!

It’s like Christmas morning in April…and on tax day no less, but FINALLY Mike Huckabee is back as the visible face and leader of the conservative movement that took the nation by storm during the GOP primaries.

We have all felt this election season, as conservatives, and as social conservatives in particular,  the deep sense of disconnect between us and those who were supposed to be our leaders, both in the secular and religious realms.

As a presidential candidate Mike represented reality, our reality. He loved God, his country and his fellow man and put the principles of self governance and the golden rule, before the expediency of politics time and time again. We learned so much from him about how to walk this walk, and still his testimony shines out in his words and actions post race 08.

We know he’s not perfect, and we are not so foolish as to lift him up as an ‘idol,’ but we do see in him, someone with the experience, the interpersonal skills and now, the name recognition to do what needed to be done:

Harness the energies of thousands of frustrated Americans who feel disenfranchised by a political system that works around them instead of with them. And so Huck PAC is born

I don’t know what the future holds for Mike and this political action committe, but I do know that it will only become what we make it. We can’t ALL be leaders, which means that we will have to trust the vision of the one we chose by default to be our leader, and try to avoid the second guessing that could rip our efforts apart.

There will be power in our unity, but divided against ourselves, we will not stand.

The time to buy in is now, but if we buy in it has to be 100 percent. If we have reservations and want to support one candidate, but not another, if we want to dicatate that money go here, but not there, we negate the trust that we placed in Mike when we encouraged him to take this step on our behalf in the first place.

If Mike Huckabee is the man that he’s proven himself to be, if he continues to exercise the good judgement that he has shown thus far, there should be no hesitation in our willingness to support the causes he champions from here on out. Of course we will use our own judgement as the ultimate final criterion, but it will feel good again to race as part of a team that has a lead dog. (And one with lots of fight at that!)

I look forward to many more exciting months of working with Mike to turn Washington on its head come November. How will we do it? In Mike’s own words:

We are committed to supporting Republican candidates who are passionate advocates for tax reform, a strong national defense, real border security, life, the family, less government and individual liberty.

We will identify candidates who hold firm to these principles, promote their campaigns and financially support their efforts.

See you on the trail!

His Handmaiden

http://www.huckpac.com/?FuseAction=Home.Home

Back from the Matrix

I like to think of ‘The Matrix,’ as that reality that most Americans are living in, where you have no idea of what’s going on in politics, because you’re too busy at work and at play to watch cable news or spend all day in the blogosphere, and you don’t care enough for it to matter anyway.

(It is this mentality, incedentially that has caused us to endure the many painful consequences that occur when weak leadership is in power at all levels of government)

It’s been almost 6 months since I’ve lived in that reality, (I’ve been out of the matrix and in ‘the real world’ of political awareness since around the same time that I discovered Mike Huckabee), but I had a forced re-emersion these last three days or so because of the sheer volume of work that had to be done on next semester’s teacher schedule.

Wow, talk about putting a puzzle together… and it doesn’t help to spend 8 hours one night putting it together, to discover the next day that there were pieces missing you didn’t know about, so then the whole thing has to be re-worked for another 10 hours!!

It’s been pretty exhausting, but refreshing not to have the alternate political tension hovering over every minute.

I spend so much time pointlessly fuming about nasty comments political bloggers make, or being frustrated that ‘Huck isn’t doing anything yet’ or drowning in people’s hostility to candidates across, and even within party lines, that it’s very hard to remember.. people don’t care a whole bunch about something they are uninformed about.

I used to wonder.. HOW could people NOT know how good for America Mike Huckabee would be. But if they’re living in the matrix, chances are, all he is to them is a funny sounding name that they know nothing about.

It makes what he accomplished this season even more remarkable. But I’m rambling…

My point is, when I emerged from my forced hiatus, Mike had had an amazing conference call with 6000 supporters, the MSM and blogosphere was buzzing with the news that he had signed up with a talent agency, and that his political action committe was about to be launched.

Barak Obama had once again managed to put his foot in his mouth by implying that God, guns and prejuidice is something that ’small town America clings to out of ‘bitterness’ at their economic lot in life, and John McCain had yet to make further inroads into the social conservative resistance of his candidacy.

All of which, had not remotely impacted the past few days of my life away from the inner workings of the political blogosphere. They all may as well have ceased to exist.

All of their ‘doing’ did not reach me once I was out of access of their ability to communicate and engage with me. Reaching me directly with the message was the only way it could touch my life.

In the business of our christian walk, and all of the ‘doing’ that we do for Christ, let us all step up our efforts to do some direct and personal communication of the good news, to those people in our sphere of influence.

The great impact of the ‘international missions ministry’ to spread the news of God’s love and forgiveness isn’t known to, or influencing your neighbor next door. That’s YOUR job… it’s why you’re their neighbor, or co worker, or teacher.. “How will they know, unless you tell them?”

Lets not be satisfied to leave them asleep in their hopeless, Godless matrix.

It’s time to wake some people up.

His Handmaiden.

Seeing the big picture

I’m one of those annoying people who have to know the intended outcome of something before I start working on it. I have to have a goal, to be able to visualize the goal line.

I don’t really understand how folks can be comfortable starting something, not knowing what it is they want to have accomplished by the end. But that’s just how I’m wired.

Here in AZ we’ve got about five weeks left in the semester, and I’m already pouring over the data that I’ll need to work with to ensure that next year gets off to a banging start.

As our school’s English department chair, I have to figure out how to best utilize the strengths and weakness of my staff to ensure their success and that of their students in my course scheduling. 

I’m also revising our supplementals  allocation, (fancy words for decidng who gets to teach what literature) so that we stop poaching on each other’s materials and making each others’ lives unbearable when we have to endure the whined, “but we read that already!!” (the horror!)

I’m also thinking about goals, the things I want us to do differently, the things I want us to keep.

I’m doing all of this, and its the end of my FIRST ever semester in an ‘administrative position’ (my dpt chair stayed home to have a baby, and may not be coming back!)

Well.. it just got me to thinking, how often do we as Christians spend time thinking of ‘the end of our race?’

We start our walk with Christ, and have a very ‘take one day at a time’ mentality. We tend not to think of how what we’re doing, or not doing will be brought to bear when we stand before the judgement seat of Christ.

I’m not thinking so much of a condemnation session, as a award session, (for there shall be therefore NO condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus) and of how living our Christian lives with the big picture in mind might in fact help to change the way we live.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to say to the Lord, that we’d had a plan in the way we walked our christian walk? Wouldn’t it be nice to identify the individuals with whom we had shared the ‘good news’? Wouldn’t it be nice to know that we had found ways to honor and not bring shame to the name of Jesus?

Maybe if we spent a little more time thinking about what is waiting for us at the end of this journey, we would be a little more careful about how we make it.

His Handmaiden.

Christian Carnival CCXIX

The 219th Christian Carnival is complete, and posted at the blog Chasing the Wind.

http://chasingthewind.net/2008/04/09/christian-carnival-ccxix/

I encourage you to stop by and browse the posts submitted by other writers in the christian blogosphere. I actually participated this week, and they have posted a link to my ‘The Cost of Repentence’ post.

The carnival is put together every week, once a week  and hosted by a different blog each time. If you are interested in participating, feel free to visit the Christian Carnival info link in my blogroll, sign up and start posting!

God bless

His Handmaiden.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

I think the title of this post is also the title of a book, although I haven’t read it. It just seemed to fit with the thoughts running though my mind.

If you don’t think people are watching and judging you.. and God by your actions, just make a mistake.

You’ll find out right quickly just how many eyes are on you.

Reaction continues in the blogosphere, and even in some main stream media outlets to the belated efforts of christian ‘leaders’ to negotiate the consequences of their refusal to stand on principle during this political season.

The secular media doesn’t portray current choices as evidence of enlightenment, but rather of confusion, political expediency, and naievete,even holding these individuals up to ridicule.

How easy would it have been to avoid having your Godly testemony made a mockery of, if you had found the courage to stand when the opportunity was provided.

World On the Web webzine had an article published today, called ‘Religious Right Flip Flops’ (see link below) that called out these ‘leaders’ for not seeming to have the pulse of their own movement.

The Religious Right is still desperately trying to catch John McCain’s attention, and they’re still running into the same problem that left them with a candidate so distasteful to them in the first place. They can’t seem to pull it together and make up their minds.

On April 2, James Dobson told the Wall Street Journal, “I have seen no evidence that Sen. McCain is successfully unifying the Republican Party or drawing conservatives into his fold.” Considering the wildly vacillating choices social conservatives have made this election season, maybe McCain is waiting for them to unify themselves first.

This is a classic example of what happens to us in our personal lives when we fail to uphold our testemony of Jesus. The world has rejected the lordship of Christ, because it does not want to subject itself to His authority and expectations.

Guess what that means. The world knows what those expectations are.

If we as believers claim to be living lives of submission to the will of God for us, then our actions will be scrutized for the degree to which we actually allow God to influence our thoughts, words and actions, including the choices that we make.

The sad thing is that when we fail, it is not we ourselves who suffer, but the the honor of Jesus in whom we claim to stand.

How many times have we had to hear, ‘Well if that’s how Chiristians can get on, then I don’t want any part of that!”

It’s an excuse of course, and one that won’t carry any water when they stand accountable before God. But we should make every effort to make sure that our actions are not a stumbling block to the possible faith of others.

I fear that the lack of action, and in some cases, the politically expedient actions, of many of those in positions of leadership in the ’Religious Right’ this cycle, have put down some serious stumbling blocks for others.

Not only for dissapointed believers, but for those who could have been blessed by seeing those leaders operate in unity to uplift one of their own who would have been good for America.

Let the lessons learned from their errors be ones we take to heart in our own daily walks as we seek to bring honor and not disgrace to Jesus’ name.

His Handmaiden

Source: http://www.worldontheweb.com/2008/04/08/religious-right-flip-flops/

Amazing Love

Sometimes the sensitivity of God’s Holy Spirit brings me to tears.

When you are blessed to have a communion with God that enables you to recognize the nudges here and there that  He uses to get your attention, it can be amazing.

After a good walloping of conviction from the sermon yesterday, I was in the mood today to be serious and reverent of God’s holiness and to mentally ‘prostrate’ myself as a ’servant’ in His presence.

The Holy Spirit instead lifted my spirit up and reminded me that God’s amazing love for me, far exceeds the righteous anger He may have when we are weak. He did not negate my need to strive for holiness, but gently reminded that love, and not fear should be the motivation for the effort to be holy.

And He did it with a song.

Most of us buy CD’s, christian or otherwise. Often we purchace them because they have a few tracks that blow us away, and a remaining few that just provide background noise to push back the quiet.

I have a worship cd that I will usually play by skipping tracks to play the three or four songs I like over and over again. I almost don’t know what else is on the album. But today on my drive home, I just let it play, and the Holy Spirit caused songs that were usually background noise, to resonate with my spirit.

The message that resonated the most was ”I love you.”

What an amazing love… to be loved unconditionally by the God of all wonders.

One of the hardest concepts for human minds to grasp is that of God as ‘The Trinity’. Three personalities, with three distinct functions, in an eternal relationship, but One God.

It becomes easier to understand the concept when you relate to God in His different personalities.

The Holy Spirit is my comforter, He is my safe place, the one I whisper my concerns to or giggle with when my sense of the ridiculous is tickled. He is almost a mother figure, if that is not a contradiction of ideas.

Jesus is like my older brother, an admired, respected, honored, ’I want to be just like Him when I grow up’ big brother. I stand in (and sometimes behind Him) when I feel insecure about approaching God in my own strength. I stand in awe of His submission, His obedience, His perfection, and His amazing love; that He would die for me.

And God the Father… Oh the glory of his presence!! He is power, life, love, the essence of Holiness. He is my provider, my shield, my strength. When I think of Him, I feel like the prophets of old who felt that they would die if God revealed Himself fully to them. No wonder He chose to reveal aspects of Himself through the Holy Spirit who might be percieved by some minds as more ‘approachable.’

And yet the greatest of all mysteries is that they are One. One God, different personalities, the same essence, the same power, the same majesty.

This God loves me. (And you too!! )

It just about blows my mind.

What an amazing love.. I’m glowing with it as I type, hoping it will reach into your spirits and warm you up too.

Have a blessed evening.

His Handmaiden.

Grace and Mercy

Thank God for His Grace and Mercy, for the undeserved blessings and the unwarranted forgiveness.

We often forget that God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

The Holiness that was God in the Old Testement, when he lay down the law to establish the boundary between righteousness and unrighteousness, between holy and unholy, still exists in Him today. He IS Holy, and expects holiness of those who bear His name.

The only thing that spares us from the immidiate consequences of our unholy choices and actions, are His grace and mercy..especially his mercy, available only because of the price Jesus paid on that cross with his blood.

In church today, our pastor preached out of the book of Hebrews, a timely reminder not to take the mercy provided by the sacrifice that Christ made forgranted. It was a very sobering message from a passage of scripture that absolutely resonated with the awesomeness, holiness and absoulute consistency of the God that we serve.

26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing, the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  (Hebrews 10:26-31)

This isn’t ‘feel good’ Christianity. This is accountable Christianity. God is still God, and He still requires that we stand, and stand for holiness and righteousness in our daily living.

We are not perfect, we will make mistakes, but we dare not have the knowledge of God’s expectations of us, and deliberately and repeatedly do what we know to be unrighteous, and as a result bring disgrace to His name if we bear it.

The days for being a ‘Christian in name only’ are over. If we bear the name, we’d better be living it. We will be held accountable by a mighty and Holy God for what we do with it, because a day of accounting WILL come.

Be encouraged in the Lord, and stand.

His Handmaiden