Ministry of a true man of God

When I was first drawn to God I was very impressed by the miracles of the Bible and of the people that performed them. I thought it would be so very neat to be able to perform them. I prayed to God for this gift for many years. I especially prayed when my son was brain damaged during a birth accident. I asked god to please heal him for twelve years until he died. Finally I accept the fact that God did not give the gift of healing but a different gift, a great desire to know His word and to share it with others.

On May 6, 2001, the pastor ‘s sermon was on John 10: 22-30. As is my custom I read more than just the given verses. To my great surprise and relief, the Spirit showed me a verse that calmed my desire for miracles. In John 10: 41, I found that John did no miracle. (John 10:41 KJV) And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true.

Now John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost. (Luke 1:15 KJV) For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And Jesus tells us that John was more than a prophet in (Mat 11:9 KJV) But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. Also he was the greatest ever born of women as Christ tells us in (Mat 11:11 KJV) Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Thus I realized that signs and wonders are never a necessary, or even desirable, accompaniment for the ministry of a true man of God, especially today when we have the complete Bible.

Valiant Truth

While studying Jeremiah today my thoughts fell on the words valiant and truth in (Jer 9:3 KJV) And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.

These Jews were not valiant for the truth. The word valiant translates a Hebrew word (#1396 in the Strong’s concordance) that means “to be strong”. So these Jews were not strong for the truth.

This same Hebrew word is translated prevail in Genesis where we read (Gen 7:20 KJV) Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. The great Flood was slow in coming but when it did come it’s strength over came even the mighty mountains of the earth.

This shows that God’s word is of the truth for earlier He tells Noah (Gen 6:17 KJV) And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

In the hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” we sing “But for us fights the Valiant One”. This Valiant One is Christ who also declares that He is the Truth in (John 14:6 KJV) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

And even though it seems He is slow in coming, just as the great flood was, when He comes He will prevail and be valiant for the truth over all the earth.

What I did on my vacation

I had the pleasure of worshiping with my brother-in-law and family at his church, Grace Lutheran, Albuquerque.

I enjoyed Pastor Graf's sermon and had a good time talking to folks there. Ironically, they are also studying Revelation for Bible Class -- but a bit ahead of us.

I'll update this post with a podcast of today's sermon. Last week's sermon is here.

On Vacation

We are now safely in Albuquerque and having a good time. I am entrusting blogging to our fellow contributors. No sermon podcasts will be coming, unless I sneak a recorder into church with me.

POLITICAL WARFARE: Damage Control?

The following is the prologue to the latest edition of THE INTELLIGENCER: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies, written by the President of the ASSOCIATION FOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS (AFIO), S. Eugene Poteat, a retired CIA intelligence officer. At least one more post (article) will follow.

There are several issues that the author could have covered in this prologue, but then it would not be a preface but rather a contributed article or essay. However, he could have commented on the role of mainstream media in shaping public opinion by providing subjective manipulation and passing off personal beliefs and agendas as objective news and bonafide editorial commentary. Be that as it may, the following gives serious readers and patriots pause for serious thought.

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ASSESSMENTS

As a child, sitting on the family's front porch in the evening darkness, I listened to my father and his friends talking about world events in places far away. My father, a former WW-I Navy man, had seen more of the world than most, and I was intrigued by his stories of Bolsheviks, Archangel, the Balkans, the Middle East, and of Muslims who called the sailors "Christian dogs." He would often say that democracy has within it the seeds of its own destruction. Looking at where we are today and what we are doing to ourselves and the planet, I think I know what he meant.

In past wars, we were a fairly homogenous and united country of peoples with common goals and interests. This was coupled with the will, resources, tools and techniques to win against a foe.

SABOTAGING OURSELVES

Here we are in the most critical, undeclared war in our history, yet we cannot even agree on what to call it. We are under attack by ubiquitous, non-state enemies who have promised publicly to convert, subjugate, or kill us. They are eager to die in the process. Yet we seem unwilling or unable to counter them, nor to keep the worst of them out of our country, for fear of offending them. Worse, we are hesitant to use the needed surveillance methods to track enemy cells, or to permit our intelligence services to use CI [Counter-Intelligence] and CT [Counter-Terrorism] tools to neutralize terrorists before they strike. Even on these acts of self-defense we are polarized. Pogo had it right: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Perhaps I am not describing people you know. Yet these days there are some everywhere we turn in Congress, the White House, Universities, and even within the Intel­ligence Community itself. Many have eagerly or carelessly leaked secrets to a hungry press about the latest counter­terrorism tools and techniques, thus causing invaluable sources to evaporate or enemy tactics to change. There are those in Congress and in the public more concerned about minor personal privacy anxieties than our nation's safety, as well as policymakers who would cause crippling complications in implementing these tools and techniques. The Congress has also meddled in foreign policy, and not so covert action, by sending Iranian Americans to introduce democracy into Iran. All were promptly arrested. A few were later released on bond and sent home.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyers are quick to respond, caviling at the proposed use of almost any effective counterterrorism technique, being willing to sue for the most frivolous of reasons. For example, they recently sued the Jeppesen Company, which develops flight plans for every segment of aviation in the world, for knowingly producing flight plans and charts for CIA flights which might have been used for White House authorized rendi­tions. The ACLU legal sniping impedes timely counterter­rorism strategies and only serves the interests of terrorists. They, along with some professors, lawyers and journalists, challenged the Administration on the constitutionality of the National Security Agency's 'warrantless' wiretapping surveillance. The courts have yet to rule on the constitu­tionality of this surveillance, only that the plaintiffs did not have the standing to sue. Misplaced legal assaults on this important counterterrorism tool are sure to continue, with the effect of keeping us from protecting ourselves from future surprise attacks. Where will these lawyers be when that happens? Hiding to protect a lot more than their privacy, I think.

One of the worst security breaches in this war was the leak that disclosed that much of the world's commu­nication, including foreign traffic over the Internet, goes through American controlled facilities and communication hubs. Our intelligence community had been taking advan­tage of this, but such a disclosure made it useless.

EVEN UP THE PLAYING FIELD? WHY?

For reasons that escape me, we keep putting ourselves on a path to lose by undercutting ourselves with mindless, almost suicidal disclosures. Why? Do we feel so invincible that we leak to make 'the game' more exciting? Are we so incapable of seeing the seriousness of our actions-and what the consequences would be if we lose-that we have forgotten what it is like to not be the victor?

False stories continue to appear that CIA counter terrorism tactics include harsh, illegal torture techniques, though our Justice Department has ruled it untrue, and that nothing has been withheld from Congressional oversight committees. In fact, Congress knows of some of the invalu­able intelligence gained from detained terrorist interroga­tions that have saved lives, disrupted plots, and provided priceless insights into terrorist networks and activities. But with a Congressional climate calling for frequent opinion­ polling to ensure re-election viability, few Congressional leaders are willing to stand up publicly to set the record straight and put an end to these false accounts. Congress - behind closed doors - fully authorizes and appreciates these secret actions, yet later, on a public stage, will feign surprise, consternation, and, if near an election, outrage.

'FIRST, HARM ONLY INNOCENTS'

As the war has run on beyond the political will of some, our traditional European allies have started folding their tents. The chief of Europe's human rights agency is seeking tougher oversight of European intelligence ser­vices found to be cooperating with American agencies. Iran has openly declared war on the U.S., while our State Department seeks to negotiate the issue through games of semantics rather than take the statements for what they are. At usurious prices, the Russians are selling advanced weaponry and equipment to Iranians under a business-as-­usual mindset, enjoying the international mischief-making as a side dish.

THE COMING NUCLEAR SOLUTION

When or if Iran does get the bomb, it seems likely that they will donate it to the terrorist arsenal. And there is virtually no foolproof countermeasure that can stop them from bringing suitcase or dirty bombs (or larger) into this country, and then detonating them, to the tune of several million dead Americans. Such dire predictions come from the FBI, Homeland Security, National Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency and many other qualified officials and agencies. If the Iranians continue to ignore a toothless United Nations, and actually develop the bomb, they will have given the U.S. no option but to excise this threat. Yet the Iranians appear to have little idea of the consequences of their actions. There are those, however, that believe that sanctions alone will do the trick, and influence the Iranians to do the right thing. Perhaps it is they, not the Iranians, who are the more deluded.

While the world waits, things are going the Islamic terrorist way. And the dirty job that has to be done falls to our counterterrorism, intelligence and counterintelligence communities to insure that the country remains safe, so that our allies are not recipients of a WMD demonstration strike by a religiously bellicose Iran.

The Constitution gives the President sole authority to conduct foreign intelligence. All three branches of Govern­ment have understood this since 1803. Congress passed the first wiretap statute in 1968 that declared that nothing shall impair the President's right to collect foreign intelligence. Every President since 1940 has used warrantless wiretap­ping, and every court agreed that nothing shall take away the President's Constitutional powers.

It is imperative that our members of Congress under­stand the nature of the current threat and act with courage to enhance our intelligence capabilities. At the very least, they need to avoid impeding the effort by placing partisan concerns ahead of enhancing the effectiveness of all the tools that we have.
The quality and effectiveness of our Congress is something over which we have at least some measure of control. It is our duty to inform ourselves of the views of each Senator and Representative in these crucial matters and support, with our time, money, and our votes, only those who may be counted on to be effective supporters of this crucial national effort.

The Other-than-us of God

In the Thursday bible class the pastor was teaching us a very hard lesson about what our attitude should be about those that have sinned greatly against their fellow man. It is so easy to take joy in the down fall or punishment of a murderer because of what he has done. But is this what we are called to do? Does God have an other-than-us attitude toward those that sin. As always let us go to the Word for our answer and then with the help of the Spirit try to accept God's way of dealing with sinners.

First of all, God is not bashful about telling us that indeed He is different than us. In Isaiah we read (Isa 55:8 KJV) For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. (Isa 55:9 KJV) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. With these verses in mind, let us first took at how lost mankind feels about those who oppose them, then how God feels about this group of people, and finally what God tells us what we are to do.

First mankind: David was worried that if anything happened to him then his enemies would rejoice, so he prays (Psa 13-.3 KJV) Consider and hear me, 0 LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; (Psa 13:4 KJV) Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. David knew how sinful man acted and went to God for help. In Judges we are told how a whole nation acted when Samson was delivered unto the Philistines. (Judg 16:23 KJV) Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. Samson's misfortune gave the Philistines a reason to rejoice.

Second God: In the Old Testament God tells Ezekiel : (Ezek 33-.11 KJV) Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, 0 house of Israel? Notice that in this one verse, God is not satisfied to ask Israel to turn from their evil ways only one time, but He ask them two times.

And finally what does God tell us to do and not to do: The Proverbs tell us (Prov 24:17 KJV) Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: (Prov 24:18 KJV) Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. It seems that our rejoicing in our enemies fall interferes with God's dealing with that enemy. Then, God the Son challenges us to a higher standard as we read in Matthew. (Mat 5:43 KJV) Ye have heard that it bath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. (Mat 5:44 KJV) But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (Mat 5:45 KJV) That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (Mat 5:46 KJV) For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? (Mat 5:47 KJV) And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? (Mat 5:48 KJV) Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Yes we are challenged to be different than our natural inclination and be more like Him who is always and totally other-than-us in His person and actions.