Servant of Messiah Ministries

Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

BREXIT – The world changed forever.

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Britain is the second-largest EU economy after Germany. It also has a seat on the UN Security Council, and it’s a close ally of the US, and of course, Australia.

Last year, Britain’s government borrowed an equivalent of 4.4 percent of its gross domestic product. The only EU nations with a higher level of borrowing are Spain and Greece, both troubled economies that have required some form of bailout.

Britain’s trade is in a dire position. Its current account deficit is at 7 percent of GDP—the highest peacetime level since records began in 1772. At the heart of this problem is the simple fact that Britain is importing far more than it is exporting.

BREXIT (the vote to leave the EU) was motivated by the following fears and concerns:

  • Over 300,000 immigrants directed from the EU settling in the U.K. in 2015 taking jobs and straining public services.
  • The inability to negotiate trade agreements unless all 28 nations of the EU agree and vote to adopt the agreement so trade with India and China and Australia were stalled.
  • Fears of a German proposal for an European Army separate from NATO, and the possibility of Turkey joining the EU and the subsequent new flood of economic refugees.

A short history of Britain in Europe

1951 – European Coal and Steel Community founded under the Treaty of Paris, as a way to prevent  future wars between France and West Germany

1957 – European Economic Community (EEC) founded under the Treaty of Rome (pictured) – original signatories are West Germany, France, Luxembourg, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands

1963 and 1967 – French leader Charles de Gaulle vetoes UK membership.

1969 – UK applies for a third time, this time successfully

1973 – UK joins the EEC

1975 – UK holds its first referendum on membership of the EEC; votes to stay a member

1991 – Maastricht Treaty formally establishes the European Union as a political body

1999 – Single European currency adopted by 11 member states in 1999; UK does not join.

2016 – UK votes to leave the EU with 51 – 48 majority voting to leave or BREXIT.

On June 23rd 2016 the British people voted to leave the EU. Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty goes into effect for the first time ever, as the UK now has 24 months to negotiate its way out.

The successful BREXIT vote was clear and shocking. Financial markets plunged. Worldwide markets lost more than $2 trillion on Friday in paper wealth, according to data from S&P Global, the worst on record.  The pound traded at a 40 year low, and the Credit Agencies lowered Britain’s credit rating.

This event is as momentous as the end of the cold war and the Wall in Germany coming down.

The world is also economically due for another recession (7 years since 2008-2009)  and the discontented angry voters will stage more nationalistic uprisings. All over Europe we will see the rise of a Nationalist Right. America as in the 1930’s will become more isolationist leaving the rest of the world to fight their own battles. This will lead to a rearming of Japan, Korea, China and Germany.

The financial chaos of the 1929 crash and the subsequent depression gave rise to the following leaders who were nationalistic and promised answers to their nation’s woes.

  • Tito – Yugoslavia
  • Tojo –Japan
  • Mussolini –Italy
  • Hitler –Germany
  • Stalin –Russia
  • Mao –China
  • Franco – Spain

We are entering a similar time with all the same problems…..aggravated by an unstable Middle East and the Islamic threat. The EU will be under further threat as other countries like the Greece choose to leave.

There is an end time scenario that holds to a union of 10 kings arising in Europe. Revelation describes this union as….. The ten horns which you saw are ten kings, which have received no power as yet but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.  These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” (Rev. 17:12-13)   The message to us is to watch and pray….and just perhaps world events will shake us from our sleep.

 

BREXIT – Acts of God.

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This week we witnessed history in the making. Britain was to decide whether to stay in the EU. For weeks the BREXIT polls had been tied with all the establishment leaders including the Prime Minister confident in a “REMAIN” vote. Bookies offered 13 to 1 odds against a BREXIT.

The demographics pointed to the over 40 age favouring “LEAVE” and the younger voters wanting to “REMAIN.” London in the South had elected a Muslim mayor and favored “REMAIN” while the further North more and more favored to “LEAVE.” A high turnout was seen as helping the “remain” camp, a Wall Street Journal story said. That’s because it would suggest younger people, who typically don’t bother to vote, would actually cast ballots, and younger people supported EU membership.

Although the British seemed ready to vote in the Brexit referendum to “Remain” in the European Union, an intense “Act of God” storm system moved in and favor a vote for the “Leave” campaign by bringing a month’s worth of rain in “just three hours” on voting day.

The eve of the election at precisely midnight a huge storm hit England. Summer storms always came from the West and Atlantic Ocean. Eerily this storm came from Europe and Brussels in the East. In London alone 300 calls an hour poured in to emergency services…while 6,000 lightning strikes hit. The storms would move North from the Southeast as the day progressed.

The Breakdown was as follows:

Central England (High Brexit support): Largely dry day with more showers in the evening.

East (High proportion of Brexiters): Wetter than northern and central England with the chance of thunder during the afternoon.

Southwest (Around 40 per cent of people plan to vote leave): Wet and rainy during the morning, becoming clearer and drier through the afternoon.

Southeast (Relatively high percentage of leavers): Largely dry with showers around the coast.

London (High support to stay): Heavy rain in the morning, drying out later with thunderstorms predicted in the afternoon.

Two London polling stations were forced to close due to flooding. Another two, in Kingston-upon-Thames, had to be moved at the last minute. Then the London Underground flooded. Conspiracy theorists saw an attack on their democratic rights.  Even Britain’s loudest blond, Boris Johnson, who made it to his local polling station with only 18 minutes to spare after his flight from Edinburgh, was delayed by the weather.

Despite the storm, the flooded Underground, and the power blackouts the older voters came out. They held their nerve and were not deterred by warnings from the Bank of England, or by the money markets, that the pound would plunge (it did) and markets would crash (that happened too).

They were not defeated. The BREXIT “LEAVE” campaign won by more than a million votes. Europe and England were forever changed.

We forget who is Sovereign over all.

Leaders scheme and masses vote….but Daniel 2 v21 says It is God who alters the times and seasons, and He removes kings and promotes kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. The weather played a part. Some feel it tipped the scales to favour BREXIT.  Jeremiah 10:13 When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain, And He brings out the wind from His storehouses.

Genocide 20 years ago.

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In April 1994, 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered by their fellow countrymen, most for no other reason than that they were Tutsi and hence a “cockroach”. The killings began on 7 April 1994, the day after a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot out of the sky with a missile as it landed in Kigali. The systematic slaughter of men, women and children, which took place over the course of about 100 days between April and July of 1994, was perpetrated in full view of the international community.

Appalling atrocities were committed, by militia, the armed forces, and also by civilians against other civilians. The genocide was highly organized, with top government and ruling party officials playing a role. Leaders had drawn up lists of Tutsi and opposition leaders earmarked for assassination before the genocide itself actually began.  Crates of cheap machetes were imported from China to arm the civilian Hutus, months in advance.

The radio filled the airwaves with hate and played a role in mobilizing support for and participation in the killings. At U.N protected points of departure, panicked crowds of Rwandans and foreign nationals gathered desperate to be on the last transport out of hell. Rwandans got Auschwitz reversed, as the lines became two – Europeans to the transports, while those that stayed behind, to the inevitable machetes. Then the U.N. soldiers were the last to leave, for no one’s “national interest” was at stake.

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part…… (Snip.)

A report assessing United Nations involvement in Rwanda said that the UN and its member states failed Rwanda in deplorable ways in 1994,

  1. Ignoring evidence that a genocide was planned.
  2. Refusing to act once it was under way.
  3. Finally abandoning the Rwandan people when they most needed protection.

Darfur is a region in Sudan the size of France. It is home to about 6 million people from nearly 100 tribes. Some nomads. Some farmers. All Muslims. In 1989, General Omar Bashir took control of Sudan by military coup, which then allowed The National Islāmic Front government to inflame regional tensions. The government of Sudan unleashed Arab militias known as Janjaweed, or “devils on horseback”. Sudanese forces and Janjaweed militia attacked hundreds of villages throughout Darfur. Over 400 villages were destroyed and millions of civilians were forced to flee their homes. In the ongoing genocide, African farmers and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the Janjaweed.

The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people. According to UN estimates, 2.7 million Darfuris remain in internally displaced persons camps and over 4.7 million rely on daily humanitarian aid.

Meanwhile, we pour trillions of dollars into pacifying Afghanistan and Iraq, build 50,000 specially designed I.E.D. resistant vehicles, kill over 100,000 civilians in two wars, perfect drone strikes, enforce sanctions, and marshal billions of dollars into un-used “development projects” that pertain to “our national security.”  Starving, African, poor, illiterate and black not just not a raison d’État.  (Reason of the State).

The United Nations was our last chance for peace and the forum to resolve man’s conflicts. It has failed by all measures.

It is time we look to the promises of our King in waiting. He will bring peace and life to the all earth, including the poor the black and the African.  For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on His shoulders. And He will be called: ….Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end,….. and on His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on, even for ever.  Is 9 v 6-7.

Middle East – Russian gains.

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In the face of America decline and her loss of strength and reliability, Russia is emerging:

● as a vocal defender of Christianity against Muslim persecution around the world;

● as a plausible peacemaker in the Middle East, with far better relationships with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Syria than America has today;

● as the monopoly natural gas supplier for Germany and Austria and Ukraine  with the consent of the Franco-German axis;

● as the only country with a credible a nuclear umbrella to protect its friends and deter its enemies;

● as a country that understands the value of relatively free markets – as seen by the 14% flat tax Putin just introduced in Russia and the new economic development zone created in the Crimea.

Vladimir Putin now looks like the heir of Peter the Great, the modernizing Tsar.  He is looking to take the USA’s place as the decisive power in the Middle East. He also wants to play a big role in the next OPEC, based on shale gas and oil. Energy has been Russia’s weapon of choice, against a dependent Europe.

Putin has paid personal visits all over the Middle East and kept contacts with all the players, including the Sisi regime in Egypt, Israel, Syria’s Assad, and Saudi Arabia.

Everybody is now bidding for his support. 

Egypt

Egypt has resumed talks about the creation of a free trade zone with Russia. Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom is considering the construction of a nuclear power plant in Egypt. Egypt is already the largest importer of Russian wheat, buying one fifth of the country’s exports of this commodity.
The military deal-worth an estimated $3 billion-was reportedly signed on February 14 and includes MiG-29 fighters, air and coastal defense systems, Mi-35 attack helicopters and small arms. Egyptian Defense Minister Abdel Fattah ai-Sisi slated to be Egypt’s next president, flew to Russia to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.  The Saudis have agreed to foot the bill for the arms.

Egypt is buying the weapons from Russia, a long-time supporter of Iran and the Syrian government who are Saudi’s opponents. However the Saudis-and Egyptians do not trust America to counter Iran, so they are doing it themselves.

Iran

Iran has expanded trade and has proposed a second Russian nuclear plant at Bushehr.  Iran is the second largest OPEC oil producer, with a production of about 4 million barrels of oil a day. The country’s recoverable oil reserves are estimated at over 137 billion barrels, or 12 per cent of the world’s overall reserves.  Iran also has the world’s second largest natural gas reserves, estimated at 28 trillion cubic meters.  Moscow has already proved it can bust international sanctions by concluding a $1.5 bn contract with Tehran for the purchase of half a million barrels of Iranian oil a day,  without a word of complaint from Washington.

Iran and Russia have made progress towards an oil-for-goods deal sources said would be worth up to $20 billion, which would enable Tehran to boost vital energy exports in defiance of Western sanctions, people familiar with the negotiations told Reuters. Moscow and Tehran were discussing a barter deal that would see Moscow buy up to 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian equipment and goods.

Palestine 

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) launched his “diplomatic intifada” against Israel and exit from the Kerry peace initiative Thursday, Jan.23, from Moscow.  His meetings with Putin   signaled his bid for Russian backing for a Palestinian state. The Palestinian leader began his conversation with Putin by calling Russia a great power that deserved to play a more prominent role in the volatile Middle East. Russian tactics for Syria and Iran had proved effective, he said, and Moscow could perform the same function on the Israeli Palestinian track.

Abbas and Medvedev were to sign an agreement for a $1 billion natural gas project in the Gaza section of the Mediterranean Sea. Russia’s natural gas giant Gazprom hoped to produce 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas at the site.

For the Russian leader it was a chance to show that he was several steps ahead of the game on the three hottest Middle East issues –

  • Iran’s nuclear program,
  • the Syrian civil conflict
  • Palestinian bid for statehood.

Meanwhile,  the silence from America is deafening.

Middle East – America’s losses.

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At present none of the strong actors in the Middle East look to the United States for guidance any longer. This includes Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan and Afghanistan.  The waste and failure of two wars in the Middle East has convinced the USA to withdraw.  As Rwanda taught the world, the USA has “no friends, it only has interests.”  It appears the recent domestic oil finds have changed “our interests.”

The region’s rulers have concluded that the U.S. is a country that won’t stand up for its friends, but instead lectures them about democracy, and then draws red lines it won’t honor. Many critics in the region see the United Sates as an unreliable ally that cannot be counted on if a regime is threatened internally. Instead of supporting its longtime friends in the Middle East, the United States offers lectures on democracy and talks about human rights. Worse, Washington draws red lines, then hesitates.

President Obama entered the Oval Office in January 2009.  In his inaugural address, Obama swore that the United States was now “ready to lead the world.”

The successful overthrow of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, where the United States played a leading role, has left that country in chaos. The primary beneficiaries of Gaddafi’s ouster seem to be Al-Qaeda’s affiliates in North Africa and the Sahara.

May 2009, President Obama demanded a halt to the expansion of Jewish settlements on the West Bank and in occupied East Jerusalem….

March 2010, Obama lectured Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a politician Washington installed in office, on the corruption and administrative ineptitude of his government.  He was warned that, if he failed to act, a cut in U.S. aid would follow…

August 2011 Syrian President Bashar ignored calls for him “to step aside.” An unnamed senior administration official insisted, “We are certain Assad is on the way out….”  The United States then promised support to the rebels.  Then it backed away from supporting  the Al-Qaeda-aligned elements which appeared to dominate the rebellion.

Sept 2013 Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he would proceed with a plan to build a gas pipeline from Iran, despite objections from the U.S.  He used his speech at the United Nations to hit out against American drone strikes in his country.  Mr. Sharif also spelled out the conditions for a peace deal with Pakistani Taliban. He voiced fears that continued U.S. drone attacks would wreck his policy to negotiate with the Pakistani Taliban, a group linked to Al-Qaeda.

Jan 2014 A rejuvenated Al-Qaeda-affiliated force took control of the western Iraqi city of Fallujah, raising its flag over government buildings and declaring an Islamic state.  This was a crucial area that U.S. troops fought to pacify before withdrawing from Iraq two years ago.

Egypt’s new leaders and those Egyptians who supported the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi are angry at the United States for its condemnation of the army’s actions. To offset Washington’s withholding of some military aid to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates are financing an arms deal worth more than $2 billion between Cairo and Moscow.

February 4, 2014, U.S. chief negotiator with Iran Wendy Sherman conceded that the P5 + 1 agreement, failed to “shut down” Iran’s continuing development of ballistic missiles. Ms. Sherman admitted that if Iran’s nuclear program was only for peaceful purposes, the Islamic Republic “does not need” the fortified, underground enrichment center or plutonium heavy-water reactors. Yet the USA released billions of dollars to Iran which had been frozen.

Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Stephens wrote, has disparaged the administration’s dealings with Iran, and referred to Secretary of State John Kerry as “obsessive and messianic,” in his chase after a Palestinian-Israeli agreement.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, with whom Obama said he had established “bonds of trust,” claimed that America was part of a conspiracy to destabilize his Islamist government.

U.S.-Russia relations after the 2008 Russia-Georgia war were at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War. The USA felt it could “reset the U.S.-Russia relationship”  by identifying common interests on which to build cooperation with the Kremlin. In 2014 Russia annexed the Crimea amid threats of consequences….

Nature abhors a vacuum and now Russia is eager to influence events in the Middle East.

The USA needs therapy?

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We read of the life changing after effects of a brutal rape and we see the victims predictable efforts to cope with the trauma.

1)     Her feelings are hurt, anger and there is always fear.

2)     Her relationships with men, former friends are now strained as the trauma cast shadows on their friendship. Innocence is lost and it will not be found.

3)     Her attitudes are hardened and there is now no tolerance for offenders anywhere.

4)     Her behavior is always justified, no matter how unreasonable.  She was raped and how could we understand?

5)     Her security is now paramount as she double checks the extra locks on the home and cancels certain activities that left her alone at night.

Could a nation be raped and find itself reacting as any victim?                                 

On Sept 11, 2001 nineteen men took advantage of our open free society and took down our symbols of greatness, exposing our nakedness. The shock and the death toll may have been similar to the Pearl Harbor attack, but the emotional damage and our reaction has been far greater and longer lasting.

We declared war on rapists and told the entire world – you are either with us or against us. Our normal relationships with our European allies became strained as they refused to mobilize and join our wars.

We immediately tore up the Constitution and passed the Patriot Act – marking all men as potential rapists who needed surveillance.  All banking and commerce now required identification. Our need to know has included the private communications of high value potential rapists like Pres. Merkel of Germany, Brazil’s Dilma and Mexican President Enrique Nieto.

We lashed out at Iraq and Afghanistan – and wasted 4 trillion dollars and thousands of lives punishing the innocent and rewarding the guilty. Water-boarding, Enhanced Interrogation, Gitmo,  Enemy Combatant were all new words to sanitize our efforts as we abandoned our own values and ignored constitutional restraints.

We unified and militarized our law enforcement. Our vacation travel now involves long lines to get scanned, groped and fondled enduring one more ignominy after another in efforts to “be safe.”

Fourteen years later those 19 rapists are still winning their war. Their one act has been a gift that keeps on giving. Our response to 9/11 grows and grows consuming more of our liberties, killing more innocents abroad, alienating more of our friends, while consuming more of our budget. Those 19 men were effective at crippling a nation. We gave those men not only the day they took, but we have given them a growing portion of every day since….

A “Costs of War” study group brought together some two dozen academics to account for the wars’ costs that followed 9/11.  The study says an “extremely conservative” death toll is 225,000, with 365,000 wounded. U.S. dead include 6,000 troops and 2,300 contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The final tally of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan will reach at least $3.7 trillion, and could go as high as $4.4 trillion, (add 1 trillion dollars for interest costs) according to a study done by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies.

And to remind us of the real threat terrorism poses ….Consider your annual odds of perishing by terror compared to two alternatives:

  • Dying in a car accident:  1 in 19,000
  • Dying in a bathtub:  1 in 800,000
  • Dying in a terror attack:  1 in 3.5 million

I hope the new  Dept. of Homeland Security makes those bathtub deaths a high priority.

Nelson Mandela

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Normally I write impersonal commentaries of issues that affect the church, Israel or society at large. This one is personal. Mandela’s name was unfamiliar to me even as I grew up only a few miles from where he spent 27 years. Living in the fairest Cape and playing on its beaches we saw Robbin Island every day.  As a white child – we never heard about the “terrorists” locked up on the island. Their names like those in “Gitmo”  today, were unfamiliar to us.  I learned the truth about my country only after I left it.

NELSON MANDELA 1918-2013

1918 Born in the Eastern Cape
1943 Joined African National Congress
1956 Charged with high treason, but charges dropped after a four-year trial
1962 Arrested, convicted of incitement and leaving country without a passport, sentenced to five years in prison
1964 Charged with sabotage, sentenced to life
1990 Freed from prison
1993 Wins Nobel Peace Prize
1994 Elected first black president
1999 Steps down as leader
2001 Diagnosed with prostate cancer
2004 Retires from public life
2005 Announces his son has died of an HIV/Aids-related illness

From “Enemy of the State” to “Head of State” Nelson Mandela led a remarkable life.  He joins Gandhi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King as heroes in a struggle against legalized oppression.

With a word or a raised fist Mandela could have unleashed a race war to rival Africa’s bloodiest. Instead he oversaw the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that brought enemies together to discuss their crimes, and each found forgiveness and amnesty in the tears and hugs of their victims. Thank you “Madiba” on behalf of my family in Africa, for bringing us peace on a continent known for civil war.

These short quotes from his own speeches give us a sense of the gravity of the man, the  zeal of his conviction, and the steel of his resolve.

  • What are you going to do? Will you come along with us, or are you going to co-operate with the government in its efforts to suppress the claims and aspirations of your own people? Or are you going to remain silent and neutral in a matter of life and death to my people, to our people? For my own part I have made my choice. I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.
  • During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

I see in him a zeal and commitment that rivaled the Apostle Paul’s. Like Paul, Mandela had this question….What are you going to do?  Like Paul, he showed us what a committed life looked like when it embraced the struggle.

Phil 3 v 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize .………..

Mandela showed us how to confront evil, suffer the long consequence of doing that, and then emerge victorious and ready to forgive the defeated.  In a world of so much injustice…perhaps that is his eternal gift.

What Thanksgiving once was…

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By the President of the United States of America.     
A Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln 1789

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

Abraham Lincoln.

I wonder if  Lincoln had this in mind…………

Revival is the Answer

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There are similarities between the dark times we live in now and the dawn of the First Great Awakening. The choices we see now are the same inequalities facing the workers of France and England. France dissolved into chaos and violence…while England had a moral and spiritual revival.

A corrupt and even dead church darkened most aspects of English life. The Church of England leadership was corrupt. Archbishops and bishops lived luxuriously and unashamedly negotiated better positions for themselves and their families. Economically England by now dominated the slave trade with greed leading to brutality. The industrial revolution influenced owners into adopting the same attitudes of the slavers towards the children working in the mines and cotton mills. In London between 1730 – 1750 almost 3 out of 4 children born to all classes died before their 5th birthday. England was going through its Gin Age with 1 out 6 homes owning and operating a ‘gin still’ and almost 20% of all single girls in London working as prostitutes. The sports of the day was bull baiting and cock fighting, while bare fisted boxing matches attracted 12,000 to a fight.

The climate was as ripe as France for a breakdown of social order into chaos and revolution.

But there was no revolution……There was a Great Awakening instead.  Two young men named Charles and John Wesley met George Whitefield in Bristol on April 2nd 1739. Together they started to preach to common folk in the outdoors as the churches were closed to the poor. Wesley wrote a pamphlet in which he declared that “It is the plain old Christianity that I teach.”  He ended up preaching 45,000 sermons; traveled a quarter of a million miles on horseback,  up and down and across England on roads that were often dangerous and sometimes impassable. He composed his commentary on the Bible verse by verse, wrote hundreds of letters, and a daily journal from 1735 to the year before his death in 1791; and he also wrote some of the 330 books that were published in his lifetime.

Thirteen years before the Abolition Committee was formed, Wesley wrote “Thoughts upon Slavery”, a graphic, tract denouncing this vicious horrid trade” as a national disgrace which greatly influenced Wilberforce. He kept up his attack on slavery until the end of his life, the last letter he wrote being to Wilberforce. He deplored the stupidity and futility of war, especially Britain’s war with the American colonies.

He publicly and repeatedly questioned why food was so expensive and he gave the answer: immense quantities of corn were consumed in distilling. He supported fair prices, a living wage, honest and healthy employment for all.

He never raised the dead,  but he raised a dead nation.  And when he died he left a preachers gown, a bible, and six silver spoons for his pall bearers and …………the Methodist Church that shaped all of England for hundreds of years after his death.

Wesley said, “Sloth, luxury and ungodliness are the characteristics of the English nation!”  Is this not a word for our time?

If we as the church set our mind to Revival – to examine our lives and our communities.  Rather than pray for another bailout  our prayer should be for that last Great Awakening.  Could a small outnumbered church – like Wesley awaken the conscience of a dead nation?  It is only when the situation is so beyond repair that God can do what we cannot.  My email for years has been – Ps85v6 – Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?  7 Show us your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us your salvation!   Perhaps things are bad enough now for us recognize our need.

Palestinian Vote in the U.N.

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Palestinian leaders will ask the United Nations vote by Nov. 29,  2012 on whether to admit Palestine as a non-member state. Palestinian Authority President Abbas said he would submit the bid on Nov. 29 –on the 65th anniversary of the 1947 U.N. vote calling for two states, one Jewish and one Arab, in Palestine.

The Palestinians have more than enough votes to guarantee passage of the membership resolution, with 150 of 193 nations expected to back the proposal.

Once  legally approved, it will mean that Palestine will be formally recognized as a State under occupation. As an observer state, the Palestinian territories—the West Bank and Gaza—could participate in U.N. assembly debates, but could not vote.

The Palestinians could now agree to treaties and join specialized U.N. agencies, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Law of the Sea Treaty, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Criminal Court.

The Palestinians goal of the U.N. bid is to gain recognition of a Palestinian State  within the 1967 borders.

They believe this U.N.  bid will protect the two-state solution and give credence to negotiations.

America and Israel have strongly opposed this move. America has no power to veto this decision in the General Assembly. If the U.N. gambit is successful, the U.S. can freeze the  funds designated for the Palestinian Authority, which now receives more than $500 million in American assistance each year. Israeli officials say the Palestinians stand to lose $100 million a month in tax revenue if they go ahead with the Nov. 29 vote.

The risks to Israel are enormous.

The Palestinian could join the Law of the Sea Treaty and effectively end Israel’s blockade.

The Treaty also gives the Palestinians full sovereign  rights over its airspace. The Palestinians could bring claims of violation of its airspace to the International Court of Justice.

The Palestinian authority also could dispute Israel’s claim on a gas field near Gaza at the International Court of Justice.

More troubling for Israel and the U.S. would be the Palestinian territories joining the International Criminal Court.

Abbas Zaki, member of the Fatah Central Committee, said Thursday  that once the status of a Palestinian state is upgraded, the Palestinians would be able to pursue Israel for “war crimes” in the International Criminal Court.  “Once we become a recognized state, we will go to all UN agencies to force the international community to take legal action against Israel,” Zaki told the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper.

He said that the Palestinian Authority would consider itself free of all its commitments under the agreements signed with Israel, including economic and security obligations.

The same U.N. that acted to set up Israel in 1947 is now taking steps dismantle that decision of 65 years ago and to further divide the land.  What Israel and the U.N. do not realize is that it is Gods land.  Israel is the beneficiaries of Gods faithfulness to His friend Abraham.

When the world gathers for their  universal destruction at the valley, will they know  why?  Will they remember the majority vote of 190 nations on November 29th, 2012?

Meanwhile the world forgets while   God says   Joel  3 v 2  I will gather the armies of the world into the valley of Jehoshaphat.  There I will judge them for harming my people, my special possession, for scattering my people Israel, among the nations, and for dividing up my land.