Victim No Longer

We accept many ideas in our culture as "facts" when they are actually opinions, theories or false. Things are not true just because we've been accepting them for years. For example, doctors are often treated as infallible in regard to health. But, while many of our chronic diseases are rooted in lifestyle issues, most of the treatment is in the form of drugs or surgery rather than in lifestyle changes. In addition, the following statistics show that there is something wrong with our theories about vaccines. But, a doctor who questioned vaccination would face tremendous persecution. In this environment, we must each take personal responsibility to learn all we can about the particular challenges and decisions we face. If we take responsibility then we have the possibility of being more in control and are less likely to be "victims".

My son, forget not my law; but let your heart keep my own commandments; for length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to you. (Proverbs 3:1-2)

HISTORICAL FACTS EXPOSING THE DANGERS AND INEFFECTIVENESS OF VACCINES **

- In 1871-2, England, with 98% of the population aged between 2 and 50 vaccinated against smallpox, it experienced its worst ever smallpox outbreak with 45,000 deaths. During the same period in Germany, with a vaccination rate of 96%, there were over 125,000 deaths from smallpox.

- In Germany, compulsory mass vaccination against diphtheria commenced in 1940 and by 1945 diphtheria cases were up from 40,000 to 250,000. (Don't Get Stuck, Hannah Allen)

- In the USA in 1960, two virologists discovered that both polio vaccines were contaminated with the SV 40 virus which causes cancer in animals as well as changes in human cell tissue cultures. Millions of children had been injected with these vaccines. (Med Jnl of Australia 17/3/1973 p555)

- In 1967, Ghana was declared measles free by the World Health Organization after 96% of its population was vaccinated. In 1972, Ghana experienced one of its worst measles outbreaks with its highest ever mortality rate. (Dr H Albonico, MMR Vaccine Campaign in Switzerland, March 1990)

- In the UK between 1970 and 1990, over 200,000 cases of whooping cough occurred in fully vaccinated children. (Community Disease Surveillance Centre, UK)

- In the 1970's a tuberculosis vaccine trial in India involving 260,000 people revealed that more cases of TB occurred in the vaccinated than the unvaccinated. (The Lancet 12/1/80 p73)

- In 1977, Dr Jonas Salk who developed the first polio vaccine, testified along with other scientists, that mass inoculation against polio was the cause of most polio cases throughout the USA since 1961. (Science 4/4/77 "Abstracts" )

- In 1978, a survey of 30 States in the US revealed that more than half of the children who contracted measles had been adequately vaccinated. (The People's Doctor, Dr R Mendelsohn)

- In 1979, Sweden abandoned the whooping cough vaccine due to its ineffectiveness. Out of 5,140 cases in 1978, it was found that 84% had been vaccinated three times! (BMJ 283:696-697, 1981)

-The February 1981 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 90% of obstetricians and 66% of pediatricians refused to take the rubella vaccine.

- In the USA, the cost of a single DPT shot had risen from 11 cents in 1982 to $11.40 in 1987. The manufacturers of the vaccine were putting aside $8 per shot to cover legal costs and damages they were paying out to parents of brain damaged children and children who died after vaccination. (The Vine, Issue 7, January 1994, Nambour, Qld)

- In Oman between 1988 and 1989, a polio outbreak occurred amongst thousands of fully vaccinated children. The region with the highest attack rate had the highest vaccine coverage. The region with the lowest attack rate had the lowest vaccine coverage. (The Lancet, 21/9/91)

- In 1990, a UK survey involving 598 doctors revealed that over 50% of them refused to have the Hepatitis B vaccine despite belonging to the high risk group urged to be vaccinated. (British Med Jnl, 27/1/1990)

- In 1990, the Journal of the American Medical Association had an article on measles which stated " Although more than 95% of school-aged children in the US are vaccinated against measles, large measles outbreaks continue to occur in schools and most cases in this setting occur among previously vaccinated children." (JAMA, 21/11/90)

- In the USA, from July 1990 to November 1993, the US Food and Drug Administration counted a total of 54,072 adverse reactions following vaccination. The FDA admitted that this number represented only 10% of the real total, because most doctors were refusing to report vaccine injuries. In other words, adverse reactions for this period exceeded half a million! (National Vaccine Information Centre, March 2, 1994)

- In the New England Journal of Medicine July 1994 issue a study found that over 80% of children under 5 years of age who had contracted whooping cough had been fully vaccinated.

- On November 2nd, 2000, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) announced that its members voted at their 57th annual meeting in St Louis to pass a resolution calling for an end to mandatory childhood vaccines. The resolution passed without a single "no" vote

* Do you want your loved ones exposed? How many of have actually researched the value and dangers of vaccines?

** This collection of facts was provided by the "Arthritis Lady" who provides excellent information on alternative treatment for arthritis.

Detoxing from Church

David Wray of ACU finished an article, "Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks", with this statement: "Church in the 21st century is radically different from church of the past century. I pray that all of us “old dogs” will be emboldened to come boldly as missional church leaders into this exciting new millennium."

Many of us have decades of "training" in the Church of the 20th century. God's grace will be needed for us to genuinely embrace the ideas behind and actions required for each person to be a missionary with missions to accomplish in our everyday life. The article on Detoxing from Church is true. Many of us are Sunday Christians or maybe Sunday-Wednesday Christians in orbit around an Organization rather a Person. Somehow, we need to find how to be more Holy Spirit led everyday. Our spiritual health is not defined by the sound of singing on Sunday but by our focus on Monday morning and by how we manifest Christ in our everyday relationships.

Some things we need to consider:

* Is our worship service programmed by men or Spirit-led? (Which do we actually want?)
* If Jesus visited in the flesh, would he have a chance to speak?
* Are we a genuine house of prayer?
* Are we encouraging individual involvement or are we entertaining?
* Are our small groups actually growing people in Christ as revealed in their becoming leaders and missionaries into their world?
* Do we feel that a missional organization is a substitute for missional individuals?
* Are our Bible classes intended to change lives or just provide opportunity for surface sharing in a comfortable social group? (What needs are we actually addressing?) (Maybe we should consider some help for marriages, parent-child relationships, finances or health during that time?)
* Does our church debt hinder us from being more Spirit-led? (Someone important might be disturbed?)
* If church buildings disappeared how much Church would remain? (Is there Life outside the Building and the Groups?)

Impotence

And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (2 Cor 12:9)

I knew that so much could not be good for my health. Yet, the more I struggled against it, the more I ended up consuming. Finally, I completely gave up the struggle and just fed my appetite. This defeated approach continued for a few years until fear of physical problems made me desperate. Yet, I knew that I was too weak to overcome the power of my appetite and social habits. I finally fell to my knees and begged God for Him to make a change. And, He did.

The thing I was struggling with got swept away in a God inspired and God empowered change to my entire lifestyle. Christ’s strength flooded through the area where I felt most powerless. But, I have not completely learned the lesson because I keep finding myself frustrated at not being able to do what I know I should. Lately, I’ve noticed struggling against procrastination and irritation but I’m so easily defeated. In contrast, Paul rejoiced in his weaknesses because he had confidence that it was in those areas where Christ’s strength would be most clearly manifest.

“Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

Prayer is the key to power because it is through prayer that our weakness becomes a point at which Christ’s strength can break out. When I fail to pray and bring my weakness before Father then I am doomed to depend on my own flesh. Therefore, let’s not miss out on this wonderful transformation. Let’s daily bundle up our struggles, weaknesses and failures and prayerfully offer them to Father. Incredibly, He actually wants Christ’s own power to be revealed in those very areas where we feel most defeated and impotent. We will remain impotent only where we remain prayerless.

Project:
-- Let’s daily PRAY and..
* Ask God to show us any area where we are so defeated that we have shut it out of our mind or an area where we are struggling in our own strength.
* Admit our weakness, defeat and failure to Father.
* Ask God to work in that area to reveal Christ’s strength.
* Anticipate God leading us to take new steps that, surprisingly, we have strength to take.

Big Changes

The following is an excerpt from a book based on Barna Group surveys. How should local churches respond?

Big Changes In the Making

One of the most eye-opening portions of the research contained in the book describes what the faith community may look like twenty years from now. Using survey data and other cultural indicators he has been measuring for more than two decades, Barna estimates that the local church is presently the primary form of faith experience and expression for about two-thirds of the nation’s adults. He projects that by 2025 the local church will lose roughly half of its current “market share” and that alternative forms of faith experience and expression will pick up the slack. Importantly, Barna’s studies do not suggest that most people will drop out of a local church to simply ignore spirituality or be freed up from the demands of church life. Although there will be millions of people who abandon the entire faith community for the usual reasons – hurtful experiences in churches, lack of interest in spiritual matters, prioritizing other dimensions of their life – a growing percentage of church dropouts will be those who leave a local church in order to intentionally increase their focus on faith and to relate to God through different means.

That growth is fueling alternative forms of organized spirituality, as well as individualized faith experience and expression. Examples of these new approaches include involvement in a house church, participation in marketplace ministries, use of the Internet to satisfy various faith-related needs or interests, and the development of unique and intense connections with other people who are deeply committed to their pursuit of God. [more..]
--

A Lot Like Lot

Young Child, Adult Decision

Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere … like the garden of the LORD… So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other. (Exodus 13)

Can you imagine an eight year old trying to make the decisions of an adult? Yet, some people are guided by decisions or attitudes from their childhood. Unfortunately, I wanted to be Superman. More commonly, others try to make decisions from the wrong frame of reference. This is the trap I often fall into. But, a decision based on a wrong perspective may be even worst than the decision of a child. Lot's decision was based on a wrong perspective and was a result of spiritual immaturity.

As adults, we face many decisions. What education do I pursue? Should I watch this movie? What career do I seek? What time should I get up or go to bed? Who do I marry? Should I go to that party? Should we be open to receiving another child? Where shall we live? How do we educate our children? Should I take this job?

As we come to each of the hundreds of decision points in our life, there will always be the apparently easy way versus the right way. If we are determined to walk in God’s paths, then it will be absolutely necessary to deny our self-centered perspective and desires. The easy way is deceptive because it may actually involve very hard work and self-discipline; but, the dividend is paid in worldly coins that appeal to our fleshly desires. The worldly coins; such as adventure, self importance, palaces, treasure, pleasure and so on, are all very temporary but appeal to Self. The ease or the difficulty of the way is based not on the level of work involved but on whether we have to deny self.

Lot chose the way of Self and it led to the destruction of everything he valued. Abraham had decided, years before, to go where God led him. He was led to leave his familiar social circle and wander about living in a tent. The result was a life and family that continues to affect history and through his offspring came salvation. The presence of the Holy Spirit in a Christian brings the same thirst that Abraham had. It’s a desire for doing the “right thing” from an eternal perspective. The Holy Spirit always brings a hunger for deeper relationship with Jesus, for God’s Word and for God’s direction. If that desire or thirst for God’s Word and direction is weak or lacking then the person is basically like a young child trying to make adult size decisions.

Project:
-- Let’s
Daily pray and ask for the Holy Spirit. (Luke 11:13)
Ask God for a deeper hunger and thirst of His Word and His Way. (Matt 5:6)
Offer today’s decisions to God and sincerely, even desperately, seek His perspective on them. (Matt 6:19-24)

Let’s make it our goal; ahead of everything else, to seek to obey the Father, to grow His family and to do what is right in His sight. As we seek these goals, the other things we need (adventure, joy, clothing, food and so on) shall be provided. (see Matt 6:33)

To comment on this article click on "Comments"

Just Pretending

When I was eleven years old, I responded to the pressure I felt to walk to the front of the church and to tell the preacher that I wanted to know how to receive Jesus. I was baptized and became known as a Christian. I felt relief because I had finally had the courage to walk to the front and to go through the steps I had heard about all my life. But, did I actually become a Christian? I lived a morally pure life. But, was it because of being a Christian or because I was too introverted and timid to get into trouble? When I graduated and got out on my own, I quit going to Church and enjoyed sleeping late on Sunday. I also gradually began to delve into pornography and wrong ways of thinking.

But, eventually, God brought me to a real experience of Him and a genuinely changed life. One of the first things I noticed was a deep desire to get into God’s Word and to know how it related to my life. Sin took on new meaning as I recognized that my bad habits, wrong ways of thinking, and “little failures” were actually driven by a Sin nature in me that liked sinful thoughts and sinful actions. While some part of me desired to look at or think about wrong pictures, there was a new part of me that wanted to be pure and clean and that had new strength to find freedom from the bondage of sinful habits. Another change was a new, deep desire to be involved in Church relationships where there was genuine delight in knowing and seeking God as a “family” rather than as a congregation. Finally, we wanted everyone to experience this new life and looked for people or opportunities where we could share about it.

At eleven, I thought I had done what was necessary to become a Christian but it was twelve more years before my life showed the signs of real change and genuine spiritual life. I recently read an article that compared how the health of new born babies is evaluated immediately after birth with evaluating whether one has been genuinely born into God’s Kingdom. We should evaluate ourselves and consider whether we have the signs of a healthy spiritual rebirth.

1. A new awareness of sin. When we are born again, we receive the Holy Spirit. He enables our consciences to discern words, thoughts, and actions that displease the Lord. “Hereby know we that we dwell in him [Jesus], and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit” (I John 4:13).

2. A new desire to stop doing evil things. Many have said that after being born again they stopped drinking, taking drugs, cursing, being immoral, and committing a host of other sins. This desire to stop sinning comes because “whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin [habitually or characteristically]” (see I John 3:9) and is made possible because “whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (I John 5:4). We also have the assurance that “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (I John 2:1).

3. A new love for God’s Word. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (I Peter 2:2).. “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (I John 2:3).

4. A new love for fellow believers. At salvation, there is an immediate bond of fellowship with other Christians, because we are now members together of the body of Christ. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren …” (I John 3:14).

5. A strong desire to witness to others. I had a new love for people and concern for their relationship to God. “… Love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God” (I John 4:7). **

If these desires are missing from our life, our friend’s life or from our children’s life, it would be wise to re-evaluate the validity of the salvation experience. Being “born again” is a function of the Holy Spirit and His presence in our being will cause us to have desires, awareness and love that we didn’t previously have. Let’s not play games with ourselves or others and let’s ask the fundamental questions. Are we the genuine article? Are our friends genuine Christians? It would be terribly sad to be just pretending or to be sharing in a pretense.

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Read Romans 8)

** (this list is from the Daily Success devotional)

Unintelligent Designs

"Religious parents should exercise the opportunity that has always been theirs. They should remove their children from state schools with their instruction manuals for turning them into secular liberals, and place them in private schools — or home school them — where they will be taught the truth, according to their parents’ beliefs. Too many parents who would never send their children to a church on Sunday that taught doctrines they believed to be wrong, have had no problem placing them in state schools five days a week where they are taught conflicting doctrines and ideas.

Private schools or home schooling cost extra money (another reason to favor school choice) and extra time, but what is a child worth? Surely, a child is more valuable than material possessions. Our children are our letters to the future. It’s up to parents to decide whether they want to send them 'first class' or 'postage due.'" -- Cal Thomas, Unintelligent designs on the schools - Tribune Media Services

Birth Control Attitudes

The comments in the Burton Coffman commentary on Matthew 1 regarding birth control miss an extremely important point. When birth control pills are used, they can and do sometimes cause the early abortion of a baby. Some other methods of birth control also function to cause an abortion by preventing the fertilized egg from attaching to the womb. But, in addition to these hidden abortions there is the attitude behind the desire to control the appearance of babies in a family. Why is it felt necessary in the last one hundred years to more carefully control the number or even the gender of the babies that are acceptable to a family? The mere availability of a technology does not imply that it is right or moral to use it.

The basic attitudes behind birth control frequently revolve around Self -- the big I. "I can't handle more children.", "I have my hands full with two.", "I can't afford more children.", "I find children inconvenient.", "I want to travel and children would interfere with my desired lifestyle.", "I have a career and don't want children now.", "I can't afford to educate more children and have the retirement I desire.", "I want to control my life."

These attitudes are very similar to those of women or couples who actively seek an abortion and are in sharp contrast to God's attitude about children. What is God's attitude toward children? Malachi 2 says that God desires children, "He was seeking godly offspring." What goals take priority over having as great a godly heritage as possible? Scripture presents children as a blessing and not a curse. At what point do children become a curse to be avoided like the plague? On what basis can we oppose abortion when we are guilty of the same attitudes and may even unknowingly engage in abortion as part of our birth control methodology? It seems unlikely that abortion will again be illegal as long as those who are called by the name of Christ have not repented of their attitudes toward children.


---- Excerpt from the commentary ----------------
Onan, not wishing to give his brother credit for paternity under the
system of Jewish law, "spilled" his seed on the ground, whereupon "God slew
him also." If this story has any moral, it is that all men who refuse to
marry their brothers' widows should be killed. Indeed, that was the moral of
the original story, since the Levirate law laid down the rule for the Jews
that a man inheriting his brother's cattle and lands should also cohabit
with his deceased brother's wife or wives and raise a direct heir for his
brother's property. Onan's primary sin was the defiance of a property law of
ancient Jews, a law that was abandoned at least 2,000 years ago! ...
Catholic theologians, lacking any Scriptural authority for their extreme
position on birth control, have taken this ancient story of Onan, distorted
its meaning by declaring that Jehovah slew Onan for his "coitus
interruptus," and inflated this "interpretation" into a whole system of
social hygiene for the 20th Century.

Unimaginable Blessings

Happy New Year!! May your new year overflow with blessing, joy and love in Christ Jesus.

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2)