Jesus -“Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims, Democrats, Republicans and many who don’t vote or are not part of any Sunday morning or religious institutions. I have followers who were murderers and many who were self righteous. Some are bankers and bookies, Americans and Iraqis, Jews and Palestinians. I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa, into my brothers and sisters into my beloved.”
Mack-“does that mean, that all roads lead to haven?”
Jesus-“Not at all…Most roads don’t lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to fine you”
Wow
Revolutionary
Jesus is Revolutionary
The quoted part is from a book called the Shack and it just reminded me that Jesus loves everyone and has searched after them and will go any place to grab people and bring them to himself. He loves everyone weather they love him or not. Jesus will go into the deep dark parts of our souls that are dirty and full of vial things and shed light into us.
This also reminds me that Jesus is an example of how I am to live my life. I am to love and respect everyone weather I agree with them or not. My brothers and the president, and the bum on the street and some will be easy but we are not called to love just when it is easy. This also shows that the love of Jesus can transcend all earthly things Belief: Buddhists; Muslims; Mormons; Judaism, atheists OR country: American; Iraqi; Jew; Palestinian OR conflict: American and Iraqi and Israel and Palestinian. Politics: Democrat; Republican and even non-voters occupation: banker; bookie OR vice: murder; self-righteousness person. Or what have you.
But he does not just transcend but he also becomes a part of everything, God, Jesus and the Bible is relevant to our time to our world and to everything we are in because Jesus came and walked the earth he became part of it all and lived In it but not of it.
Something Archbishop Desmond Tutu that goes along with all this, he said “Holiness must express itself in ethical, political, economic and social responsibility for our neighbor, for the widow, for the orphan and the alien in our mist”
That means that a person that is not just loving all theses different kinds of people with different sins and different count try every are from and didn’t sin color but they are ACTING out on it. And in every way as he said in is quote.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Mighty and the Almighty by Madeline Albright
During my trip in the Middle East this summer I got to talk with my good friend, Derek, and have some of the most interesting talks I have ever had in my life. One topic we stayed on for a far bit of time was this idea of church and state and how much the church should have a role in the government or any religious institution. Interesting enough I started reading a book by Madeline Albright who has a lot of say in this whole matter she has held positions such as: United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Secretary of State, Council on Foreign Relations, New York Stock Exchange and She is also the co-chair of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the poor. So reading her book called the Mighty and the Almighty gave me some good insight on the matter of the State and the role of religion, which is pretty much what the whole book is about.
Albright speaks into today’s world and talks about how America is not always the only mighty and not always led by the Almighty. She talks about how America still needs to be separated between church and state so the whole idea of the saying “God bless America” is a hard one to say, because in saying so, is saying that God only blesses America and has His hand over everything we do (which is not true at all). And by saying God blesses America, which we want to be true, but is an interesting thing to say because one is leaving the rest of the world out and in today’s world where America is seen as a world power, one must hope we are asking for blessing in our diplomacy more than anything because of our influences we can have if we are to be diplomatic (sadly we have had a hard time with U.S diplomacy in the last couple years)
She gets down deeper and talks about how to reach what and how not. She gave a good example of it when Albright talked about an Indian named, Red Jacket, a chief who complained to a Christian missionary proselytizing among Indians he said, “Brother you say there is but one way to worship and serve the great spirit but there is but one religion? Why do you white people differ so much about it?” He went on “We also have a religion... it teaches us to be thankful for all the favors we receive, to love each other and be united. We never quarrel about religion. Brother, we do not wish to destroy your religion or take it from you we only want to enjoy our own.” He said this in a day and age where people were all happy to force religion and western ideals on people in the east and the rest of the world. We can tell it was not wanted in the history of America and we can learn from the history and know it is not wanted now.
In 1898 President William McKinley explaining to his administrations conquest of the Philippines He said to a group of clergy “The truth is I did not want the Philippines and when they came to us as a gift from the gods. I did not know what to do with them. I walked the floor of the white house night after night until midnight and I am not ashamed to tell you gentlemen that I went down on my knees and prayed to Almighty God for light and guideness and one night it came to me. There was nothing left for us to do but to take them all and to educate the Philippines and uplift and to civilize and Christianize them” and then the President went and took the Philippines and tried to so called Christianize them with all our western views and ideas…Sad if you ask me and guess what also happened people where killed in the name of all of it. I guess we just need to understand what the word Christian brings to peoples heads, hearts. So this book for the most part has made me see that I need to be careful at how I make the world look at God and Jesus and what I have faith in.
In closing, we need to be very careful as Albright points out she says in her book “history would be far different if we did not tend to hear God most clearly when we think he is telling us exactly what it is we want to hear”
Albright speaks into today’s world and talks about how America is not always the only mighty and not always led by the Almighty. She talks about how America still needs to be separated between church and state so the whole idea of the saying “God bless America” is a hard one to say, because in saying so, is saying that God only blesses America and has His hand over everything we do (which is not true at all). And by saying God blesses America, which we want to be true, but is an interesting thing to say because one is leaving the rest of the world out and in today’s world where America is seen as a world power, one must hope we are asking for blessing in our diplomacy more than anything because of our influences we can have if we are to be diplomatic (sadly we have had a hard time with U.S diplomacy in the last couple years)
She gets down deeper and talks about how to reach what and how not. She gave a good example of it when Albright talked about an Indian named, Red Jacket, a chief who complained to a Christian missionary proselytizing among Indians he said, “Brother you say there is but one way to worship and serve the great spirit but there is but one religion? Why do you white people differ so much about it?” He went on “We also have a religion... it teaches us to be thankful for all the favors we receive, to love each other and be united. We never quarrel about religion. Brother, we do not wish to destroy your religion or take it from you we only want to enjoy our own.” He said this in a day and age where people were all happy to force religion and western ideals on people in the east and the rest of the world. We can tell it was not wanted in the history of America and we can learn from the history and know it is not wanted now.
In 1898 President William McKinley explaining to his administrations conquest of the Philippines He said to a group of clergy “The truth is I did not want the Philippines and when they came to us as a gift from the gods. I did not know what to do with them. I walked the floor of the white house night after night until midnight and I am not ashamed to tell you gentlemen that I went down on my knees and prayed to Almighty God for light and guideness and one night it came to me. There was nothing left for us to do but to take them all and to educate the Philippines and uplift and to civilize and Christianize them” and then the President went and took the Philippines and tried to so called Christianize them with all our western views and ideas…Sad if you ask me and guess what also happened people where killed in the name of all of it. I guess we just need to understand what the word Christian brings to peoples heads, hearts. So this book for the most part has made me see that I need to be careful at how I make the world look at God and Jesus and what I have faith in.
In closing, we need to be very careful as Albright points out she says in her book “history would be far different if we did not tend to hear God most clearly when we think he is telling us exactly what it is we want to hear”
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Diving in Dahab Egypt
So Derek and I just got to this chilled out town in Egypt called Dahab and it is absolutely amazing, we are on the Red Sea and the water is crystal clear. I just went for a dive today and I got to dive of the beach (which I have never done before) it was beautiful there was rock and coral formations. I deceased to get advanced Diver so tomorrow I will be diving at place called the Blue Hole and essentially that is what it is a big swim through/cave thing at 30 meters underwater I guess I really don’t know at this point but it should be pretty intense. This town has a lot of people that go out partying and then wakes up late and then either smokes up or goes diving. Like my dive teacher starts diving at like 11am at the earliest because he always goes out drinking. It is pretty crazy being in such a laid back place after being in Israel which is very harsh and in your face with the conflict and religon so it has been nice in a way to be in a town that is very laid back but I would not want to stay here any longer the am already.
Here is a picture of Derek and I Chilling at our nice little place to eat down the road from the dive shop.
Here is a picture of Derek and I Chilling at our nice little place to eat down the road from the dive shop.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Walking along the separation wall in Ramallah
Yesterday I went to Ramallah, which is a town in the West bank and is about a twenty-minute drive from Jerusalem. It was little surreal driving passed the first checkpoint and having everything change before my eyes. The infrastructure of Ramallah, seems like it is on a one way train to hell, with abandon buildings and houses that are nothing but ruble it is crazy how just a wall can separate the poor from the rich, father from son and house from place of work. As our Sherut (bus) neared the second check point which is right next to the separation wall and with two watch towers standing on either side, I walked out of the Sherut and started making my way to the graffitied wall and ran my hand along the wall and started to pray for redemption and change and then started to kind of resell with God about how he can Bless a nation that is now striving but in the midst of the blessing is putting down a people group. I mean God put a blessing over Israel in the Old Testament but then I started to think about what a friend told me awhile back. I was talking about how blessed I was in life how I go to travel the world and yet I was not the most cut out for the job. I told him how I did not feel worthy of the blessing. Then he said something profound…he to me that some times blessings is not about us. God blesses us so that we know how to bless others. So that we can learn how to care for and how to be a blessing in other peoples life’s. So if we are given food in a time of need then we can know what it is like to be blessed and how to show that blessing to others. God is showing us and blessing us but being an example while doing so and the best way to learn and to do something is to mimic another person’s actions.
I am sadden by the hate being shown by both sides and I just know that walls and barriers will not fix any problem but make it worse and bring more conflict and deviation
So what I have come up with thus far is yes God blessed Israel but that does not mean that they are using that gift that was given to them. They are not “paying it forward” (if you will) I don’t know how I feel about it but I do know that we need to pass on our wealth or food our strength or love and the blessings that God pores out in our life. I am broken by this conflict and pray for redemption for both sides.
Here are some pictures of the separation wall
As you can see from the photos that there is a lot of hate and a lot of anger on both sides.
Be blessed.
\
I am sadden by the hate being shown by both sides and I just know that walls and barriers will not fix any problem but make it worse and bring more conflict and deviation
So what I have come up with thus far is yes God blessed Israel but that does not mean that they are using that gift that was given to them. They are not “paying it forward” (if you will) I don’t know how I feel about it but I do know that we need to pass on our wealth or food our strength or love and the blessings that God pores out in our life. I am broken by this conflict and pray for redemption for both sides.
Here are some pictures of the separation wall
As you can see from the photos that there is a lot of hate and a lot of anger on both sides.
Be blessed.
\
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Israeli/Palestine conflict
I have been talking to a lot of people about the Israeli/Palestine conflict and I guess theses are my thoughts and references that I have found to be my view on the matter.
I was talking to friend in Bethlehem in a coffee shop and she is volunteering in Palestine. She lives with a Palestinian family and one of the guys in her new “family” told her a political joke and she shared. She explained the joke and basically the guy said this “Their are no virgins in Palestine because the Israeli occupation fucks us all”. - Palestinian man. The reason why this holds weight is because it is said that everyone in Palestine is a virgin because it is there religious law but now the Israel is taking land and houses and the economy is at a stand still.
So I guess I want to talk about Palestine getting “fucked” if you will. Excuse my French but I feel the word holds weight and that is what I am looking for.
Before I start I need to give you a bit of background. I am going to make this Blog into a question and answer format and most of this has come right out of a couple debates I have been having with two or three people online and in the Hostel. I just though I share and if you will give me input back that would be sweet and if you disagree please let me know your thoughts as well.
Talk:
Random person. – “Why are the Israelis building the wall? They have made it very clear that it is essential for saving innocent lives. For example, since its construction from 2002-2003 attacks have been reduced by 30% and actual fatalities have reduced by 50%. This is incredible. The Israelis wouldn't have to build the wall if terrorist didn't enter Israel with the intent on taking life.”
John Q- “I guess I have a bit of a different view on the matter...Yes the wall is saving peoples life's as you said but if we are to justify the wall then we need to understand that it was built in a way that is breaking many international laws. This is not my view but the view of one of the highs laws in the world, which is the International Court of Justice and many others. The Court said "The Court finds that the construction by Israel of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and its associated regime are contrary to international law.” …
…I also want to look into the wording and linguistics we are using and just make a note. Terrorist is an interesting word to use. We have to understand when there are two groups fighting each other in conflict one does not always have to be bad and the other good. I think the reason why Palestinians have to use such brutal ways of fighting is because there is no money where there are coming from. They are having to relay on grail war far just like America had to do to the British when we where fighting them
…Another problem is if you are to look at say a map of Israel and the wall you can see that the wall is very much built inside Palestinian territory. So basically what Israel is doing is taking away Palestinian little by little…
…Now I think I would also support the barrier if did not go directly against the 1949 Armistice Likes the current route that is map out right now and 30% more to finish is going inside Palestinian land. I want to look into something Peace Now said current route of the fence is intended to destroy all chances of a future peace settlement with the Palestinians and to annex as much land as possible from the West Bank" and that the barrier would "only increase the blood to be split on both sides and continue the sacrificing of Israeli and Palestinian lives for the settlements."-The Israeli Peace Now”
…What Israel is doing is also breaking human rights laws. You can see by this quote from Amnesty International, which was let out in 2004, and they said, "The fence/wall, in its present configuration, violates Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law."
…. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said this "Since the summer of 2002 the Israeli army has been destroying large areas of Palestinian agricultural land, as well as other properties, to make way for a fence/wall which it is building in the West Bank. In addition to the large areas of particularly fertile Palestinian farmland that has been destroyed, other larger areas have been cut off from the rest of the West Bank by the fence/wall. The fence/wall is not being built between Israel and the Occupied Territories but mostly (close to 90%) inside the West Bank, turning Palestinian towns and villages into isolated enclaves, cutting off communities and families from each other, separating farmers from their land and Palestinians from their places of work, education and health care facilities and other essential services. This in order to facilitate passage between Israel and more than 50 illegal Israeli settlements located in the West Bank"
Random Person-“Granted, it makes the lives of some Palestinians more difficult, but isn't inconvenience worth the life of even one person? Before they could talk about peace the Palestinians must make barriers like the wall obsolete. Isn't international law supposed to save life? How could anything (especially land) be placed above saving the lives of innocent people?”
John Q-“First of all, the Palestinian Armed forces are not going against the armistice, because they’re not the ones suicide bombing. It’s individuals who have lost their homes, workplaces, and dignity. Their “life” or at LEAST livelihood has been taken from them. In that case, wall or no wall, lives are being taken. I guess then the question is “Whose life is more valuable?”
One situation that stands out to me that happened in resent time is the bulldozer rampage, which happened on Friday, July 4th 08. Essentially what happened is a construction worker man got into a bulldozer and ran it into two buses and killed three people. This is horrible YES but what happens after that is also very sad. The man who ran into the bus was a Palestinians man who lives in East Jerusalem but because of one man (or so called terrorist but with little evidence to prove it) actions Israel is saying that quote from the Jerusalem post “Carnage in the heart of the capital sparks new calls to revoke east Jerusalem Palestinians’ right and residency statues” Which is just stupid I say because it is pretty much saying because you are a Arab you are a threat to Israel’s safety.
Random Person-“ Israel's like every country/nation has the right to defend itself and the fence is a defensive structure that is saving lives.”
John Q- “I agree with you a nation has every right to defend itself and that is valid but Israel is building the West Bank barrier and yes most of it is being built generally along or near the 1949 Jordanian-Israeli armistice/Green Line but it also goes into some Palestinian towns and It diverges from the "Green Line" by anywhere from 200 meters to as much as 20 kilometers, with the result that many Israeli settlements in the West Bank remain on the Israeli side of the barrier, and some Palestinian towns are nearly encircled by it. Approximately 20% is actually on the Green Line. So yes I understand that Israel has ever right to defend itself from suicide bombing and conflict but I think it has gone over bored and crossed many lines in the process.
…. Justice does not necessarily correlate directly with saving the most lives. The “highest law” is not necessarily Save The Most Lives. Even if you look at the bible, the old and new testament has examples of God and other righteous people taking lives for Justice’s sake. If official laws have been put in place angry people doing stupid things does not justify breaking those laws. I am not saying I want those people to die but it is just that the law is not always saving peoples lives. “
Sours and interesting stuff to read and watch.
— Introduction UN report Pg4
Reduced freedoms to the people in the West Bank such as checkpoint and closures, loss of land, increased difficulty in accessing medical services in Israel, restricted access to water sources,
Also a significant number of Palestinians have been separated from their own farmlands or their places of work or study, and many more will be separated as the barriers near Jerusalem
This is what the UN reported in 2005 and it stated that
“It is difficult to overstate the humanitarian impact of the Barrier. The route inside the West Bank severs communities, people’s access to services, livelihoods and religious and cultural amenities. In addition, plans for the Barrier’s exact route and crossing points through it are often not fully revealed until days before construction commences. This has led to considerable anxiety amongst Palestinians about how their future lives will be impacted...The land between the Barrier and the Green Line constitutes some of the most fertile in the West Bank. It is currently the home for 49,400 West Bank Palestinians living in 38 villages and towns.”
My Friend Mike I met here at the Hostel use to do a lot of Journalism he took theses.
Good video on the conflict.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVeeanP5Jto&feature=related
Shalom and blessing to you all.
I was talking to friend in Bethlehem in a coffee shop and she is volunteering in Palestine. She lives with a Palestinian family and one of the guys in her new “family” told her a political joke and she shared. She explained the joke and basically the guy said this “Their are no virgins in Palestine because the Israeli occupation fucks us all”. - Palestinian man. The reason why this holds weight is because it is said that everyone in Palestine is a virgin because it is there religious law but now the Israel is taking land and houses and the economy is at a stand still.
So I guess I want to talk about Palestine getting “fucked” if you will. Excuse my French but I feel the word holds weight and that is what I am looking for.
Before I start I need to give you a bit of background. I am going to make this Blog into a question and answer format and most of this has come right out of a couple debates I have been having with two or three people online and in the Hostel. I just though I share and if you will give me input back that would be sweet and if you disagree please let me know your thoughts as well.
Talk:
Random person. – “Why are the Israelis building the wall? They have made it very clear that it is essential for saving innocent lives. For example, since its construction from 2002-2003 attacks have been reduced by 30% and actual fatalities have reduced by 50%. This is incredible. The Israelis wouldn't have to build the wall if terrorist didn't enter Israel with the intent on taking life.”
John Q- “I guess I have a bit of a different view on the matter...Yes the wall is saving peoples life's as you said but if we are to justify the wall then we need to understand that it was built in a way that is breaking many international laws. This is not my view but the view of one of the highs laws in the world, which is the International Court of Justice and many others. The Court said "The Court finds that the construction by Israel of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and its associated regime are contrary to international law.” …
…I also want to look into the wording and linguistics we are using and just make a note. Terrorist is an interesting word to use. We have to understand when there are two groups fighting each other in conflict one does not always have to be bad and the other good. I think the reason why Palestinians have to use such brutal ways of fighting is because there is no money where there are coming from. They are having to relay on grail war far just like America had to do to the British when we where fighting them
…Another problem is if you are to look at say a map of Israel and the wall you can see that the wall is very much built inside Palestinian territory. So basically what Israel is doing is taking away Palestinian little by little…
…Now I think I would also support the barrier if did not go directly against the 1949 Armistice Likes the current route that is map out right now and 30% more to finish is going inside Palestinian land. I want to look into something Peace Now said current route of the fence is intended to destroy all chances of a future peace settlement with the Palestinians and to annex as much land as possible from the West Bank" and that the barrier would "only increase the blood to be split on both sides and continue the sacrificing of Israeli and Palestinian lives for the settlements."-The Israeli Peace Now”
…What Israel is doing is also breaking human rights laws. You can see by this quote from Amnesty International, which was let out in 2004, and they said, "The fence/wall, in its present configuration, violates Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law."
…. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said this "Since the summer of 2002 the Israeli army has been destroying large areas of Palestinian agricultural land, as well as other properties, to make way for a fence/wall which it is building in the West Bank. In addition to the large areas of particularly fertile Palestinian farmland that has been destroyed, other larger areas have been cut off from the rest of the West Bank by the fence/wall. The fence/wall is not being built between Israel and the Occupied Territories but mostly (close to 90%) inside the West Bank, turning Palestinian towns and villages into isolated enclaves, cutting off communities and families from each other, separating farmers from their land and Palestinians from their places of work, education and health care facilities and other essential services. This in order to facilitate passage between Israel and more than 50 illegal Israeli settlements located in the West Bank"
Random Person-“Granted, it makes the lives of some Palestinians more difficult, but isn't inconvenience worth the life of even one person? Before they could talk about peace the Palestinians must make barriers like the wall obsolete. Isn't international law supposed to save life? How could anything (especially land) be placed above saving the lives of innocent people?”
John Q-“First of all, the Palestinian Armed forces are not going against the armistice, because they’re not the ones suicide bombing. It’s individuals who have lost their homes, workplaces, and dignity. Their “life” or at LEAST livelihood has been taken from them. In that case, wall or no wall, lives are being taken. I guess then the question is “Whose life is more valuable?”
One situation that stands out to me that happened in resent time is the bulldozer rampage, which happened on Friday, July 4th 08. Essentially what happened is a construction worker man got into a bulldozer and ran it into two buses and killed three people. This is horrible YES but what happens after that is also very sad. The man who ran into the bus was a Palestinians man who lives in East Jerusalem but because of one man (or so called terrorist but with little evidence to prove it) actions Israel is saying that quote from the Jerusalem post “Carnage in the heart of the capital sparks new calls to revoke east Jerusalem Palestinians’ right and residency statues” Which is just stupid I say because it is pretty much saying because you are a Arab you are a threat to Israel’s safety.
Random Person-“ Israel's like every country/nation has the right to defend itself and the fence is a defensive structure that is saving lives.”
John Q- “I agree with you a nation has every right to defend itself and that is valid but Israel is building the West Bank barrier and yes most of it is being built generally along or near the 1949 Jordanian-Israeli armistice/Green Line but it also goes into some Palestinian towns and It diverges from the "Green Line" by anywhere from 200 meters to as much as 20 kilometers, with the result that many Israeli settlements in the West Bank remain on the Israeli side of the barrier, and some Palestinian towns are nearly encircled by it. Approximately 20% is actually on the Green Line. So yes I understand that Israel has ever right to defend itself from suicide bombing and conflict but I think it has gone over bored and crossed many lines in the process.
…. Justice does not necessarily correlate directly with saving the most lives. The “highest law” is not necessarily Save The Most Lives. Even if you look at the bible, the old and new testament has examples of God and other righteous people taking lives for Justice’s sake. If official laws have been put in place angry people doing stupid things does not justify breaking those laws. I am not saying I want those people to die but it is just that the law is not always saving peoples lives. “
Sours and interesting stuff to read and watch.
— Introduction UN report Pg4
Reduced freedoms to the people in the West Bank such as checkpoint and closures, loss of land, increased difficulty in accessing medical services in Israel, restricted access to water sources,
Also a significant number of Palestinians have been separated from their own farmlands or their places of work or study, and many more will be separated as the barriers near Jerusalem
This is what the UN reported in 2005 and it stated that
“It is difficult to overstate the humanitarian impact of the Barrier. The route inside the West Bank severs communities, people’s access to services, livelihoods and religious and cultural amenities. In addition, plans for the Barrier’s exact route and crossing points through it are often not fully revealed until days before construction commences. This has led to considerable anxiety amongst Palestinians about how their future lives will be impacted...The land between the Barrier and the Green Line constitutes some of the most fertile in the West Bank. It is currently the home for 49,400 West Bank Palestinians living in 38 villages and towns.”
My Friend Mike I met here at the Hostel use to do a lot of Journalism he took theses.
Good video on the conflict.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVeeanP5Jto&feature=related
Shalom and blessing to you all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
