America, Welcome Bck into the World!

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk

America under President Obama

The weight of expectation that rests today on the frame of a 47-year-old senator with no real executive experience is too great for one man and, in all probability, too large for one term of office.
But if the stakes for Barack Obama are high, so too is the opportunity.
Jimmy Carter argued
it would take no more than 10 minutes
to change America’s global image
the next president should promise not to torture another prisoner, not to attack another country unless America’s security was directly threatened, to honour international agreements and do the right thing on climate change
America, welcome back into the world.
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Predestination, or Free Will?

Have they forgotten?

Isa 46:8-11 “Remember this, and be assured;
Recall it to mind, you transgressors.
9 “Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;
11 Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man of My purpose from a far country.
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.
I have planned it, surely I will do it.
12 “Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded…

I will be the first to say that I do not claim to understand how predestination and free will work together but believe they co-exist even though it goes beyond my comprehension now. But so do other things revealed by God – like, John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. How can that be? I’ll be the first to say I don’t understand everything nor can I explain everything, but neither of those keep me from saying what I think is so.

The Apostle John did the same (John 1:1, 12-13 for examples). The Apostle Paul did this. Compare Romans 9 with Romans 10. Jesus did this. Look at His conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. His speech to Nic is like a gold coin; it has two separate sides to it. On the first side Jesus says very clearly it is not up to you, it is up to God – you must be born from above. Then, Jesus turns the coin over and stresses you must believe – it is up to you. I think the little word “and” in verse 14 (left out of most english translations but present in Greek) is often left out of our thinking. We think either/or. Jesus, Paul, and John though both/and even though it is hard to understand. But we are talking about GOD. I would think if He truly revealed Himself I’d come across things beyond my comprehension.

People, in general, can’t accept this. People react the same way they reacted to Jesus, John, and Paul.

Study John 6 where Jesus speaks very clearly the both/and message. Watch the crowd’s reaction and take note of the disciple’s.

I believe Jesus’ message was explaining the existence of two sides of the SAME coin.

John 6:37-40
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me,

“AND”

“the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.

He repeats the same thing with more details.

38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.

[AND that is not all there is to the will of God]

40 “For this is [the other side of] the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

I could go on, you can probably tell.
But do you see understand? I hope NOT.

How can you tell if God has given you to His Son? How can you tell if you believe? Follow the advise Jesus gave Nicodemus at the end of his message to him in John 3.

clipped from freedomfrombigbrother.com
The Openness of God – Predestination, or Free Will?
A different perception of God has arisen in Evangelical Christianity that while not being new, has challenged the way we have always thought about God’s nature. This paradigm shift is seen by it’s authors to bring us closer to the biblical conception of God.
The God shown in this book is not the immutable monarch controlling human history and man’s individual lives but rather a loving and suffering Father who has chosen to allow man’s actions to affect Him in very real ways
These authors introduce us to a God who is with us in time through self-limitation and does not know the future in absolute detail. This new view of God is called “the open view of God,” “creative-love theism,” or “free-will theism.” It is extreme Arminianism, but stops short of full-on process theology.
The Openness of God is not a new concept.
So in regard to human choices, God knows future possibilities but not future certainties.
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Church Condemns Nuke Manufacturers

Now that is a church that is clear about its mission. It reminds me of…
Luke 9:54-56
When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”]

God help us.

clipped from www.ekklesia.co.uk
Nuclear weapons manufacturers urged to resign following university visit
Representatives of the Atomic Weapons Establishment near Aldermaston in East Berkshire have met calls for their resignation after they visited the University of Birmingham to recruit students into the development and manufacture of weapons of mass destruction
Two weeks ago the Anglican Bishop of Reading, Stephen Cottrell, welcomed trainee ministers to services of lamentation at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, where Trident missile warheads are made for British military submarines. 30 staff and students from the Queen’s Foundation and the University of Birmingham also attended.
“We…denounce the nuclear weapons industry in the name of our common humanity and for the sake of our shared hope
Far from seeking to attract people to join your ranks, you yourselves should offer your resignation in the interests of national prosperity and the cause of peace for all humanity.
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Thomas Jefferson on Inalienable Rights

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” –Declaration of Independence
clipped from etext.virginia.edu

Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government
1. Inalienable Rights

“[Our] principles [are] founded on the immovable basis of equal right and reason.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Sullivan, 1797. ME 9:379

“The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.” –Thomas Jefferson: Note in Destutt de Tracy, “Political Economy,” 1816. ME 14:465

“[The] best principles [of our republic] secure to all its citizens a perfect equality of rights.” –Thomas Jefferson: Reply to the Citizens of Wilmington, 1809. ME 16:336

“In America, no other distinction between man and man had ever been known but that of persons in office exercising powers by authority of the laws, and private individuals. Among these last, the poorest laborer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest millionaire, and generally on a more favored one whenever their rights seem to jar.” –Thomas Jefferson: Answers to de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME 17:8
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Spurned by Bush, Iran Offers Talks Again

Ahmadinejad says offer of talks made to Bush (and spurned by him) still on the table.

clipped from www.democracynow.org

Iranian President Congratulates Obama on Election Win

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written Obama a congratulatory letter following his election win. It’s the first time since the 1979 Iranian revolution that an Iranian leader has congratulated the winner of an American presidential election. Obama has pledged to meet with Iranian leaders without preconditions. In his letter, Ahmadinejad suggests Iran would be open to talks with the United States in accordance with previous overtures that the Bush administration ignored. Ahmadinejad also writes that he hopes “the unjust actions of the past 60 years will give way to a policy encouraging full rights for all nations, especially the oppressed nations of Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.”

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Italian Couple, Divorcing, Charged With Damage To Child

clipped from www.timesonline.co.uk

In a case believed to be the first of its kind in Europe an Italian couple face prosecution for causing their 12-year-old child “psychological suffering” by going through an acromonious divorce in which they allegedly argued in front of him and fought for his affection.
Milan prosecutors have asked a judge to charge the couple – who have not been named under Italian privacy laws – with “ill treatment of a minor” because of “the psychological suffering inflicted”. The charge carries a prison sentence of up to five years. Legal experts said they could recall no such previous prosecution in Britain or Europe.
The prosecutors alleged that both parents had persisted in arguing in front of the child even though he told them it was “making him feel ill”.
They had “manipulated” the child in an attempt to “make him decide between them”, using him as a tool in their divorce battle, the prosecutors said.
each parent trying to “discredit, devalue and undermine the other” in front of him
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