“We’ll make the world abandon reason.  We’ll make them all believe that the Hamas is Mother Theresa.”

So go the lyrics to the parody video that’s come out of Latma – the Hebrew media satire website in light of the Israeli “raid” on “a oh so very peaceful” activist ship choka block full of “aid” to Gaza – while publically admitting their main aim was to infiltrate the blockade.

At the time of writing this, the clip has been viewed just under 1,000,000 times in 4 days.  One would say this has gone viral.  It’s interesting to read all the comments – even I joined in.  Hope you enjoy the following clip…

Maybe, just maybe, a stupid and gullible world is finally starting to stir and wake up to the farce behind this story and realise that Israel has a right to defend itself.  After all, the gathering of Israel into the Promised land is step one of God’s plan.  The destruction of it’s enemies and the awakening of Israel to their Messiah is part 2.  Oh how the peace loving “christians” hate this talk and the liberals and left wingers (and some right wingers) hate this talk, but, at the end of days, this will happen.

Better choose a side sooner or later.  For me, as a lay guy, the choice is easy.  We live in a world where the “god” of this world – being Satan, has blinded people to the truth of Jesus and His glorious Gospel message.

At the same time, he has blinded the world to God’s redemptive work He will carry out through the people of Israel and has replaced this reality, in the Christian world, with “replacement theology”, and in the secular world, with anti Semitism. And trust me, even these boundaries are blurred.

And when events like this happen, to me, it exposes the work the enemy has achieved into the mindset of man – the hatred of the Jews as God’s chosen people.  The enemy has blinded mankind and is a master of media manipulation as journalists “chase down their careers” as they pursue the big stories and executives bow down to the sponsoring dollar knowing full well what they can and can’t discuss – thus the media becomes the ultimate PR tool. Just turn on your TV to witness the nations rage against God’s chosen.  And chosen they are…

“As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs” Rom 11:28

Christians – abandon your foolish anti Jewish mindset – as far as the Gospel is concerned, we don’t have much in common with the Jews.  But in terms of being loved by God, the people are loved and protected under an ancient covenant that allows God to act in any way He pleases.  The net result of this can be captured in the following verse..

Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” Zech 8:23

I’m not putting the Jews on a pedestal and neither do I agree with all their actions.  But they are unique as a nation in that their journey is always chronicled – be it by God via the scriptures or by man via the media.  And I can tell you that if any nation was under the same scrutiny, well, let’s just say that they would also be hated.

But in the end, as God’s chosen people, and being enlightened by God about the reality of the Messiah, the Jew will be a truly unique human race…

“So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!” Rom 11:11

“For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” Rom 11:15

Don’t be blind to what God is doing through the Jews.  It’s all part of the plan and the enemy knows it and is trying his hardest to blind you.  Take off your blindfold.

The Gospel message Jesus left us behind to tell the world is a very powerful message.  Untouched and delivered faithfully, it can have an enormous impact on a person’s life.  It’s got nothing to do with the charisma or the story telling ability of the person sharing the Gospel – rather there is power behind the message.

Apostle Paul fully understood this power when he penned..

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes..” Rom 1:16a

Through the story of the Gospel, God’s power can break into a persons life and bring salvation into it.  However, if you were honest with yourself, the story of a man who lived more than 2000 years ago, did some miracles, was murdered, died for all our sins and was mysteriously resurrected and taken back into heaven seems a little far fetched to base your life on.

And according to the Bible, God loves the “foolishness” of the Gospel message to shatter the “wisdom” of man.  To the hard hearted human, the Gospel message seems like utter nonsense – verbal diarrhea – and a great way to ridicule those “simple minded people” who place their trust in such a story.

As Christian’s, we should take delight in the fact that God has purposely designed things to be this way.  He is in control and He uses the “folly” of the Gospel to separate those who will believe and those who won’t.  Have a read of this…

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Cor 1:18

There it is again, “the power of God.”  Embedded into the Gospel message is the power of God.  This invisible power has the ability to penetrate a persons heart and soul and bring about change no natural process can explain.  We’ve seen it time and time again where a person is confronted with this power – they are never the same again!

For this reason, we should never shrink back in our responsibility to share the Gospel.  If we do, we are holding back the power of God to impact a persons life.  Will all believe?  Nope – actually most will see it as complete nonsense.  But to those who God has already begun His work on, whose hearts have been been softened by the Spirit of God, the sharing of the Gospel will allow the power of God to come flooding through.

What an awesome privilege and responsibility God has left us with!  Our job is to simply pass the message along, step back and watch the result.  And it’s in this context that I share the following video as a great help.  Please feel free to pass it along to your friends and family.  The direct link can be found here.

One of my favourite bands these days is Fireflight.  These guys simply pump out unbelievable songs and lyrics I totally relate to.

It’s like they capture the heart cry of an honest human being and verbalise it in their lyrics and cloak it with awesome music.

The net effect is a listening experience that simply propels you to worship – a totally unique experience, especially when you consider the fact that they are a hard rock band.

My current stand out song is, “Forever” – an honest heart cry to a Creator to show His love towards us despite the circumstances we find ourselves in.

Instead of sugar coating their lyrics with typical – but pathetic Christian cliché – this song cries out;

“Oh, tell me You’re here.  That You will watch over me.  Forever.  Oh take hold of my heart.  Show me you’ll love me.  Forever.  Oh tell me You’re here, that you will watch over me.  Forever.”

It reminds me of the story Jesus told about the sinner and the Pharisee while they prayed.  The Pharisee leaned on what he did to justify himself before a holy God.  The sinner knew how broken and pathetic he was and just pleaded with God for His grace and mercy.  And it was the sinner who walked away after prayer who was justified before His creator.

There is no official video for the song “Forever” – so I’ll just have to share a lyric video instead.  I hope you enjoy…

To get to know the band, below is a video of their song, “Unbreakable” – again an awesome song.  Hope you enjoy their music and their talent.

Everyone knows the “Footprints” poem.  It’s a great poem to those going through tough times.  May come across a little tacky to those full of themselves riding on the waves of a successful life. 

But that wave will eventually crash onto a beach with sand and you just may find yourself relating to the footprints poem because you are in that zone.

But I just watched a music video by Leona Lewis with the footprints theme all over it.  But what got me was the footage of children in need.  Abandoned, scared, lonely and sad are descriptions no child should ever face.

They are simply too innocent and precious to be abandoned to the filthy world a fallen humanity has created.  And yet this is the reality of millions and millions of them.

I simply breaks me.  When I think about my two little kids, to imagine their little personalities having to cope with what millions of kids go through everyday makes me shiver.  I’m going to hug them just that little more when I see them next.  And then I’m going to thank God that my two kids have a safe place to grow up.  And then I’m gonna plead with God that those kids “out there” are supernaturally protected by their ultimate heavenly Father.

Matthew 18:3 says:

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”

Children are precious in the eyes of God.  He actually wants us to be more like them when it comes to accepting Him.  God loves kids.

So if you mix the footprints theme with the reality of abandoned children and a heavenly Father that loves them so much – and all His children – both young and old, and then throw in the amazing talent of Leona Lewis, you end up with this…

In a day and age where it’s almost the “in” thing to make a mockery of the concept of God, comes a great little music video making its rounds all over the place. I first saw it at Ray Ortland’s blog who saw it at Josh Harris’s blog and now I want it shown here.

Society love’s poking fun at the notion of “God” and a belief in Him.  That is until hard times hit and it becomes the norm to “pray to God” etc to get us out of the mess.  What a sorry lot we humans are!

That’s why I so like the following little clip from song writer Regina Spektor.  Don’t know much about her really but according to Wikipedia, she is a Russian Jewish immigrant who grew up in New York.

But the lyrics to her song “Laughing With” capture beautifuly the pathetic nature in which mankind as a whole interacts with God.  Hope you enjoy and lyrics are below.

“Laughing With” Lyrics:

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God when the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God when it’s gotten real late and their kid’s not back from that party yet

No one laughs at God when their airplane starts to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God when they see the one they love hand in hand with someone else and they hope that they’re mistaken
No one laughs at God when the cops knock on their door and they say “We’ve got some bad new, sir,”
No one’s laughing at God when there’s a famine, fire or flood

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they’re about to choke

God can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’ve lost all they got and they don’t know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize that the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyes

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they’re about to choke

God can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one’s laughing at God in a hospital
No one’s laughing at God in a war

No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
We’re all laughing with God

Laughing With by Regina Spektor from the album Far

On Saturday, March 26th 2009, a very interesting debate took place in Seattle and will be shown on ABC Niteline.

Part of the ABC “Face Off” series of debates, this particular event included new age guru Deepak Chopra, Pentecostal preacher turned “heretic” Carlton Pearson, former hooker turned Christ follower Annie Lobert and mega church Pastor Mark Driscoll.

As you can imagine, the reality of Satan’s existence was debated with Chopra and Pearson claiming that he doesn’t and Lobert and Driscoll claiming that he does.

After watching it, here are my initial thoughts:

• Chopra ends up looking like a complete idiot who thinks he is WAY more evolved in his conscious awareness then the average, but very simple, you and me.  He is smug, he is attacking and is downright rude and ignorant simply minimising the reality of Satan as a reality only for the “insecure.”
• Pearson’s “heresy” has to do with his turnaround in his thinking about the literal reality of the bible.  Although he seems like a nice guy, I felt for him in how this once powerful preacher now seems so confused in his theology – Satan has truly stolen this guys faith – and yet Pearson openly rejects the reality of Satan.  So ironic.
• Lobert is a surprise packet and speaks so openly about her former life and the reality of evil in it and how Jesus saved her from all her past. Raw and emotional, I was amazed at how much Jesus can save.
• And Driscoll, well what else can I say about my favourite preacher?  I’m super stoked that he gave it to Chopra the way he did.  Driscoll knows his stuff and is quick in his thinking and he clearly won this debate.

But that’s just my own opinion.  Watch the debate for yourself and come up with your own conclusions.  And once you do, please share…