Offence

Note: These are some notes from last Sundays sermon.. so I apologize if they are not clear... ask me what I meant if it's not clear!

Offended. Offending, offensive...

Being Offended is not a cool thing.. According to John Bevere in “The Bait of Satan” the word offense means bait.

ok I like definitions so:

offense: annoyance or resentment brought about by a perceived insult to or disregard for oneself or one's standards or principles.

wow a PERCEIVED insult or perceived disregard… hmmm what sort of perceptions do you have to have for this to happen?

Bait:food used to entice fish or other animals as prey.  or deliberately annoy or taunt (someone).

so when we “take offense” we are really taking the bait by choosing to perceive some wrong doing. or annoyance.

Face it most of us get annoyed over stupid things… Starbucks “red cup season” anyone? please! but what does that mean?  If we are offended then we are NOT looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. how can I say that.. well perception: a way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting something; a mental impression. or of using our senses to beware of something… if we are looking only to Him then how can we look at others and be offended by what they do or don’t do or say?

Seriously, is it possible?

 can I be offended with someone if I am looking at them through Jesus’ eyes? 

You know what? it doesn’t matter if what someone says is wrong… or if what they do is wrong, or where they are going is wrong… I have to look at them with the love of Jesus. See God didn’t give us the permission to judge others, he gave us a directive to love one another. In fact he went so far as to say “by this shall they know you are my disciples, that you love one another”  How can we assume that it’s ok for us to be offended?

Now I will say this, Jesus through the Holy Spirit, will convict people of wrong doing. Jesus will redirect people, Jesus will guide people… my job is to love people and in loving them lift the name of Jesus so that all people will be drawn to him.

Now back to offense and bait...

Bait is something that we want!  We want that juicy bit of information, that tasty treat of insider news, that little snack of personal information… it doesn’t matter what it is, bait is something that we are looking for… if we don’t have our eyes on Jesus. We will see the bait, take the bait and SLAM caught in the trap! then we are offended at someone, because of what they did, or didn’t do, at Jesus because he didn’t keep us out of the trap, etc...

However… I’m reminded of a story about REv. James Wright. At Maranatha Fellowship in St. Albans, WV he had one of his parishioners bring in a dozen or so still-jaw traps. The kind used to catch animals for the fur trade, maybe some bear traps, I don’t know but they were all nasty. You wouldn’t want to get your hand or foot caught in them.  They put those traps all over the platform, you could walk through them if you knew how to sep and where to put your feet.  Then Rev. Wright called for young boy, 4 or 5 maybe to come up on the platform. Rev. Wright was on one side then the traps in the middle and the boy on the other side. 

Rev Wright asked the boy if he trusted him. The boy said yes...

Rev. Wright had someone blindfold the boy, and turn him around like in blind mans bluff...

He then told the boy, remember its dangerous between you and me, but I am going to talk you through the traps till you get to my side.  

The congregation gasped and said no, pastor, you can’t...

Rev Wright asked the boy, “ Would it be easier to get across if someone held your hand and walked you through?”  The boy nodded, Rev Wright said how about if that someone was your daddy? and the boy smiled and nodded, his daddy had placed all the traps… Then Rev Wright said, how about if he carries you to me?  The Daddy had come up and and this point picked the little boy up and carried him through the traps to Pastor wright who then hugged and kissed him, and assured the congregation that he wouldn’t have had him walk through the traps EVER it was an example!

God wants us to walk past the bait which will get us caught in the traps of the enemy. Offense is that bait, we get offended and then we are stuck at that point of offense, much like a wild animal is caught in a trap, we can’t escape… if we try to escape ourselves we have to gnaw off a foot.. it hurts, it’s painful and most of us can’t imagine doing that so we lay there trying not to focus on the pain caused by the trap that we got caught in because of some stupid offense.   God wants to talk us through the traps, but He knows we can’t make it.. he knows that we have to have someone to hold out hand… or better yet to carry us. Jesus can see the traps plainly, he can walk through them without getting caught, and He is willing to carry us so that we will be safe.. we simply have to trust him!

In this day and age its SO easy to get offended politics, religion, money, money and politics, health, morality, ideology, sports, people even get offended over which Americas Got talent act is best or got more votes. 

Offence is everywhere.. there is so much of it that you would think that the traps would be all gummed up.. but when we get offended, we are stuck… as I said before stuck right there we can’t move on no matter how we try. we are injured, and chained to the spot where the one who set the trap can come at his leisure and kill us...

Part of the problem with offense is that once we have taken the bait once.. we tend to take it again and again and again… we tend to simply eat ourselves full of the bait and that just makes us sicker and sicker...

so what do we do?  how do we NOT be offended? on one hand it’s simple, on the other it’s VERY hard.

If we can keep our eyes on Jesus, then we won’t be hungry because He will feed us, we won’t get caught by the bait of offense we will be too focused on Him. This is hard. the “real” world tends to throw us under the buss, people do things that anger us that make us legitimately upset, or angry. legitimate because it’s something that they do TO us… at us or whatever…  however, Jesus wants us to Love one another.  

ok you say, but he said by this shall men know that YOU are my disciples that you love one another… true if someone isn’t his disciple then how can we love them?  The old testament said and Jesus reaffirmed “Love your neighbor as yourself “ is the second greatest commandment! see we must love our neighbors. it’s hard to say something nasty about someone you love. It’s hard to do something mean to someone you love, it’s hard to accuse someone you love of wrong doing.. in other words if you love, then you will have a very difficult time getting offended. If you are eating the fruit of the spirit then that old dried up chunk of cheese or stinky piece of rotten meat doesn’t look nearly as enticing, and you simply avoid the trap!

so remember, offense is a choice. We take the bait and then we are stuck. The devil wants us stuck so that we aren’t following Jesus...

Now one more thing, if you find yourself in a place of offense… it’s hard, the only thing you can do is to forgive those who you are offended at… you don’t have to say anything to them. chances are they don’t know they offended you. However forgive them, and then climb into Jesus arms and let Him carry you past the traps and pitfalls.

My peace I give to you!

Older Blog entries people might find useful

Hi,
I wanted to link to some of my older blog articles particularly from an old blog called "My Internet is down!"
Here are a few articles that I think are fairly useful. please feel free to read them and comment either on the articles themselves, or on this blog entry!

Tools for the Average Person
Web Providers vs. ISP
Hey! That's MY Wifi!
Ethernet vs. Crossover
What to do when you call for help!
Put Twitter to good use.

I also post periodically to Greer Church Without Walls 

I just wanted to share some of my other writings with anyone who might be interested.

My Peace I give to you.
Jonathan

What does it mean to be ... me?

No one really knows what it means to be me.  Im not even sure that I know. Which is rather disconcerting.  I have been watching the first season of a show called Dark Matter  (I have been watching on NetFlix so I'm uncertain what network it airs on). In this show the crew wakes up to a damaged ship, failing life support, and absolutely no memories. None of them know their names, their identities etc. Their personalities remain, and their instincts, just not usable memories. One crew member, the youngest who was a stow-away, has dreams of other peoples memories, and through these dreams bits and pieces of who they are comes through.

the interesting thing is, these people have a chance at becoming someone totally new, being someone honest, good, etc. but as they discover that they are all wanted criminals their personalities begin to bend more to the expectations of others than to who they truly are.

There are folks who face the unknown in themselves and truly want to be better people with a new start.

I wonder if I need a new start?  Sometimes I wonder who I am what I'm doing where I am.. not literally.. but metaphysically.  I know what I am called to and I know that I love my family. I'm just trying to figure out the rest... be patient with me.. maybe I'm metamorphosing into something better... hopefully not worse.

My peace I give you.

Family Ties vs IDeals

Some of us are fortunate to have families that agree with our ideologies, and some don't. On the other hand some of us have to deal with family that is diametrically opposed to our own ideas.

But no matter what, family is family. We love them, we hate them we fight them but we also relate to them... and we are related to them!

Relatives are mirrored images of ourselves. In some ways some are broken some are whole and you know what.. we love them all.

When you look in a mirror you see yourself... but reversed. in fact most of us, if we see a flipped reflection of ourselves don't recognize our own face.

That is what the point is... we can't recognize ourselves. We don't know who we are, we don't know where we are... we simply have to watch and learn.

My peace I give to you

This Blog might make you hate me...

 I was reading an interesting article today, it was actually a transcript of a sermon preached by an evangelical, conservative pastor who graduated from Liberty University, one of the most conservative Christian Colleges around.

He had listened to the Speech given by presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and in listening he heard him say a lot of things that sounded a lot like John the Baptist.

In fact he started saying things that sounded a lot like Jesus too.

Now you probably know I am a pretty conservative guy at least in theology and traditionally in politics. But I'm coming to see that political conservatism doesn't equal Christian Conservatism, and for the most part political conservatives aren't very nice people. Now don't get all in an uproar. Fiscal conservatives want to be reasonable with money... they want to know how things are going to be payed for BEFORE we spend the money... and that makes a lot of sense.  But then I realized, Jesus never considered the cost, he just did, and the cost was taken care of.

I suppose when you know that you are going to be paying the ultimate price the minor costs don't really matter. So that means we as Christians don't have... hmmm wait a second.. arn't we supposed to lay down our lives for a brother?   Didn't jesus say that in that day he will say I was hungry and you fed me I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was cold and you clothed me  homeless and you sheltered me... and the ones he says that to will say Lord? When? I don't remember seeing you. Sure I made sure that everyone could get to a doctor, yeah I did my best to make sure that no children went hungry, I tried to provide housing for everyone.. I welcomed immigrants, I didn't care if they were legal or illegal or had the same creed as me... but Lord, I don't remember seeing you. I was looking, but I never saw you.   Then Jesus will say when you did it to the least of one of these, you did it to me!  

The others will say, Lord we gave money to the missionaries, we took up donations for the poor, we built huge churches filled with thousands of people who we tried to fit to the mold to be just like me, uhm I mean you, and I did it all for you. Then Jesus will say get out of here I never knew you.

Do I have to be politically correct? no,but I should be polite. Do I have to let people walk all over me? no, but I should turn the other cheek..  You realize that when businesses or people who are proclaimed people of faith are attacked by the world... if they had been doing all those things Jesus did, then there would be FAR more people coming to their aid and defense than those going against them.  who would it be? the Conservative candidate? no it will be the people who they helped who they fed and sheltered and provided for
they will say, no this person is more like God than anyone I have seen...

One more thing, and my time will be WAY over... 'The Communist Manifesto' by Karl Marx  has a very unusual parallel, one that most people will really flip a lid over when I say it. The design document for communism, could have been copied chapter and verse from the second chapter of Acts.. with one MAJOR exception  communism denies God while the second chapter of Acts is all about being Christ like.

Where does that leave us?  hmmm well I'm not as conservative as I thought I was at least not socially, if I want to be a Christian and be Christ like, then I really can't be.   That doesn't mean I agree with the left, it means I want to walk according to the word of God and not in the way of sinners. I want to listen with the ears of Christ, and not with my own fingers plugging my own ears. I want to look with eyes of compassion, like Jesus did when he looked at Jerusalem and wept. When I reach out my hand I want do it like Jesus did when he healed the blind, lifted the worshipful, blessed the loaves. When I walk I want it to be in the footsteps of Jesus.

What does all that mean?  Come with me, lets find out.

My peace I give to you.

God is Love

Reading in the book The Furious Longing on God by Brennan Manning I cam upon many bits of truth and chunks of truth and whole veins of Truth which can be mined!

One thing said over and over is that God loves everyone good, bad, pure, and evil because God IS love.The God that Jesus introduced to us is Love John 4:16 God is Love.

If the God that we are to serve and pour out our every devotion to is Love then how can we do anything but love others?

We can feel sickened by their actions, we can be aghast at their actions, but we MUST love them if we are truly the sons and daughters of God.

Yes the liberals who disagree with our thinking, we must LOVE them! The radicals who try to target Christian businesses in attempts to get them to refuse their business. We must LOVE them.

The members of ISIS that commit atrocities, God loves them! We can do nothing less!

Its not easy,its not  something that we can explain. We must simply love.

One story that was written said this, The ones who spent their entire lives trying to serve God were waiting outside the gates of heaven, when they heard a rumor that God was going to forgive the worst sinners in the world and let them into Heaven, maybe even before them. They began to be angry, to fuss and fight and then, in their anger they cursed God. that was their judgement, they Cursed God and condemned themselves to eternity without God, They condemned themselves even to hell.

If we fail to Love, then we are condemning ourselves to Hell.

We as the children of the Living God, MUST Love!

my peace I give unto you.

5 minutes is too long

ugh
Lately five minutes is too long to take to write a blog. I think I may have to rename my blog the one minute blog.. but then I would be taking more than a minute to get to it....  We have cars in the shop.. plural. 3 people working only one working car.. that means a lot of taxi driving!

Anyhow, I discovered something, well I already knew it. I was just reminded of it the other day.
An instrument can be in complete tune with itself, and still be WAY off key!

Whats that mean? Well if I tune my guitar I get the E string to sound right fret the next string and tune to match the e etc etc etc  I can get the guitar in perfect tune with itself. But if I don't have a good point of reference for my e string.. then the whole guitar is off key.

Orchestras do the same thing, as individuals practice they tune their instruments to make certain they are in tune with themselves, but they have to tune up TOGETHER in order for the whole orchestra to be IN TUNE.

We, as Christians, as people in general need to remember this. It's easy to feel like we are perfectly in tune with God, and we may be, or we may be off a little here or there... Until we are in a place where we can tune off of our neighbors, we may never know.

So watch your tuning. Keep things in perspective and be ready to adjust your tune to match the greater tuning.

My time is up,
My peace I give to you.

Jonathan Wagner

Aggrivated

For some reason today I have been aggrivated ALL day.. ever since I woke up.. early. I have been irritated...
don't ask me why. I don't know.. it's best when I'm in this mood... to just stay out of my way. I try not to say too much else I wil bite someones head off.

Ugly, but true.

I'm not even going to blog for 5 minutes... in case I say something I shouldn't.


His peace I give to you,, cause mine is lacking at the moment...

Jonathan

Who I Am vs What I SAY I AM

When we are out in the world and someone says, "Who are you?" How do we answer?  Do we say, I am a child of God!  That's true, if we are a child of God. I could say I'm Jonathan Wagner.  That's true. I could say I am a father, pastor, programmer, teacher, student. Again, true.

Hmmmm, how do we answer?  When the temple guards came ot the garden to arrest Jesus and take him to trial before the Sanheedren they asked him who he was. His answer?  "I am, that I AM"  When he said it they all fell to the ground.  Lets look at that...

I am  simple introduction.. the same as any of my answers above  "THAT I am"  I think he emphasized the THAT. He was referring to the old testament where God said I AM.

See the word became flesh and dwelt among us.  But it was still the same word. He was and is THAT I AM.

We have to remember that if we have the Holy Ghost in our hearts, then we have THAT I AM inside of us. guiding us, directing us, helping us!

My time is up.
My peace I give to you
Jonathan

Wait... Wait... Hurry Up... Wait some more...

Have you ever noticed that sometimes it seems like all we do in life is wait? well remember the old quote, "good things come to those who wait."    It's true often, but I'll tell you what.. sometimes waiting on something is the worst. It's actually not the waiting it's the surge of expectation when you get almost to the end of the waiting. When someone says, it's almost ready, and whatever it is takes another hour, another day another month, another year, another lifetime.

If we aren't careful we will put our trust not in God but in how we understand things SHOULD be. How we thinks things OUGHT to be, the Way that someone told us things ARE. Instead of listening to that small voice and just resting.

How much better off would we be when waiting if we would simply lay down and sleep or better yet, look for opportunities to reach out to others?  How much better would the world be if people could learn to wait with grace, To wait with compassion, to wait with care... I think the world would be a far better place.

I saw an image the other day it said the world is full of kind people if you can't find one, then be one.

And that's true the world is full of people waiting for just the RIGHT moment become a person who lives in every moment.

We can live our lives moment to moment and really enjoy things or we can be so intensely focused on that one thing we are waiting for and miss all the little things.

My time is up,
My peace I give to you,
Jonathan

Disappointment ... whats the opposite?

Yesterday in church I shared about disappointment. The opposite of disappointment is appointment dis means not so disappointment means NOT an appointment, while appointment is when you are scheduled to meat or do something.

Crazily enough we often get so wrapped up in our own anticipation and expectations that we fail to see the appointment that God has for us. There is almost always an appointment when we are disappointed.

If we look for it there will be someone we can encourage, someone we can help someone we can lift up and pray for. So the next time you are disappointed, look for the appointment that God has for you.

As christians we often forget to do this we forget that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord. We forget that we can and should walk in his footsteps.  We need to remember that we live here and in the Kingdom of Heaven. We can and should follow after him with all our hearts mind and souls... He is worth it. and He will calm disappointment and show us the appointments that he has for us.

My time is up
My peace I give to you
Jonathan

Computer Problems

I wasn't able to do my 5 minute blogger post for the weekend because I had some computer issues. Nothing major, but my power supply died so I had to conserve energy.
That was ok, it just made it difficult to do anything on the internet. Including my five minute blogger post.

Today I was thinking about the lack of power when my power supply died.  My computer, a laptop, kept working. It didn't beep and tell me there was a problem it didn't falter .. till the battery was almost dead. The juice just stopped flowing.
Does this happen to us as people? do we sometimes lose the power in our lives? Does it just sort of disappear when we aren't looking and we dot' notice till all of a sudden our batteries are drained?

We can make sure that we are plugged in every day. Take five minutes each morning and make sure you are plugged in. pray, meditate, look at the birds in the sky and the grass on the ground, remember all the things you have to be thankful for. Do your best to forgive people who have done or said things to or about you. Just plug in. Make sure your power supply doesn't run dry.

We have access to te ultimate power in the universe, God the father, so take time to plug in. say Hi to God each day, listen to what he has to say. Do your best to look for the seeds and plants and guides that God has put out for us to see. We are down sometimes and don't always notice.

If your power is drained then charge up, take a rest and then remember to Praise and Enjoy.

My time is up,
My peace I give to you

Jonathan

A Trip to the Airport

I'm taking my mother to the airport this morning. The airline says to be there by no later than 6:30 for a 7:30 departure. I'm just not sure why.  I mean the airport here in Greenville is tiny..no let me correct that it's TINY I could walk the entire length of the building in about 2 minutes... if that.. and I would be going slowly. So even if the checkin took a long time say 15 minutes and security took 15 minutes the plane would still be 30 minutes from departure...
So WHY is it so crucial to get to the airport an hour early or in some places two or three hours early? I wish I knew. I really makes little sense to me!

That said, I'm happy to give my mom a ride and we will even go in and see her off. I refuse to just drop her at the door... it just doesn't seem right! So we will go in and walk with her up to the security checkin, where we can't go further. I doubt we will sit in the lounge and wait an hour or so to watch her plane take off so we will kiss her goodbye at the security gate, and wish her a pleasant journey.

I think she will have good weather for flying and hopefully will have someone engaging to talk with.

Well my time is up.

My peace I give to you

Jonathan

Take Disappointment with a Spoon Full of Sugar, or Not!

In the old Mary Poppins movies by Disney there is a song entitled, "A spoon full of sugar"  basically saying that a spoon full of sugar makes it easier to take medicine. at that day and age the "medicine" ws usually castor oil (YUCK) or some tonic usually made with Quinine (BITTER) or possibly even Laudanum (which is just watered down poppy seed juice i.e. (opium)) Again YUCK!  So a spoon full of sugar made those medicines (which were of questionable value to the body) easier to swallow.

Did you ever wonder if maybe those things SHOULD taste bad so you DON'T ingest them?

In life we get disappointed... often. We often feel like we are losing out on something that should be ours. We feel like we are being cheated. When this happens consider the medicine... maybe it's better not to have the spoonful of sugar and the medicine all together... Just recover from whatever the problem is.

Real fast, an even worse thing is to be disappointed for someone else!  To be offended on their behalf.. because you really don't know what is happening in their mind... so don't take medicine for someone else either.

My time is up,
My peace I give to you

Jonathan

Stolen from Facebook

I wrote this this morning on Facebook and decided to post it as my five minute blog today:

I do not have a problem with examining the actions of Israel, Gaza, Iran, Syria, Russia, Ukraine, even the USA. I have a problem with making judgements based on partial knowledge, gleaned from people with partial knowledge with no personal experience. I do not have full knowledge of Israel's motifs,(other than those stated) very few do, I do not have full knowledge of Hamas's motifs, (again other than those stated) I can look at the stated motifs and decide which I am more comfortable with.

Is the I.D.F. perfect? Ha! far from it there are bullies and blood thirsty soldiers in every army in the world. However, do they have a right to defend their nation from attack? yes. Is it ok to bomb schools and mosques? no... is it ok to launch hundreds of missiles into civilian populations? No. Before you make statements, consider the people.. the individuals the ones you know. yes, I know Israelis and I know palestinians, Christian and Muslim, and I know Jewish and christian Israelis... consider THOSE people what do you think they are thinking during this time of strife? Where do you think they sleep at night? what do you think they are going through? Do not argue with me about politics. Do not fuss about morals. Do not get on a high horse because of this or that. Consider the children. all of the children. And in considering them pray. pray that peace that passes understanding will flow out to all involved. Pray that the God of heaven will look down and protect the children. God siad he knitted them together in their mothers womb. Pray for their protection. Pray for miracles of peace. Pray that the fruits of the Spirit will be poured out, Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Self Control against such there is NOT law. These fruits can and will stop all conflict. These fruits will solve the problems. These fruits will reach across boundaries and take care of issues that politics will not, that violence can not.

Pray.

My piece I give to you.

Jonathan

Peace is not equal to happiness

Is peace the same thing as happiness?  I know that you can only be happy if you are at peace, however, you can't always be be happy, when you are at peace.

Peace and happiness are not the same thing.

Being at peace with a decision or a choice doesn't always mean you will be happy. I can have peace with a given decision or choice, but I don't necessarily have to be happy.

Happiness and peacefulness are not the same. Nothing has to be equal nothing has to be the same. peace does not always bring happiness.  It's hard for us to get this point. When you are young you think that peace and happiness are the same. Once you have gone through a little bit of life, you learn that they aren't the same.  You can't be convinced otherwise, you can only learn through living.

Find peace The peace that passes understanding, it is the peace of God. it's not always the peace of happiness, and happiness doesn't always bring peace.

Remember that. Peace is one of the attributes of God. Happiness is not.
Just remember you can have Peace and not be happy, but you can not, truely be happy, without peace.

My time is up.
My peace I give to you

Jonathan

Sometes you gotta do what you gotta do

Post I said to try to do this post by voice, So I'm using Google and talking to my phone and it's typing!

Sometimes you have to do what you gotta do even if you don't want to. We have to do that in  work we have to do things in life we have to do things with people. Sometimes for friends we have to do things. Sometimes for bosses sometimes ourselves. Sometimes you have to go to the doctor. Sometimes you have to eat healthy when you don't want to.

 Sometimes you  would just like to eat a box of cupcakes or box of donuts but in reality you have to do what you have to do. 

Don't complain about it when people complain about stuff they don't have any choice over. They complain about things that have to be done regardless. Yet we still complain about it. 

We think that if we complain and gripe it will make us feel better, somehow. In reality, it just makes everything else feel worse. There's no real good way to complain about something. Complaining doesn't help anything! Just do what you gotta do. 

I'm going to have to do it, and do it again. I'm talking to myself  here too because I know I complain. But the thing is I forget sometimes that we have to do stuff, we just gotta do what we gotta do!

That's what I'm working towards. I don't want to complain. I want to be that guy that people look at it say, "He never complains about anything! What's the deal?"

Just do what you got to do!.

By the way, I'm not doing the voice thing anymore it took me 20 minutes to untangle the 5 minutes of talking that I had...

My time is gone,

My peace I give to you

Jonathan

Moving even when we are sitting still

I did a bit of research:
The earth rotates about 1,000 mph
The earth orbits the sun at 67,000 mph
The solar system moves 515,000 miles per hour through / around the galaxy
The milkyway galaxy moves roughly 671,000 mph through the universe

So, when we are sitting still we are still moving roughtly 1,254,000 mph

So the next time you see me sitting at my computer and want to tell me I need more exercise.. remember that we are all moving pretty quickly. I don't want to risk flying away.  Imagine if you could jump and the planet would move beneath your feet?  It's hard to believe that our fragile planet is moving so fast. it's amazing really.

Well with the research my time is up.
My peace I give to you

Jonathan

why argue and fight over Israel and Hamas's arguing and fighting?

I was considering all the things that people are saying about this situation. How they badmouth, Israel, how they somehow fail to blame Hamas for anything. And other people who say that Israel can do no wrong and Hamas is nothing but terrorists trying to pretend to be legit.

To a degree both views are correct. I mean, if Israel said we will not fight another fight. we won't shoot another bullet or rocket we wont drive another tank.. In a matter of days, the entire population of Israel, Jew, Christian and Muslim (if they were Israeli citizens would be dead or in prison. While if the Arabs would say the same thing, There would be dancing in the streets of Israel.

But I say why argue? why fuss? We have the most effective tool and can have more impact on the conflict in Israel than the UN or the diplomatic corp. We have prayer. We can pray that the situation will resolve. that God will have His way that Israel will will find peace as a nation that the Palestinians will find peace. We can pray that The holy sites in Israel will be more than simple political points marked on maps instead of scoreboards. That the people who are fighting about the existence of Israel would discover a desire to lift each other up. That they would turn their spears into plowshares that they would turn to peace instead of war, that great things would come from tiny places.
This is what we can do.

I am out of time.
My peace I give to you,

Jonathan

What do you hold on to?

Sometimes we hold on to things so tightly, that we damage them. There is an old meme (from before that word existed) that showed a picture of a bird being released form a cage and the words said something like, "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it truly belongs to you, if not then it was never meant to be."

I don't know that I completely agree with the details, but the sentiment is true. Sometimes in order to show some one or something how much we love it, we have to be willing to let it go.

Parents have to do this all the time, release their kids to grow up. Teach them to do the right thing, then trust them to do it.  It's hard, sometimes all we can do is open our hand and shut our eyes, hoping they will come back to us, and fearing they will simply disappear into the blue yonder.

I think God does that for use too. I think God lets us free so we can choose to be with Him. He never forces us to do anything.

Just have to remember that.

my time is up...

My peace I give to you,
Jonathan