Do you still look out for your morning or evening paper

The Morning Paper (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many years ago, for our archive several international newspapers came on our table to be read and to be cut, having all the newspaper clips to be glued and put in maps, classified, and registered on recording cards.

Also several magazines got read and articles with target words registered on the recording cards. Thousands of magazines and newspaper-cuttings making the floors to heavy, making it necessary to have the archive moved to special constructed buildings.

Ourselves having become a certain age, leaving most work to the newer generation now may look at previous history. But what about reading all those newspapers and magazines?

Paris Kiosk – Newsstand in Paris

From his base in Los Angeles, an American blogger Brad Nixon who considers the endless adventure of living in the American West: life, culture, history, architecture and travel in California, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, even Alaska and likes to write about travel elsewhere in North America, Italy, Great Britain, France, China and anywhere else he goes. He considers himself a lifelong newspaper fan, like we are. He also still relish picking up the local newspaper in airports, bookstores, gas stations and restaurants.

There’s nothing more appealing than a well-stocked news stand.

he writes in his article “Morning Paper: Where Worlds Collide“.

A newsstand in New York City

Though when we look at the newspaper stands of today, we see that the meters provided for the papers has reduced with more than two thirds if it is not more. The choice is reduced a lot and there are no different editions any more for morning, noon, afternoon and/or evening papers. In Belgium you still may have “Le Soir” but it is not any more a real evening paper. Great-Britain can be proud to have still some very good evening papers, and excellent morning papers as well as Sunday papers. At the continent the Sunday papers are long gone.

Sample frontpage from the newspaper (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When Brad Nixon is lucky enough to travel abroad, he makes a stab at reading the foreign languages in which Le Monde, Corriere della Sera and the Times of London are written.

He writes

I grew up reading syndicated columnists who appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer, although they wrote for newspapers in Chicago (Mike Royko), Washington (Art Buchwald) or Los Angeles (Jim Murray), not to mention Cincinnati’s own Bob Brumfield.

I no longer subscribe to a printed newspaper of any description: world, local or neighborhood coverage. The days of sitting at breakfast and leafing through one, checking the sports scores, reading the comics or doing the crossword are things of the past here at Rancho Retro.

Nothing more clearly demonstrates the impact of technology on the flow of information than the topic of print versus online news.

Still an avid news reader, I rarely fail to spend a measurable amount of time on the websites of the LA Times, New York Times, BBC and a few others, including the newspaper that covers my portion of Los Angeles, The Daily Breeze.

I’m not entirely satisfied with that situation. There are aspects of turning the pages of a well laid-out newspaper that can’t be replicated by even the best websites. Granted, there are no hyperlinks to related material, no streaming video and just as many advertisements in print as online, but there’s nothing like a newspaper for those serendipitous discoveries, those full-page spreads of news or features from every part of the world. Also missing from newspapers are the irritating full page pop-up ads that block the screen (I’m looking at YOU, latimes.com). {Morning Paper: Where Worlds Collide}

The nice thing about a newspaper is the space some writers may get to go deeper into things and to give an analysation of facts which can be looked at and enjoyed so many hears later.  Those articles of human interest and critical viewing proof the value of a newspaper and their writers.

New York, New York. Newsroom of the New York Times newspaper. Reporters and rewrite men writing stories, and waiting to be sent out. Rewrite man in background gets the story on the phone from reporter outside. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Though today one can wonder how they are able to survive. For sure they too have to go the digital way. And to be honest we have fallen also for such electronic reading and digital classification. But to be honest to have a newspaper on your lap or on the table often gives an other feeling and ‘band’ or ‘bound’, allowing to have your mind going through an other world than the one we are sitting at that moment. It feels like it gives an other connection than the computer, laptop, i-pad or tablet. Those latter ones reducing the paper to some text fragments ‘expanded’ (Stripped of their writer’s wedding). Is it a nostalgic feeling touching our heart?

Brad Nixon also notices

I feel divided, because I know that, ultimately, only a fraction of the existing printed newspapers (already a paltry set of survivors from a few decades ago) will endure as more readers (including me), cancel their print subscriptions and read online. Rather, I suppose, many papers will persist, but only online, and there’ll be no more morning coffee with that page of box scores from yesterday’s baseball games open in front of me (or I could turn the page, study the entries for the day’s racing at Santa Anita Racetrack, and mark my choices with a pencil).

I particularly mourn the loss of those local newspapers — many of them weeklies — that have disappeared or certainly will, including the paper that served my Midwestern hometown for more than 150 years before it closed up shop. Journalism and journalists continue, but their old order is rapidly fading. {Morning Paper: Where Worlds Collide}

Since the 1950s the newspaper market has been in decline in Belgium. At that time 50 Belgian National papers and hundreds of local (village) papers could attract the eyes of their interested readers. for the National papers in 1965 30  could be found over the counter. going up for a few years up to 33 in 1980, 32 in 1995 to reduce up to 23 newspapers in 2000 of which many were very similar, only having a different name, but form the same editor or owner with only 10 owners on the market. With the big media groups Corelio, Concentra, De Persgroep, Roularta Media Group for the Flemish papers and Rossel for the Walloon papers, and Mediafin for the economical Walloon paper L’Echo, Grenz-Echo Verlag for the German Grenz-Echo and The Brussels Times for the English The Brussels Times (daily digital newspaper and print magazine). There is also Politico Europe, better known for its website but it also has a weekly paper edition, and further Europolitics and New Europe, newspaper focusing on EU affairs.

In the Netherlands in 2009 the number of Dutch newspapers was only 35. There and in Belgium the Telegraaf Media Groep has difficulties whilst the De Persgroep (Nederland) keeps the Dutch critics giving some paper to reach the public. NRC Media after a merger of the Amsterdam newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad since 2015 is ran strongly by the Belgian company Mediahuis. While considered one of the Dutch national quality newspapers next to de Volkskrant and the very conservative orthodox Protestant Trouw (De Persgroep), NRC Handelsblad sees itself as the most internationally oriented of those three, and has been labeled leftliberal. The largest group amongst readers switching to the Nederlands Dagblad comprises non-Christians looking for an alternative view from that of the mainstream Dutch press. Headquartered in Apeldoorn and associated with the Reformed Political Party the Reformatorisch Dagblad is one of only a handful daily national papers remaining in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam’s Parool may count street sales circulating approximately 20,000 and substantially more on weekends.

In Flanders De Standaard (Mediahuis, formerly Corelio and VUM) as Christian-Democratic and Flemish Party in opposition to the the Socialist Flemish daily De Morgen, are the best Belgian newspapers left over.

Lots of people in Holland and Belgium use their mobile phone to look at the headlines for the day. Also the social media is pilfering lots of ‘printed paper’ readers.

Wikipedia remarks:

Newspapers: a global industry in transition as an old paper-based technology confronts the age of the Internet and smart phones

The decline of newspapers has been widely debated, as the industry has faced dropping newsprint prices, slumping ad sales, the loss of much classified advertising and precipitous drops in circulation. In recent years the number of newspapers slated for closure, bankruptcy or severe cutbacks has risen, especially in the United States, where the industry has shed a fifth of its journalists since 2001.^[1] Revenue has plunged while competition from Internet media has squeezed older print publishers. {decline of newspapers}

Nixon asks further

What’s your preference: print or online? Or both? What’s better about one or the other? Please add a comment. {Morning Paper: Where Worlds Collide}

Brad Nixon fascinated, even in a country where he can’t actually read any of the newspapers.

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Know thy self, know thy enemy

Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.
– Sun Tzu

The Art of War (Sabaton album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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To turn the world into a “vessel” receptive of God

Shavuot by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim

At the end of the first weekly Shabbat of the seven weekly Shabbats, in between firstfruits and the Feast of Weeks the close friends of rabbi Jeshua had the shock of their life, having come to hear that their beloved master who was killed at the stake, now had disappeared from the grave. From the heavenly malach they heard that יהושע {Jeshua} was risen form the dead. Later they also had come to see him again, him also showing his wounds to proof to them he was not a ghost or spirit. Them knowing that God is a Spirit, came to hear from their beloved master teacher that he (Jeshua) was going back to Him and they saw him lifted in the air. When the moed of Shavuot was fully counted by the omer, they were all with one accord in one place. The talmidim knew they had to continue to study Torah and remember those Fifty days after Pesach and remembering how the Most High had revealed Himself and given the mitzvot to Moshe so that he could deliver them to the People of God.

For the talmidim and us it might be not a negligible fact that on the day of the revelation at Sinai they also remembered the death of of King David and the death of the successor of King David, the risen King of kings, from King David’s Tribe, the son of man and son of God, יהושע {Jeshua} (Jesus Christ). Their master had revealed the Words of God and made the mitzvot clear, so that they too could go into the world and explain them.

Today we remember that the entire people of Israel (600,000 heads of households and their families), as well as the souls of all future generations of Jews, heard God declare the first two of the Ten Commandments and witnessed God’s communication of the other eight through Moses. Following the revelation, Moses ascended the mountain for 40 days, to receive the remainder of the Torah from God.

At Sinai, the Elohim  rescinded the “decree” and “divide” (gezeirah) that had been in force since the 2nd day of creation separating the spiritual and the physical into two hermetic worlds; from this point on,

“the higher realms could descend into the lower realms, and the lower could ascend to the higher.”

Thus was born the “mitzvah” — a physical deed that, by virtue of the fact that it is commanded by God, brings Godliness into the physical world.

The deaths of two of the greatest figures in history serves as a reminder to us that revelation was not just a moment but a continuing process; that new faces of the infinitely meaningful Torah have always been revealed at the critical moments of our religious development; and that Sinai posed an immense challenge to the Jewish people to which we continue to try to rise.

English: King David, second king of Israel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

David, a descendent of Judah the son of Jacob as well as of Ruth, a Moabite convert to Judaism, was anointed King of Israel by Samuel in 878 BCE. All future legitimate kings of Israel were David’s descendants. Mankind was told it would be from him that the Moshiach or the messiah, would come, who will “restore the kingdom of David to its glory of old.”

These two figures stand at key points in the development of this response, and thus have a special relationship to Shavuot.

“lower (worlds) shall ascend to the higher, and the higher descend to the low.”

It is significant that though the Midrash quotes God as saying

“I shall take the initiative,”

and though the descent of God in fact preceded Moses’ going up, it still mentions the ascent of the lower worlds before the descent of the higher. This is because the ascent of the low was the ultimate purpose of the giving of the Torah, and the ultimate purpose is the last tobe realized. Though Moses’ ascent came after God’s descent, it was nonetheless of great importance. God’s initiating step was needed beforehand, before man could rise to meet Him.

Only by the liberation of the people from slavery man could become a free person able to aim for the promised Land and preparing themselves for entering the Kingdom of God. That entrance also made possible for the goy, they now also liberated from the curse of death like all people became liberated from death by the death of the descendant of King David, the long awaited Messiah, Jeshua who by the allowance of the Most High God, may now be seated next to God to be a mediator between God and man.

The Elohim had come down to the world to give His Word, in two senses, the stone tablet and the fulfilment of His promise in the Gan Eden, when man had rebelled against God. That Word spoken in that Royal Garden had become in the flesh and the talmidin had been close to it, feeling how it brought in them the Word also to live.

Like in the time of Moshe the effect of the giving of the Word was felt within the world, now that Word given also would have its effect unto many generations still coming after the talmidin.

The Midrash may say

“No bird called, no bird flew” and “the voice which came from G-d had no echo”

because it was absorbed into the very texture of the world. But from the Shavuot 30 CE change came over the world, several disciples of rabbi Jeshua having shaken by the sound from the shamayim as of a groaning Ruach, which  filled all the Bayit where those scaredy-cats had taken their refuge.

For those talmidin it was now clear that the Torah was no longer “in heaven,” but that the Word of God had descended to earth. For that reason, grasping that the world could face a new world, the beloved disciple of Jeshua, the apostle Jochanan (John)wrote about the word having come in the flesh.

John 1:1-5 OJB
Besuras Hageulah According to Yochanan

Bereshis (in the Beginning) was the Dvar Hashem [Yeshayah 55:11; Bereshis 1:1], and the Dvar Hashem was agav (along with) Hashem [Mishle 8:30; 30:4], and the Dvar Hashem was nothing less, by nature, than Elohim! [Psa 56:11(10); Yn 17:5; Rev. 19:13]  (2)  Bereshis (in the Beginning) this Dvar Hashem was with Hashem [Prov 8:30].  (3)  All things through him came to be, and without him came to be not one thing which came into being. [Ps 33:6,9; Prov 30:4]  (4)  In him was Chayyim (Life) and the Chayyim (Life) was the Ohr (Light) of Bnei Adam. [Tehillim 36:10 (9)]  (5)  And the Ohr shines in the choshech [Tehillim 18:28], and the choshech did not grasp it. [Yeshayah 9:1]

There had been man like the baptiser John who tried to shed light, but the true light that could enlighten everyone was his cousin who came into the world by the Ruach of the Most High, but the talmidin could be witnesses that the world did not recognize him who was sent by God.

Moshe had received the stone tablets and given them to the people, who took a very long time to come to make out why they had to follow those mitzvot and how they had to follow them.

Only afterwards did the work begin of refining, sanctifying and raising the world in spiritual ascent. This was the worship of the Jewish people, to turn the world into a “vessel” receptive of God. The possibility of this achievement was created at Sinai; the actuality began later.

Just as the descent of God to the world began with Abraham and culminated in Moses, so the ascent of the world to God began after the giving of the Torah and reached its climax in the wise kings David and Shlomo (Solomon), his son, who in building the Temple took the Jewish people to a new apex in their upward climb to God. In line with the great kings the world received a high-priest who would not only be king of the United Monarchy, with the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah, but of the whole world with its seven continents (Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Oceania).

With the advent of David came two new developments. Firstly, he was the first king to rule over the whole of Israel (unlike Saul, who according to the Midrash {Bamidbar Rabbah, ch. 4.} did not rule over the tribe of Judah), and the dynasty was entrusted to him in perpetuity:

“The kingship shall never be removed from the seed of David.’ {1 Chronicles 29:2 ff.)

Jeshua being that seed has now taken over the dominion. the apostle John and his comrades could see that now the time for a special kind of monarchy had entered this system of things. Through the intermediary of kingship, Israel has an obedience to God which is both total and extending to every aspect of their being. Now the Kingdom of Israel shall have to come to witness their new king for ever. Though the world shall not want to recognise this sent one from God, many objecting such a position to a person who was once a man of flesh and blood. (Lots of Christians still take him as being their god and want to believe Jesus is God.) They all shall have to come to accept Jesus to be the mediator between God and man and the High Priest in the order of Melchisedec.

Thus we can see the difference between the acceptance of the Torah at Sinai and the obedience to God involved in the idea of Kingship, which David initiated and with the kingship of this King of kings, the sent one from God. The revelation at Sinai was an act of God:

“I shall take the initiative.”

It did not come from within the hearts of the people. And so it did not affect their whole being absolutely. But kingship does come from the people — their obedience is the source of the king’s authority. David’s reign signifies a new phenomenon: The voluntary, inward acceptance by the people of an absolute authority over them.

Ever since the Torah was given, the world was given a possibility to come into unity with God. Jeshua being revealed from above should be the eye opener for the world, him being the way to God, and the one who explained how we have to interpret the Law of God.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe urged that all children — including infants — should be brought to the synagogue on the 1st day of Shavuot to hear the reading of the Ten Commandments in re-enactment of the Giving of the Torah at Sinai. Our sages relate that when God came to give the Torah to the people of Israel, He asked for a guarantee that that they will not forsake it.

“The heaven and the earth shall be our guarantors,”

said the Jews, but God replied that

“they will not last forever.”

To this the people replied

“Our fathers will guarantee it,”

But the Elohim said that

“they are busy.”

It was only when we promised that

“our children will guarantee it”

that God agreed,

“These are excellent guarantors.”

therefore we should make sure that our children do come to hear the mitzvot and shall have the Word of God imprinted in their hearts.

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Preceding articles

Looking at the time when the Torah was given

Elul Observances

9 Adar and bickering or loving followers of the Torah preparing for Pesach

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Additional reading

1. Matthew 1:1-17 The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
2. Jesus is risen
3. Restoration Scriptures True Name Edition Matthew Chapter 28
4. The Acts Of The Sent Ones Chapter 2
5. Nazarene Acts of the Apostles Chapter 2 v1-13 Working Spirit
6. Hebraic Roots Bible Book of The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 2
7. For those who believe Jesus is God
8. God’s salvation
9. Jesus Messiah

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Further reading

Text of Book of Ruth and its connection to Shavuot

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In the turbulence of life, listen and wait.

• Present-moment awareness = being attuned to Unity of Life + being attuned to unique individual that is “you” + feeling expansion of the possible while accepting the contraction of limitation + accepting the unknown of the infinite and eternal while moving through concrete, tangible experiences
• resonance that reaches to all life, interacting, interweaving, enfolding, unfolding.
• boundaries (us/them/other) fade + soften allowing recognition + familiarity
• practice present-moment awareness: listening, focusing, meditation, prayer, sports, or garden, or drive very fast, taking action = expression of our inner life through our outer life > remaining in center between mind, heart, + actions through listening + waiting.

• waiting = important = allowing space for movement of the heart to direct our action, rather than the mind = unnerving
• if taking actions because we have been listening to movement of the heart => each action becomes an expression of a higher unity.

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SusanWithPearls

What is present-moment awareness?   It is being attuned to the Unity of Life while also being attuned to the unique individual that is “you”.  It is feeling the expansion of the possible while accepting the contraction of limitation.  It is accepting the unknown of the infinite and eternal while moving through concrete, tangible experiences (—do we ever really know what our actions mean?).   Present- moment awareness requires that we be open to what might be while living in what is.  That which is before us—the person we interact with, the food we eat, the keyboard on which we type—all of the little actions we take comprise each present moment and link us to the Unity of Life, the infinite, the eternal; every action, every word, every thought carries with it a resonance that reaches to all life, interacting, interweaving, enfolding, unfolding.

Why should we care about present-moment awareness?  We…

View original post 1,145 more words

If you’re going to be a hater, make sure you’ve done your homework.

One great problem by hate against others is the non-knowledge of those others. The not knowing enough of history is the second part which makes that hate crimes and socio-political situations can re-occur.

An attempt at a discrimination graphic. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A video published this weekend by a politician from Gent showed clearly how people from different communities took over words they heard adults shouting at each other. As such we do hear young Moroccans (5-10 years old) calling to have all “the Makakken (sobriquet for Moroccans) out”, dark skinned girls shouting to get all niggers or Negroes where they belong, etc.. It is quite confronting to see how those young, so called innocent toddlers and teens, call their own group of people names, not really understanding the content of such calling and the hate they would or could create with it.

The pictures clearly show how an attitude of hate or love is created by the ones responsible for the education (parents, teachers, surrounding society) of the youngsters and the next generation.

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Symbol of anti-zionizm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A 16 year old aspiring journalist in what looks like her first posting, can imagine that, for a teacher, a GCSE religious studies lesson on racism may be one of the most challenging classes to teach, especially in a school like hers; overrun with teenage girls desperate to voice their opinions in an attempt to seem more intelligent than their classmates.

She tells about her experience, which could happen in any school, she sitting in class, learning about prejudice, already pissed off having had to discuss why ‘reverse racism’ is simply just ‘racism.’

She looks at the

very link between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism which racists everywhere deny they are doing. It is perfectly possible to be against the Israeli government and their brutal domestic policy, and simultaneously not be an anti-Semite.

In which she is totally right. Much too many people consider those who are against what is going on in Israel, to be anti-semitic, but they can be themselves real Jews as well as real lovers of Jews.

One of the great problems of the disturbance in relationships with Jews is that

as soon as you relate the Holocaust to the Arab-Israeli conflict in the way that has been done here, you are both insensitive and ignorant.

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Preceding articles

What to do in the Face of Global Anti-semitism

The Rise of Anti-Seminism

+++

Further reading

1. USA Today: Rise in hate crimes spurs launch of database and hotline
2. Daily Prompt: Instinct or Wisdom?
3. Do White Nationalist Think Brown Babies Are Destroying Our Country? Ask Dr. Karen!
4. Prejudice
5. Prejudice and the ink in my skin…
6. I am white, and I refuse to be ashamed of i
7. This Post Is For White People
8. Acting Black…
9. The Irony of Prejudice
10. What I Now Know About My Own Prejudices
11. My Multi-Cultural Childhood Could be the Answer to Racism & Xenophobia
12. Reverse Racism Doesn’t Exist
13. Does reverse racism exist?
14. The Truth About Reverse Racism
15. What is reverse-discrimination?
16. Liberalism has lost all perspective #reverseracism
17. You can be a dickhead no matter your race, religion or sexuality
18. public education, passing, #womensday2017, all for Prompt Night on A Dash of Sunny
19. Complexity
20. Is being racist against racists racism?
21. Students Report Being Triggered by the Word “Trigger”
22. High School Evacuated Due to Presence of “Toxic Masculinity”
23. “Travel is Fatal To Prejudice” – Mark Twain
24. Masters of Misunderstanding
25. I see you
26. Anticipation, Mrs. Beasley and Starlings
27. Frankie’s America: Too strong to be brought down
28. In the News: Hijab, Hijab, Hijab. Why Are We Obsessed With a Head Scarf?
29. Muslims portrayed as “they” in the media
30. Don’t Tokenize Us 
31. “Use my Pronouns or I Won’t Eat,” Says Non-Binary Student
32. Inadequate Evidence: The Major Problem with Microagressions
33. We’re Not Friends
34. The Thankful Foreigner: An Award-Winning Essay from a Millennial
35. Dealing with the Stares: My Muslim Experiance
36. When the PC culture goes too far…
37. You have no Bucket
38. The Illusion of Christianity in America
39. Jewgle racism pt. infinity
40. Reed’s quote of the day from Charles Caleb Colton on Truth
41. Lectionary Sermon for Lent 3 A : 19 March 2017 on John 4:5-42
42. Racial Tension in Trump’s America. What Are You Going To Do About It?
43. Black Activists Reject Trader Joe’s: Might Attract ‘Non-Blacks’ – Minutemen New
44. ‘Gingerism’ – is it a real thing?
45. Flipping the Script: The Tragedy of Mary Rowlandson
46. Comic: Antisocial media
47. Coversations with Becky
48. 10 Of Megyn Kelly’s Most Racist Moments
49. I can’t believe I’m writing this in 2017
50. A response to Racism
51. How Not To Be A Privileged Ass …

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Battery Thinkers

I can imagine that, for a teacher, a GCSE religious studies lesson on racism may be one of the most challenging classes to teach, especially in a school like mine; overrun with teenage girls desperate to voice their opinions in an attempt to seem more intelligent than their classmates.

The other week, I was sitting in class, learning about prejudice, already pissed off having had to discuss why ‘reverse racism’ is simply just ‘racism.’ Doodling Radiohead lyrics over my folder and pondering why on earth I had chosen to study RS, I couldn’t help but tune into a conversation between two of my classmates. One girl, for the sake of privacy let’s call her Jennifer, was explaining to a friend why Israel obviously belongs to the Arabs, not the Jews. Fair enough, if she has evidence to support this. But what Jennifer said next surely would’ve angered anybody, let alone…

View original post 613 more words

The Rise of Anti-Seminism

In January a Jewish community centre received a recording, which was obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a news service. On the tape one could hear the pitch of the voice computer-altered, making the speaker sound a little like Donald Duck, but the message was hardly cartoonish.

“In a short time, a large number of Jews are going to be slaughtered.”

In February there was a rash of threats on Monday the 27th hit 20 Jewish institutions in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia.  It was the fifth round of similar threats that have come during the last two months, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which has counted 90 bomb threats for those two months.

Paul Goldenberg, who used to head a hate-crimes office for the state of New Jersey and is now in charge of investigating anti-Semitic threats for Jewish organizations, said, anti-Semitic incidents would increase in reaction to events in the Middle East, such as Israeli incursions in Gaza or Lebanon, but the recent incidents appeared to have no such trigger.

“I am a 20-year veteran of law enforcement, and these are extraordinary times. … I have never seen such an uptick in such a short period of time.”

Goldenberg said.

English: “Anti-Semitic Jewish Postcard” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some analysts have tied the upsurge of hate crimes to the polarizing election of Donald Trump as president, but Naomi Adler, head of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, said it dated to 2015.

“The rhetoric and disgusting speech began two years before the actual election at the beginning of the election season, but is not the whole explanation,”

she said.

“There is an incredible amount of anxiety and fear in our community.”

Jews, Christians and Muslims should show they want to be children of God. They should do everything to show the world the Love of God and how we as creatures created in God His image, should all respect every other human being, ass well as every other created being (animals and plants).

The best way to take away anti- or hate feelings is to make sure the wrong ideas about the religious community (be it Jews, Christians or Muslims) are taken away by openness and clarity of teachings and way of living, not isolating oneself from the rest of the surroundings society.

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The University of Texas at San Antonio Downtown campus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Find a reaction on the University of Texas San Antonio’s newspaper The Paisano inside view from a university Jewish Hillel student on her thoughts and feelings about the recent tragedies,  JCCs and cemeteries that are threatened and neighbourhoods or houses that have experienced anti-Semetic attacks.

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Preceding article: What to do in the Face of Global Anti-semitism

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2. Germany’s Muslim Demographic Future
3. Actively Breaking Godwin’s Law (And thereby also indirectly following it.)
4. Morning Star promotes claims of Israeli “apartheid” – from slave-state Qatar!
5. University of Illinois Chicago: “The expression “Jewish Privilege” is particularly chilling for Jews, of course, because Jews are so disproportionately successful in many realms of competition”
6. What has Zeldin Actually Done ?
7. Do Not Reward Bad Behaviour: Trump Must Bury Anti-Semitic UN Resolution
8. Maloney calls for formation of coalition to fight anti-Semitism
9. Is Pope Francis ushering in a revival of Catholic anti-Semitism as it seeks to ally itself with Islam? Prominent Italian Rabbi Giuseppe Laras sounds the alarm

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Disclaimer: I have chosen this article due to my photojournalism project that was also about anti-Semitism. I wanted to see how similar my questions were with another school’s student’s questions.

Jewish communities continue to receive threats and are attacked by anti-Semitism. The University of Texas San Antonio’s newspaper The Paisano interviews a Jewish Hillel student on her thoughts and feelings about these recent tragedies.

The newsworthiness of this piece is evident with the current and continuous threats and attacks to Jewish communities. To get an inside view from a university Jewish student is a great way to frame a story. It is a first-hand attack, but in this case, it is not a first-hand experience.

The first thing that I notice about the questions asked were the audiences for the questions. Isaac Serna moves from a broad, national, audience to a specific, university, audience and back to a broad, national…

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Responsibility bigger than those who talk about worldly matters

At Stepping Toes we got a reaction from kriztle34, a girl who has always seen herself as an oddball, though how older she gets, the more she came to find that she is just ordinary. She reacted to one of our postings about the position of Jesus and his God.

She is worried about our position before God concerning our writing “Application of old pagan concept of trinity“.

She reacts:

Be careful what you put up on the internet! God is taking record of everything we do including the things we say on the internet. If you put something on the internet you should ask yourself: am I prepared for the eternal consequences that will result from my actions; because your actions don’t just effect your eternity but it can effect the eternity of every person who reads your heretical doctrine and that’s something that God does not take lightly.

She has good reason to be worried about the souls of those who write on the internet. Those writing things the whole world can read, have a big responsibility, (to themselves, to others, to protect others, to God, and for their resurrection and ability to enter the Kingdom of God), and when they write about God their responsibility is even bigger than those who talk about worldly matters.

When talking about God we should first of all be aware that we are talking about the Most High Divine Creator, Who is the Highest Lord of Lord of lords and Host of hosts. His Name may not be defiled, so those talking about Him should be very careful how they use that Holy Name.

We are fully aware of the seriousness when preaching and know that often we may be put in very difficult positions, not coming to twist the Words of God. That Word of God is set apart or holy and should be kept precious.

Those who call themselves Christian should be followers of Christ Jesus and should keep to the doctrines of that Jewish rabbi. As a Jew and descendant form the tribe of King David Jesus only worshipped a singular God, the God of Israel Who is One. Jesus also asked his followers to worship and to pray to that God like he prayed to that God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Every person writing on the net about Jesus and God should be fully aware of the danger of telling the wrong things about those Biblical characters. They also should know the importance of the task the master teacher Jeshua (Jesus Christ) has given his followers.

We as followers of Christ Jesus have the task to preach the Gospel of the coming Kingdom of God but also to show the people the Way to God. Jesus, the sent one from God is the one people should come to believe.

When writing about God, our heart should be close to Him and not close to the world. Jesus asks us to take distance from the world, though it might not always easy. So many people are caught up in the many false teachings and human doctrines so many churches present them.

It is so easy to be caught by those human doctrines and to step into the world with those many human or pagan rites and festivals. But we have to be stronger than many in the world and go for the Biblical Truth and  not human doctrines. We should not believe all those false human doctrines, but should keep to the Biblical doctrines and accept Jesus, the son of man and son of God, being the authorised one from God, who is our Messiah or the Kristos (Christ) and the only one by whom we received the grace of salvation and can find the way to the small gate to the Kingdom of God. In him people should come to believe. About him sincere lovers of God should preach and show the world that Jesus is the Way to God and that Jesus is not God himself, who faked his temptation and death and told lies when He as omniscient God would not have known who would be seated next to Christ or when Jesus would return to earth. That are all matters Jesus did not know but the Only One True God really did know and knows also today and tomorrow, Him always being the Eternal Omniscient Omnipresent Being.

Those writing about The Eternal God should not have any other gods besides Him. When writing on the internet about religious matters the writer should do his or her utmost best always to be determined to stick with the Biblical Truth.

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The article she reacted to: Application of old pagan concept of trinity

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Preceding articles

To find ways of Godly understanding

First man’s task still counting today

About a human being or not and life

Responsibilities of Parenthood for sharing the Word of God

Beautiful feet of those who announce the good news

Helping each other with prayer to start the new academic year

Witnessing because we love

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Additional reading

1. A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made
2. Mean voices on the Internet and free speech
3. We are ourselves responsible
4. If we, in our prosperity, neglect religious instruction and authority
5. Determined To Stick With Truth.
6. Atonement And Fellowship 7/8
7. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
8. Being Religious and Spiritual 4 Philosophical, religious and spiritual people
9. Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
10. No time like the present
11. Teach children the Bible
12. Being in isolation #7 Mission work
13. Training for the kingdom
14. Resurrectional Responsibility
15. Rapture articles
16. Denominationalism exists because?
17. God’s wrath and sanctification
18. God is One
19. With the gift of Jesus comes an awesome responsibility
20. Oratory Style
21. Not holding back and getting out of darkness
22. 138) Cheap Grace
23. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #18 Fulfilment
24. Life is too precious

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Further reading

1. Responsibility
2. Courageous people…
3. Our Choices are Lessons
4. Taking Responsibility by Anne Beaulieu
5. Awake! Part 1
6. The God We Choose
7. Faith that does not result in good deeds is useless
8. Spiritual Weight Watchers
9. Pococurante
10. Carrying that Heavy Luggage Called Responsibility
11. Assuming the responsibility
12. Slogan 34: Don’t Pass the Buck
13. Protect your players
14. Responsibility Clause
15. Authority laughs the last
16. The Most Valuable Lesson I Ever Learned
17. Freedom and responsibility
18. You Are Who You Weren’t
19. Why We Fail
20. The scapegoat reply
21. Blessings
22. Domestic Factors which Impact a Lived Calling
23. How to be ethical when Blogging

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Related articles

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• Sanballat Lives
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• 20.4 John – Making the Intangible Tangible
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• You are God’s Royalty

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Most visible part of Movement without a Name, sayings, lists and good intentions

The proverbs are the most visible part of Movement without a Name. Together they represent a potted philosophy, and a handful of wisdom. Every year we send out 8 million proverbs in Flanders alone.

This painting (oil on wood) from the last third of the 17th century alludes to the popular proverb “Nimm dich selbst bei der Nase” (“take yourself by your nose”). It’s also called “Vogel Selbsterkenntnis” (Bird of self-knowledge) and exists in several samples (three, at least, in that same museum). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The five mailshots we send every year reach one in six Flemings. Each contains a nugget of reflection that everybody can think about.

The proverbs spring from daily life. They are not composed by somebody sitting at a desk. They are not the work of a team of psychologists. By listening carefully to why, how and what people say, you can often pick up useful ideas. These then find their expression in words, which must be matured for a while in the cellars of the mind. If you chew on what somebody has said for a while, you sometimes find a few grains of truth among the chaff. That could be the birth of a typical MWN proverb.

The result is a proverb that is short, clear, pithy, and close to life. It is not intended to change the world but is rather an attempt to invite people to reflection.

 

Why do you do what you do?


Do you recognise this ?
The good intentions at the beginning of each new year?

We make lists of
that which we will never do again
of what we will do more often
of what we will do less often
of that of which we will eat less
or more
of whom we would like to see more often
or less often.
We think about our dreams
and also about the bad luck we had in the past.

We stand still. Just for a moment.
As soon as the bottles are empty, the snow has melted, the wishes for happiness have been distributed, we return to the issues of the day, life zooms by and very quickly the list is forgotten in the bottom drawer.

What would happen if we would read that list again every day?
If we would ask this big question to our reflection every morning :
“why am I doing what I do”,
If we leave that list in the sunlight on our working table ?
What would happen if we would ask ourselves every day, and not only the first day
of the year : why am I doing what I do ?

Let us stand still more often.
A few moments every day.
Look into the mirror.
To dare to ask that one question, to dare to hesitate, to try, to fail, to get up, to choose.

And then to try to live like we réally want to.

 

 

 

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Preceding

Wisdom not hard to find nor hiding in remote places

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Seeds and weeds for being the greatest nation

Today the world seems to be struggling with seeds sown after a horrible experience which brought millions of people to end their life earlier than it should have been.

Nearly hundreds years ago everybody had said “never again”, but less than 30 years loomed the ghost ship already from the waves. soon the European battlefield was again full of blood and tears. this time one tiny man had shouted loud and had made many grand gestures getting the crowd to believe this time it would be different and he would made their nation, their own country, the greatest again and forever the greatest.

The Jews where blamed for all the poverty and misery in the country. They where considered also to be the murderers of Jesus Christ and if Europe was not going to be careful they would conquer Europe.

World War I era US poster by James Montgomery Flagg, 1918, lithograph, color; 56 x 36 cm. Columbia (female allegorical personification of the United States of America) broadcasts seeds in a plowed field. Text:”Sow the Seeds of Victory! Plant and raise your own vegetables”…”Every garden a munition plant”. Urging civilians to raise their own food to free up resources for the war effort. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today there is an other Izegrim who is telling his compatriots they should be aware for a people that supposedly would have conquered Europe already and soon would be conquering the United States of America. The bully, neatly his head being covered with his blonder peruche, wants others to believe he is the clairvoyant who knows what is best for the nation and who is the only one who can make the nation great again. Lots of people have put their hope in him. Worse is that many who voted for him say they are Christians. Though clearly they show not a Christian attitude by liking the use of weapons, killing others and spreading the hate against Jews and Muslims. Those last ones seem to be the cause of all trouble today. They are consider a very dangerous breed of people, worshipping a strange and dangerous god. Those christians mostly worship a false three-headed god, though they claim to be worshipping the Only True God. And there is what the problem of today is…..

In the contemporary world the seed of the adversary of God is sown and germinating. Thought that seed starts seeing that the seed of God, the people who want to worship the Only One True God is starting to shine more. Jews, true Christians (non-trinitarian) and true Muslims are those who follow the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, the Words of Allah, the Most Almighty Elohim Hashem Jehovah. The false Muslims and false Christians see a danger or threat in those lovers of God and try to do everything to bring them in a bad light.

First there are the ones who take Jesus as their god but do not follow the teachings of peace of that master teacher. Rabbi Jeshua was always an ear and a good heart to those who where different than others or who had difficulties. He always was there to come to help them and to be there to defend them who had no voice or did not belong to the main community.

The photo depicts the Sowing the Seeds icon from the Greek Catholic Cathedral of Hajdúdorog, Hungary. It was painted on the end of the 18th century by unknown painter (most probably by Mihály Mankovics). The painting decorates the pulpit of the cathedral. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In our Holy Scriptures we are told that this master teacher told many parables and many of them concerned our faith and our behaviour towards people around us and towards God. We also consider him as the sent one from Allah was not going to keep his mouth shut, but would open it with illustrations so that people would be able to come to see.

“هذا كله كلم به يسوع الجموع بامثال.وبدون مثل لم يكن يكلمهم” (متى 13:34)
“All this Jesus spoke to the crowds in (sayings or stories) parables; and without a parable, he didn’t speak to them,” (Matthew 13:34)

In our Holy Scriptures we are told that this sent one from the Most High Allah, the son of man, is the sower of the fine seed.

“فاجاب وقال لهم.الزارع الزرع الجيد هو ابن الانسان.” (متى 13:37)

“He answered them Hm.alazara, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,” (Matthew 13:37)

Fine seed is naturally very delicate and may (perhaps) be easily damaged. That is the problem with some seeds Jesus could sow on this earth. They might have found Jesus, though not knowing their master or sower very well, they thought they knew him enough to say that they are his. We see lots of people who say they are Christian, which should mean being a follower of Christ Jesus. But what we can see is that they have that son of man made into their god and where even not afraid to make graven images of him, though Allah is very clear that we never should make any graven image of a god nor of Him.

“لا تصنع لك تمثالا منحوتا ولا صورة ما مّما في السماء من فوق وما في الارض من تحت وما في الماء من تحت الارض.” (خروج 20:4)

“”You shall not make for yourselves a graven image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth:” (Exodus 20:4 )

The One having to be the Only One God should be Allah, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah Who is One and Who is not a man of flesh and blood but an eternal Spirit.

“اسمع يا اسرائيل.الرب الهنا رب واحد.” (تثنية 6:4)

“Hear, Asiraial (Israel): Jehovah is Allah our Lord God; Jehovah is just (the only) one:” (Deuteronomy 6:4)

“انا الرب هذا اسمي ومجدي لا اعطيه لآخر ولا تسبيحي للمنحوتات.” (اشعياء 42:8)

“”I am Magdi Jehovah, that is my name. I will not give him (the Magdi or glory) to time or to another, nor my praise Zbhristi (Haem or glorification) to sculptures or engraved images.” (Isaiah 42:8)

“لا تنطق باسم الرب الهك باطلا لان الرب لا يبرئ من نطق باسمه باطلا.” (خروج 20:7)

“Do not pronounce the name of Jehovah your Allah in vain; for Jehovah will not acquit of His name in vain (or will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain)” (Exodus 20:7)

that is what we can see what happened in this world. Many have taken the Holy Name of Allah and changed it from Jehovah into Jesus and made sculptures, paintings and several objects with drawings of him and his heavenly Father, though this is an abomination in the eyes of that Father of rabbi Jeshua, who is the only One God Spirit.

“الله روح.والذين يسجدون له فبالروح والحق ينبغي ان يسجدوا.” (يوحنا 4:24)

“Allah is spirit, and you should worship Him in spirit and truth.”” (John 4:24)

Instead of worshipping Allah in truth many fake their devotion for god by worshipping not at all or having more interest in (or worship of) money and material possession. That love of possession brings also certain people to use the title of God to bring fear over man and to oppress those around them. Often they use Allah His Words in the wrong way, distorting or twisting them so that they can justify their wrong acts, like attacking other believers and non-believers, humiliating women, selling people, etc.

Brooklyn Museum – The Enemy Sowing Tares – Elihu Vedder – overall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most Christians do not worship Jehovah, the Only One True God of gods, with spirit, but prefer to keep to human dogmas and therefore many became blind for the biblical truth, like we also can see in the Ummah, where several so called believers do not come to read the Holy Scriptures any more but follow just some verses, taken out of context by their teachers, which they follow without comparing their sayings with what is written in the Scriptures. Because so many Muslims and Christians not knowing their Holy Scriptures any more they can be mislead and be driven away from the truth and worse also from God.

Perhaps both Christians and Muslims should come to read Muslim scriptures where is written

And, likewise, their belief in beings or powers that are supposed to have a share in God’s divinity makes [even] the slaying of their children seem goodly to many of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God, thus bringing them to ruin and confusing them in their faith. Yet, unless God had so willed, they would not be doing all this: stand, therefore, aloof from them and all their false imagery!(6:137)

There and then will every human being clearly apprehend what he has done in the past; and all will be brought back unto God, their true Lord Supreme, and all their false imagery will have forsaken them.(10:30)

It is they who have squandered their own selves-for [on the Day of Resurrection] all their false imagery will have forsaken them:(11:21)

Is Then, He who has every living being in His almighty care, [dealing with each] according to what it deserves -[is, then, He like anything else that exists]? And yet, they ascribe to other beings a share in God’s divinity! Say: “Give them any name [you please]: but do you [really think that you could] inform Him of anything on earth that He does not know-or [do you] but play with words?, Nay, goodly seems their false imagery to those who are bent on denying the truth, and so they are turned away from the [right] path: and he whom God lets go astray can never find any guide.(13:33)

And [this retribution will befall all evildoers because] they devise that false imagery of theirs – and all their false imagery is within God’s knowledge. [And never can the blasphemers prevail against the truth – not] even if their false imagery were so (well devised and so powerful] that mountains could be moved thereby.(14:46)

As it is, they ascribe – out of what We provide for them as sustenance – a share unto things of which they know nothing. By God, you shall most certainly be called to account for all your false imagery!(16:56)

And on that Day will they [who had thus been sinning, belatedly] proffer their surrender to God; and all their false imagery will have forsaken them.(16:87)

when he said unto his father and his people, “What are these images to which you are so intensely devoted?”(21:52)

But, then, did those [beings] whom they had chosen to worship as deities beside God, hoping that they would bring them nearer [to Him], help them [in the end]? Nay, they forsook them: for that [alleged divinity] was but an outcome of their self-delusion and all their false imagery.(46:28)

Instead of becoming liberated in Christ they have become slaves of a new religion not afraid to set them up against other religions. In this can be seen the reason why so many can not see what are real Christians or what are real Muslims. True Christians and true Muslims should be bringers of peace. Again they better look at Muslim writings which say

And when Abraham said: “O Lord, make this a city of peace, and give those of its citizens who believe in God and the Last Day fruits for food,” He answered: “To those will I also give a little who believe not, for a time, then drag them to Hell, a dreadful destination!”(2:126)

Except those who take refuge with a people allied to you, or those who, weary of fighting you or their people, come over to you. If God had so willed He would surely have given them power over you, and they would have fought you. If they keep aloof and do not fight, and offer peace, God has left you no reason to fight them.(4:90)

You will also find persons who, while wishing to live in peace with you as well as with their own people, turn to civil war the moment they are called to it. If they do not keep away from you, nor offer you peace nor restrain their hands, seize them and kill them wherever they are. We have given you a clear sanction against them.(4:91)

O believers, when you go out on a journey in the way of God, be discreet and do not say to anyone who greets you in peace: “You are not a believer.” You desire the gain of earthly life, but there are prizes in plenty with God. You were also like him (an unbeliever) in the past, but God has been gracious to you. So be careful and discreet, for God is aware of what you do.(4:94)

Their confidential counsels are seldom for the good, save of those who talk of charity or goodness or peace among men. Whosoever does so for the pleasure of God, We shall give him an ample reward.(4:114)

 

The seeds of Jesus do not have to worry. Because when they truly believe their master teacher they can be sure Allah will guide and protect them.

Through which God will lead those who follow His pleasure to the path of peace, and guide them out of darkness into light by His will, and to the path that is straight.(5:16)

But man has to give something in the place. They should believe. They should believe in God and today they also should believe in the the sent one from God, Ishi (Jeshua or Jesus Christ) and would not mix their faith with that of pagans, or taking part in to pagan feasts like Halloween, Yule, Christmas and Easter e.g. and may not deny the position of each character God placed on this earth.

They alone have peace who believe and do not intermix belief with denial, and are guided on the right path.”(6:82)

For them is an abode of peace with their Lord. He will be their defender as reward for what they did.(6:127)

“الحق الحق اقول لكم ان من يسمع كلامي ويؤمن بالذي ارسلني فله حياة ابدية ولا يأتي الى دينونة بل قد انتقل من الموت الى الحياة.” (يوحنا 5:24)

Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears my word and believes Him who sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24)

Lots of Christians do not believe the One Who sent Jesus and said that man standing in the river Jordan was His only begotten son.

“21  ولما اعتمد جميع الشعب اعتمد يسوع ايضا.واذ كان يصلّي انفتحت السماء 22 ونزل عليه الروح القدس بهيئة جسمية مثل حمامة وكان صوت من السماء قائلا انت ابني الحبيب بك سررت 23 ولما ابتدأ يسوع كان له نحو ثلاثين سنة وهو على ما كان يظن ابن يوسف بن هالي” (لوقا 3:21-23)

“21  Now it happened, when all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized, and was praying. The sky opened up, 22 and the Holy Spirit in a bodily form as a dove descended on him; and a voice came out from heaven, saying

“You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.”

23 Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years old, it was thought he being the son of Joseph, bin Hali,” (Luke 3:21-23)

Those Christians who made Jesus into their god also do not believe Allah’s Own Word, who tells mankind about the moment when it was begotten time to have that one promised in the Royal Garden to come to earth.

“ولكن لما جاء ملء الزمان ارسل الله ابنه مولودا من امرأة مولودا تحت الناموس” (غلاطية 4:4)

“But when the fulness of the time had come, Allah sent out his son, born to a woman, born under the law,” (Galatians 4:4)

He knew very well the Law and the Word of God, but the seed of the contemporary world has so much weed between it it nearly becomes suffocated in the field.

Some days after that preaching man told about the weeds, Allah once more declared who this rabbi was.

“وفيما هو يتكلم اذا سحابة نيرة ظللتهم وصوت من السحابة قائلا هذا هو ابني الحبيب الذي به سررت.له اسمعوا.” (متى 17:5)

“While he was speaking, a bright cloud and voice from the cloud overshadowed them, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  Hear him (or listen to him).” (Matthew 17: 5)

Today we have come into an age where we find again people of little faith and people of no faith and being a twisted generation, catching fear because they do not know the Word nor the people of God and how they should unite with all people of God, transferring from here to there (Matthew 17:20; 21:21; Mark 9:31; Luke 9:44).

the weed Atriplex patula

We today must be aware how the adversary is working hard to bring division between man. The adversaries of God sow seeds of weed to make sure many plants will die because the weeds not giving place for them. Please let us therefore listen to the wise words of the sent one from Allah, who explains his story about the seeds and weeds.

“37 فاجاب وقال لهم.الزارع الزرع الجيد هو ابن الانسان. 38 والحقل هو العالم.والزرع الجيد هو بنو الملكوت.والزوان هو بنو الشرير. 39 والعدو الذي زرعه هو ابليس.والحصاد هو انقضاء العالم.والحصادون هم الملائكة. 40 فكما يجمع الزوان ويحرق بالنار هكذا يكون في انقضاء هذا العالم. 41 يرسل ابن الانسان ملائكته فيجمعون من ملكوته جميع المعاثر وفاعلي الاثم. 42 ويطرحونهم في اتون النار.هناك يكون البكاء وصرير الاسنان. 43 حينئذ يضيء الابرار كالشمس في ملكوت ابيهم.من له اذنان للسمع فليسمع 44 ¶ ايضا يشبه ملكوت السموات كنزا مخفى في حقل وجده انسان فاخفاه ومن فرحه مضى وباع كل ما كان له واشترى ذلك الحقل. 45 ايضا يشبه ملكوت السموات انسانا تاجرا يطلب لآلئ حسنة. 46 فلما وجد لؤلؤة واحدة كثيرة الثمن مضى وباع كل ما كان له واشتراها. 47 ايضا يشبه ملكوت السموات شبكة مطروحة في البحر وجامعة من كل نوع. 48 فلما امتلأت اصعدوها على الشاطئ وجلسوا وجمعوا الجياد الى اوعية.واما الاردياء فطرحوها خارجا. 49 هكذا يكون في انقضاء العالم.يخرج الملائكة ويفرزون الاشرار من بين الابرار. 50 ويطرحونهم في اتون النار.هناك يكون البكاء وصرير الاسنان 51 قال لهم يسوع أفهمتم هذا كله.فقالوا نعم يا سيد. 52 فقال لهم.من اجل ذلك كل كاتب متعلم في ملكوت السموات يشبه رجلا رب بيت يخرج من كنزه جددا وعتقاء.” (متى 13:37-52 Arabic)

the weed Urtica dioica, often called common nettle, stinging nettle many of which have many hollow stinging hairs called trichomes on the leaves and stems, which act like hypodermic needles, injecting histamine and other chemicals that produce a stinging sensation when contacted by humans and other animals

“37 He answered them, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom; and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 As therefore the darnel weeds are gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 44  “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. 45 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46 who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it. 47 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet, that was cast into the sea, and gathered some fish of every kind, 48 which, when it was filled, they drew up on the beach. They sat down, and gathered the good into containers, but the bad they threw away. 49 So will it be in the end of the world. The angels will come forth, and separate the wicked from among the righteous, 50 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.” 51 Jesus said to them, “Have you understood all these things?” They answered him, “Yes, Lord.” 52 He said to them, “Therefore, every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.”” (Matthew 13:37-52 WEB)

Those who really love should do their utmost best to come to know that Divine Maker of all things and should try to please Him more than to please man around them. they should be very careful for those people who promise they alone are the one who is able to make their nation great again. they should look at the fruits of such people and check if they are living themselves according to what they are preaching.

We should make ourselves stronger in the faith by regularly reading the Whole Word of God and not to take just a few verses from scripture out of context.

As lovers of God we should also show that we are really willing to be His children, living under His Fatherhood, enjoying the diversity in His family, people from different cultures with different skin-colour, different tongue, with different attitudes, ways of dressing and talking, but all united under His Holy Name.

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Preceding

Seeds to be planted soon

Seeds of promiseSeeds, weeds and kingdoms

Unbelief, faith and mustard seed

Seeds from the world creating division and separation from God

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Additional reading

1. Belonging to or being judged by
2. Follower of Jesus part of a cult or a Christian
3. Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism
4. Looking for a biblically sound church
5. Luther on Being a Theologian: Oratio, Meditatio and Tentatio
6. Back from gone #3 Giving worries to God and believing in His promises
7. 2014 Religion
8. Silence, devotion, Salafists, quietists, weaponry, bombings, books, writers and terrorists
9. Not liking your Christians
10. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
11. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
12. Relying on the Love of God
13. Unconditional love

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1. Hitler and the Original Conspiracy Theory
2. Know Your Enemy
3. Nationalists’ approaches to Jews, Israel and Zionism: Complex relationships
4. A former skinhead explains why it’s a mistake for the US to stop targeting right-wing extremists
5. FBI Opens Hate Crime Investigation Into Dozens Of JCC Bomb Threats
6. Netanyahu’s silence on Trump and anti-Semitism
7. French scholar prosecuted for “incitement to racial hatred” for noting the culturally inherited anti-Semitism of French Muslims
8. France’s Jihad against the truth | Yves Mamou
9. Israeli Police Prepare for the Coming of the ‘Messiah’
10. What’s Holding the Arab World Back?
11. Use of the word Pharisee
12. This Man
13. A Christian’s Job Interview
14. God Knew Me When
15. The ungodly
16. Is Trump the Antichrist?
17. What is Dignity?
18. Courage is Believing
19. The Well-Balanced Christian
20. Walls that Divide, Pt. 1
21. Walls that Divide, Pt. 2
22. Our Resolutions or God’s Promises?
23. In the dust of the Rabbi- Day 66
24. Mission Trips
25. Saving Faith is Present Tense and Active – Part 5: He Who Stands Firm to the End Will Be Saved
26. Got Weeds?
27. Parable of the Weeds (sermon)
28. The grass is always greener….
29. June 21, 2016: 5th Tuesday after Pentecost

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Facing daily events and exclaiming “Good grief!”

When waking up every day we may be lucky to wake up, to face the day again. In the day we may perhaps encounter lots of things which surprises us and sometimes we call out ‘good grief’

The young Garrick Sinclair “Ricky” Beckett, a U.S. Army veteran honourably discharged as a professional saxophonist in the Army Bands, currently attending Concordia University-Ann Arbor in the Pre-Seminary programme with a major in Christian Thought and a minor in Theological Languages looks at a popular cartoon figure.

He writes

As he hears some bad news, Charlie Brown exclaims, “Good grief!” We often think of this as an oxymoron. Grief can’t possibly be good! {Good grief}

Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By the word grief we think of sorrow and distress, even of great mourning and affliction. When having bodily pain or when our mind is being hurt we can be grief stricken. Deep sadness caused especially by someone’s death or by trouble or annoyance grief comes over us. Grievance overmans us when there is a cause of such suffering or a deep and poignant distress caused by or as if by bereavement. We can come to grief but than it means we fail in something we’re doing, and may be hurt.

Mary Bringle also noticed

Even the cleverest boy could come to grief alone, in the night. {Collins dictionary on Come to grief}

In Dutch ‘grief’ is ‘verdriet’ and is connected to ‘lijden (suffering), ‘bedroefd zijn’ (grow sad, being sad, be sorry, sorrow) maar ook tot ‘afkeer’ (aversion, distaste, disgust, revulsion,repulsion, repugnance, loathing, abhorrence, abomination, scunner). When ‘come to grief‘ we founder, break down, collapse, fall through, flop (informal), be defeated, fall short, fizzle out (informal), come unstuck, run aground, bite the dust, and even feel that we go up in smoke, come to naught, not make the grade (informal), go down like a lead balloon (informal). In any case it looks like it turns out badly, us falling flat on our face, meeting with disaster. Stuck with grief we may be found lacking or wanting, facing a spiritual miscarry or misfire.

Some people say ‘Good grief‘ when they are surprised or shocked. When we face something that’s actually worth grieving over, we’re often overwhelmed.

From a ‘sukkelstraatje’ (being in trouble/in dire stratis) we can become ailing (sickly) with a ‘sukkelpartij’ (sucker party) receiving ‘zielspijn’ (agony, heartache, profound sorrow) or ‘zieleleed’ (sadness). That ‘zielesmart’ or ‘zielsverdriet’ (anguish, heartache,profound sorrow, misery, unhappiness),  ‘Weedom’ (woe), ‘hartenpijn’ ‘hartenleed’ (heartache, heartfelt grief, heartfelt sorrow, heartbreak), agony consumes us with grief.

We do know we have to cope with it, we have to conquer it or go over such grief.

It’s rather ironic that our culture views grief as a bad thing while it encourages grief over a lot of things. It is encouraged that we grieve over minimum wage, to grieve over what the White Man did to black people centuries ago during slavery, to grieve over what the government did to the indigenous peoples of America… {Good grief}

The savoury on our daily bread is not always pleasant. we may try to begin every day with gratitude, because all we have, has been given to us. This body, heart and mind, friendships, opportunities, challenges, family,… it is all given to us. But honestly we are not always pleased with the confrontation with it.

We may value family where we practice love and sharing.  We may value work where we share our passions and gifts. And most of all we would like to have a good health and value it.

As we align with gratitude, values, dharma,  and who we are as limitless conscious existence, every action we take becomes a contribution to the whole. {Why Are We Here?}

Getting up we notice we face the day and can fill it with words and deeds.

this world we touch but in words

words insulated in plated metal

this world we hold but in teeth

teeth estranged from heart’s palate {This World, A Seat}

Sometimes it looks like every day again we do have to start all over again, going back to these “manifold temptations,” which tour around our face. Every day there are so many things we do have to face, so many experiences we have to go through.

It can be anything in this life that tends to trouble us or haunt us that can bring grief over us.

something that hurts you at the most sensitive and delicate core of your soul, heart, and mind — things that tend to make you miserable.  How do we get past these things? {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – Introduction}

Facing each day we have to open our eyes and look at all things, seeing them in perspective, trying to understand what is really going on and what sort of place it deserves.

The danger is to just endure our troubles with groans and whines and complaints and not do anything to discover the remedy to the situation.  We come into the danger of thinking, “Why is God doing this to me?” {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – Introduction}

With “Ricky” Beckett we urge you not to think “why” these things happen to us, but rather to think what.

 Instead of thinking, “Why me,” think instead, “What can I learn from this?  What does God want to teach me?”  And then how:  “How will this make me grow closer to God?”  In short, other than the sinful condition of the world we live in, that is why we suffer — to learn something from God and to grow closer to Him, and then the “why” may reveal itself to you as God works out His progressive revelation in your life.  That’s the short answer, but now let’s discuss the longer answer. {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – Introduction}

Each day again, and again, we should be prepared to learn and to continue our road, up to a better world for us.

We are living in this world and walking on our paths under the eye of our Heavenly Father.

Say to yourself,

“There is a definite plan and purpose for my life.  God has examined me and has adopted me into His family.”

Why does He do this for us?  So that He may bring us into perfection (which is not acquired during this earthly life).  That is His objective — that you may “be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29), as Jesus Christ will say, “Here I am with the children God gave Me” (Hebrews 2:13).  If we do not believe and recognise this fundamental concept of ourselves as Christians, then we are bound to go astray and misunderstand these troubles that happen to us as God’s children. {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – Introduction}

These days lots of people take some time to think about the death and remember the dead.

When death and disaster occur, we are so grief stricken that we don’t know what to do. While all this is going on, we avoid grieving over our sin, which the thing we should grieve the most. It is good to grieve over this because our sin alienates us from God. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). We should grieve greatly over this because the end of our sin is death. But fear not! The Romans verse continues, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Godly grief is good grief, for it leads us to repentance. Godly grief, or good grief, causes us to recognise our need for forgiveness—our need for Christ. By repentance we exercise faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and we are justified by faith (Romans 5:1).

Let us always remember that God may permit all these things we have to face, to happen to us and to the people around us, not for the purpose of making us suffer and watching us squirm, as some would like to believe, but rather in order to chastise us, which He enacts due to our complacency and for our failure.

In 2 Peter 1:5-7, the apostle writes that Christians are to discipline themselves and to supplement attributes to their faith, not merely to be content with minimal faith but for it to be forever increasing.  There are Christians who do not take heed of this exhortation and instead are indefatigable with their complacency and indolence.  As I understand New Testament doctrine, if we do that we should not be surprised if we start to experience troubles — that God perhaps begins to chastise us by shaking us off our shiftless butts. {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – Chastisement}

We ourselves are also not free from bringing grief to others. We must recognise that we too can do things wrongly. We too can bring pain to others and give them heartache or grief. Many Christians are convinced that as re-born people they cannot sin. But they are mistaken.

First John 3:9-10 says,

“Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.  This is how God’s children — and the Devil’s children — are made evident.”

 Now, it is easy to misinterpret this passage.  It is not saying that God’s children are incapable of sinning.  After all, even though we’re God’s children, we still sin.

St. John is saying that the one “born of God” — that is, baptised in the Holy Spirit — does not make it his life’s trade to sin.
The child of God does not make it his life’s priority to live in sin, as the children of the Devil do (e.g. the homosexual lifestyle, a murderous lifestyle such as ISIS or serial killers, etc.).

God’s children are not free from acts of sin, but the child of God does not commit to be a servant of sin, but rather a servant of God and His holiness.  Christians are not impeccable; they are simultaneously saint and sinner (simul iustus et peccator).  Sin lives within us, but the Christian is justified by faith (Romans 5:1; Galatians 3:24).  John is not speaking of sinless perfection but of a life imputed with Christ’s righteousness.

We can and shall have moments of weakness and shall sin. Afterwards we should repent, which is doing a work of faith. Only when we do such works of faith shall we be able to enter the Kingdom of God. When not willing to see what we have done wrong and not wanting to repent over the wrongdoing we shall not be allowed to enter through the small gate. The teshuvah or repentance is a necessary ingredient to come to God.

Knowing that God may have a particularly great task set for us we should wonder what we can do in the world God has prepared for us. Facing that world, where we are so many times tested, we should not mind having ourselves tested, when we are standing straight in our shoes, going for the One True God.

So, one may have to pass through a certain trial because of some great task ahead that God has planned for them.  Think of any biblical character that had to endure such a trial.  The first person that comes to mind for me is Jonah.  He was running from God’s calling to preach to Nineveh, and as we know he was swallowed by a great fish; and upon repentance and accepting his calling, God saved his life by having the great fish spit him out onto the land to fulfill his calling.  Maybe a drastic example, but perhaps not as drastic as you might think.  Consider any whales of doubt you might have in your life and what God is doing to bring you through those doubts, or what you ought to let Him do. {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – God to Prepare Us}

Facing each day lying in front of us we best remember that we are given the opportunity to be here and that God knows what’s best for us and what we need to experience in order to get us where He wants us to be. Therefore let us give ourselves in His Hands and be thankfull that He was willing to accept the ransom offer from His son.

As our Heavenly Father, God may see the need for trials and prescribe the necessary tools that are destined to make us grow in Him for our own good. {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – God to Prepare Us}

With the knowledge that worldly grief produces only death because the world has no hope for a relief from their grief, we do have a better prospect in the hope given to mankind.

Worldly grief abandons the person who grieves. Godly grief is guilt over sin, which this guilt leads to repentance as the sinner recognises the necessity for forgiveness in Christ, which leads to salvation because the repentance we perform is exercised by this faith gifted to us, and it is through this gift of faith that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8-9). {Good grief}

Perhaps we leave it to others to say ‘good grief’ when they see our endurance and come to see we want to present to the world a good example of a loving person, whatever happens to him.

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Preceding

Our existence..

Facing our existence every day

Are you right down in the dumps? Stop digging!

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Additional reading

1. A world in denial
2. Materialism, would be life, and aspirations
3. Dealing with worries in our lives
4. Emotional pain and emotional deadness
5. Fragments from the Book of Job #1: chapters 1-12
6. Fragments from the Book of Job #4: chapters 27-31
7. Isaiah prophet and messenger of God
8. Suffering
9. Offer in our suffering
10. Suffering – through the apparent silence of God
11. Suffering continues
12. Suffering leading to joy
13. Self inflicted misery #8 Pruning to strengthen us
14. Surprised by time in joys & sufferings
15. Profitable disasters
16. Prayer has comforted us in sorrow
17. The soul has no rainbow if the eyes have no tears
18. Every athlete exercises self control
19. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #4 Transitoriness #3 Rejoicing in the insistence
20. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #8 Prayer #6 Communication and manifestation
21. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #9 Prayer #7 Reason to pray
22. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #10 Prayer #8 Condition
23. Continuing Paul’s Prayer Requests
24. Written to recognise the Promissed One

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Further reading

1. Day By Day
2. Grief
3. Throw-back Thursday: Grief is a fickle foe
4. Book Mark: Notes on Friends’ Grief
5. Grief From Across The World 
6. The Well of Grief
7. The unspoken grievance
8. The Five Stages of Grief
9. Sad
10. Memories…and Grief
11. Deviant Deflections – Unrequited Love
12. When part of you is missing
13. No one tells you about the guilt..
14. Monday Morning Grievance: The New Copier
15. After Suicide
16. How To Go On
17. God I miss you. 
18. Letter to you, my little one…
19. That feeling 
20. Heart Holes
21. Waiting For The Dutchman
22. Old Unfinished Post: The 5 Stages of Relationship Grief
23. Grief embraces love
24. 1 a.m. on the Borderline
25. Inside the glacier of my mind
26. Beautiful Reminders
27. Beyond the grey clouds
28. The Mercy of the Morning
29. Here’s to better naked tomorrows
30. It Is God’s Gospel
31. (11/04/2016) Works of the Spirit?
32. Forgiveness and Eternal Life Through Jesus Christ
33. Does Working with Others Lead to Better Results than Acting as an Individual? L 41
34. Leading by example
35. Jesus Models Friendship
36. Saints
37. Mercy in giving
38. 1 Timothy 4:12 (31.10.16)
39. The stories we tell
40. Eulogia
41. “Conformity To The Will Of God”
42. Advice… L38
43. If You Really Love Me
44. Life Changing Moments While Young
45. Good Advice for Us in Today’s World
46. Love as a god

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