roamingchile's Xanga

On the Rocks

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:16:53 GMT

Shalom. This is an older writing. I penned in in August 2000 when I was emerging from a personal trial. This weekend, I had a bit of a trial... not on the scale of the one back then, but enough of one to wrestle with my sinful nature for a day, really wrestle. Enough of one to truly appreciate God's amazing grace despite the wretch within me.

I've been a Chrisitan virtually all my life. Growing up in the church, going to Christian school, the wonders of God can and often become ordinary in one's mind.

I know I've been in points in my life where I take God's grace for granted. Only sinners can truly appreciate the forgiving love of God.

We are all sinners. All sins are equally condemning in God's eyes. But in our eyes, a little white lie is nowhere near as bad as theft, adultery, murder. So we sometimes get little rocks in our sandals during our walk with God -- lying or coveting your neighbor's car or greed at the buffet line. No big deal. God forgives.

Sometimes, though, we get really careless. The little rocks on the path get bigger. Now we have stones to contend with in our walk -- bigger lies, lusting over the neighbor's car... or even the neighbor's spouse. We stumble. But we still just ask forgiveness, thinking we've caught our balance and move on.

And before you know it, you step into a crevice you didn't see. You have an affair; you lie to your spouse and everybody else about it. You break your ankle and fall hard on the rocks. You've got bruised, maybe cracked ribs, scrapes and cuts on your arms and legs.

Then you finally realize in what a pitiful state you are. You look back on the road and see where you went astray, see how easily this mess could have been a prevented. You think, "How stupid can I be? How bad? How unworthy of God's love?"

Then you realize you're sitting in a shadow. You look up to see Jesus standing next to you. He bends down to pick you up, but you push Him away.

"No! Don't waste your time on me!" But He tries again. You push away again, but weakly because your ribs are broken, and your ankle's swelling, your cuts and scrapes still bleeding.

He tries to pick you up, then you look into His eyes with wonder, silently asking Him "Why?" He smiles warmly, lovingly. When He lifts you off the ground and begins to carry you away from this wretched place, you weep because you know you've sinned.

"Blessed are they who mourn," He says, "for they shall be comforted." And I leaned my head on His shoulder, still crying. But this time more in joy because He followed me in my sin and then rescued me when it looked like I'd gone too far. Then I knew the wonder of grace newly redeemed sinners know. I'd been saved once again.

Saturday Fun: Queen ala Muppets

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:49:47 GMT

Just for fun.

EU gains power, prepares to back Palestine

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:32:24 GMT

News with a side of satire

The Lisbon Treaty took effect December 1. "What do I care?" you may ask. While it seems like just another seemingly minor political detail, it's one that will probably have big effects. As the columnist below explains, the European Union is now cemented together. Member nations cannot just walk away. Should they desire independence from the E.U., they must secede. We Americans know that attempts at secession could lead to bitter, bloody war... and Quebec knows it's nearly impossible to leave a union through peaceful means.

Now that the European Union is a true international, political power, it will begin to throw it's weight around... and Israel maybe the first to feel the pressure.

UPDATE: Check out AOK4WAY's post on the new E.U. president, Herman Van Rumpoy. I've added an item below telling us a bit about Van Rumpoy. For those who think we're being alarmist about the coming one-world government, a quote from Van Rumpoy:

"2009 is also the first year of global governance with the establishment of the G20 in the middle of the financial crisis. The climate conference in Copenhagen is another step toward the global management of our planet.”

United Kingdom surrenders sovereignty

OPINION - We in the United Kingdom woke up in a different country Tuesday. Britain is no longer a sovereign nation. At midnight Monday night, we ceased to be an independent state, bound by international treaties to other independent states, and became instead a subordinate unit within a European state. Under the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force Tuesday, the EU acquires “legal personality”, which gives it the right to sign accords and treat with other states. Until yesterday, Britain could simply walk out of the EU by abrogating the Treaty of Rome and repealing the 1972 European Communities Act. Henceforth, it will have to go through the secession procedure laid down in Lisbon. In other words, the EU gets to settle the terms on which its members are allowed to leave. Formal sovereignty has been shifted from the national capitals to Brussels. It is appalling, demeaning, disgraceful that such a thing should have been done without popular consent, and in the absence of the referendum that all three parties had promised. -TELGRAPH.com

[tags: europe, government, britain]

Meet the President of Europe

Herman Van Rompuy. Get used to the name. He is the first President of the European Union, which with the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon by all the 27 EU member states in early November was transformed into a genuine United States of Europe. The President of Europe has not been elected; he was appointed in a secret meeting of the heads of government of the 27 EU member states. They chose one of their own. Herman Van Rompuy was the Prime Minister of Belgium. To understand Herman, one must know something about Belgium, a tiny country in Western Europe, and the prototype of the EU. Belgians do not exist as a nation. Belgium is an artificial state, constructed by the international powers in 1830 as a political compromise and experiment. The country consists of 6 million Dutch, living in Flanders, the northern half of the country, and 4 million French, living in Wallonia, the southern half. The Belgian Dutch would have preferred to stay part of the Netherlands, while the Belgian French would have preferred to join France. Instead, they were forced to live together in one state. Belgians do not like their state. They despise it. They say it represents nothing. There are no Belgian patriots, because no-one is willing to die for a flag which does not represent anything. Because Belgium represents nothing, multicultural ideologues love Belgium. They say that without patriotism, there would be no wars and the world would be a better place. As John Lennon sang “Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too.” -- BRUSSELS JOURNAL

[tags: europe, government, conservative]

EU proposal supports giving E. Jerusalem to Palestine

The current holder of the rotating European Union presidency, Sweden, has put together a draft document calling for the division of Jerusalem between Israel and a future Palestinian state. (Click through to read draft). -HAARETZ.com

[tags: news, israel, palestine, europe]

U.N. mourns 1947 Israel decision

The UN is currently marking the historic date of November 29 1947, the day in which it approved the partition plan separating Israel into two states – Jewish and Arabic. But while in Israel the date is celebratory, as it marks the end of the British mandate and the beginning of independent rule, the UN headquarters in New York and Geneva are holding ceremonies of mourning and solidarity with the Palestinian people. Israel has traditionally boycotted the debates due to their one-sidedness, but in recent years has changed its tune. Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, is scheduled to speak before the assembly Tuesday and condemn the UN tradition of memorializing the date on which Israel was given a state as a day of mourning. -YNET NEWS.com

[tags: israel, news]

State Dinner crashers make White House retro guest list

SATIRE - The White House attempted to quell alarm over two interlopers who somehow breached security to attend a state dinner for the prime minister of India this week. Although Tareq and Michaele Salahi were not on the initial guest list, said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, "They do appear on the retro guest list, thus negating any national security threat." The retro guest list, the White House spokesman explained, is prepared after the event to reconcile guest projections with actual results. Tareq Salahi wore a black tuxedo, which grants him an automatic "Level 3 clearance", said Gibbs. His wife, a slim, blonde woman, wore a red and gold sari and may have been "mistaken for a Bollywood star." Gibbs noted that Michaela Salahi "gave every appearance of being a celebrity" and so slipped the Secret Service cordon, under "the standard Obama administration protocol for dealing with famous people, actors, singers, models and such." - WASHINGTON EXAMINER.com

[tags: news, satire]

Thankfulness (update)

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:44:18 GMT

thank|ful: adjective

1 : conscious of benefit received
2 : expressive of thanks
3 : well pleased : glad (m-w.com)

It's been A year. A year ago this month, the Lord told me He has a job for me in Israel. Seven months later, I found myself in Jerusalem.

Now I'm in Wales. This year has been one of lessons, new experiences, new friends and new items on the list of why I'll be eternally grateful to my God.

One thing am most thankful at this moment is direction. After much waiting, I believe I'm making out a shape in the misty distance of where I'm headed. No details now, but I do see myself back in Jerusalem in February. That piece of knowledge has given me some peace as I continue to wait.

The Lord has blessed me with a handful of true, eternal friendships... and He added to that select number this year. There are acquaintances... there are friends... there are sisters... and there are best (for eternity) friends.

Both Richard and Necia have been amazing conduits of God's grace, love and provision as I learn deeper lessons of how to live by faith and serve God in different capacities. In my time here, Necia has proven to be the close friend I needed in this moment... a confidant and encourager. I can see, though, that this friendship will go beyond this moment. Those are the friendships that I've sought from God (with tears sometimes). They only come once in a while... but there is a peace in knowing that there will be a tomorrow, even if time ends tonight. What amazing peace and joy in knowing we serve the same God and have the same hope of the age to come.

I am also most grateful for a supportive family. They've been patient and understanding as I wait on the Lord. Sometimes I don't have answers for the "when are you coming home?" question, but they've been gracious in waiting for me to hear from the Lord.

I've introduced my lovely hosts to pumpkin pie. I do believe they liked it.

Necia made us a proper, if different, Thanksgiving feast: jerk chicken, plantains, green beans, butternut squash and garlic-cheddar mashed potatoes (not shown).

Next on the what-do-Americans-eat-and-drink menu: egg nog. Yeah. Found some nice recipes online. I'll share if they work out. It's amazing the lengths one will go to get at least a taste home. But I do love to learn. Shalom.

Perseverance of the Chinese Christians

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:44:37 GMT

News with a side of .... photography

Just a few items today... a wonderful, surprising piece on the underground church in China... a look at Sarah Palin's thoughts on having a special-needs child... and -- for the photo geeks -- a GIANT camera on wheels.

I highly recommend that you click through on the first two to read them in their entirety.

The China Obama Didn't See

In the northeast part of Bejing, not far from the old Friendship Hotel, stands a boxy little cinema specializing in anime. A nondescript building on a nondescript thoroughfare, it's hardly a place a tourist would notice, much less a visiting president. Yet had Barack Obama wanted to understand something of the real China, his time would have been better spent there. At 10 a.m. Sunday, more than 500 members of Shouwang church gathered at the cinema for a service. Shouwang, founded in 1993 by pastor Jin Tianming, is one of the city's largest unregistered churches and counts around 800 regular members. But until last weekend, they had never once been able to meet in such large numbers in an indoor space in Beijing. Shouwang is what is known in China as a "house" church, meaning that it is an unregistered entity in a country where all religious groups are supposed to report to the State Administration for Religious Affairs. Chinese and foreign observers alike believe the number of Chinese belonging to underground churches may now exceed 100 million people. That figure has grown rapidly as more and more Chinese, particularly well-educated city dwellers, turn away from Communist Party atheism. - WALL STREET JOURNAL

[tags: news, obama, china, christianity]

Sarah Palin on her Down Syndrome son Trig

Excerpt from "Going Rogue": I just wasn't ready; my sisters were the ones who could handle this, not me. Did I have enough love and compassion in me to do this? Don't you have to be wired a little differently to be gifted with the ability to raise a special-needs child, a child who isn't “perfect” in the eyes of society? I didn't know if I should be ashamed of myself for even thinking these things. I read that almost 90% of Down syndrome babies are aborted — so wasn't that a message that this is not only a less-than-ideal circumstance, but also one that it is virtually impossible to deal with? Now, just a couple of hours into this new world, I could not get my arms or heart around it. That fleeting thought descended on me again, not a consideration so much as a sudden understanding of why people would grasp at a quick “solution”, a way to make the “problem” just go away. But again, I had to hold on to that seed of faith. - LIFE NEWS.com

[tags: news, palin, books, abortion]

The World's Largest Camera Is On Wheels

It's not often that a photographer can literally stand inside of his camera. But Shaun Irving, who has transformed a truck into a giant, mobile camera obscura, does it all the time. And he says it's the largest, mobile camera in the world. It's a simple construction: There's a small hole with a lens on one side of the truck's lightproof interior. This lens projects an upside-down and backward image on the opposite wall. On that wall, Irving hangs 4-by-8-foot sheets of photo paper, which, when exposed to 5-30 second exposures, serve as giant negatives. He then takes his jumbo negatives to a darkroom, or just a room that's dark, and processes them. The whole process, he says, takes anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours. - NPR.org

[tags: news, blogs, photography]

S. African baboon gangs grow more aggressive, steal food from tourists

Visitors to South Africa's premier holiday destination who are worried about becoming victims of the country's high crime rate could find themselves instead robbed by a more furry kind of felon: baboons. The cheeky primates have learned how to open car doors and jump through windows in pursuit of tasty sandwiches and snacks. City officials are battling to control the increasingly aggressive troupes and there are fears the problem will only worsen with the influx of visitors to Cape Town during the World Cup next year. -- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

[tags: food, wildlife, south africa]

EU has president; Dangers of journalism

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:11:53 GMT

I'm behind on a news posts. Just a two quick topics.

First, one for prayer warriors and government watchers. The European Union has named its president : Herman van Rompuy, the prime minister of Belgium.

The last obstacle to the reorganizing of the EU government fell Tuesday when the president of the Czech Republic signed the Lisbon Treaty while still stating his objections.

Coverage is a bit quiet. Here in the UK, people had been paying some attention because former prime minister Tony Blair was gunning for the job. There were no elections. The heads of the 27 member-nations chose in what some called "a series of backroom cabals worthy of a Soviet politburo at its worst. There are no hustings, no candidates' manifestos. No public confirmation hearings are planned."

In response to such criticism, the new EU president said the selection was made by leaders "who were all democratically chosen. I was chosen on the basis of a treaty. The treaty stipulates the procedure. The treaty was democratically approved by 27 member states."

Covering Mexico's cartel wars puts journalists in the line of fire

Source: www.cnn.com

Lucio Soria is a recorder of the dead in Ciudad Juarez's drug cartel war. "El Sorias," as he is called by his colleagues, is a photojournalist for the Mexican city's two main daily newspapers, El Diario and El PM. For the last 10 years, his job has been to photograph the bodies and crime scenes left behind after cartel hit men completed their work.

Some people think I'm crazy because I am called to work in Israel as a journalist. I know I am safe as long as I'm in the Lord's will. Also, it seems it's safer in the Middle East than in the city across the river from my hometown. These quotes fascinated me:

"The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 26 journalists have been killed since 2005 in Mexico -- most of them while covering the crime or corruption beats. By comparison, 10 journalists were killed in the same time period while covering the war in Afghanistan."

"Tim Crockett, head of the security firm Pioneer Consulting and security adviser for CNN, described Ciudad Juarez as 'probably more dangerous for journalists than the Middle East.'"

Human jumbotron

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:18:33 GMT

Something light today, as my brain is a bit overloaded.

The quote on the YouTube page says: "Can you guys stop playing soccer? You're distracting the audience." Also seen at collegehumor.com

Stoking the heat into a fire

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:22:53 GMT

I'm sitting here tending to the remains of a fire in the fireplace. A charred, smoldering log was all that remained, so I broke it up. Inside it was black already, and some places were glowing orange. The fragments were glowing with internal heat, but there was no flame.

So I gathered the fragments with the tongs. I made a sort of pile that had spaces in between. Soon, these merely glowing piece flamed up into a bright, hot tongue of fire.

We believers all have the Holy Spirit within, the fire of God glowing with in. It is good. It is warm. But each piece glows alone in solitude. When we gather ourselves into groups, with room to breathe, but close together nonetheless, God's Mighty Rushing Wind will blow our collective internal heat into a bright, hot tongue of fire.

Revival starts in the individual as an orange glow. The individuals must unite to form families, close enough to share each other's heat but with space enough to let the Spirit flow among the individuals. Then, the glow will become an external flame, bright and hot, calling all who are in darkness and in the cold.

"Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24-25

Hey, Peeps! Over here!

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:18:07 GMT

Shalom and greetings!

Hey, do you know there's a BIG Xanga birthday today. Yeah. BIG, I tell you!!!

Go wish Neeka1 a
VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

For those of you still reading...

As you see above (and know from her lovely posts), Necia's fond of taking photos. I have a camera I want to bless her with. I'd planned months ago to give it to her... then it refused to turn on one day. I'm fairly sure Canon can get the camera in tip-top shape. Please send me a private message if you'd like to help.

Guy Fawkes Night in Cardiff

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:48:07 GMT

Welcome, those of you coming from Neeka's site. I do have proof that she was my assistant (that's Nee holding up a light in the top left corner). She sneaked into one of my photos. OK, really, I wasn't paying attention to the background... but the happy accident shows my assistant at work.

Remember, remember the fifth of November,; The gunpowder treason and plot,; I know of no reason; Why the gunpowder treason; Should ever be forgot.

November 5, 1605, was the date a group of Roman Catholic restorationists chose to blow up British parliament and King James I. Guido Fawkes was caught on his way to light the powder. "The day the plot was discovered, Londoners were encouraged to celebrate the King's escape from assassination by lighting bonfires in the city, 'always provided that "this testemonye of joy be careful done without any danger or disorder." '" (Wikipedia)

Despite implication of burning of effigies on some bonfires, Guy Fawkes was to be hung, drawn and quartered. He was so weak from the torture, he of the conspirators went up to the gallows last then jumped off to his death. (Wikipedia).

Anyway, "bonfire night," as most call it now, is big deal here because it means bonfires and fireworks. Technically, it's a day to celebrate the monarchy, but nobody mentioned the Queen that night.

A version of the celebration is/was held in most of the nations that used to be part of the British Empire. It was celebrated in the American colonies pre-Revolution and was a day to mock Catholicism. "George Washington forbade the celebration of the day among his troops due to its anti-Catholic and pro-British purpose" (Wikipedia).

So, here are a few shots from the night.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.