Musings by John Weir

Enjoy this video:

Great short video with Richard Branson:

He sang of Silver and Gold long before anyone knew of Robert Kiyosaki or Mike Maloney. I have the utmost respect for both these men of course.
Burl got in when everybody thought he was crazy. He wrote a song about it, want to hear it again?

Out there beyond the stars is a place called heaven. It is as real and tangible as if I said out there near the Atlantic Ocean is a place called North Carolina. There is a city whose builder and maker is God. There are real people living there. It is the most unusual place in all of God’s creation.  Twice Jesus calls heaven a (topos) meaning a place.

In John gospel chapter fourteen and verses 2 and 3 he writes; “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also.”

Never question the fact of the place, but realize, please, that which makes heaven so special is the presences of our Lord Jesus. I know that many of you, like I, have family and friends in heaven that you miss very much, and long to see them again. If we should arrive in heaven today, our first objective would not be to see our family or friends, but to first of all meet face to face with Jesus. He knowing our hearts for so long, will know the need to direct us to our family, after we have enjoyed being with Him. No need to worry about time, for time is no more. In eternity we are no longer in the dimension of time, and never a need to hurry.

I have a friend who had lost his father, and he was so worried about his father missing him. I explained that missing is absence, times, time, and since there is no time in heaven, those there cannot miss us here on earth. Also in John chapter fourteen is the word “oikos” which means a house or a dwelling place. There is for every believer a prepared place, a custom built, especially designed place, ordered by the Master, just for you.

Taking this thought a little further: In Acts 1:11 Two Angles spoke to the Lord’s disciples while Jesus was ascending into heaven, and said: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.” Please note: Jesus did not go into a state of mind. He was not dreaming. He was not experiencing an abstraction, or an idea, or a figure of speech. Nor did He teach us to pray, “Our Father which art in a state of mind.” Jesus went to a place, a real place, and will come back in the clouds of glory to call us who have committed our life to Him, to come and be with Him in heaven for ever. Our names are written in heaven; Luke 10:20 “Not withstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”  What a joy to know our names are recorded there with the redeemed.

Our treasures are there; Matthew 6:20 “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” It isn’t what we have in the bank that matters most; it is what we have on deposit in heaven. In heaven we will have a new name; Revelation 2:17, we will sing a new song; Revelation 5:9, we will live in a New Jerusalem; Revelation 3:12, we posses and enjoy new things; Revelations 21:5 and we will dwell in a new earth with a new heaven; Revelations 21:1. You can see Paris in the spring, Paris is France. You can feel the breeze of Rome, Rome is Italy, London is England, and Jerusalem (a favorite) is Israel, but the New Jerusalem is heaven, and there is no place to compare.

One thing more I must add; heaven will not be the same for me, if you are not there my friend. Heaven was meant to include you.

I’m going to be writing my way through Proverbs so I thought I would share some here. This first chapter gives us strong warnings to listen to instruction and teaching. How many times do we hear good instruction but it goes in one ear and out the other. When you are dealing with life and death it is best to pay attention. Look at the benefits of attaining wisdom and discipline.

Prologue: Purpose and Theme

1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
2 for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight;
3 for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair;
4 for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young-
5 let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance-
6 for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools [1] despise wisdom
and discipline.
Exhortations to Embrace Wisdom

Do you pay attention to warning signs when you are driving? How about crossing the street, cooking meat, washing your hands? What about the simple warnings regarding how we are to live?

Warning Against Enticement
8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
9 They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them.
11 If they say, "Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for someone’s blood, let’s waylay some harmless soul;
12 let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, [2] and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13 we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder;
14 throw in your lot with us, and we will share a common purse"-
15 my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths;
16 for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood.
17 How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds!
18 These men lie in wait for their own blood; they waylay only themselves!
19 Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it.

Go ahead and reject wisdom and see what you have in store. It is laid out pretty plain and simple.

Warning Against Rejecting Wisdom
20 Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares;
21 at the head of the noisy streets [3] she cries out, in the gateways of the city she
makes her speech:
22 "How long will you simple ones [4] love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?
23 If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.
24 But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand,
25 since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke,
26 I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you-
27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,
when distress and trouble overwhelm you.
28 "Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me.
29 Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord ,
30 since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke,
31 they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.
32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm."

Footnotes
1:7 The Hebrew words rendered fool in Proverbs, and often elsewhere in the Old Testament, denote one who is morally deficient.
1:12 Hebrew Sheol
1:21 Hebrew; Septuagint / on the tops of the walls
1:22 The Hebrew word rendered simple in Proverbs generally denotes one without moral direction and inclined to evil.

Friday, 16 April 2010

The Long Arm of Hashem’s Justice

Some people think they’re smart, like the British folks who run the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The day before yesterday, the senseless stuffed-shirts declared that the Western Wall and the site of our Holy Temple in Jerusalem are not part of Israel, banning Israeli Tourist adverts that included photos of these holy sites.

The bumbling Brits didn’t realize that when you mess around with Jerusalem and the Wall, you mess around with Hashem.

"Aha, Great Britain – are you so brazen to discourage tourism to My Holy City?" Hashem asks. "You question My children’s right to their Father’s palace? You shall not have a single tourist entering or leaving your silly Island!"

So what did Hashem do?

Hashem let a remote volcano in Iceland erupt, from the Icelandic mountain Eyjaffjalljokull, whose ash cloud grounded all air traffic above Britain yesterday, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. You see, the microscopic particles which make up volcanic ash pose a threat to aircraft because they can affect visibility and get sucked into aircraft engines, causing total breakdown.

No one remembers when British airspace was totally closed. Such a natural phenomena as an atmospheral ash cloud is one in a zillion. But, Hashem in implementing His Divine justice is defying statistics more and more as we get closer to Moshiach.

Britain’s air traffic service said late Thursday it was extending a ban on most air traffic until 1200GMT (8 a.m EDT) Friday, this morning. Meanwhile the financial losses and the chaos is mindboggling.

Who else wants to fool around with Hashem and Jerusalem? Step up to the plate…

Big Beam blessings to Elliot Brill from Edgeware in London for his major help in preparing today’s post

http://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2010/04/the-long-arm-of-hashems-justice.html

The Word is my friend. The Word is my best friend, for The Word is the Word of God, whom I must always listen to, rather than other words. I pray that I only listen to His Word, not others, and that I be directed by His Word, not my own evil inclinations, or false words.

We all have days to wonder about, because we think too much about our jobs, from our viewpoint, and we have lost sight of our jobs from God’s viewpoint. Our lives are to be a reflection of Him, and our work should be as work for Him. When we forget that, our heart wanders and we need to get pointed back in the right direction, UP.

Every day remind yourself that you are serving God and you can do all things through him, then  you will feel that you can do what he has placed you into. When you listen to your own yetzer hara then you will question if you can or not. Man has a yetzer hara (evil inclination) and a yetzer tov (good inclination). The existence of the two allows man to have the free will to choose good. The yetzer hara will first try to grab a person through a subtle gesture. If an individual falls prey at the early stage he will likely fall deeper and deeper into its clutches. Our goal is to overcome the yetzer hara on its onset because this is when we are strongest and most able to resist its pull.

Stay focused on His Word, and all the rest will fall into place

One of the organizations I am a member of, and actually the first that I joined, is the International Executive Housekeeping Association or IEHA.

Since 1930, the International Executive Housekeepers Association (IEHA) has been a non-profit organization committed to raising professionalism in the cleaning industry and providing a cleaner, safer, healthier environment.

IEHA members are Executive Housekeepers—managers who direct housekeeping programs in commercial, industrial or institutional facilities. IEHA provides members with an array of channels through which they can achieve personal and professional growth. Some are: leadership opportunities; resource materials; education program designation; employment referral service; a Technical Question Hotline (1-800-200-6342); networking; an annual convention and trade show, including several educational sessions; and a monthly trade publication, Executive Housekeeping Today.

Take a moment and learn more about our professional organization:

If you are used to my short posts, then sorry to disappoint you. This is a long one. While considering deleting this site altogether for a sundry list of reasons I found this in a backup file from long ago. Perhaps it is time to dust this off and repost. For you and for me.

In his "Soldier’s Pocket Book," Lord Wolseley says if a young officer wishes to get on, he must volunteer for the most hazardous duties and take every possible chance of risking his life. It was a spirit and courage like that which was shown in the service of God by a good soldier of Jesus Christ named John McKenzie who died a few years ago. One evening when he was a lad and eager for work in the Foreign Mission field he knelt down at the foot of a tree in the Ladies’ Walk on the banks of the Lossie at Elgin and offered up this prayer: "O Lord send me to the darkest spot on earth." And God heard him and sent him to South Africa where he laboured many years first under the London Missionary Society and then under the British Government as the first Resident Commissioner among the natives of Bechuanaland. — J.O. STRUTHERS

IT is answered prayer which brings praying out of the realm of dry, dead things, and makes praying a thing of life and power. It is the answer to prayer which brings things to pass, changes the natural trend of things, and orders all things according to the will of God. It is the answer to prayer which takes praying out of the regions of fanaticism, and saves it from being Eutopian, or from being merely fanciful. It is the answer to prayer which makes praying a power for God and for man, and makes praying real and divine. Unanswered prayers are training schools for unbelief, an imposition and a nuisance, an impertinence to God and to man.
     Answers to prayer are the only surety that we have prayed aright. What marvelous power there is in prayer! What untold miracles it works in this world! What untold benefits to men does it secure to those who pray! Why is it that the average prayer by the million goes a begging for an answer?

     The millions of unanswered prayers are not to be solved by the mystery of God’s will. We are not the sport of His sovereign power. He is not playing at "make-believe" in His marvelous promises to answer prayer. The whole explanation is found in our wrong praying. "We ask and receive not because we ask amiss." If all unanswered prayers were dumped into the ocean, they would come very near filling it. Child of God, can you pray? Are your prayers answered? If not, why not? Answered prayer is the proof of your real praying.

     The efficacy of prayer from a Bible standpoint lies solely in the answer to prayer. The benefit of prayer has been well and popularly maximized by the saying, "It moves the arm which moves the universe." To get unquestioned answers to prayer is not only important as to the satisfying of our desires, but is the evidence of our abiding in Christ. It becomes more important still. The mere act of praying is no test of our relation to God. The act of praying may be a real dead performance. It may be the routine of habit. But to pray and receive clear answers, not once or twice, but daily, this is the sure test, and is the gracious point of our vital connection with Jesus Christ.

     Read our Lord’s words in this connection:

     "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
     To God and to man, the answer to prayer is the all-important part of our praying. The answer to prayer, direct and unmistakable, is the evidence of God’s being. It proves that God lives, that there is a God, an intelligent being, who is interested in His creatures, and who listens to them when they approach Him in prayer. There is no proof so clear and demonstrative that God exists than prayer and its answer.  "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."

     The answer to prayer is the part of prayer which glorifies God. Unanswered prayers are dumb oracles which leave the praying ones in darkness, doubt and bewilderment, and which carry no conviction to the unbeliever. It is not the act or the attitude of praying which gives efficacy to prayer. It is not abject prostration of the body before God, the vehement or quiet utterance to God, the exquisite beauty and poetry of the diction of our prayers, which do the deed. It is not the marvelous array of argument and eloquence in praying which makes prayer effectual. Not one or all of these are the things which glorify God. It is the answer which brings glory to His Name.

     Elijah might have prayed on Carmel’s heights till this good day with all the fire and energy of his soul, and if no answer had been given, no glory would have come to God. Peter might have shut himself up with Dorcas’ dead body till he himself died on his knees, and if no answer had come, no glory to God nor good to man would have followed, but only doubt, blight and dismay.

     Answer to prayer is the convincing proof of our right relations to God. Jesus said at the grave of Lazarus:
     "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
     "And I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the people that stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me."

     The answer of His prayer was the proof of His mission from God, as the answer to Elijah’s prayer was made to the woman whose son he raised to life. She said, "Now by this I know that thou art a man of God." He is highest in the favor of God who has the readiest access and the greatest number of answers to prayer from Almighty God.

     Prayer ascends to God by an invariable law, even by more than law, by the will, the promise and the presence of a personal God. The answer comes back to earth by all the promise, the truth, the power and the love of God.

     Not to be concerned about the answer to prayer is not to pray. What a world of waste there is in praying. What myriads of prayers have been offered for which no answer is returned, no answer longed for, and no answer is expected! We have been nurturing a false faith and hiding the shame of our loss and inability to pray, by the false, comforting plea that God does not answer directly or objectively, but indirectly and subjectively. We have persuaded ourselves that by some kind of hocus pocus of which we are wholly unconscious in its process and its results, we have been made better. Conscious that God has not answered us directly, we have solaced ourselves with the delusive unction that God has in some impalpable way, and with unknown results, given us something better. Or we have comforted and nurtured our spiritual sloth by saying that it is not God’s will to give it to us. Faith teaches God’s praying ones that it is God’s will to answer prayer. God answers all prayers and every prayer of His true children who truly pray.

"Prayer makes the darkened cloud withdraw,
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love,
Brings every blessing from above."

     The emphasis in the Scriptures is always given to the answer to prayer. All things from God are given in answer to prayer. God Himself, His presence, His gifts and His grace, one and all, are secured by prayer. The medium by which God communicates with men is prayer. The most real thing in prayer, its very essential end, is the answer it secures. The mere repetition of words in prayer, the counting of beads, the multiplying mere words of prayer, as works of supererogation, as if there was virtue in the number of prayers to avail, is a vain delusion, an empty thing, a useless service. Prayer looks directly to securing an answer. This is its design. It has no other end in view.
     Communion with God of course is in prayer. There is sweet fellowship there with our God through His Holy Spirit. Enjoyment of God there is in praying, sweet, rich and strong. The graces of the Spirit in the inner soul are nurtured by prayer, kept alive and promoted in their growth by this spiritual exercise. But not one nor all of these benefits of prayer have in them the essential end of prayer. The divinely appointed channel through which all good and all grace flows to our souls and bodies is prayer.
          "Prayer is appointed to convey
The blessings God designs to give."

     Prayer is divinely ordained as the means by which all temporal and spiritual good are gained to us. Prayer is not an end in itself. It is not something done to be rested in, something we have done, about which we are to congratulate ourselves. It is a means to an end. It is something we do which brings us something in return, without which the praying is valueless. Prayer always aims at securing an answer.

     We are rich and strong, good and holy, beneficent and benignant, by answered prayer. It is not the mere performance, the attitude, nor the words of prayer, which bring benefit to us, but it is the answer sent direct from heaven. Conscious, real answers to prayer bring real good to us. This is not praying merely for self, or simply for selfish ends. The selfish character cannot exist when the prayer conditions are fulfilled.

     It is by these answered prayers that human nature is enriched. The answered prayer brings us into constant and conscious communion with God, awakens and enlarges gratitude, and excites the melody and lofty inspiration of praise. Answered prayer is the mark of God in our praying. It is the exchange with heaven, and it establishes and realizes a relationship with the unseen. We give our prayers in exchange for the Divine blessing. God accepts our prayers through the atoning blood and gives Himself, His presence and His grace in return.

     All holy affections are affected by answered prayers. By the answers to prayer all holy principles are matured, and faith, love and hope have their enrichment by answered prayer. The answer is found in all true praying. The answer is in prayer strongly as an aim, a desire expressed, and its expectation and realization give importunity and realization to prayer. It is the fact of the answer which makes the prayer, and which enters into its very being. To seek no answer to prayer takes the desire, the aim, and the heart out of prayer. It makes praying a dead, stockish thing, fit only for dumb idols. It is the answer which brings praying into Bible regions, and makes it a desire realized, a pursuit, an interest, that clothes it with flesh and blood, and makes it a prayer, throbbing with all the true life of prayer, affluent with all the paternal relations of giving and receiving, of asking and answering.

     God holds all good in His own hands. That good comes to us through our Lord Jesus Christ because of His all atoning merits, by asking it in His name. The only and the sole command in which all the others of its class belong, is "Ask, seek, knock." And the one and sole promise is its counterpart, its necessary equivalent and results: "It shall be given — ye shall find — it shall be opened unto you."

     God is so much involved in prayer and its hearing and answering, that all of His attributes and His whole being are centered in that great fact. It distinguishes Him as peculiarly beneficent, wonderfully good, and powerfully attractive in His nature. "O thou that hearest prayer! To thee shall all flesh come."
          "Faithful, O Lord, Thy mercies are
               A rock that cannot move;
          A thousand promises declare
               Thy constancy of love."

     Not only does the Word of God stand surety for the answer to prayer, but all the attributes of God conspire to the same end. God’s veracity is at stake in the engagements to answer prayer. His wisdom, His truthfulness and His goodness are involved. God’s infinite and inflexible rectitude is pledged to the great end of answering the prayers of those who call upon Him in time of need. Justice and mercy blend into oneness to secure the answer to prayer. It is significant that the very justice of God comes into play and stands hard by God’s faithfulness in the strong promise God makes of the pardon of sins and of cleansing from sin’s pollutions:

     "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

     God’s kingly relation to man, with all of its authority, unites with the fatherly relation and with all of its tenderness to secure the answer to prayer.

     Our Lord Jesus Christ is most fully committed to the answer of prayer. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." How well assured the answer to prayer is, when that answer is to glorify God the Father! And how eager Jesus Christ is to glorify His Father in heaven! So eager is He to answer prayer which always and everywhere brings glory to the Father, that no prayer offered in His name is denied or overlooked by Him. Says our Lord Jesus Christ again, giving fresh assurance to our faith, "If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." So says He once more, "Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."

"Come, my soul, thy suit prepare,
Jesus loves to answer prayer;
He Himself has bid thee pray,
Therefore will not say thee nay."