Found a good read on the NY Times web site regarding the "ring road" that circumnavigates the island called Iceland. Read the article here.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
NY Times: Iceland's ring road
Found a good read on the NY Times web site regarding the "ring road" that circumnavigates the island called Iceland. Read the article here.
Friday, June 8, 2007
MJB! MJB! MJB is in the house!
Matthew has a summer job working for the maintenance department at Morningstar! He is aiming to get to FSM in the fall if things come together...
A Guide to Icelandic Pronunciation
Check it out here. Its a unique language, thought by some to be the hardest in the world to learn.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Article: Lessons from Northumbria
Here is an interesting article from the Allelon web site:
Just a little more than I year ago, in the midst of conversations with friends across North America about how we might some form of missional order I was in Scotland for meetings and rented a car to drive down the east coast to visit the holy isle of
Lindisfarne. It had been a 6th century Celtic missionary community founded by St Aiden and then St Cuthbert. These early wondering missionaries intrigued me. As a boy growing up I remember the little Anglican Church at the top of my road called St Cuthbert’s. So the name had stuck in my mind but I really had no idea who this saint might have been. I drove out of Edinburgh, down the coast with the North Sea to my right and within two hours was turning onto a narrow road toward the island. Access to the island is across a causeway which is under water during high tide. Its an amazing thing to imagine that for hundreds of years a little community has gathered here shaped by the ebb and flow of the tides, formed by a rhythm of life so foreign to me.
Read the rest here.
Just a little more than I year ago, in the midst of conversations with friends across North America about how we might some form of missional order I was in Scotland for meetings and rented a car to drive down the east coast to visit the holy isle of
Lindisfarne. It had been a 6th century Celtic missionary community founded by St Aiden and then St Cuthbert. These early wondering missionaries intrigued me. As a boy growing up I remember the little Anglican Church at the top of my road called St Cuthbert’s. So the name had stuck in my mind but I really had no idea who this saint might have been. I drove out of Edinburgh, down the coast with the North Sea to my right and within two hours was turning onto a narrow road toward the island. Access to the island is across a causeway which is under water during high tide. Its an amazing thing to imagine that for hundreds of years a little community has gathered here shaped by the ebb and flow of the tides, formed by a rhythm of life so foreign to me.Read the rest here.
Voice of the Martyrs prayer list
VOM News and Prayer Update: June 5, 2007
"I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High. When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right. "(Psalm 9:1-4)RUSSIA
Church Risks Losing Property and Pastor Could Face Imprisonment - VOM Sources
On May 31, 2007, a pastor in Russia was warned to leave the area where he is ministering, after authorities threatened they would confiscate his church property. According to The Voice of the Martyrs' contacts, the church has not violated any laws, but authorities have decided to start a criminal case against them, and have threatened the pastor with imprisonment. Authorities have interrogated members of the church and threatened to take away their children. A hearing in court is scheduled for June 6, 2007. Pray for this pastor and church members. Ask God to protect them and for a favorable outcome at the hearing. Psalm 68: 29, Psalm 91: 1-6
AZERBAIJAN
Arrested Baptist Pastor to Face Three Years in Prison - Forum 18 News
Police have told members of the Baptist church in the remote village of Aliabad in north-western Azerbaijan that their pastor, Zau Balaev, is to face a criminal charge of "resisting government representatives," which carries a maximum three-year prison term. The authorities claim the pastor set a dog onto police who raided the church's Sunday service on May 20, 2007. According to Ilya Zenchenko, the head of the Baptist Union, the region around Aliabad is the worst in Azerbaijan for Baptists. "It is a place where officials insult our believers, won't allow them to gain legal status and deny birth certificates to their children," Zenchenko said. Pray for this pastor and his family. Ask God to protect them and other Christians in Azerbaijan. Pray God uses their testimony to draw non-believers into fellowship with Him. Psalm 32: 7, Psalm 91: 7-10
INDIA
Missionary Threatened with Death - Gospel for Asia
Anti-Christian extremists in Utter Pradesh have threatened to kill Gospel for Asia missionary Daya Marandi, if he does not leave the area where he is ministering. The extremists have also made threats to harm more than 50 people who worship in Daya's church and are demanding believers in the church denounce Christianity. Pray for Pastor Daya, his family and believers in India who are facing escalating persecution. Pray God encourages them to stand steadfast in their faith despite the challenges they face. Romans 5:1-5, Psalm 91: 10-14
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
CNN: GOP debate last night
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) -- During the first GOP presidential debate last month in California, three Republican candidates raised eyebrows by indicating they did not subscribe to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, a widely accepted scientific concept about the origins of life.
When the topic came up again Tuesday night in a CNN-sponsored debate in New Hampshire, one of those evolution skeptics, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, offered a spirited defense of the biblical creation narrative.
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth," said Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister. "A person either believes that God created the process or believes that it was an accident and that it just happened all on its own."
Huckabee also said that if Americans "want a president who doesn't believe in God, there's probably plenty of choices. But if I'm selected as president of this country, they'll have one who believes in those words that God did create."
Read more here.
Next president
Just in case you're wondering who the next president will be, if you say Sam Brownback, I do think you're spot on!
D-Day anniversary
It's the anniversary of the biggest military invasion in history, D-Day, (1944). It's when the Allied armies launched the invasion of Normandy. Dwight D. Eisenhower had planned the invasion, and had been arguing for it ever since America got into the war after Pearl Harbor. Most British military commanders thought it was too risky. Winston Churchill was particularly nervous about the idea of invading France.
But Eisenhower finally won the argument, and the Allies built dozens or airfields in Great Britain, stockpiled millions of tons of weapons and supplies, built tent cities along the ports of the English Channel where tens of thousands of soldiers would live.
The German commanders knew an invasion was coming. They'd spent weeks fortifying their positions, but the Allies had deceived the Nazis into thinking the invasion would come in near the French-Belgian border. They had a number of battle ships across from that point in the channel, and the Nazis took the bait and concentrated a good deal of their defensive forces in the wrong place.
June 6, 1944, was a foggy morning. Sometime after dawn, the English Channel was full of ships—a huge armada—1,200 fighting ships, 10,000 planes, more than 150,000 troops, a little more than half of them American. The plan was to bomb the beach to create craters in the sand for foxholes, and then send the ground troops up the beach.
When the troops reached the shore, they saw that the bombers had missed all of their targets. There was no protection on the beach. The landing craft were hit by a barrage of bullets. In less than a half an hour, more than two-thirds of the first company to reach the shore was killed. At first, the American commanders thought that the invasion had failed, but the first troops made some progress, and the second wave came in and slowly took over the fortified positions above the beach. By nightfall, more than 150,000 Allied troops had landed in France.
The Germans had tank divisions that could have driven the Allies back into the sea, but they got conflicting orders from the high command and didn't start to attack until late in the afternoon, almost ten hours after the invasion had started. The German commander said at the time, "If we don't succeed in throwing the Allies into the sea, we will have lost the war." The German tanks got to within three miles of the shore and then were driven back by Allied tanks and anti-tank guns, and no German unit ever again got so close to the beaches. Many historians saw that as the turning point of the war.
But Eisenhower finally won the argument, and the Allies built dozens or airfields in Great Britain, stockpiled millions of tons of weapons and supplies, built tent cities along the ports of the English Channel where tens of thousands of soldiers would live.
The German commanders knew an invasion was coming. They'd spent weeks fortifying their positions, but the Allies had deceived the Nazis into thinking the invasion would come in near the French-Belgian border. They had a number of battle ships across from that point in the channel, and the Nazis took the bait and concentrated a good deal of their defensive forces in the wrong place.
June 6, 1944, was a foggy morning. Sometime after dawn, the English Channel was full of ships—a huge armada—1,200 fighting ships, 10,000 planes, more than 150,000 troops, a little more than half of them American. The plan was to bomb the beach to create craters in the sand for foxholes, and then send the ground troops up the beach.
When the troops reached the shore, they saw that the bombers had missed all of their targets. There was no protection on the beach. The landing craft were hit by a barrage of bullets. In less than a half an hour, more than two-thirds of the first company to reach the shore was killed. At first, the American commanders thought that the invasion had failed, but the first troops made some progress, and the second wave came in and slowly took over the fortified positions above the beach. By nightfall, more than 150,000 Allied troops had landed in France.
The Germans had tank divisions that could have driven the Allies back into the sea, but they got conflicting orders from the high command and didn't start to attack until late in the afternoon, almost ten hours after the invasion had started. The German commander said at the time, "If we don't succeed in throwing the Allies into the sea, we will have lost the war." The German tanks got to within three miles of the shore and then were driven back by Allied tanks and anti-tank guns, and no German unit ever again got so close to the beaches. Many historians saw that as the turning point of the war.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Extension granted to MorningStar
MorningStar gets more time to make tower plans
By Rebecca Sulock · The Herald
Updated 06/05/07 - 12:36 AM
Updated 06/05/07 - 12:36 AM
The ministry has been working with York County on plans for the tower's restoration and simply needs more time to finish that work, said York County planning director Susan Britt.
The Tower, York County's tallest building, was started nearly 20 years ago by evangelist Jim Bakker. It sits in the same condition it was in when Bakker left PTL ministries in disgrace in 1988, said MorningStar's attorney Jim Sheedy.
The council voted unanimously to grant MorningStar another 90 days to finalize its plans, after granting a similar 90-day request in March.
"I'm encouraged by this," said Councilman Paul Lindemann, who represents the Fort Mill area. "I know everyone who can see this will be ecstatic -- hopefully -- when it's finished."
Some nearby Regent Park residents and former PTL partners have been enthusiastic about the Tower's potential renovation. Other neighbors say when they bought their homes, they were told the building would be torn down, and question why it hasn't been.
"I'm a rule follower," said resident Terry Meacham, who came to the council meeting. "And I want to see people follow the rules."
Two years ago, developer Earl Coulston agreed to take down the Tower, the county's tallest building. It had been the center of Bakker's undoing when he oversold so-called "lifetime" timeshares to pay for an ambitious building program at Heritage USA, the former Christian vacation destination.
The tower, eventually sold to MorningStar, was supposed to be demolished by January of this year.
MorningStar missed that deadline, later saying that was because of miscommunication and efforts to get Fort Mill to annex the property, which would have made the deadline irrelevant.
The county threatened fines of $465 per day and the possibility of forced demolition, until MorningStar began working with the county on renovation plans. The ministry has to show how it will pay for the restoration, which would turn the Tower into a 250-unit "re-firement center" for people aged 55 and older.
"We've been meeting, generating paper, changing that paper in a good faith effort to develop that property in a way that will be good for Regent Park," attorney Sheedy told the council.
MorningStar will now have until Aug. 7 to submit all the studies, documents and agreements the county has required
Monday, June 4, 2007
"Being Made Ready" by Wade Taylor
Here is an article by Wade Taylor worth reading:
We are told in Scripture that young men have visions, and old men have dreams. I am not quite sure where I fit, as Jesus came into my life during 1950. Looking back over these past years, I have been evaluating the word that I received when I was actively called to serve the Lord, and the progress I have made in the fulfillment of this calling.
I am not sure what grade I would receive on a report card, but I still have an active vision of all that the Lord desires to accomplish through my life and ministry in these last days. I have a present sense of urgency that there is more, beyond all that I presently know and understand, that I must yet apprehend.
Many are receiving indications that something is about to happen - beyond anything we have experienced in the past. For those who have an ear to hear, there is a word about a present day, corporate John the Baptist being prepared, through whom the Lord can speak a word that is beyond our present understanding.
“Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” Luke 3:2
There were none within the Church of that day who could “hear” the word that the Lord desired to speak. Therefore, He called John the Baptist apart, and led him into the wilderness for years of special preparation, that he might be able to introduce Jesus as the Messiah, at the appointed time.
We are close to the end of the Church age, and there is not time for us to be sent into a wilderness for years of preparation. Rather, the Lord is seeking to do a quick work in “making ready” a voice. Some of us, who have come apart to seek the Lord for Himself - away from the places of religious activity, may feel that we are being unnoticed by the Lord, or that we are missing something. But this is the very place where we will personally meet Jesus - if we will patiently wait for the appointed time.
Because the Lord has a “present word” that He desires to speak, the wilderness has become a very important place, in which there is an intensification of the preparation process.
In each time of visitation, the Lord may move quite differently than He did during the previous time when there was a stirring of the Spirit. Therefore, it is possible that those who met the Lord during one of these past times of visitation will become critical, because the present moving of the Spirit is not as it was when they received. We must be careful to intently listen and move beyond our present level of understanding, lest we be found among these.
In 1958 I was blessed to be present during a major visitation, where there appeared visible manifest glory - into which I was caught up and my life transformed. Along with this, I literally swam in a fountain of “new wine” that deeply impacted my life. Because this was beyond that which was openly available at that time, this time of visitation was rejected by many.
During 1962 I attended a conference of the “manifest sons of God,” with a man who came with pencil and paper, waiting to hear something he could use against them – which they amply supplied. He left critical, receiving nothing, but I left with a deep, inner sense of what the Lord had intended, and as a result, I was given a vision concerning true Sonship, which involves our coming to the end of our self-life, and the giving of our bodies to become a present day expression of the life and ministry of Jesus. These “sons” should have become invisible, so the life of Jesus could become manifest through them. Instead, they came with an agenda to govern the universe for God.
If we have received a true impartation of spiritual life and substance, others will come to see what it is. Thus, our personal experience with the Lord will make room for us. This past Sonship movement failed because they sought a position instead of a relationship, and a reproach was left on the word “Sonship.”
The development of a personal relationship with Jesus, takes time and patience, in His presence. At one point of time, I said to the Lord, “I want to grow faster,” and I pushed the Lord to so move in my spiritual experience. Soon, I found myself at the point of actively rebelling against the Lord, and I realized what I had done. I was forcing the Lord to take me faster than I was able to assimilate. I then submitted to the rate of spiritual growth the Lord knew I could handle, and prayed for wisdom and patience.
I have considered the lives and ministries of those who are presently successful. In each, I found that there was a unique price that they paid, before there was any outward success. Each had spent time in “the wilderness of preparation,” in which they had a personal meeting with the Lord.
We are living in a very difficult day and time in which there are no true statesmen, natural or spiritual. Many of us feel a lack as to our having a sense of clear direction and purpose. But, there is an answer. We must turn aside from all of the religious activity that, if allowed, will consume us - into the quietness of His prepared place (for us) in the wilderness.
Especially at this present time, Jesus is speaking a quickened (life giving), prophetic word that is being heard by those who are cultivating a “hearing ear.”
“The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakens morning by morning, He wakens my ear to hear as the learned.” Isaiah 50:4
This “wilderness” into which we are being called, has an area that is located (or, that we should locate) within our home - a set apart place where we can meet with Jesus without disturbance. Then, “Morning by Morning” He will come and meet with us.
Here, we will be lifted above our natural hearing, into hearing the “voice of one crying in the wilderness,” saying, “Prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3).
We are told in Scripture that young men have visions, and old men have dreams. I am not quite sure where I fit, as Jesus came into my life during 1950. Looking back over these past years, I have been evaluating the word that I received when I was actively called to serve the Lord, and the progress I have made in the fulfillment of this calling.
I am not sure what grade I would receive on a report card, but I still have an active vision of all that the Lord desires to accomplish through my life and ministry in these last days. I have a present sense of urgency that there is more, beyond all that I presently know and understand, that I must yet apprehend.
Many are receiving indications that something is about to happen - beyond anything we have experienced in the past. For those who have an ear to hear, there is a word about a present day, corporate John the Baptist being prepared, through whom the Lord can speak a word that is beyond our present understanding.
“Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” Luke 3:2
There were none within the Church of that day who could “hear” the word that the Lord desired to speak. Therefore, He called John the Baptist apart, and led him into the wilderness for years of special preparation, that he might be able to introduce Jesus as the Messiah, at the appointed time.
We are close to the end of the Church age, and there is not time for us to be sent into a wilderness for years of preparation. Rather, the Lord is seeking to do a quick work in “making ready” a voice. Some of us, who have come apart to seek the Lord for Himself - away from the places of religious activity, may feel that we are being unnoticed by the Lord, or that we are missing something. But this is the very place where we will personally meet Jesus - if we will patiently wait for the appointed time.
Because the Lord has a “present word” that He desires to speak, the wilderness has become a very important place, in which there is an intensification of the preparation process.
In each time of visitation, the Lord may move quite differently than He did during the previous time when there was a stirring of the Spirit. Therefore, it is possible that those who met the Lord during one of these past times of visitation will become critical, because the present moving of the Spirit is not as it was when they received. We must be careful to intently listen and move beyond our present level of understanding, lest we be found among these.
In 1958 I was blessed to be present during a major visitation, where there appeared visible manifest glory - into which I was caught up and my life transformed. Along with this, I literally swam in a fountain of “new wine” that deeply impacted my life. Because this was beyond that which was openly available at that time, this time of visitation was rejected by many.
During 1962 I attended a conference of the “manifest sons of God,” with a man who came with pencil and paper, waiting to hear something he could use against them – which they amply supplied. He left critical, receiving nothing, but I left with a deep, inner sense of what the Lord had intended, and as a result, I was given a vision concerning true Sonship, which involves our coming to the end of our self-life, and the giving of our bodies to become a present day expression of the life and ministry of Jesus. These “sons” should have become invisible, so the life of Jesus could become manifest through them. Instead, they came with an agenda to govern the universe for God.
If we have received a true impartation of spiritual life and substance, others will come to see what it is. Thus, our personal experience with the Lord will make room for us. This past Sonship movement failed because they sought a position instead of a relationship, and a reproach was left on the word “Sonship.”
The development of a personal relationship with Jesus, takes time and patience, in His presence. At one point of time, I said to the Lord, “I want to grow faster,” and I pushed the Lord to so move in my spiritual experience. Soon, I found myself at the point of actively rebelling against the Lord, and I realized what I had done. I was forcing the Lord to take me faster than I was able to assimilate. I then submitted to the rate of spiritual growth the Lord knew I could handle, and prayed for wisdom and patience.
I have considered the lives and ministries of those who are presently successful. In each, I found that there was a unique price that they paid, before there was any outward success. Each had spent time in “the wilderness of preparation,” in which they had a personal meeting with the Lord.
We are living in a very difficult day and time in which there are no true statesmen, natural or spiritual. Many of us feel a lack as to our having a sense of clear direction and purpose. But, there is an answer. We must turn aside from all of the religious activity that, if allowed, will consume us - into the quietness of His prepared place (for us) in the wilderness.
Especially at this present time, Jesus is speaking a quickened (life giving), prophetic word that is being heard by those who are cultivating a “hearing ear.”
“The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakens morning by morning, He wakens my ear to hear as the learned.” Isaiah 50:4
This “wilderness” into which we are being called, has an area that is located (or, that we should locate) within our home - a set apart place where we can meet with Jesus without disturbance. Then, “Morning by Morning” He will come and meet with us.
Here, we will be lifted above our natural hearing, into hearing the “voice of one crying in the wilderness,” saying, “Prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3).
Important: Tower update
Tonight at 6PM MorningStar will be meeting with York County to discuss the plans for allowing the restoration of the highrise at their H.I.M. retreat center. PRAY!
Pray for favor for MorningStar... pray for wisdom on behalf of York Country... pray for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven!
Pray for favor for MorningStar... pray for wisdom on behalf of York Country... pray for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven!
Word
Isaiah chapter 43:
18 "Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.
20 The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the desert
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
21 the people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise.
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