Sudbury Christian Messenger - May 16, 2007
21/05/07 19:46
Full Edition of the Sudbury Christian Messenger - May
16, 2007
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Sudbury Christian Messenger Table of Contents
Local News
1. Sudbury Right to Life holds elections for Board
2. 40 Day Prayer Ramp May 2 - June 10
3. A Women’s Weekend Away with God, Family, and Friends May 25-27
4. Leadership Seminar for the whole church “Winning on Purpose” May 26
5. Pada Memorial Scholarship Fund Benefit Concert at Laurentian University May 27
6. 3rd Annual Leprosy Golf Tournament June 6
7. Elgin Street Mission Request for Volunteers
8. Ministry to Long Term Care Chaplaincy May 19
9. Free the Children May 30
10. Celebration 2007 June 3
11. Summer GospelFest Schedule
12. Camp Norland - Christian Camping for Kids
13. Mom's Moments
14. Heaven’s Rehearsal Sept. 15
National News
1. Salute to a brave and modest nation
International News
1. World Congress of Families IV Defies European Union
2. Pope shows more signs of moving to the right in public
3. Beware: The New Age Movement is more than self-indulgent silliness
Words of Wisdom
1. River of Revelation
2. Rick Warren Interview
Local News
1. Sudbury Right to Life announces new Board
Election results for Sudbury Light to Life:
Richard St. Denis is the President, Marguerite Groulx is 1st Vice President, Keith McCormick is 2nd Vice President,
Paulette Bonin is Secretary and Mark Butler is Treasurer. There will be other people who will be helping on the board. They are all looking forward to an active year.
For more information, please contact Marguerite Groulx 524 6384
2. 40 Day Prayer Ramp May 2-June 10
Last year, and again this year, nearly 60 Canadian ministries unite to call Canada to prayer for 40 days.
People from across Canada are being mobilized to pray from May 2 to June 20th.
Please check out the prayer calendar with brief prayer points each day, written by Canadian prayer leaders
www.40dayprayerramp.com
3. A Women's Weekend Away with God, Family and Friends May 25-27, 2007
Are you and your women friends in need of refreshing after another season of ministry, mission, and service to others?
All Nations Church Women's Spring Retreat is designed to refresh you in a fabulous way.
Come away with us to Clevelands House on Lake Rosseau for a special time with God, and speaker, Jan Silvious.
The topic is "Complex Relationships" ........ and don't we all have them!
Cost is $210.00, which includes the weekend accomodations, dining, and resort facilities, along with our Retreat program.
Select what's best for you. Invite a friend, or family member, and come away for a time to renew your spirit.
For further information, please check out www.allnationschurch.ca Women's Ministries
This is an interdenominational event. All are welcome!
4. Leadership Seminar for the whole church "Winning on Purpose" May 26
Lansing Baptist Pastor Jack Fliestra
5. The Pada Memorial Scholarship Fund Benefit Concert at Laurentien University
Subject: Benefit Concert-May 27
Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 16:11:16 -0400
Hello Folks
Lata Pada, a sudbury resident in 1985, lost her family(husband and two daughters), in the ill-fated Air India
flight. Back in 1986, she had set a scholarship fund in her family's memory. Over the years the fund has started to dry up. Lata, over the years has accomplished herself as a well known dance teacher(classical Indian dance), and a performer. She is also been the ambassador for the families who lost their loved ones in that tragedy.
A benefit concert is being held in town by Lata Pada, the funds raised will be used for the scholarship fund to keep the memory of the ones lost. Please visit her website at sampradaya.ca and be amazed by her accomplishments. This promises to be an amazing night and a worthwhile cause.
Please join us on: Sunday May 27th, Fraser Auditorium (Laurentian University), 5 pm, Tickets $20
This will be followed by a small reception.For tickets please call me at 688-9439(home) , 561-2374(cell) or via email.
6. 3rd Annual Leprosy Golf tournament
Pine Grove Golf Club, 4 Person Best Ball
$45.00 per Person
9 holes of Golf-Gas Cart
steak Dinner- Lots of Prizes
$15.00 tax Receipt
Contact Rick Barnes 523-0416
June 9th., Thank you, Barbara J. Robb.
7. Elgin Street Mission request
The Elgin St. Mission needs volunteers who are interested in working in the clothing room one, two or three days each week.
Call Eva Lachapelle at 673-2163.
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For church bulletins: This is a great way to serve the Lord. See Matthew 25:36.
For schools and social service agencies: This is a good way to get community service hours in.
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8. Chaplaincy / Ministry to Long Term Care Facilities presents our 4th Annual Workshop
Thursday, May 24, 2007 - 9 am to 3:30 pm / St. Clement’s Community Facility
328 Albert St., Sudbury
Bowser Power & Flower Power, Gray Power & Pray Power
Topics:
1 Pet Facilitated Therapy - with Rita Terry and Friends
2 Random Acts of Flowers - Irja Coe and Jan Carrie Steven
3 Lunchtime Speaker - Shelley Martel - Health & Long-Term Care Critic, NDP Nickel Belt
4 Spiritual Care with the Elderly - Lorraine Mercer
Cost: $20.00 - includes lunch and refreshment break,EVERYONE IS WELCOME! Phone 522-0856 for more information.
9. Free the Children May 30 Social Planning Council Caruso Club
Social Planning Council of Sudbury will warmly welcome Craig Keilburger to Greater Sudbury on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. at the Caruso Club. Craig Kielburger, founder of Free The Children, has traveled to more than 50 countries visiting underprivileged children and speaking out in defense of children's rights. Just months ago Craig was honored to be appointed to the Order of Canada.
An internationally renowned speaker, Craig has advocated for children's rights alongside leaders such as Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama. With over 100,000 youth involved in more than 35 countries, Free The Children empowers young people through representation, leadership and action.
For more information on Craig and his organization, visit www.freethechildren.org.
The event will feature a Youth Fair which will give youth from local schools and organizations the opportunity to display their achievements. We invite you to learn about the many inspiring projects in our community, lead by youth, that are contributing to building a better community.
Caruso Club, Wednesday, May 30th
6:30 - Arrival, Youth Fair
7:00 - Keynote Speech, Q&A
8:15 - Book Signing, Networking
Tickets are $35 for non-members, $30 for members and $5 for students. This event is a fundraiser, with proceeds benefiting the Social Planning Council of Sudbury.
Tickets are available at:
■ Social Planning Council: 675-3894 (ask for Sara or Jody)
■ www.spcsudbury.ca (Interac, VISA, MasterCard and American Express)
■ Black Cat Too (86 Durham St.)
Sara VanWiechen
Public Relations & Marketing Director
Social Planning Council of Sudbury
+ 30 Ste-Anne Road, Suite 105
Sudbury, ON P3C 5E1
( (705) 675-3894
6 (705) 675-3253
: svanwiechen@spcsudbury.ca
10 . City wide summer event for everyone!!!!! (please note correct date)
Celebration 2007
Sunday June 3rd 6:30 PM
Bell Park Amphitheatre
On Sunday, June 3rd beginning at 6:30 pm, the evangelical churches of Sudbury are joining together for an exciting event to which everyone is invited at the Bell Park Amphitheater! Celebration 2007 will feature live local music, creative drama, a children*s feature, and an inspirational message by Rev.Jeremy Mahood.
Invite your friends and family to this special, free event. Come, and bring a friend.
Join us for Celebration 2007.
www.celebrationsudbury.ca
11. GospelFest 2007 Enjoy these summer evenings at Bell Park
GospelFest 2007
June 16
August 11
September 8
Times: 7pm to 9pm
Location:
Grace Harman Amphitheatre Complex
12. Camp Norland '07 Summer Camps
Located on beautiful Deer Lake Road, Verner www.norland.on.ca
"The Son always shines on Camp Norland ...Come for a week - stay for a lifetime!"
13. Mom's Moments E Newsletter
Please tell young moms you know about this local/national e newsletter
www.momsmoments.ca
14. Heaven's Rehearsal
A moment in time to prepare for Eternity. Your presence is requested for a rehearsal of heaven as nations
gather to worship Jesus.
Saturday, September 15, 2007 Air Canada Centre, Toronto
For more information: www.HeavensRehearsal.com
Demonstrate that in Jesus all nations and generations can come together as family. Canada has a unique role in the healing of the nations.
National News
This is a good read. It is funny how it took someone in England to put it into words... Sunday Telegraph Article From today's UK wires: The Sunday Telegraph
"SALUTE TO A BRAVE AND MODEST NATION" - by Kevin Myers.
LONDON - Until the deaths of the 6 Canadian soldiers killed last week in Afghanistan , probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always, will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.
It seems that Canada's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored. Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her, yet again.
That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved.
Yet, its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10% of Canada’s entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.
Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, its unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as somehow or other the work of the "British." The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attacks. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth-largest air force in the world.
The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity.
So, it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have, in the popular perception, become American, and Christopher Plummer, British. It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.
Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peace keepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.
Yet, the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular non-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia , in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.
So, who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbor has given it in Afghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honorable things for honorable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun.
It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honor comes at a high cost. This past year so many more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.
**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **
Please pass this on to any of your friends or relatives, especially any who serve or served in the Canadian Forces. It is a wonderful tribute to those who choose to serve their country and the world in this most noble manner in our proudly quiet Canadian way.
Solange Cardinal
Administrative Assistant
for Eugene Cardinal Jr.
Senior Consultant
144 Pine Street, Suite 101
Sudbury, ON
P3C 1X3
(705) 674-4551 ext. 239
1-800-461-0131
International News
1. News Release - Real Women of Canada re: World Congress of Families IV
REAL Women of Canada
“Women’s Rights Not at the Expense of Human Rights”
NGO in SPECIAL consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations
M E D I A R E L E A S E
World Congress of Families IV
Warsaw Poland, May 11-13, 2007
Poland defies the European Union
Warsaw Poland May 13, 2007
The host country, Poland, at the World Congress of Families IV held in Warsaw May 11-13, 2007, threw down the gauntlet to let it be known by its Minister of Education and Vice Prime Minister of Poland, Roman Giertych and the Speaker of Parliament (Sejm) of the Republic of Poland, Marek Jurek, that Poland has no intention of agreeing to the demands of the European Union (EU) that it follow the regulations established in Brussels and the European Parliament to provide abortion, homosexual rights, same-sex marriage and other attacks on the traditional family demanded by the EU.
The Polish officials made it clear that Poland will be assuming the leadership role to end the demographic winter in Europe caused by a birthrate below the replacement level and the instability in Europe caused by sexual permissiveness. This is in defiance of the EU’s bureaucrats. In standing up to the EU, Poland is only adhering to the principles established in the late 1960’s at the Treaty of Rome, which established that basic policies of each nation within the Union were to be determined by each individual country. Poland announced at the Congress that it would not be interfered with or intimidated by the EU.
The Congress discussed over the three days such issues impacting the family as: abortion; the move to legitimize same-sex marriage; population decline; pornography and the impact of the news and entertainment industry on the family.
The 3,300 delegates attended from Latin America, the United States, Canada, western and eastern Europe including Poland, Latvia, Estonia, the Ukraine and Russia.
- 30 -
2. Pope shows more signs of swinging to the right in public
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Pope shows more signs of swinging to the right in public
By Ian Fisher and Larry Rohter The New York Times
Monday, May 14, 2007
Pope Benedict XVI's first trip to Latin America has added to a sense, expressed recently by supporters and critics alike, that his papacy seemed to be moving closer to the mold that he embodied as Joseph Ratzinger, a conservative and contentious cardinal.
In a major speech Sunday, the pope condemned capitalism and Marxism as "systems that marginalize God" and urged the Latin American clergy to feed people's spiritual hunger as the way to ease poverty and halt the Roman Catholic Church's steady decline in the region.
Speaking to Latin American bishops here for a conference on the church's direction for the next decade, the pope also condemned abortion and contraception and laws that permit them. Such laws, he said, are "threatening the future of peoples."
The speech was widely anticipated for how Benedict - on his first visit to the Western Hemisphere as pope - would tackle issues from poverty and social injustice to the evangelical groups eroding Roman Catholicism in some Latin American countries at the rate of 1 percent a year.
Just as he, as a cardinal in the 1980s, cracked down on liberation theology, which he viewed as incorrectly emphasizing Christ as social redeemer, Benedict stressed first proclaiming Christ as the son of God - even if many of the poor here might like to hear more about social justice.
"What is real?" he mused in the speech, just hours before heading back to Rome after five days in Brazil, the most populous Roman Catholic country. "Are only material goods, social and economic and political problems 'reality'?"
He told the bishops that, without agreeing first on God, society is unable to tackle the problems of poverty and social injustice.
"Just structures are an indispensable condition for a just society," he said, "but they neither rise nor function without a moral consensus in society on fundamental values.
"Where God is absent - God with the human face of Jesus Christ - these values fail to show themselves with their full force; nor does a consensus arise concerning them."
"I do not mean that nonbelievers cannot live a lofty and exemplary morality," he continued. "I am only saying that a society in which God is absent will not find the necessary consensus on moral values or the strength to live according to the model of these values."
The pope's personal style, praised often even by critics, remains pastoral and gentle. But the more contentious views, less publicly visible when he first began as leader of the world's billion Catholics, seem to be coming more to the fore.
On Wednesday, on the flight to Brazil from Rome, he seemed to weigh in on a particularly sensitive issue for the church: Pro-choice Catholic politicians, he suggested, risk excommunication.
There are other signs of a public turn to the right. He is expected soon to approve the wider usage of the Latin Mass, largely shelved a generation ago. In recent months, the church in Italy has engaged outspokenly in a fight against a proposed law to give rights to unmarried couples, including homosexual ones.
Recently, Benedict spoke about the reality of hell and, despite a free discussion of the issue when he was first elected, he seems to have firmly ruled out any changes to the rules of priestly celibacy as a way to alleviate a shortage of priests in some places, Latin America included.
At the same time, the speech Sunday underscored that the pope remains, as ever, tied not to any set of views apart from his own, through his at-times unpredictable interpretation of what is best for the church and its followers.
In the speech, for example, Benedict railed against abortion and contraception, as hurting the family, but he also called for state-sponsored day care, as helping it.
He also raged with equal fire against Marxism and capitalism alike. By focusing solely on material concerns, he said, both "falsify the notion of reality by detaching it from the foundational and decisive reality which is God."
"Both capitalism and Marxism promised to point out the path for the creation of just structures, and they declared that these, once established, would function by themselves," he said. "And this ideological promise has proven false."
Marxism, he said, left "a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction." Capitalism, he said, has failed to bridge the "distance between rich and poor" and is "giving rise to a worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and deceptive illusions of happiness."
But on the whole his speech covered ground familiar to those here - some approving, others not - who had followed Ratzinger's long career as theologian and top aide to his predecessor, John Paul II.
"I like his zeal," said Maria da Conceição Xavier Cerqueira, a retired postal worker among the faithful who carried umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun and held rosaries to be blessed at an open air Mass that Pope Benedict celebrated here Sunday. "He was a loyal comrade of John Paul II, and it is good that he is here to defend the traditional values of the Catholic Church, which are under attack from all sides."
Without specifically mentioning liberation theology by name, Benedict, in his speech to the bishops, criticized Catholics who argue that the church's supreme moral duty is to denounce and resist social injustice.
As the Vatican's senior official on matters of doctrine and faith, he led efforts in the 1980s to stamp out the movement, then quite influential in Latin America, and Sunday he again warned the clergy not to permit such concerns to eclipse their spiritual duties.
But some worshippers at the Mass said they would have liked the pope to have offered the same emphasis on overcoming poverty that they are used to hearing from their own bishops.
A group of liberation theology advocates carried a banner saying that theirs was "the church of the option for the poor and excluded," along with photographs of the movement's martyrs, including Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador, murdered while celebrating Mass in 1980, and Dorothy Stang, an American-born nun killed in the Brazilian Amazon in 2005.
The Brazilian Army estimated the crowd that filled the patio alongside the huge Aparecida basilica at 150,000 people, far short of the one million that Vatican Radio had predicted.
Later, in his speech to the clergy at the large shrine to the Virgin Mary in Aparecida, the pope offered what amounted to a revisionist history of the church's origins in Latin America.
The standard view in the region is that the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors, accompanied by clergy, imposed Catholicism in a ruinous process that left native populations, as a common phrase puts it, "between the cross and the sword."
Some modern-day Latin American theologians have lamented the destruction of indigenous civilizations and have sought to incorporate elements of those cultures into the Mass as one way of making amends.
But in a statement likely to be controversial in countries with large Indian populations, including Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador, Benedict rejected those notions.
"In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture," he said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/14/africa/pope.php
3. TYRANNY IN THE NAME OF TOLERANCE
Beware! The New Age Movement Is More Than Self-Indulgent Silliness
By Lee Penn
July-August 2000
In recent years the New Age movement has come out of the closet in the Church and in the world. The New Age movement is made up of those who follow a potpourri of beliefs and practices that fall outside the boundaries of traditional Christianity. Its manifestations are protean. Some Catholic nuns walk on labyrinths to contact the "Divine Feminine." Increasing numbers of health insurance companies have heeded consumers' demands to cover offbeat treatments, ranging from Ayurvedic herbal medicine to "therapeutic touch" - in which a "healer's" hands manipulate "energy fields" but never touch the patient's body. Hillary Clinton has contacted the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt under the guidance of Jean Houston - a New York-based avatar who runs a "Mystery School," and who inspired the current fad of walking on labyrinths. Millions of Americans with more money than commonsense are buying into this trendy, feel-good style of spirituality; they have helped to keep Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God on the best-seller lists since 1997. These are the people who proudly say, "I'm spiritual, but not religious."
Many Christians view the New Age movement as merely self-indulgent silliness. Unfortunately, there's far more to the movement than astrology, crystals, weird workshops, and psychobabble. New Age spiritual leaders have a firmly entrenched anti-Christian worldview, and many of them harbor a special hatred for the Catholic Church. Many believe that the Fall was really man's ascent into knowledge, assisted by Lucifer - whom they hail as the bringer of light and wisdom. Many expect an imminent, apocalyptic transformation that will lead humanity into the New Age. By acts of men or by an act of "spirit," earth will be cleansed of those who refuse to evolve. In the New Age, there will be world government; the economy will be remade to promote "sharing." Traditional morality and traditional families will disappear. Orthodox religions - especially Christianity and Judaism - are considered "separative" and "obsolete"; in the New Age, they too will vanish.
For the last 125 years, New Age leaders worldwide have followed the false light of Theosophy; they now whisper into the itching ears of the powerful - politicians, media moguls, UN officials, foundation grant-makers, and Anglican bishops. As the West moves into a post-Christian era, the influence of the New Age movement grows.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky blended Eastern religion with Western occultism, establishing the Theosophical movement in 1875 in New York City. Theosophy has influenced occult, spiritualist, "New Thought," and New Age movements around the world ever since. For Blavatsky, the LORD is not God; mankind is. She says, "Man is truly the manifested deity in both its aspects - good and evil." Since mankind is god, it follows that "mankind will become freed from its false gods, and find itself finally - SELF-REDEEMED." Or rather, some of mankind is "god-informed" and capable of self-redemption - namely, "the Aryan and other civilized nations." Others, "such human specimens as the Bushmen, the Veddhas of Ceylon, and some African tribes" are "lower human creatures," "inferior races" that are "now happily.dying out. Verily mankind is 'of one blood,' but not of the same essence."1
Read full article: http://www.newoxfordreview.com/article.jsp?did=0700-penn
To learn more about New Oxford Review, or to become a subscriber please visit us at http://www.newoxfordreview.org. No bozos or sissies, please!
Words of Wisdom
River of Revelation But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
–(James 1:22)
Have you ever been in the position in the past where every time you opened the Bible you received a river of revelation? Does it seem lately that the river's run dry? If so, I strongly suggest that you backtrack to the last revelation God gave you. Back up and see if you acted on it, if you did what God showed you to do. If you didn't, start again, digging into that revelation and then putting it into action in your life. You'll soon find new revelations are beginning to flow.
You see, revelation is most prolific when you are acting on the Word. I've discovered that for myself again and again. The more I act on the Word, the more I see into it. That's why James 1:22 tells us to not only hear God's Word but to DO IT!
It may seem that the things God has revealed to you are very insignificant. They may not even make good sense to your natural mind. But do them anyway! If you had insight into the spirit realm, you'd see they're far more important than you think.
Open God's Word anew today. Come before Him expecting a fresh revelation of the Scripture and commit to Him to follow it up with obedience. Be a doer of God's revelations and not a hearer only and your river will never run dry.
Scripture Reading: James 1:22-27
"For this and other devotionals, please see http://www.kcm.org/studycenter/devotional/f2f/index.php ."
2. Rick Warren (REMEMBER HE WROTE-PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE)
You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having "wealth" from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren,
"Purpose Driven Life " author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California.
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one .
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.
God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore..
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good
you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness,"which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before.. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to b e driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
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Sudbury Christian Messenger Table of Contents
Local News
1. Sudbury Right to Life holds elections for Board
2. 40 Day Prayer Ramp May 2 - June 10
3. A Women’s Weekend Away with God, Family, and Friends May 25-27
4. Leadership Seminar for the whole church “Winning on Purpose” May 26
5. Pada Memorial Scholarship Fund Benefit Concert at Laurentian University May 27
6. 3rd Annual Leprosy Golf Tournament June 6
7. Elgin Street Mission Request for Volunteers
8. Ministry to Long Term Care Chaplaincy May 19
9. Free the Children May 30
10. Celebration 2007 June 3
11. Summer GospelFest Schedule
12. Camp Norland - Christian Camping for Kids
13. Mom's Moments
14. Heaven’s Rehearsal Sept. 15
National News
1. Salute to a brave and modest nation
International News
1. World Congress of Families IV Defies European Union
2. Pope shows more signs of moving to the right in public
3. Beware: The New Age Movement is more than self-indulgent silliness
Words of Wisdom
1. River of Revelation
2. Rick Warren Interview
Local News
1. Sudbury Right to Life announces new Board
Election results for Sudbury Light to Life:
Richard St. Denis is the President, Marguerite Groulx is 1st Vice President, Keith McCormick is 2nd Vice President,
Paulette Bonin is Secretary and Mark Butler is Treasurer. There will be other people who will be helping on the board. They are all looking forward to an active year.
For more information, please contact Marguerite Groulx 524 6384
2. 40 Day Prayer Ramp May 2-June 10
Last year, and again this year, nearly 60 Canadian ministries unite to call Canada to prayer for 40 days.
People from across Canada are being mobilized to pray from May 2 to June 20th.
Please check out the prayer calendar with brief prayer points each day, written by Canadian prayer leaders
www.40dayprayerramp.com
3. A Women's Weekend Away with God, Family and Friends May 25-27, 2007
Are you and your women friends in need of refreshing after another season of ministry, mission, and service to others?
All Nations Church Women's Spring Retreat is designed to refresh you in a fabulous way.
Come away with us to Clevelands House on Lake Rosseau for a special time with God, and speaker, Jan Silvious.
The topic is "Complex Relationships" ........ and don't we all have them!
Cost is $210.00, which includes the weekend accomodations, dining, and resort facilities, along with our Retreat program.
Select what's best for you. Invite a friend, or family member, and come away for a time to renew your spirit.
For further information, please check out www.allnationschurch.ca Women's Ministries
This is an interdenominational event. All are welcome!
4. Leadership Seminar for the whole church "Winning on Purpose" May 26
Lansing Baptist Pastor Jack Fliestra
5. The Pada Memorial Scholarship Fund Benefit Concert at Laurentien University
Subject: Benefit Concert-May 27
Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 16:11:16 -0400
Hello Folks
Lata Pada, a sudbury resident in 1985, lost her family(husband and two daughters), in the ill-fated Air India
flight. Back in 1986, she had set a scholarship fund in her family's memory. Over the years the fund has started to dry up. Lata, over the years has accomplished herself as a well known dance teacher(classical Indian dance), and a performer. She is also been the ambassador for the families who lost their loved ones in that tragedy.
A benefit concert is being held in town by Lata Pada, the funds raised will be used for the scholarship fund to keep the memory of the ones lost. Please visit her website at sampradaya.ca and be amazed by her accomplishments. This promises to be an amazing night and a worthwhile cause.
Please join us on: Sunday May 27th, Fraser Auditorium (Laurentian University), 5 pm, Tickets $20
This will be followed by a small reception.For tickets please call me at 688-9439(home) , 561-2374(cell) or via email.
6. 3rd Annual Leprosy Golf tournament
Pine Grove Golf Club, 4 Person Best Ball
$45.00 per Person
9 holes of Golf-Gas Cart
steak Dinner- Lots of Prizes
$15.00 tax Receipt
Contact Rick Barnes 523-0416
June 9th., Thank you, Barbara J. Robb.
7. Elgin Street Mission request
The Elgin St. Mission needs volunteers who are interested in working in the clothing room one, two or three days each week.
Call Eva Lachapelle at 673-2163.
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For church bulletins: This is a great way to serve the Lord. See Matthew 25:36.
For schools and social service agencies: This is a good way to get community service hours in.
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8. Chaplaincy / Ministry to Long Term Care Facilities presents our 4th Annual Workshop
Thursday, May 24, 2007 - 9 am to 3:30 pm / St. Clement’s Community Facility
328 Albert St., Sudbury
Bowser Power & Flower Power, Gray Power & Pray Power
Topics:
1 Pet Facilitated Therapy - with Rita Terry and Friends
2 Random Acts of Flowers - Irja Coe and Jan Carrie Steven
3 Lunchtime Speaker - Shelley Martel - Health & Long-Term Care Critic, NDP Nickel Belt
4 Spiritual Care with the Elderly - Lorraine Mercer
Cost: $20.00 - includes lunch and refreshment break,EVERYONE IS WELCOME! Phone 522-0856 for more information.
9. Free the Children May 30 Social Planning Council Caruso Club
Social Planning Council of Sudbury will warmly welcome Craig Keilburger to Greater Sudbury on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. at the Caruso Club. Craig Kielburger, founder of Free The Children, has traveled to more than 50 countries visiting underprivileged children and speaking out in defense of children's rights. Just months ago Craig was honored to be appointed to the Order of Canada.
An internationally renowned speaker, Craig has advocated for children's rights alongside leaders such as Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama. With over 100,000 youth involved in more than 35 countries, Free The Children empowers young people through representation, leadership and action.
For more information on Craig and his organization, visit www.freethechildren.org.
The event will feature a Youth Fair which will give youth from local schools and organizations the opportunity to display their achievements. We invite you to learn about the many inspiring projects in our community, lead by youth, that are contributing to building a better community.
Caruso Club, Wednesday, May 30th
6:30 - Arrival, Youth Fair
7:00 - Keynote Speech, Q&A
8:15 - Book Signing, Networking
Tickets are $35 for non-members, $30 for members and $5 for students. This event is a fundraiser, with proceeds benefiting the Social Planning Council of Sudbury.
Tickets are available at:
■ Social Planning Council: 675-3894 (ask for Sara or Jody)
■ www.spcsudbury.ca (Interac, VISA, MasterCard and American Express)
■ Black Cat Too (86 Durham St.)
Sara VanWiechen
Public Relations & Marketing Director
Social Planning Council of Sudbury
+ 30 Ste-Anne Road, Suite 105
Sudbury, ON P3C 5E1
( (705) 675-3894
6 (705) 675-3253
: svanwiechen@spcsudbury.ca
10 . City wide summer event for everyone!!!!! (please note correct date)
Celebration 2007
Sunday June 3rd 6:30 PM
Bell Park Amphitheatre
On Sunday, June 3rd beginning at 6:30 pm, the evangelical churches of Sudbury are joining together for an exciting event to which everyone is invited at the Bell Park Amphitheater! Celebration 2007 will feature live local music, creative drama, a children*s feature, and an inspirational message by Rev.Jeremy Mahood.
Invite your friends and family to this special, free event. Come, and bring a friend.
Join us for Celebration 2007.
www.celebrationsudbury.ca
11. GospelFest 2007 Enjoy these summer evenings at Bell Park
GospelFest 2007
June 16
August 11
September 8
Times: 7pm to 9pm
Location:
Grace Harman Amphitheatre Complex
12. Camp Norland '07 Summer Camps
Located on beautiful Deer Lake Road, Verner www.norland.on.ca
"The Son always shines on Camp Norland ...Come for a week - stay for a lifetime!"
13. Mom's Moments E Newsletter
Please tell young moms you know about this local/national e newsletter
www.momsmoments.ca
14. Heaven's Rehearsal
A moment in time to prepare for Eternity. Your presence is requested for a rehearsal of heaven as nations
gather to worship Jesus.
Saturday, September 15, 2007 Air Canada Centre, Toronto
For more information: www.HeavensRehearsal.com
Demonstrate that in Jesus all nations and generations can come together as family. Canada has a unique role in the healing of the nations.
National News
This is a good read. It is funny how it took someone in England to put it into words... Sunday Telegraph Article From today's UK wires: The Sunday Telegraph
"SALUTE TO A BRAVE AND MODEST NATION" - by Kevin Myers.
LONDON - Until the deaths of the 6 Canadian soldiers killed last week in Afghanistan , probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always, will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.
It seems that Canada's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored. Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her, yet again.
That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved.
Yet, its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10% of Canada’s entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.
Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, its unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as somehow or other the work of the "British." The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attacks. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth-largest air force in the world.
The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity.
So, it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have, in the popular perception, become American, and Christopher Plummer, British. It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.
Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peace keepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.
Yet, the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular non-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia , in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.
So, who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbor has given it in Afghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honorable things for honorable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun.
It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honor comes at a high cost. This past year so many more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.
**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **
Please pass this on to any of your friends or relatives, especially any who serve or served in the Canadian Forces. It is a wonderful tribute to those who choose to serve their country and the world in this most noble manner in our proudly quiet Canadian way.
Solange Cardinal
Administrative Assistant
for Eugene Cardinal Jr.
Senior Consultant
144 Pine Street, Suite 101
Sudbury, ON
P3C 1X3
(705) 674-4551 ext. 239
1-800-461-0131
International News
1. News Release - Real Women of Canada re: World Congress of Families IV
REAL Women of Canada
“Women’s Rights Not at the Expense of Human Rights”
NGO in SPECIAL consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations
M E D I A R E L E A S E
World Congress of Families IV
Warsaw Poland, May 11-13, 2007
Poland defies the European Union
Warsaw Poland May 13, 2007
The host country, Poland, at the World Congress of Families IV held in Warsaw May 11-13, 2007, threw down the gauntlet to let it be known by its Minister of Education and Vice Prime Minister of Poland, Roman Giertych and the Speaker of Parliament (Sejm) of the Republic of Poland, Marek Jurek, that Poland has no intention of agreeing to the demands of the European Union (EU) that it follow the regulations established in Brussels and the European Parliament to provide abortion, homosexual rights, same-sex marriage and other attacks on the traditional family demanded by the EU.
The Polish officials made it clear that Poland will be assuming the leadership role to end the demographic winter in Europe caused by a birthrate below the replacement level and the instability in Europe caused by sexual permissiveness. This is in defiance of the EU’s bureaucrats. In standing up to the EU, Poland is only adhering to the principles established in the late 1960’s at the Treaty of Rome, which established that basic policies of each nation within the Union were to be determined by each individual country. Poland announced at the Congress that it would not be interfered with or intimidated by the EU.
The Congress discussed over the three days such issues impacting the family as: abortion; the move to legitimize same-sex marriage; population decline; pornography and the impact of the news and entertainment industry on the family.
The 3,300 delegates attended from Latin America, the United States, Canada, western and eastern Europe including Poland, Latvia, Estonia, the Ukraine and Russia.
- 30 -
2. Pope shows more signs of swinging to the right in public
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Pope shows more signs of swinging to the right in public
By Ian Fisher and Larry Rohter The New York Times
Monday, May 14, 2007
Pope Benedict XVI's first trip to Latin America has added to a sense, expressed recently by supporters and critics alike, that his papacy seemed to be moving closer to the mold that he embodied as Joseph Ratzinger, a conservative and contentious cardinal.
In a major speech Sunday, the pope condemned capitalism and Marxism as "systems that marginalize God" and urged the Latin American clergy to feed people's spiritual hunger as the way to ease poverty and halt the Roman Catholic Church's steady decline in the region.
Speaking to Latin American bishops here for a conference on the church's direction for the next decade, the pope also condemned abortion and contraception and laws that permit them. Such laws, he said, are "threatening the future of peoples."
The speech was widely anticipated for how Benedict - on his first visit to the Western Hemisphere as pope - would tackle issues from poverty and social injustice to the evangelical groups eroding Roman Catholicism in some Latin American countries at the rate of 1 percent a year.
Just as he, as a cardinal in the 1980s, cracked down on liberation theology, which he viewed as incorrectly emphasizing Christ as social redeemer, Benedict stressed first proclaiming Christ as the son of God - even if many of the poor here might like to hear more about social justice.
"What is real?" he mused in the speech, just hours before heading back to Rome after five days in Brazil, the most populous Roman Catholic country. "Are only material goods, social and economic and political problems 'reality'?"
He told the bishops that, without agreeing first on God, society is unable to tackle the problems of poverty and social injustice.
"Just structures are an indispensable condition for a just society," he said, "but they neither rise nor function without a moral consensus in society on fundamental values.
"Where God is absent - God with the human face of Jesus Christ - these values fail to show themselves with their full force; nor does a consensus arise concerning them."
"I do not mean that nonbelievers cannot live a lofty and exemplary morality," he continued. "I am only saying that a society in which God is absent will not find the necessary consensus on moral values or the strength to live according to the model of these values."
The pope's personal style, praised often even by critics, remains pastoral and gentle. But the more contentious views, less publicly visible when he first began as leader of the world's billion Catholics, seem to be coming more to the fore.
On Wednesday, on the flight to Brazil from Rome, he seemed to weigh in on a particularly sensitive issue for the church: Pro-choice Catholic politicians, he suggested, risk excommunication.
There are other signs of a public turn to the right. He is expected soon to approve the wider usage of the Latin Mass, largely shelved a generation ago. In recent months, the church in Italy has engaged outspokenly in a fight against a proposed law to give rights to unmarried couples, including homosexual ones.
Recently, Benedict spoke about the reality of hell and, despite a free discussion of the issue when he was first elected, he seems to have firmly ruled out any changes to the rules of priestly celibacy as a way to alleviate a shortage of priests in some places, Latin America included.
At the same time, the speech Sunday underscored that the pope remains, as ever, tied not to any set of views apart from his own, through his at-times unpredictable interpretation of what is best for the church and its followers.
In the speech, for example, Benedict railed against abortion and contraception, as hurting the family, but he also called for state-sponsored day care, as helping it.
He also raged with equal fire against Marxism and capitalism alike. By focusing solely on material concerns, he said, both "falsify the notion of reality by detaching it from the foundational and decisive reality which is God."
"Both capitalism and Marxism promised to point out the path for the creation of just structures, and they declared that these, once established, would function by themselves," he said. "And this ideological promise has proven false."
Marxism, he said, left "a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction." Capitalism, he said, has failed to bridge the "distance between rich and poor" and is "giving rise to a worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and deceptive illusions of happiness."
But on the whole his speech covered ground familiar to those here - some approving, others not - who had followed Ratzinger's long career as theologian and top aide to his predecessor, John Paul II.
"I like his zeal," said Maria da Conceição Xavier Cerqueira, a retired postal worker among the faithful who carried umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun and held rosaries to be blessed at an open air Mass that Pope Benedict celebrated here Sunday. "He was a loyal comrade of John Paul II, and it is good that he is here to defend the traditional values of the Catholic Church, which are under attack from all sides."
Without specifically mentioning liberation theology by name, Benedict, in his speech to the bishops, criticized Catholics who argue that the church's supreme moral duty is to denounce and resist social injustice.
As the Vatican's senior official on matters of doctrine and faith, he led efforts in the 1980s to stamp out the movement, then quite influential in Latin America, and Sunday he again warned the clergy not to permit such concerns to eclipse their spiritual duties.
But some worshippers at the Mass said they would have liked the pope to have offered the same emphasis on overcoming poverty that they are used to hearing from their own bishops.
A group of liberation theology advocates carried a banner saying that theirs was "the church of the option for the poor and excluded," along with photographs of the movement's martyrs, including Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador, murdered while celebrating Mass in 1980, and Dorothy Stang, an American-born nun killed in the Brazilian Amazon in 2005.
The Brazilian Army estimated the crowd that filled the patio alongside the huge Aparecida basilica at 150,000 people, far short of the one million that Vatican Radio had predicted.
Later, in his speech to the clergy at the large shrine to the Virgin Mary in Aparecida, the pope offered what amounted to a revisionist history of the church's origins in Latin America.
The standard view in the region is that the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors, accompanied by clergy, imposed Catholicism in a ruinous process that left native populations, as a common phrase puts it, "between the cross and the sword."
Some modern-day Latin American theologians have lamented the destruction of indigenous civilizations and have sought to incorporate elements of those cultures into the Mass as one way of making amends.
But in a statement likely to be controversial in countries with large Indian populations, including Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador, Benedict rejected those notions.
"In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture," he said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/14/africa/pope.php
3. TYRANNY IN THE NAME OF TOLERANCE
Beware! The New Age Movement Is More Than Self-Indulgent Silliness
By Lee Penn
July-August 2000
In recent years the New Age movement has come out of the closet in the Church and in the world. The New Age movement is made up of those who follow a potpourri of beliefs and practices that fall outside the boundaries of traditional Christianity. Its manifestations are protean. Some Catholic nuns walk on labyrinths to contact the "Divine Feminine." Increasing numbers of health insurance companies have heeded consumers' demands to cover offbeat treatments, ranging from Ayurvedic herbal medicine to "therapeutic touch" - in which a "healer's" hands manipulate "energy fields" but never touch the patient's body. Hillary Clinton has contacted the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt under the guidance of Jean Houston - a New York-based avatar who runs a "Mystery School," and who inspired the current fad of walking on labyrinths. Millions of Americans with more money than commonsense are buying into this trendy, feel-good style of spirituality; they have helped to keep Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God on the best-seller lists since 1997. These are the people who proudly say, "I'm spiritual, but not religious."
Many Christians view the New Age movement as merely self-indulgent silliness. Unfortunately, there's far more to the movement than astrology, crystals, weird workshops, and psychobabble. New Age spiritual leaders have a firmly entrenched anti-Christian worldview, and many of them harbor a special hatred for the Catholic Church. Many believe that the Fall was really man's ascent into knowledge, assisted by Lucifer - whom they hail as the bringer of light and wisdom. Many expect an imminent, apocalyptic transformation that will lead humanity into the New Age. By acts of men or by an act of "spirit," earth will be cleansed of those who refuse to evolve. In the New Age, there will be world government; the economy will be remade to promote "sharing." Traditional morality and traditional families will disappear. Orthodox religions - especially Christianity and Judaism - are considered "separative" and "obsolete"; in the New Age, they too will vanish.
For the last 125 years, New Age leaders worldwide have followed the false light of Theosophy; they now whisper into the itching ears of the powerful - politicians, media moguls, UN officials, foundation grant-makers, and Anglican bishops. As the West moves into a post-Christian era, the influence of the New Age movement grows.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky blended Eastern religion with Western occultism, establishing the Theosophical movement in 1875 in New York City. Theosophy has influenced occult, spiritualist, "New Thought," and New Age movements around the world ever since. For Blavatsky, the LORD is not God; mankind is. She says, "Man is truly the manifested deity in both its aspects - good and evil." Since mankind is god, it follows that "mankind will become freed from its false gods, and find itself finally - SELF-REDEEMED." Or rather, some of mankind is "god-informed" and capable of self-redemption - namely, "the Aryan and other civilized nations." Others, "such human specimens as the Bushmen, the Veddhas of Ceylon, and some African tribes" are "lower human creatures," "inferior races" that are "now happily.dying out. Verily mankind is 'of one blood,' but not of the same essence."1
Read full article: http://www.newoxfordreview.com/article.jsp?did=0700-penn
To learn more about New Oxford Review, or to become a subscriber please visit us at http://www.newoxfordreview.org. No bozos or sissies, please!
Words of Wisdom
River of Revelation But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
–(James 1:22)
Have you ever been in the position in the past where every time you opened the Bible you received a river of revelation? Does it seem lately that the river's run dry? If so, I strongly suggest that you backtrack to the last revelation God gave you. Back up and see if you acted on it, if you did what God showed you to do. If you didn't, start again, digging into that revelation and then putting it into action in your life. You'll soon find new revelations are beginning to flow.
You see, revelation is most prolific when you are acting on the Word. I've discovered that for myself again and again. The more I act on the Word, the more I see into it. That's why James 1:22 tells us to not only hear God's Word but to DO IT!
It may seem that the things God has revealed to you are very insignificant. They may not even make good sense to your natural mind. But do them anyway! If you had insight into the spirit realm, you'd see they're far more important than you think.
Open God's Word anew today. Come before Him expecting a fresh revelation of the Scripture and commit to Him to follow it up with obedience. Be a doer of God's revelations and not a hearer only and your river will never run dry.
Scripture Reading: James 1:22-27
"For this and other devotionals, please see http://www.kcm.org/studycenter/devotional/f2f/index.php ."
2. Rick Warren (REMEMBER HE WROTE-PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE)
You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having "wealth" from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren,
"Purpose Driven Life " author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California.
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one .
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.
God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore..
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good
you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness,"which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before.. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to b e driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
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