March 28, 2009
Phil Cooke wrote:
Irena Sendler died last May. She was a Polish Catholic social worker during World War II, where she worked in the Warsaw Ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist. Knowing the Nazi plans for the Jewish population, she started smuggling out infants in the bottom of her toolbox and larger children in burlap sacks. She even trained her dogs to bark when they saw Nazi soldiers - which also covered the infants crying. Somehow, she managed to smuggle out 2,500 Jewish children, and then provided them with false documents and hiding them in individual or group children’s homes outside the ghetto. In 1943, Irena was arrested by the Gestapo, severely tortured, and sentenced to death. Grateful Jews barely saved her by bribing German guards on the way to her execution. Once paid, the guards left her in the woods, unconscious and with broken arms and legs. She was listed on public bulletin boards as executed.
For the rest of the war, she lived in hiding, but continued her work for the Jewish children. Before she was arrested, she kept the children’s names carefully documented in glass jars she kept in her back yard. After the war, she dug up the jars containing the children’s identities and attempted to return them to their parents. However, almost all of their parents had been executed at the Treblinka extermination camp.
She died last May, virtually unknown, except for a play on her life called “Life in a Jar,” written after Kansas students found her story in a magazine.
In 2007, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. But she lost.
Al Gore won for his slide show on global warming.
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March 26, 2009
Listen to me carefully. Get this book!
Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin
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March 26, 2009
You have heard of the 80 Percent Principle. The Principle teaches that when you are 80 percent full - then you are indeed full. Most make the naive mistake to simply apply that rule to the sanctuary attendance, not to the support facilities such as nursery, children’s services, etc. This fundamental mistake of ”despising small beginnings” secretly governs the increase of the church attendance. As I often say, ”Parents are funny, they won’t leave their infants and children at home to attend you church.”
I recently conducted a walk-through at a church where this principle needed to be applied in the youth ministry. Here is the email that I received:
Thank you for all of your help recently at Orchardville Church. Our youth group attendance had bounced around between 55-60 never going over 63 in the last two years. You suggested we add more chairs. We added chairs and I’m please to let you know our attendance has been 72 the last several services. We’ve also had 9 salvations in the last month.
If you have failed to see growth for a season of time, you may need to examine how you are making room for growth.
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March 25, 2009
I had the opportunity to speak at Evangel University. We had a great time. It is very impressive to meet young adults with distinctive calls upon their lives. As I prayed for many, the Spirit moved upon me to speak words of encouragement and confirmation. Several commented that God had used the message to speak specifically to them about future.
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March 19, 2009
“Thinking is skilled work. It is not true that we are naturally endowed with the ability to think clearly and logically—without learning how, or without practicing. People with untrained minds should no more expect to think clearly and logically than people who have never learned and never practiced can expect to find themselves good carpenters, golfers, bridge players or pianists.” Alfred Mander’s book—Logic for the Millions
Never underestimate the destructive power of simple minded men. - Neil Kennedy
We are faced with an opportunity. The opportunity for skilled people to arise on the stage of history to speak boldly and clearly of the ideas based upon our foundational beliefs. Much like when the Apostle Paul, frustrated and grieved by the idolatry of the Athenians stepped onto the “judgement seat” called the Areopagus and boldly proclaimed the God whom all men have breath and life and being is the god who is, and who determined the times and the exact places for all men to live.
The philosophies of our day, much like the Epicurean and Stoics of Athens, argue from the vanity of their egocentric, empty, and envious minds. They want to reengineer society based upon their vacuous ideas. Unfortunately, they have seized control and are playing silly little games when serious thinking and thoughtful dialogue must take place.
We must pray. We must seek the wisdom of God. We need men to arise to their calling of leadership.
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