·:[ Word for the World Radio Ministry ]:·
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I recently came across an article in FLAME that I wanted to share with you.

Dear Friend of Israel, dear Friend of FLAME:

Once again, the picture in Israel has substantially changed. Above all else, there is now the real threat of Iran’s seemingly unstoppable march toward being armed with nuclear weapons. Anybody who does not take seriously its leaders’ pledges to “wipe Israel off the map” and to “excise the cancer of Zionism” lives in a dream world. These people must be taken by their word. The world, at its peril, disregarded the fulminations of Adolf Hitler. The world and Israel cannot afford to make the same mistake again. It is not impossible that Israel will be forced to make some existential decisions in the not too distant future.

As a result of Israel’s being pressured by the insistence of “world opinion” (including, sad to say, by our own country) and also to some extent by the fatigue of its own people, Israel has relinquished Gaza, where Israeli families had been living for at least three generations.

Rather than being grateful for this gift of land and for the “freedom from occupation” it afforded them, the Arabs responded with spasms of violence, digging tunnels into Israel and killing and kidnapping its soldiers. And that is in addition to the almost daily barrages of Qassam rockets that rain into Israeli towns and settlements and infrastructure installations. They have caused casualties and much damage. The level of damage and lives lost could at any moment escalate.

An even greater fiasco occurred in the northern part of the country, where Israel, under pressure of world opinion (and its own defeatist minority — mostly left-wing “intellectuals”) abandoned its buffer of the southern Lebanon security zone. Though it had caused some casualties, it kept Israel’s northern cities and settlements calm and livable. Again, instead of the hoped-for peace and gratitude, Israel was assaulted by Hezbollah (the “Army of God”), which, in a daring cross-border raid killed and abducted Israeli soldiers and brought about the Second Lebanon War. That war caused thousands of deaths on both sides, immense destruction and untold suffering to Israel and Lebanon.

FLAME is steadily engaged in alerting the American public to the reality of Israel’s positions and problems and to the enormous diplomatic and military importance that Israel has for our country and for its resistance to the forces that incessantly seek to destroy it and damage the United States. But now, powerful American politicians and academics are beginning to question Israel’s importance to the United States and claim that Israel, through its Jewish-American surrogates, influences U.S. policy to its own advantage and with total disregard to the welfare and the interests of the United States. This is a dangerous “blood-libel” type of development that must be fought — and that is part of what we are doing and have been doing for almost twenty years.

Our generation is a generation that loves sports. Paul, the Apostle that is, also loved the sports program of his day. In fact, I would lay odds that he was an athlete, honored in his day. In Paul’s time there were three major games that were played around the known world: the Olympian Games held at Mt. Olympus, the Pithian Games held at Delphi, and the Isthmian Games held at Corinth.

These games were staggered throughout the year so that the jet-set of that day could go to all three. While they featured many events, the greatest and most popular by far was the foot race, the track meet.  These runners were the most popular and recognized heroes. They even had fame and fortune back then. Tell the truth, these athletes won more fame than the conquering generals.

Each and ever city had their “Circus-Circus”, the arena, the coliseum. These arenas were about six time the size of our modern football field. People would pack into these arenas to watch the races.

The writer of Hebrews (a book in the New Testament), whom I believe to be the Apostle Paul, uses the imagery of the games to illustrate powerful spiritual truths for us today.

The athlete is on the field. He has trained for months and months; rigorous training, severe discipline. He has denied himself the legitimate pleasures of life that other people enjoy. He’s on the field; the stadium is packed, the emperor is in his velvet lined box, everyone is watching that lone athlete. In that day, he would go to the end of the field and dip his hands in a fresh bloody sacrifice, raise his hands to the gods and swear he us morally pure, he has kept all the rules, he will run a fair race and participate as an honored athlete. After the ceremony he goes to the line and gets himself set. He is ready to run the race. Every nerve is tense, every one of those finely toned muscles are taut. His mind is centered on one thing, one goal – TO WIN!

Hebrews 12:1 states: “Wherefore seeing we are encompassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily beset us, and let us run with patience (endurance) the race that is set before us …”

Who are the witnesses Paul talks about in this verse? I would suggest to you that Paul was visualizing two groups and one person as he made that statement under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. The first group is the most obvious: Those who have gone on before and are now in the grandstands of the dead in Christ. He has already talked about many of them in Chapter 11 of Hebrews. We could go through each one of these individually but we’re not going to take that time. Just notice one important thing: what they had was divine revelation concerning things that would happen in the future. They studied these words seeking to know what they meant (cf. I Peter 1:10-12). Even though they didn’t understand, they obeyed! If they obeyed the Word of God on that side of the Cross and Resurrection, how much more should we be willing when we have the truth given to us on this side of the Cross and Resurrection? (More about this group in my next installment.)

The second group Paul may be thinking of  are those in the here and now. They are watching every day. They want to know: is there any power in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is there any real power in the lives of those who call themselves Christians? Is there anything in their lives that make them different? Is there any hope in the people of Christ? Where is the joy they talk and sing about? Can these Christians believe when the going gets rough? They want to know!They are watching our speech, our attitudes, our actions and reactions, our judgments and resentments; our lifestyle. Yes, they are watching as we commit those little polite sins like greed, unforgiveness and gossip. You cannot stop them from watching and if they watch long enough, they’ll see something in us they think is unChristian. We are not perfect. That’s why it is so important to point people to the One who is perfect: Jesus. We need to help them see Jesus.

But there is also someone else who is watching: our Coach, Jesus! He put us into the race and it is to Him we run. He is the Alpha and Omega, the A to Z and every letter in between.  He knows what we can do, He knows what we can endure. He will never allow us to have more than we can bear but will offer a way of escape. Our Lord does have a plan for your life. He has a race for you to run. Let us run as honored spiritual athletes, knowing that we are being encouraged by those who have run the race before us. They are saying: “Come on, you can do it. We did!”

Are you in the race? Salvation is not something you receive at the end of the race, it puts you into the race. God has a race for YOU to run but you will never know what it is until you get under the leadership of the COACH.

Former Vice President Al Gore may be inconvenienced by the news that a think tank in New Zealand wants him to return his Oscar.

Muriel Newman, head of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research, tells Worldnet Daily, “The truth, as inconvenient as it is to Al Gore, is that his so-called documentary contained critical distortions that are quite contrary to the principles of good documentary journalism. Good documentaries should be factually correct. Clearly this documentary was not!

At issue are allegations in An Inconvenient Truth that receding snow on Mt. Kilimanjaro, drowned polar bears, melting Antarctic ice, and Hurricane Katrina have all been caused by global warming.

In addition to the 2007 Academy Award he took home for An Inconvenient Truth, Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize last year by his work on global warming.

British Judge Michael Burton ruled that the documentary could not be shown in 3,385 English schools without a warning that it was political rather than scientific in nature, and that the film contains nine serious scientific mistakes.