The Art of War

This is a book I have heard about for most of my life.  Something written long ago of practical value as much today as it was 1,300 year ago.  I scoffed at the idea.  It is not like weapons have not changed, hence tactic in the field must as well. Or so I thought.

Last week Swede and I were in Barnes and Nobles hunting cheap books to read.  He headed immediately to the Sci-Fi section, I to art magazines.  Then we met over in the discount section.  And there sat a lone copy of the Art of War by Sun Tzu.  I thumbed it open and began to read.  Yeah, I bought it.

As we drove to lunch I was reading from the book to Swede, just random quotes and we were laughing with great regularity.  After lunch, as Swede drove me home I began reading again only this time after each quote, asking him how he apply that statement to his financial dealings?  Again much laughter as he blurted out various scenarios each worse than the previous!

But, I got to thinking ... there are no coincidences in life, so why this book now crossing my path?

Written sometime before 512 BC the Art of War is not a book of tactics or how to wage war but a work on the philosophy and logistics of when and how to address both larger and smaller forces.

I have now read the book five times.  The observations of this man, so long ago, are quite reasonable - in fact it would be hard to fault his conclusions as a general rule, one way or another.  Just as Swede had been able to think through smart aleck answers to the quotes I read him, it is just as easy to think of real answers in normal life to the areas he address.

So, last night, another sleepless one - I sat and thought on this book of ancient wisdom and began to think on how could it be used to layout a strategy for Christian Warfare?  Remember, I am a Hutterite and pacifist - so I am not talking about killing anyone here!  But we are each called to Spiritual Warfare and perhaps I can tell you about the book and how to apply it to your own life now - or perhaps in the future...

So, not immediately, but definitely coming your way in the not so distant future - God willing.

Terrorism

Truly I am heartbroken for America, for this world, for the blood spilt through the recent well publicized terrorist acts of violence.  Last week was a sleepless week.  My mind troubled for I could see that God has pulled His protection and allowed evil to succeed, albeit, it is not by man's consequence that justice was brought so far to at least two of those responsible.

I still hold to the concept that God has complete control of our "days" ... our time is wholly is in His hand alone.  Of course, I now wonder if you are not His, just how precious is your life really to Him?  If you are not a real "Christian" then you have an opportunity, perhaps more, to come to that saving grace of His - as long as you are alive.  Of course, that then insinuates that once you have rolled by your last rejection of Him - well, you are fodder for evil to claim you at any time - true randomness.  And if you are His, and you are murdered (or worse), then your time is over and you have been freed from this physical life, as your days would have to have been complete.  A bus, a bread truck, a faulty light switch, the flu or a terrorist - when you time is up, it is up.

So, exactly how does one deal with this problem of terrorism?  You can take away all of the guns but that does not eliminate them - too many are available worldwide and as Europe has learned - you can be gun free and still have mass shootings.  Russia will always supply weapons to those whom want them, one way or another. As England discovered this past year, the knife in the hand of a maniac can kill and maim just as many in a crowded gathering!  And a less than objective immigration policy throughout the world is allowing the spread of a disease my direct ancestor Fredrick had to deal with in a running battle from Vienna into the Balkans beginning in 1683!

But dear Lord, I pray not for total warfare now!

Consider this: The Later Day Saints, Catholics, Southern Baptists are to Christianity - as - Islam is to either Judaism or Christianity!

Christianity is the completion of Judaism, the Jew has merely to understand and repent - as does all mankind!  The Islamist is Judaism and Hebrew traditions turned sideways.  They need to drawn back towards a truth they can understand and then be shown a true Christianity - not the misunderstanding of the liberal mind!  As for the Christian cults, yeah, they need to be reached and in all of them I personally know real Christians, operating as real Christians and living out their faith, not the cultic values.  But, those whom are sold out to the cult still need to repent and turn to the true Savior, Jesus, not rights, traditions and rules.

And no change can occur until you, my dear reader, as a real Christian, begin to live your faith - showing love towards all - and that would be God's love. Oh, and let us not forget prayer - tons of it! and perhaps God will return His face towards America and change our nation's direction and heart.

Musical Saturday Morning

I think I have sat on this song for over a year.  It touched something in me and I do not think I have shared it before.  But, with this new me, I think I want to be more transparent as to changes I struggle through.  It is also a 1980's!  And if you already know the song, or I have shared it before, well then enjoy:

Mass Shootings

Where have mass shootings of 10 or more people occurred in the past year (2015)?

Afghanistan
Cameroon
Egypt
France
Germany
India
Iraq
Kenya
Macedonia
Mali
Niger
Nigeria
Pakistan
Philippines
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
Syria
Tunisia
Turkey
USA

So far that is.  Satan has yet more time to increase this list.  But, you as a real Christian are not powerless!  Prayer is the most powerful weapon you have to address any issue to God.  Prayer and lots of it are all that will ever change the hearts of men, limit Satan's power and restore sanity to this world.

If you are interested, worldwide the second highest number of weapon attacks is via knife. The number one winner for taking human life is non military bombings.

And, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem - for as Israel goes, so will the entire world ...

God's Protection

Most people I know live pretty smug lives.  They are self assured and expect nothing terrible to go wrong in their lives ever.  I suppose it is just the nature of the PRIDE of man to be this way - to expect peace to surround them without any personal cost.  So, they live their lives as if there is no cost - and curse God when suddenly evil rears its ugly head ...

I have quietly been watching for decades the decline of this once great country - borderline Christian but apparently enough so that God seemed to be watching over America.  He was blessing and yes, correcting as well - even bringing international shame upon this nation since 1970's.  But fewer and fewer have noticed.

And just as in Jeremiah's time, any blessing was removed from the nation and replaced by blessings upon individuals.  Of course, as the hearts of the many were turned from God - so increased their wrath against those whom still stood for God.

As the decades have passed, since I first had this terrible thought, I have witnessed the national erosion of blessing with the sins of the many blocking any greatness which God could bestow upon the nation.  When on a governmental level we see murder as the State policy in foreign affairs and often internally as well - something God does care about strongly - can we be surprised at the carnage we are witnessing?

God is not there to protect us, He is there for us to bless Him.  Any blessings we may receive is completely due to His grace and mercy - not because we deserve or have earned it!

How can we possibly regain God's personal or corporate protection?

Two things God hates more than anything, as documented in the Bible:

• Murder
• Divorce

To withdraw from being cursed due to murder, well is a hard to accomplish in this culture!  Outright murder, abortion, surreptitious death sentences, assassination, made up war, bombings would all have to go away.  We live in a culture of death.  We are comfortable with.  We have no concept of the human cost infected by this culture - because after all it is to be expected, it is normal.  This is not say you can not defend yourself, but it does mean to stop being the instigator of the flow of the blood this culture has poured so coldly into the grave.

And divorce.  Sigh.  All generations of my Scottish based family have been thus afflicted.  No, not just randy men but some real honest to gosh psycho women as well!  Why even pretend that marriage means something when there is not even an attempt at permanence?  Why attempt at marriage when divorce is so extremely easy to acquire?  Change begins in the hearts of all us, to stand outside of culture to make marriage mean something - even if it is only to us!  We have to re-cultivate the understanding that marriage is not a piece of paper, some dude saying you are married and then partying.  It is about commitment - which means understandings, knowledge, wisdom, etc - and you possess none of those attributes - you are involved and must stand aside for those whom do possess unbiased status can judge.  OMG!  I used the J word!  Yup.  Understand this, most marriages are not of God and are based on man's desire, not His.  That is why Godly wisdom and judgement are required.  Notice the requirement for God in the lives of those assisting us!

Oh yeah, there are other areas as well we must personally clean up but this is just a swipe at the 80% of the problem.

Trump On Salvation

I have never cared for the 'Donald', just another ego maniac strutting his stuff in the public sector for the past 30 years that I have been aware of him.  And honestly, I have little use for people whom do not know when to shut up on what they are ignorant of.

Take religion for an example.  Now Trump has made many shadowy statements about Ben Carson, things people can point to and howl about - but he can brush off because - hey, he never said that.  Indeed, he never did, he just alluded to whatever the fracas over.

His recent speech in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Trump pronounced Ben Carson’s story of conversion from violent troublemaker to Christian to be so much “crap.”  “He goes into the bathroom for a couple of hours, and he comes out, and now he’s religious . . . . Give me a break. It doesn’t happen that way,” said Trump.

And here Trump shows his complete ignorance of true Christianity.  In true Christianity this is but one of several ways one can find God.  Not necessarily on the toilet, but isolated - thinking - wondering about this whole reality of a Creator - God - Savior.  In history, it has often happened this way.  On the road from Jerusalem to Damascus, a nasty character named Saul got whacked by God and became the utterly transformed Paul.

In A.D. 386 , Augustine heard a child’s voice chanting, “Take up and read,” opened a Bible randomly to Paul’s letter to the Romans, was convicted to the core and abandoned the life of a hard-partying pagan.

Around 1510, a monk named Martin Luther understood Paul’s letter in a new way — one version locates this revelation in the “cloaca,” or bathroom — and “felt I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.”

On May 24, 1738, John Wesley heard someone reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle of Romans in a meeting on Aldersgate Street in London, and at 8:45 p.m. felt his “heart strangely warmed.” (as a side note I have to admit that Luther's work on the first seven chapters of Romans to be without equal.)

And in September 1973, a young man whom had been witnessing miracle after miracle for months, lay in bed and finally had to admit this whole God thing just might have something to it.  And I prayed for God to prove it.  No nothing happened.  I slept soundly, I awoke refreshed, my fears were gone and I had peace for the first time in my life.  So, pronounced was the change that I guessed He was real ... it also was apparent to many in my uncle's church.  This troubled young man suddenly seemed far less troubled!

Yeah, Trump would like to be thought of as a progressive Christian, but unfortunately, that ain't necessarily so.  Instead of giving Ben Carson black eyes, and himself some in the process, he would do better to get on his own knees and dump his heart out to God.

Daniel's Detractors - Addressing Names

From out of the 1870's came the " German Higher Criticism"; really nothing more than an attempt to discredit the Bible at a time of philosophical end fighting between scientific humanism and theologians over the mind of man.  Of course what was really at stake was the validity of the concept of God and salvation (much less sin!).

The greatest attacks were against the creation story - which no one can PROVE one way or another via scientific inquiry.  Though I sorely wish that there would be found ... but we are called to faith, not scientific observation, as the basis for salvation.

Falling not far behind is the attack against the book of Daniel.  If you can successfully break the book of Daniel - you have broken the Bible.  Or so were the boasts of the anti-Bible league.  So successful were the attacks on Daniel that even to this day, Christians buy into the arguments against the validity of Daniel .... !

However within 16 years of "German Higher Criticiam" published works on Daniel were some very well researched worked disputing, if not totally discrediting, these arguments - point by point!  And, the arguments are just repeated as though still true ...

The real argument mostly revolved around the lack of archaeological evidence, Babylon had still not been excavated by Europeans, hence obviously, no one in the book of Daniel could actually exist.

And when the Babylonians texts were translated, the detractors were correct; Daniel, Darius, even Nebuchadnezzar, not a o one of them existed in the records ...  End of argument.  The book of Daniel was obvious just a story, perhaps an Israeli pro-nationalistic play, but in no way could it have been true.  Sigh.  However as scholarship has shown, even to the point of actually talking to the people whom lived in the area, Babylonian was far more complex than first thought.  It was far more complex than any modern language and yet, it was phonetic - if you knew how to pronounce the characters.  (a strong argument for actually talking with the people of any area and not assuming you are smarter than everyone!)

So let us take Darius, King of the Medes, the one whom figured out how to break into the walled city of Babylon.  He does not exist because nowhere in the Babylonian texts is anyone with a name spelled Darius to be found.  Then again, on a mountain side was found, in huge letters carved into a cliff face: the deeds and victories of this non-existent ruler, Darius King of the Persians.  I wonder how Cyrus felt about that claim chiseled into eternity!  This was easily read by those in the valley for over 2,500 years before Europeans discovered it.  And in the Babylonian texts, Darius is known as: Darayawaush, Dorejawosch, Dara, Darab, Dareious - all variation of his name.  It depended upon the language his name was written in and to be read by.

Want a really hard one?  Try Nebuchadnezzar!  No matter how you try to decode his name,  you will end up with something appearing to be An-pa-sa-du-sis!  And here is where talking with the locals came in handy to the one whom broke the Babylonian Class 3 codes.  This odd An-pa-sa-du-sis actually is pronounced "Nebukadurriussur".  Okay, pretty darn close ...

Worse part was that all of this was known before 1857!  Long before the German Higher Criticism decided to attack the book of Daniel; including the name mess ups between English and Babylonian translations ....

Naw, no agenda there ....  But, certainly a concern when people of limited education decide to attack something they do not wish to believe in.  What can you say?  Man will always listen to those whom tell them what they want to hear.  And the the harder the understanding, the easier it is to prove an argument against it.

But, 140 years of confusing Christians or those whom might investigate Christianity, has taken its toll in the public arena of thought.