STATEMENT OF BELIEF

AMEN!

BELIEVE, RECEIVE, AND DON'T DECEIVE

FIFTH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD

       

The Mass is not supposed to be something limited to 60 minutes or so on the weekend; it is intended to be a “peak experience” that flows outward to cover your whole life. The First Letter of John tells us, “Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar . . . .”: To profess your faith only and not live it makes you a hypocrite. As John also said, “This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to walk just as he walked.” To receive the Body of the Lord and not imitate him is equally dishonest. So the next time you’re at the table of God’s word, remember it’s telling you to live what you believe and what you receive.

TODAY’S READINGS: 1 John 2:3-11; Luke 2:22-35 (202)
“Whoever loves . . . remains in the light.”

Saturday, December 29

VALUE STATEMENT

INCARNATION

“The life of Jesus is not just for his own time and for the time that has come after him, but is for men and women of alltime.  His redeeming work has been available to every member of the human family from the beginning of the world.  This perspective involves what might be called vertical time:  the eternal values breaking into horizontal or chronological time. ... Thus, at each moment of our lives the eternal values that have come into the world through Christ are available to everyone as historical time unfolds.  Our historical lifetime is given us precisely to grow into vertical time, which scripture calls 'eternal life.'" ... The Word of God was always present beyond time.  In the incarnation, he become present in time”

THE HEART OF THE WORLD, Thomas Keating

GOD IS IN CONTROL

Nobody in America feels safe anymore - floods & storms are wiping entire towns off the map; children turning into gunmen opening fire on and murdering the innocent (both physically and emotionally); and a Government that has been removing God from our culture as a nation - what are we to do? 

TURN TO GOD WITH OUR WHOLE HEARTS !

"The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth". (Psalm 145:18 KJV)

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2 KJV)

Our world has been rapidly changing for the worst - we need The Lord more now than ever before and need to preach the gospel boldly and without reservation to the lost - OUR HELP AND THE WHOLE WORLD'S HELP COMES FROM GOD!

Today my prayer for us all is that we will find our sense of safety and security in God and God alone - I love you all and pray that the peace of God will rule your hearts in Christ Jesus!

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7 KJV)

As crazy as things seem right now we can trust The Lord and even though it may not look like it - HE IS IN CONTROL!

Be blessed today and take some time to hug those you love just a little tighter!

(Romans 15:13)

Pastor Karen Cappuccio began her walk with the Lord at age nineteen. She has a passion to know the Lord in a more intimate way and to walk in a deep relationship with him. Although she was a "closet singer" for quite some time, she began to discover the destiny and calling that God has for her, and she has been worshiping and singing ever since. She has a beautiful prophetic flow in worship and leads the Body of Christ to intimate levels in His presence.

Her husband Philip Cappuccio serves as senior Pastor to Kingdom Life Covenant Church, a full Gospel church located in the heart of Hershey, PA that he and his wife founded in obedience to the word of the Lord back in 2003. In addition, Pastor Philip travels extensively, both here and overseas bringing the word of the Lord in a variety of settings: Conferences; Prophetic Presbyteries; Crusades; Bible Schools. The prophetic burden of his heart is to fulfill his life's mandate: 

Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence…  Acts 28:31

UNITY TRUMPS DISUNITY

The last month has been one of the best months of our 12-year marriage that I can remember.  And the holy part is that it had nothing to do with circumstances. It wasn’t because of a week in Hawaii, a $10,000 check arriving unexpectedly in the mail, or any other outside change.

It’s the result of a shift that God has brought at the deepest level of our core beliefs about marriage.

As the ancient proverb goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

We’ve been pursuing healing, deliverance, restoration, and freedom for many years.  We’ve individually sought personal counseling and many prayer sessions.  But it still hasn’t touched the rift of deepest pain in our marriage.  Cherie and I would both say that most of our marriage is healthy and strong. But a small percentage is incredibly painful – perennial patterns of hurting each other, missing each other’s hearts, and mutual misunderstanding lead to all sorts of problems.Then: a rescue.

Through the help of a couple who has chosen the narrow road in their marriage (Jared and Megan Anderson, thank you) and the ministry of an older and much wiser couple showing us the ancient path (thank you, Tim and Anne Evans), we were led back to God’s design and given an entirely new layer of revelation on what is possible for marriage.

They brought us back to the timeline of the Larger Story.  Our story began in Eden when all was “good” – as it was meant to be; a design that brought life. With the Fall, all hell broke loose and separation from God wreaked havoc and rendered broken almost all that our hearts hold as true, beautiful, and good (The Sacred Romance retells this story in a most compelling way).

Through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus – restoration began.  And we find ourselves partway, in the “not yet”, but headed back to Eden – to the restoration of all things.

We were challenged to begin our theology about marriage on God’s design before the Fall.  They invited us to meditate on Genesis 1 and 2 every day for three months in order to let God’s design, God’s desire, and God’s intentions find deep roots in us.

And in Genesis 1 and 2 they helped us unearth a timeless secret.Let US make them in our image… let them rule.

We were made, fashioned and formed, in the image of a Trinitarian God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  A mystery of one God who is also a holy fellowship and community, a Unity of three being One.  And we were given the assignment, and the honor to care for, protect, and graciously rule over all of creation together, man and woman.

In Genesis 2, God takes us right into his creative studio and shows us how he rendered this mystery and holy possibility. First, He draws man from the dust of the earth, from organic compost. Then He does the most intimate and extraordinary act in all creative history (relived countless times every day in maternity wards around our nation and in homes around the world): God “breathed into (Adam’s) nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). God’s spirit fills our mortal bodies with an inextinguishable LIFE from his very own breath (Eccelsiastes 3:20).

It was framed to us this way: “God brings us to life with the intimacy of a kiss.”

And then He goes into this wildly mysterious and nearly preposterous story…. Adam alone is not enough.  Humanity is not yet complete and whole.  Adam is the image of God indeed, as a man.  But not yet as a fellowship.  So Adam falls asleep, a rib is drawn from his side, and woman is created. The “crown of creation”, to quote Captivating.  The completion of the holiest landscape of beauty, wonder, adventure, and life that God could dream up.

The very next sentence contains the secret that Cherie and I have been missing for twelve years. “Therefore,” the text reads.  In other words, “All that I have just shared was prologue for this next idea.”OK, wild and creative Trinity, you have my attention.

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united (cleave) to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

A man and a woman become one.  They are united.

Jesus echoes this mystery when the legalist on divorce challenges him.  He avoids the question (and the trap) entirely by going back to this very place in the Story; he cuts to the heart by going back to God’s design, desire, and intention.

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’ ? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate…Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning” (Matthew 19:4-8).

And here is the crux.

Cherie and I are a team. We’ve been trying to fight for the best in each other; hoping that through each other’s love, we each will become more than we ever could have been without the other. But most of our life we tag team.  It’s taking turns – shuttling kids, making decisions out of efficiency, seeking God… but separately.We’ve been missing the biggest point.

Union is what He is after.

In marriage.

And in our relationship with Him.

Unity is the point. Not productivity. Not doing good things for God. Not making good decisions on behalf of our spouse. Unity cultivates increasing intimacy. And intimacy – in marriage with our partner and in union with our God – is the goal and the prize of this story.

And more is available than we have been led to believe. Much, much more.

We have both surrendered our “trump cards” in our marriage.  We have embraced a dream of cultivating our marriage to reflect and embody more of what we see available in the heroic fellowship and union of God Himself, the Trinity – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

It is not “efficient.”  We’ve had to put the brakes on in a big way.  Punt on many decisions, offload commitments, and slow down.

We’ve had to listen to each other’s heart and pain like never before.

We’ve had to come to the center of how the other is feeling, seeing, and hoping and be with each other in that place.We’ve had to seek God together and on behalf of “we” – this holy union.

And the fruit is already being realized. Joy. Trust. Hope. Kindness. Unity. Strength.

And, God-willing, slowly, one day at a time this “we”, this union, will bring about something new in this world…something dreamed up by our God since before creation, some piece of his promise to a hurting world that “all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well” (Julian of Norwich).

Unity trumps disunity.

What would it look like to unfurl this banner over your marriage and your relationship with God? What’s the next step?  The choices in this decade will set the trajectory for the rest of our lives.

Really good article from John Eldridge and Ransomed Heart Ministries.

CHRISTMAS: TRADITIONS

As a child, part of a good-sized Swedish family, the Big Event was Christmas Eve. Don't know how many of us we were--- my mother was one of five children, all married, all had children, my cousins, some were older enough than me to have their own children, my second cousins..... And we all got together at my grandparents, Mommo and Moppa. (Mother's Mother and Mother's Father in Swedish) 

The amount of food was incredible. Long tables, placed together, filled with traditional Swedish foods, made especially for Christmas. I can still remember what they were called, how they smelled and tasted..... vast quantities. Rice pudding, meatballs (Swedish style),smoked and baked and pickled fishes, different kinds of sausages, vegetable puddings, sweet & sour red cabbage, dilly beans, head cheeses..... breads..... and then the tables full of desserts afterwards. Cookies and pies and cakes and fruit and nuts.....

Course we children wanted to get all that out of the way BECAUSE after the supper, Santa Claus came to the house, and hysterical excitement ensued, as he gave each child one present!!!! 

Not long after that we went home. And awaited Santa's coming during the night, and more presents in the morning! With a traditional Christmas breakfast of "busca kaka" which is hard boiled eggs mashed with butter and spread on flat rye bread. Tons of coffee AND fruit. Delicious!

Traditional Christmas Day Dinner for Swedes.... and Christmas Day is more "laid back" than the Eve, is Ham. And Fixings. 

Childhood memories. If they weren't in my head, I'd think they were somebody else's. Seems like such a LONG time ago. Different era. My grandparents were the last of the Victorians; they had been born in the 1880s, came to this country around 1910. Both long gone now.

As the original Swedish family got overly large and the grandparents got too elderly, we all met in our smaller family groups. With my own husbands and kids, tried working out their family traditions and mine, tried to visit their people and mine. It was relatively easy with my second husband, as his family was also of Swedish descent, so we had the same sort of food & experience expectations. Including going to church. We always went to the midnight service, even at St Peter's when the kids were small, as the oldest loved the music and the youngest stretched out and fell asleep in the pew. 

The last few years have been tough. My dad passed away in 2001. My life completely fell apart. Being at the Haven, every year was different, different women. Usually I had 1-3 to bring to my mother's in Worcester with me (bless her heart, she always welcomes whoever it was). Sometimes I saw my kids and sometimes not. When I moved back to Salem and mom moved there with me, we carried on the Swedish traditions, on a small scale. We'd have the rice pudding, meatballs, smoked salmon, pickled herring, sweet & sour red cabbage, dilly beans, bread.... and then cookies. 

The last Christmas of her life--- didn't know it was to be at the time--- she was in a nursing home for rehab from CHF and I cooked the entire menu as just described, wrapped it up, and my brother, myself & Jack brought it to her room and ate it with her. She was so happy!

Her being gone the next Christmas--- I had no idea what to do. No heart to make the Swedish food, and anyway I'm not Swedish. So I think we had Pizza & Buffalo Wings. It was OK, for that year. Again, each year since has been different. A couple times we were at Carl's, once at Debbie's, and last year at Tom's. My brother spends Christmas Eve with us, stays overnight, and I make Christmas dinner. I don't care to do turkey again so soon after Thanksgiving, I usually do Roast Beef, last year I did the Ham. (Don't usually do pork of any kind--- not kosher--- but Kenny had unexpectedly requested it, and Tom & Joanne were with us, as was Fran. No complaints) 

This year I'm going to modify the Swedish traditions for my brother, myself & my husband-- unexpectedly my brother requested this--- so will make Swedish Meatballs with the light gravy (the meatballs are made with rye bread crumbs, some cinnamon, nutmeg, crushed cardammon) and the gravy is a bit creamy and one of the ingredients is strong black coffee), on Noodles, sweet & sour Red Cabbage, dilly beans, bread, and cookies. 

Maybe we will have the granddaughter over when we bake the cookies--- then I have two children to help with that!!!

We've been to different churches for Christmas Eve. Last year we went to Wesley, in Salem---- it was like a family reunion for me! My son and daughter-in-law came--- we were surprised but pleased to see each other there. And later, we went to my stepson's. 

We've decided to do the same again--- light supper, as described, early, then church at Wesley, then to the stepson's again. Stepdaughter and her daughter will be there too! I'll make cinnamon buns for breakfast on Christmas Day, and Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding for dinner. It will be just the three of us--- my son & daughter-in-law will be seeing their fathers for Christmas, and my oldest  will go to Worcester to be with his father and that family, and maybe the stepchildren will stop by late in the afternoon for coffee & dessert.

And then, thankfully, it will be OVER, for another year.

Briefly- almost everything we cherish about Christmas is PAGAN in origin, just as our roots are. The date was set by the Church centuries ago at the time of Solstice to take away from that pagan energy. Didn't work obviously. Jesus WAS born, probably in the spring- hence the shepards out in the fields with their flocks. AND if He had not died and been risen from death- for us- it wouldn't matter about his birth. 

STOP AND SEE THE FLOWERS

In her memoir Break of Day, the French author Colette recalled a letter her mother wrote to Colette’s husband declining his invitation to visit. “The reason,” she said, “is that my pink cactus is probably going to flower. It’s a very rare plant I’ve been given, and . . . in our climate it flowers only once every four years.” The willingness to place anything on hold is rare these days, especially for the sake of a houseplant. Still, there is much to be said for taking a breath and appreciating the quiet beauty of the present moment and all that is about to “flower.” It is only by paying attention that you will be able to say, as Jesus’ followers did, “We have seen incredible things today.”

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Reflection from St. Anselm: 

“Lady, full and overflowing with grace, all creation receives new life from your abundance. Virgin, blessed above all creatures, through your blessing all creation is blessed, not only creation from its Creator, but the Creator himself has been blessed by creation. To Mary God gave his only-begotten Son, whom he loved as himself. Through Mary God made himself a Son, not different but the same, by nature Son of God and Son of Mary. The whole universe was created by God, and God was born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary. God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Savior of the world. Without God’s Son, nothing would exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed.”

IN A NUTSHELL, BRIEFLY

Having some interesting internal shifts...... kind of like seismic seizures of the spirit. This afternoon have been reading and taking notes on the book I'm reading, INNER RIVER. This has helped me understand some of the internal workings in my being lately.

So, "seismic seizures of the spirit" just kind of indicates that I have a way with words, especially if they are alliterative. These internal things are not like the "spiritual emergency" I had several years ago, but are pushing me, gently and now not so gently, to move on to another level. It's kind of pleasant to plateau, some of them can be quite nice. And I've been concerning myself with what God is doing in Jack......  I've gone from plateau to plateau over time, and while it can be invigorating, it can also be tiring. Climbing up that Ladder to Heaven, that Holy Mountain..... climbing is a verb, and up is against the natural inclinations of gravity. 

Of course, what my husband is going through affects me. His forced retirement which reduced our income affects me. His bad moods about that and not finding another job affect me. But how they affect me...... is a mover to my own crisis, opportunity, and hopefully growth. 

So, in this book, written by a Greek Orthodox laymen, sociology professor at the University of Maine, who has had for many years an elder-type relationship with a monk, an abbot, from an ancient monastery on one of the Greek Islands, Cyprus, that retains traditions from the time of St Paul who preached there....... 

has given me a framework, which is just a way of thinking, that is different from what I've been exposed to via my Evangelical upbringing and Catholic catechesis. Don't worry, I'm not converting to yet another church! It's just that some of those things rumbling around inside, that I have been without the words for, now may have them. 

I want desperately to have more Quiet Time, more personal relationship with God? Almost like a complaint---- but not quite---- as we know that God HATES complaining---- and mostly I'm pleased with the life He has blessed me with, busy though it has become. More like a lament--- longing for Him, just for His Presence, with me and around me and in me, that "As a deer panteth for the water so my soul longeth after Thee...." sort of thing.

And it's not been like a depression--- even though at times our moods have been down, dealing with job disappointments and stresses with the kids and grandchild--- in that the things I have and the activities I engage in for the most part do give me pleasure. I like where I live well enough and I enjoy keeping it (it's just not HOME), the food we have is fine and I enjoy cooking it, love my kitty and snuggling with her, love my books and notebooks and computer, enjoy going to work and being productive doing something I honestly consider worthwhile, enjoy taking walks and going swimming at the YMCA, and truly love my husband and being with him, in every way. It's just that it's not quite enough. Which of course we know that the things of this world are not--- enough--- and such pleasures are fleeting and will fade in the, for lack of a better word, Immenseness of Eternity. 

So, briefly:

Orthodoxy speaks of humans being created in the Image of God, that we have the Icon of the Divine built into us. This was shattered in the Fall. (MY NOTE: "All the kings' horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again", though a nursery rhyme, refers to the prophets and priests and our fallen and shattered condition.). 

Christ's historic presence was of the Divine Archetype Manifest (AKA Word made flesh). His coming, and especially the Crucifixion was the Therapeutic Event which helps us heal our estrangement from God.

And so we have the Ecclesia, Church, meant to be a Spiritual Hospital, whose mission is to help us overcome our Existential Illness (Original Sin). It prescribes Askesis, Spiritual Exercises, such as Fasting, Prayer, Scripture Study, Vigils, Confession, Communion, as methods to restore humanity's wholeness & spiritual health. These can be likened to Physical Therapy, which prescribes exercises to restore movement & functional abilities.

Orthodoxy refers to the Threefold Way: 1) Catharsis- purification of the soul from egotistical passions

                                                                      2) Fotisis- illumination and enlightenment of the soul

                                                                      3) Theosis- union of the soul with God

Not to put too fine a point on it, but these are stages a soul goes through in its development, much like a body goes from little to big, though crawling to walking to running and back again,  and a mind goes through stages in talking, reading, intellect and beyond. Not all persons develop to the same degree, whether physically or spiritually. We have limited choice about the physical, though we do have some, being able to maximize our chances of health or illness, our ability to understand the world around us, and so we have choices in the spiritual. 

{CHOICE is also an interesting phenemena, but I digress. Another time. Perhaps.}

So it appears that I've been at Stage 1 for a LONG time, that of Catharsis. Not that I'm done with it, purification is continually necessary, on a daily and moment-ly basis. It's built into the "Twelve Steps" in fact, as crucial, to overcome addiction, considered to be a particular Spiritual Illness. So we search our souls and "when wrong promptly admit it" and if  possible, go frequently to Confession. Lifelong process, purification.

Nonethless, at a certain point, that only God knows, we are pushed from purification to move on to Fotisis, the stage which prepares our souls to meet Him. Of course, we meet Him from time to time, experience a felt sense of His Presence here and there. Sometimes we experience this a good part of the time, sometimes not. This is where I am now, and it's frustrating, very.  But now I have hope, that climbing up again, I'll eventually get to new places, and come to a new plateau. 

Just like Much-Afraid in the book HINDS FEET ON HIGH PLACES! Her companions on the Way were Sorrow & Suffering...... But she knew The Shepherd and got to know Him better, become closer to His heart.......

Anyway, that's the gist of it.    

CENTERING PRAYER

“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”

Frederick Buechner, Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation

WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH

WHAT AN UNBELIEVABLE SERVICE YESTERDAY AT "One New Man (Creation)" at Steele Creek Church of Charlotte! 

It was Thanksgiving weekend and a number of families were out of town but someone counted 56 Adults attended! A number were new! The GLORY of GOD is getting stronger & stronger in the meetings filling God's Holy Temples so we can be carriers of His Glory into a world full of darkness. 

The Worship time was powerful, the Words coming from members of the body straight from the Throne Room of Heaven were anointed, unified by theme, and lead right into the message God had placed on my heart concerning the call of the church to NOT retreat, but to receive the Sword of the Lord of boldness and Holiness! We are to stand against the gates of hell. The voting booth in this past election was powerful in setting the course for America politically for the next several years! BUT the vote we cast by entering into the Holy-of-Holies through prayer and intercession is far MORE powerful because it affects eternity! 

We are NOT insignificant. The church needs to NOT retreat and hide from standing for God's righteousness and standards for morality. Yeshua (Jesus) called us to be the SALT of the earth. This is a call for us to declare and preserve what GOD has called HOLY. We are the SALT of the earth, but if the salt looses it's power (preserving power) it will be trampled under the feet of those who are in darkness.

The main reason the church has been loosing its influence and POWER is because we have abrogated our responsibility of being the SALT of the earth. We must first follow the instruction of God for ourselves to be that SALT. God shares His instruction to us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 ... "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

It doesn't matter what the WORLD apart from Messiah Jesus does - there has been great power and authority given to the blood bought people of God (Jews & Gentiles) who have been born-again. We are HIS PEOPLE CALLED BY HIS NAME. But just being that and knowing that isn't enough. God says what is to be done NEXT...

If they "Shall humble themselves" - The church as become boastful, arrogant and prideful. In Romans 11:18-21 Paul speaks prophetically to the Church of Rome which happens to be the MOTHER of all Protestant Churches today (whether you like it or not) and Paul warns against the arrogance and unbelief that caused Israel to stumble and not recognize their Messiah.

Romans 11:18-21
18 Boast not against the branches (the natural branches being ISRAEL) . But if you boast (or are arrogant), you bearest not the root, but the root thee.
19 Thou wilt say then, The branches (ISRAEL) were broken off, that I might be grafted in. (In other words boasting that "I am the chosen one of God - look at me - I can do NOTHING wrong - I am God's Child and now that I have been saved I can live the way I want to live - do what I want to do without regard to God's Word, commandments & precepts)
20 Well; because of unbelief they (ISRAEL) were broken off, and you stand by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches (ISRAEL), take heed lest he also spare not you (the Church.)

The ROMAN Church did not HEED the words of Paul in Romans. Pride and arrogance entered in. The Church under Constantine dishonored the PARENT (ISRAEL) and rejected their Hebrew Roots. They decreed that it was sin to continue honoring the FESTIVALS (God's Appointed Times) and instead put in place Festivals (Holy Days) of their own making. You can't find the ones we celebrate in the Church today in the Bible. Yet, to this day you can find the ones God Himself Instituted in both the Old & New Testament. The 5th Commandment states in Deuteronomy 5:16..."Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you."

When the Church in ROME dishonored their parent - ISRAEL (the Natural Branches) they brought a CURSE upon the Church that we are reaping to this day. They disconnected us from the ancient roots (our Hebrew Roots) which Jesus Himself made the way in which Jews & Gentiles can now be partakers of as One New Man. The consequences of this error of dishonoring the Parent (Israel) is twofold:

1. The first promise for honoring your parent was that you will live a LONG LIFE - the Roman Church received the fruit of their arrogance against the natural Branches (for their dishonoring their Parent Israel), schism after schism began to plague the church - the protestant church was born. A search for a way back to the Early Church in it's purity and power! With each revival a truth was uncovered and some ground was gained, but because they didn't go back to honoring the parent and repenting of their arrogance against Israel, the were plagued with another schism after another. To this day, the church for the most part, continues this process of breaking apart. Contention, confusion, hatred, pride and arrogance between one denomination against another continue. The church is wandering in the desert just as Israel did trying to go regain the land promised to them. Thus, the Church is NOT living the LONG LIFE promised to those who honor their parent!

2. The second promise to those who obey this commandment is that "things will go well with you in the land I have given you." This speaks of possessing the promises of God which are our inheritance as believers in the messiah. When Rome dishonored their Parent (Israel) the promises of God began to wane. The miracles, signs and wonders, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit diminished. Within the Protestant Church their has been a rediscovery of the Gifts given to the early church. Within the Catholic Church their have been a remnant who have rediscovered the truth that these are still for the Church today. But for the most part, the church has bought the lie that the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (the Power of God) was only for the early church. They are no more. They had to have an explanation as to why we are not seeing miracles, signs and wonders as something NORMAL in the lives of believers. As great as the rediscovery of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit has been today in some circles, it is nothing compared to that which we read about in the new testament scriptures, and certainly nothing compared with the miracles, signs and wonders we read about in the Old Testament under Moses, Elijah & Elisha!

The other accusation against Israel is that they had a "form of godliness but denied the power thereof." (2 Timothy 3:5) You see that the Church both Catholic and Protestant for the most part has been reduced to a religious form of godliness without the POWER of the earl Church.

What we are attempting to do in these ONE NEW MAN (CREATION) meetings every Saturday night at 6pm is...

1. Repenting for the church dishonoring their parent ISRAEL,

2. Rediscovering the Hebrew Roots of our faith in Yeshua, The Torah has NOT been done away with, but rather, our relationship to the TORAH has been changed in light of what Yeshua (Jesus) ushered us into through the New Birth!
3. Honoring the Sabbath, the Holy Convocations (God's Appointed times) in light of their meaning in and through Jesus the Messiah.
4. Opening the meeting up for the Body of Messiah to be used in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (as done in the early church)
5. Understanding our need to become HOLY TEMPLES for God's Holy Spirit to dwell in fullness and power!
6. Going out for the meetings on fire, with a new passion and love for God and a desire to be witnesses of GOd's Kingdom to help rescue others who are perishing in the darkness.

In our meeting yesterday, God moved powerfully in all the above. Several in the meeting shared how every Sabbath Morning they go to an abortion clinic and hold church meetings. Women who were ready to abort their babies turned away from that decision. You see that is what I'm talking about. We are NOT insignificant. The church needs to NOT retreat and hide from standing for God's righteousness and standards for morality. Yeshua (Jesus) called us to be the SALT of the earth. This is a call for us to declare and preserve what GOD has called HOLY. We are the SALT of the earth,

Come and join us for our One New Man Services every Saturday Night. I am telling you thaty your life will never be the same again. Be filled with the Power & the Glory of the Rauch (the Holy Spirit) and get ready to take your place as a vibrant son or daughter of the Most High God of Israel, in and through Messiah Jesus!

by Warren Marcus-- a Messianic Jewish Believer in Jesus since October 1974., also an ordained Southern Baptist Evangelist, works in Media. 

Trust God and do good. Remain in simple faith, and walk in love.

LINCOLN

This is a truly outstanding movie! I highly recommend it....

It doesn't get into his salvation story. It is actually a slice of his life during maybe the last year or thereabouts. It shows him and the push to pass the 13th amendment, ending slavery, and shows the ultimate surrender of the Confederacy. It shows the death & destruction of our terrible civil War and the heavy burden he bore as he walked his destiny, his calling to this..."for such a time....".... engaging in politics, visiting wounded soldiers, meeting with widows and orphans. 

So though there are references to his hardscrabble upbringing, severe difficulties in relations with his father, and his learning from books and not in school, there is no real foundation revealed for the values he so deeply and tragically held through all this. And not just through the nation's difficulties and tragedies, but his own..... his mentally unstable wife, the loss of their eldest son, relationship difficulties with his middle son, and his youngest son's "strangeness". 

What Scripture he quotes is all Old Testament. Apparently he was a great storyteller, always with a point. He had a sense of humor, and he loved his family, but deeply took his responsibilities for the divided nation and its ultimate destiny very seriously. And he was honest; though he "played" politics, he refused to give or take bribes or  do things that were less than honorable.

So I think it will win some Awards for sure. Daniel Day-Lewis really "took on" Lincoln, as did Sally Field as Molly. The entire cast was superb. We always hope for a really good movie when we go and especially when it's a new movie and at the "better" theatres and we pay full price!

And the film kept selling out, repeatedly, even the later shows were already full we heard as we  were leaving the theatre, and today's shows were filling up. 

Despite our most recent election where though it was close, it showed our nation's character flaws ever deepening, when the majority voted for a man known for his socialist leanings, a direction not envisioned, worked through, fought & died for, but abhorrent to our God, and so should be to us who have inherited this and should leave at least as good a legacy and we received, we want a hero, an honest man with God-given principles unafraid to live them and push for them, even when many are against him, and against those principles. Right is right and wrong is wrong, and we mere humans cannot change this. We keep trying but it cannot be done. God created us and He created right and wrong; He is the Judge, the Author, the Finisher. We have choices and there are always consequences.

For Lincoln it was death by assassination. For this nation, a period of long and difficult, sometimes bloody Reconstruction. The South has never been the same. Sad but true, they lost their way of life and found it hard to recognize themselves. But their way of life was built on an unrighteous lie, that of slavery, based on race! And the nation continued on, towards its Manifest Destiny, which as we know, was frequently not a righteous process, and we still bear consequences for that, and for every choice we make, nationally, and individually. 

So in conclusion.....  if you can, go see this movie for yourself. Participate, briefly, in this man's life. LINCOLN.

DON’T DESTROY OUR ILLUSIONS!!

They tell the prophets to keep quiet. They say, "Don't talk to us about what's right. Tell us what we want to hear. Let us keep our illusions. Isaiah 30:10 

ISAIAH was a prophet raised up for the times!! He prophesied to Israel while many were brought into Assyrian Captivity.

During this time of political exile, the people did not want to hear what was "RIGHT" and how they must return to God. They wanted to keep their ILLUSIONS!! 

In fact, the Lord through the prophet rebuked them for looking to the "government" of Egypt for their answers and help. God reassured them that he would let the strength of Pharaoh fail them. (Is. 30:2-3)

During this time, what was worse is the people didn't want the "prophets" to speak words that would locate them, and really search them out, but rather to speak things that would enable them to continue living in their ILLUSIONS!!

Basically their illusions were that they could commingle with the world, making ungodly alliances and still be covered by God, adding sin to sin (Is. 30:1)

Isaiah continued to appeal to them to RETURN TO GOD and find true rest and then they would be delivered (Is. 30:15).

God would be gracious to them once their cry was DESPERATE ENOUGH!! (Is. 30:19)

THE CHURCH TODAY

In a similar sense, we too are living in a rapidly changing moral and political climate than we've been accustomed. Even more than ever the tide of depraved cultural values, are fast becoming emboldened as they continue to receive endorsement from the the highest office in our land. This will only increase the momentum of where the nation was already heading... Morally and Politically speaking.

In some respects, the CHURCH of the 21st Century here in America, will be known as the CHURCH in EXILE!! 

How will we respond to the change of environment? Will we turn to the Lord fully? Or, like Israel, will we continue to subscribe to those who preach things that will "tickle" our ears and not meddle with the ILLUSION that so many want to continue living in? 

The ILLUSION that the times have nothing to do with what God is wanting to accomplish within His Church and we shall go on as we have before, thinking that we will not be impacted.

My friends, the GLORY OF GOD shall be revealed, but it shall be revealed through an afflicted church. Beyond what we could've ever imagined.

We indeed shall be made to eat the BREAD oF ADVERSITY and will be passing through the WATERS of AFFLICTION. But through it all, may TRUE PROPHETS speak words in this hour that will shatter and expose the ILLUSIONS!! The ILLUSIONS that there will be no real suffering to endure, nor price to pay for what we believe. NOT TRUE... A MILLION TIMES NOT TRUE!

Let the oracles of God speak a WORD that will equip the remnant to LIVE UNDAUNTED during the days that are now fast approaching. And we all shall realize, that the GLORY that is about to be REVEALED is not worthy to be compared to the SUFFERING that this hour shall introduce.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. -Romans 8:18

Philip Cappucio, pastor, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

POST-ELECTION REFLECTION

Moses and the Gipper and the End of America

November 13, 2012

Elizabeth Scalia

I am relieved.

Now that a week has passed, and people have processed things a little, I can admit publicly what I have to date only said to a few close friends.

I am relieved at the outcome of the election.

This is not to say I am pleased. Regardless of what he said while addressing the University of Notre Dame, Barack Obama has amply demonstrated his willingness to ignore the rights of religious entities to exist and to operate—in ways that go well beyond formal acts of worship—according to their founding precepts. His administration has demonstrated its continued intention to “fundamentally transform the United States of America,” as he put it on November 1, by expanding the reach of government.

As the president might say, “make no mistake”: We do not come back from this election, and by “we” I mean America as we have known it; not with the present culture.

At National Review Online, Charles C. W. Cooke writes eloquently of this truth, but where he feels despair, I feel set free. This election has shattered, finally the illusion that if “good conservatives just keep fighting,” somehow “another Reagan” was going to come along and restore the “shining city on a hill”. For too long I have watched friends remain enthralled to the notion that a single man or woman equipped with rhetorical skills, a bit of spine, and right-thinking would be able to resurrect what is remembered by some modern conservatives as a golden age.

It’s not coming back because half the country didn’t want it,or didn’t even recognize what it had and therefore won’t miss it, and because for young adults and the generations coming up the backbone of conservative theory—rugged individualism, privacy, minimal government—is a complete non-sequitur; it does not compute. Their parents hovered and arranged play-dates and videotaped their every move; they went through public schools working on group projects rather than writing individual reports; they are less acquainted with an omniscient God than previous generations, and comfortable instead with the omnipresent camera and interfaces—the strange god of All Media, Interactive.

Quite unlike their parents, in other words, this is a generation less interested in their personal consciences; one tailor-made for living under authority, and with built-in limits to their liberties.

Is it a tragic thing that what we had is gone and won’t be coming back? Well, yes, because while it lasted it was the most remarkable engine for human freedom, ingenuity, and opportunity the modern world had ever known. But along with all of the goods we manufactured and skyscrapers we erected, we cultivated immense pride—a pride that overfocused us on the material rather than the spiritual aspects of prosperity (to do for others) and freedom (to live for others) and military might (to defend ourselves and others). When we overtipped the scales and became weighed down with McMansions we neither needed (with our 2.5 children) nor could really afford, when we began to manipulate the stock market, when we began to make war with drones and shrug off human life as “collateral damage” we justified it by saying we were the greatest nation the world had ever seen; exceptional and indispensible.

Like Moses, we let pride overcome our mission. The conservatives—obsessing on greatness—refused to acknowledge any weakness. But there is always weakness; not admitting mistakes is the greatest of them. By refusing to cede error or suggest moderation, the right allowed the left to grab on to moral arguments so few were making—about greed, and selfishness, and triumphalism—and to pervert them through the filter of secular statism, until limited taxation, individual accomplishment, and strategic military defense became caricatured as great moral evils, and most other matters became relative. In a great irony, the secularists who warned of encroaching theocracy just a few years ago claimed that the government’s way was the godly way and golly, the people were all right with that, because theological nuance just complicates things, anyway.

And that is how the GOP lost and the Democrats won; through pride and error. Our job at this point is not to save the nation. The nation is tumbling precisely the way the philosophers said it would when it became over-reliant on government. Our job, now is to save each other; to help spiritually strengthen each other for all that is yet to come.

Earlier in the week, I had an exchange with an overwrought woman who declared herself “done with God” because she had prayed for a GOP victory and felt abandoned. It became clear that the “shining city on the hill” meant everything to her; “America is not supposed to end,” she said. When I suggested that such pride might have played a part in this defeat—that Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land because of pride, and the GOP is no Moses—she railed again. When I asked her what she could worship in the nation’s stead, she replied, “nothing.”

That sort of immature faith will not sustain us through the difficult times ahead.

Believers who feel defeated by this election have actually been given a great gift; they’ve been given the opportunity to divest themselves of the sin of idolatry and pride. The battle is not between parties; it is between things seen and unseen. It is between light and dark. The stuff before our eyes, all these earthly concerns, earthly governance—it plays out ultimately for the profit of our souls, not our retirement accounts. If we are professing Christians then we understand the narrative is moving forward to a certain conclusion; the pageant of salvation leads, always, to a complete divesting of everything that has come before. The only way to victory, now is to put the Gipper to rest, and play strictly for God. And God’s ways are not our ways, his thoughts not our thoughts, his “shining city on a hill” like nothing in our imagining.

Elizabeth Scalia is the Managing Editor of the Catholic Portal at Patheos and blogs as The Anchoress. Her previous articles for "On the Square" can be found here.

AMERICA:TRUTH IS FALLEN DOWN

AMERICA: TRUTH IS FALLEN DOWN WITHIN OUR STREETS AND IT'S CRYING OUT TO THE CHURCH

"And JUDGMENT (Right Verdicts) is turned away backward, and JUSTICE standeth afar off: FOR TRUTH IS FALLEN IN THE STREET (Public Plaza), and equity (HONESTY) cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil (The LAW ABIDING CITIZEN) becometh a prey (VICTIM): and the LORD saw it, and it DISPLEASED HIM that there was no judgment (RIGHT VERDICTS)". (Isaiah 59:14-15)

HELP ME I CAN'T GET UP

We've all seen them. Those TV adds where a helpless senior falls and while on the ground the poor woman is crying out, "HELP ME, I CAN'T GET UP". But no worries, because she is wearing some small medical device around her neck, that when she presses the button, it transmits a signal and automatically dials a special help line where in short order INTERVENTION will soon arrive. 

In AMERICA, I hear TRUTH crying out within the public Square, because it is there, where IT HAS FALLEN DOWN WITHIN OUR STREETS (Public Plaza). 

UNLESS we LIFT UP TRUTH and get TRUTH back upon its FEET in the Public Plaza... HONESTY will never find a door of entrance and JUSTICE will also fail. The LAW ABIDING CITIZEN will become the true VICTIM within our nation, because PROPER VERDICTS will have been turned away backward! And all of this will be very displeasing to the Lord.

GOD'S WORD PROVIDES US WITH A MORAL BASE FOR OUR LAWS

From our inception the laws of this nation were predicated upon the TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD. We were sure to not make the BIBLE our OFFICIAL NATIONAL RELIGION BOOK, but for all intents and purposes it was our PRIMARY "MORAL CODE" BOOK for sure.

Our NATIONAL MORAL CODE was gained from the ABSOLUTES of God's Word. In fact, there was a day when they were so identified with who we were as AMERICANS, that the phrase "AMERICAN TRADITIONAL VALUES" was easily coined.

Having a proper an absolute standard as to what should be considered TRUTH, MORALLY speaking is an essential and most foundational component for the purpose of making a CIVIL GOVERNMENT and JUSTICE SYSTEM operate properly.

Over the course of the last 40 years, those TRUTHS having to do with a MORAL STANDARD that is contained within God's Word has been mocked and all but removed from the public square. Instead, we have elected to welcome into our class rooms and lecture halls, a new emphasis like SECULAR HUMANISM and SITUATIONAL ETHICS. These have become the primary ideologies that have been shaping the minds of a generation. 

Today, that generation has long since walked off their GRADUATION PLATFORMS of the government schools they had attended. And they have walked into our HALLS of GOVERNMENT and a good number have found their way behind the NATIONAL TV NEWS desks, as they visit your home every night, philosophizing through their commentaries. Listen closely and you'll hear mocked what was once esteemed as a nation.

CHURCH IN AMERICA, we must not stand idly by, and remain silent NO MORE! 

The TRUTH we hear and applaud and shout 'AMEN' over on Sunday mornings. If that is where it begins and ends for us, that is NOT ACCEPTABLE!! In fact, that is how we got in this mess in the first place. We MUST live and be willing to express what is still TRUE out in the STREETS of our culture!! 

Only now, there will be a rising price tag within our nation to do so!

Please, listen and I assure you that what you'll hear is...

TRUTH crying out to the CHURCH in AMERICA, "HELP ME, AND LIFT ME UP BECAUSE I'VE FALLEN WITHIN YOUR STREETS"!!

By the Rev Philip Cappuccio