Category: Insights

I really don’t know this gentleman, but from what I can see I am impressed. It is nice to see an American Senator who is willing to buck the system and serve the US government with his heart.

It seems that John Warner will be retiring. Although, he doesn’t seem to have the smoothest personal life, from articles commenting about his retirement it seems that he is a man who was not forced to stick to party decisions. He is known for looking at each issue and really try to represent the people of his districts/state.

With all the lobbyists, peer pressure from the parties, and other pressures associated with leadership of a country (usually gold, gals, and glory are the issues) I am sure it is really hard for senators, representatives, judges, and the executive branch to represent the people who voted them into office. The idea of going off your own heart is great. I hope all the US government civil servants will take note.

I once heard it said, “Be a teacher. Be a hero.” When it comes to examining the Bible’s keys to organizational increase, we could say, “Be a teacher. Be a success.”

Great leaders don’t hide in ivory towers plotting strategy. They teach by instilling in those around them their ideas and their values. This is the approach Jesus modeled. He was often called rabbi, which simply means teacher. His effectiveness is evidenced by the success of His pupils.

-Mac Hammond

I love to be around people with ideas. It’s easy to find people who are experts at seeing the problem. It’s the rare and valuable person who always seems to have an idea for the solution.

When you examine the qualities of the people chosen most frequently for promotion and leadership, you discover that the vast majority are people who generate lots of new ideas —fresh ways of looking at a situation. Fear keeps most people from training their minds to think creatively and keeps them from putting forth a new idea when they happen to have one.

Being a solution-oriented person with lots of ideas will position you for promotion and increase on the job.

by Mac Hammond

Having just come back from the California, it is shocking to see things like this happen. This is very interesting political commentary from Chuck Colson. A scary thought to have the United States of America losing it freedom and open society.

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=== BreakPoint with Chuck Colson ===
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Shutting Down Free Speech
The Gay Agenda Triumphant

July 25, 2007

It doesn’t pay to take your constitutional right to free speech seriously anymore — at least, not if you live in Oakland, California. There, a handful of African-American Christian women recently found out that their free speech rights had effectively been outlawed.

The women, who are Oakland government employees, had formed an organization called the Good News Employee Association. As their flyer put it, their group was, “A forum for people of Faith to express their views on the contemporary issues of the day. With Respect for the Natural Family, Marriage, and Family Values.”

As columnist George Will relates, the women posted their flyer after other employee groups, including those advocating gay rights, had advertised their activities on the city’s email system and bulletin board. When Good News asked for equal opportunity, they were told to forget it. City officials destroyed their flyer. They accused the women of Good News of being “determined to promote harassment based on sexual orientation. If the women posted any more flyers, or sent their message via email, the city warned, they would be disciplined and perhaps terminated.

In effect, as Will notes, Oakland “has proscribed any speech that even one person might say questioned the gay rights agenda and therefore created what that person felt was a “hostile environment.” While homosexual rights groups used the city’s email system to advertise “Happy Coming Out Day,” the terms “natural family” and “marriage” and “family values” are considered intolerably inflammatory, he adds.

This is why so-called “hate crimes” laws, like the one being considered by the U.S. Congress, are so dangerous. They can be used as a weapon to censor peaceful political speech that someone doesn’t like. The goal of homosexual groups is not to stop violence, or truly hateful speech; it’s to silence anyone who says that homosexual behavior is a biological disorder or a moral wrong. Mere disagreement is redefined as hate.

The Good News group has gone to court over Oakland’s attack on their First Amendment rights, and the super-liberal Ninth Circuit Court, not surprisingly, has ruled against them. The group now hopes the Supreme Court will intervene.

You and I need to be aware of attempts to encroach on our right to speak out against moral evils. We must also understand that this is ultimately a spiritual battle.

The Bible and natural law teachings tell us that God’s law is written upon our hearts and are known to all. As Christian philosopher J. Budziszewski writes in his book, THE REVENGE OF CONSCIENCE, those who rationalize their sins find it to be so much work that they require other people to support them in it. Society itself must be transformed so that it no longer stands in awful judgment.

This is why gay activist groups want to change the law to suppress any speech that identifies homosexual behavior as either a biological disorder or a moral wrong.

You and I must pray for those who are caught up in homosexuality; their lives are tragic. But we must also remember that, as the Apostle Paul puts it, we must witness to the truth, no matter what human lawmakers say or do, because we owe our ultimate allegiance to the eternal lawgiver: God.

Get links to further information on today’s topic (http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=6787)

The Japanese, Sex And Family

With a topic like sex, I am sure we’ve got your attention. In Japan, sex is a youthful thing. There is really no Judeo-Christian standard of sex being something being saved for marriage. But it is definitely not something two young people do at home. A whole industry sprung up called ‘love hotels’. More appropriately, they should be called sex hotels as they are just designed to give people a room to do something that husbands and wives are usually doing at home.

What has happened a lot in the Japanese society is pre-marital sex has been rampant. Youth have gotten pregnant and gotten married (which is a heck of a lot better than killing the baby through having an abortion which does happen) to take account for their actions. There is some abortion of babies as abortion in Japan is the lazy form of ‘birth-control`.

Once married the young couple ends up raising their children. Traditionally the Japanese wife stays at home with the family while the husband goes to work. Usually, the wife controls the bank account and budgets for the family. Unlike other countries, Japan does not allow joint bank accounts.

As time passes, the parents are focused on their kids but not too much on their relationships with each other. Many times the relationship goes cold as love is something that needs to be cherished and developed. When the children leave the home, the parents don’t have that much to talk about. Divorce in general has been taboo, but with laws are changing where wives can get half of their husbands worth.

In Japan, there are many Japanese married to foreigners. Many Japanese men married to foreign women, and many Japanese women married to western men. In general, ladies from the Philippines are known for looking after their usually aging husbands better than Japanese women. At the same time, American men are known for treating Japanese women better as there is the cultural sense of chivalry that American tend to have. For example, opening the door, walking behind the lady, giving her attention that a Japanese guy would usually not give.

One interesting phenomenon we have seen with many Japanese women married to Westerners is related directly to sex. American couples usually have very active sex lives. However, after a few years of marriage Japanese women tend to start to withhold themselves from their husbands. We have even heard of Japanese wives telling their western husbands if they want to have sex so often then they should ‘get a girlfriend’. How pathetic!

Men have a very strong sex drive and withholding yourself from your husband is very harmful to a marriage and the family as a whole. Of course, if the drive is out of your marriage then you need to do something about it. What can a husband and wife do to make their marriage deeper?

More next entry…

That is exactly what is going on in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israeli is being pressured by outside governments (US, Russia, EU) to give the Palestinians control of the land of Israeli.

This is a very short-sighted solution for an age old conflict.

This week we read about Tony Blair’s next job and his priority of ‘making a Palestinian state’. The whole situation is actually quite confusing to a person just trying to understand the situation. Norma Parrish Archbold in her book, “The Mountains of Israel” makes some very interesting points. If you don’t understand the history, you wouldn’t know that Palestine was actually created by the British. Jordan is a result of much of that.

Ms. Archbold makes it very clear that she believes that there is already a Palestinian state. If the terrorists want their own place to operate, then they should move to Jordan. She makes it also clear that Israel should never give any land because the land is an intrinsic part of Israel.

More on this.

Can everything your organization stands for be boiled down into a single concise message? It can, and it should be. At least if you want people to make a heart connection with it.

Jesus knew this. On one occasion some scholars asked him to summarize the entire Old Testament. Jesus was able to do so on the spot. He said the entire law can be boiled down to this: “Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.”

My question for you is: “Do you have a clear, concise message with which your staff and customers can connect?”

-Mac Hammond

Below is a transcript from a recent CUFI newsletter. In undergraduate work I studied political science. As I look at Iran of today, it is a very urgent situation that needs to be remedied. How exactly? I am thinking about this and I am sure so are those governments who represent goodness and peace.

This information is something you wouldn’t normally see in the news.

CHRISTIANS UNITED FOR ISRAEL (CUFI)

april 16, 2007

NEWS FLASH CONCERNING ISRAEL

Iran Plans to Build Two More Nuclear Power Plants

On Sunday, the deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ahmad Fayyazbakhsh, announced that Iran plans to build two more nuclear power plants.

These two power plants are in addition to the 40-megawatt heavy water reactor that Iran is already building and the 360-megawatt nuclear power plant that it is preparing to build.

It was also reported on Sunday that Iran has been training Iraqi Shias in secret terrorist training camps near Teheran. Thousands of Shia are being taught “advanced guerrilla warfare” in order to “attack Americans” in preparation for “their big battle with the occupiers.” According to the report, the Shia are being taught to how to destroy armored vehicles, shoot down helicopters, and utilize explosive materials. (The Associate Press, April 15, 2007).

HAMAS SUPPLYING QASSAM ROCKETS TO THE ISLAMIC JIHAD

Israeli security sources reported that Hamas is providing the Islamic Jihad with Qassam rockets.

These Israeli security sources stated that “Hamas is emerging as the lynchpin of Palestinian terrorist activities against Israel.”

This terrorist alliance enables Hamas, which is part of the Palestinian unity government, to publicly support the current cease-fire while simultaneously continuing to attack Israel through the Islamic Jihad.

It is now believed that the rockets used by the Islamic Jihad to attack Ashkelon on June 18, 2006 were provided by Hamas. (Ze’ev Schiff and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz, April 14, 2007)

iran trains thousands of iraqi insurgents !

Thousands of Iraqi Shias in the Mahdi Army, loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, are being trained in advanced guerrilla warfare tactics at a secret camp in Jalil Azad, near Tehran, according to militants who say they have spent time there.

Abu Amer, 39, said he had been trained by instructors he believed were from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. (Phil Sands Independent-UK)

Anti-Semitic Attacks Increased by 50% in 2006
Tel Aviv University reports that worldwide Anti-Semitic attacks increased by 50% in 2006.

In comparison to 2005, attacks on Jewish schools increased by 50% and attacks on synagogues increased by a third.

Britain, Australia, France, and Canada witnessed the starkest increase in anti-Semitic attacks. 2006 marked a 20-year high for anti-Semitic incidents in Britain.

“For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land”. Ezekiel 36:24

On a positive note, in 2006 anti-Semitic attacks in the United States decreased by 12%. (The Jerusalem Post, April 15, 2007)

The 2007 Passover Miracle
A massive Hamas terrorist attack that was planned to kill hundreds of Israelis during their Passover Seders in Tel Aviv was averted.

Israeli security spokespeople reported that a Hamas terrorist drove into Tel Aviv in a car with 220 pounds of explosives and large amounts of shrapnel. It is unclear why instead of detonating the explosives the terrorist turned around and drove back to Kalkilyeh where the car exploded in a “work accident.” (Gil Ronen and Hillel Fendel. Israel National News, April 10, 2007)

Message from John Hagee

Yesterday, Jewish communities around the world commemorated the horrors of the Holocaust with prayers and services in observance of Yom Ha’Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day).

Yom Ha’Shoah refocuses us on the need to do more than just say never again, but to take action to ensure never again.

Today there is a new Hitler in the Middle East – President Ahmadinejad of Iran — who has threatened to wipe out both Israel and America. Iran is rapidly acquiring the nuclear technology with which to make good on President Ahmadinejad’s threat. If we learned anything from the Holocaust, it is that when a madman threatens genocide, we must take him seriously.

During the Holocaust, too many Christians were silent, and we were left to mourn the slaughter of 6 million Jews. Today, Bible-believing Christians must speak up and stand up for Israel. We must act to do whatever we can to protect Israel’s 6 million Jews from the second Holocaust that has been threatened. We must get it right this time. Our faith demands it. The times demand it. Silence is not an option.

We as Christians have an opportunity to help ensure that another Holocaust does not happen on our watch. To make your voice heard you can me and thousands of other Christians from around America in Washington, DC July 16 to 19 at the second annual Christians United for Israel Washington/Israel Summit. You will have the opportunity to share your concern about Iran’s nuclear plans with your member of Congress. You will have an opportunity to fulfill Isaiah 62:1 which says, “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent; for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet…” and stand in support of Israel.

John Hagee