Pope Leo XIV, the newly elected pope, has recently championed the Vatican’s plan to become the world’s first carbon-neutral state by developing a large solar farm on land near Rome. This initiative is inspired by the environmental legacy of Pope Francis and aims to generate enough electricity to meet the Vatican’s needs and potentially provide excess energy to the local community. The Vatican’s efforts are part of a broader push for climate action, with Leo XIV actively promoting the transition away from fossil fuels and emphasizing the moral imperative of environmental stewardship. He also took part in the “Raising Hope for Climate Justice” International Conference in Castelgandolfo, Italy on Oct 1, where he blessed a chunk of a Greenland iceberg. See the picture:
Pope Leo asked eloquently: “What must be done now to ensure that caring for our common home and listening to the cry of the earth and the poor do not appear as mere passing trends or, worse still, are seen and felt as divisive issues?”
“Everyone in society, through nongovernmental organizations and advocacy groups, must put pressure on governments to develop and implement more rigorous regulations, procedures and controls,” the pope said.
“Citizens need to take an active role in political decision-making at national, regional and local levels,” he said. “Only then will it be possible to mitigate the damage done to the environment.”
What they still do not know is that rising CO2 levels is responsible for less than 10% of the climate change, and water in all its forms; ice, water, water vapor and clouds is responsible for over half of climate change. Land use changes are also more important. Let me explain it further:
Many years ago, around 1976 Dr. James Lovelock bought a number of Hewlett Packard 5840 Gas Chromatographs to be set up in some of the most remote places of the earth to study pollution and its effect on the climate. What he found was an unexpectedly large amount of dimethylsulphide (DMS) in the atmosphere, and that acted as a
condensation point for cloud formation. He was then a longtime paid consultant for Hewlett Packard, so he came over from his native England a couple of times a year, always willing to hold a seminar for us engineers working at Hewlett Packard Analytical, and at one of them he sprung “Daisy-world” on us before it was published; mostly to see if we could poke holes in his hypothesis. It involved a world that consisted of only two flowers, black daisies and white daisies. The computer simulation starts out with a cold world and a weak sun. The sun slowly warms up (about 1 percent every ten million years), and at some time suddenly black daisies appear and cover the earth. This warms the earth some more and white daisies appear. As the sun varies in intensity the mix of white and black daisies changes and this keeps the earth at a stable temperature, as they have different reflective properties. He then went on to say that the whole earth is like a living organism. Some time later he presented the paper and afterwards we asked him how it was received. “You won’t believe it”, he answered. ”Now there are people who actually believe the earth is a living organism. They demand follow-up articles that justifies their belief.” He had partly himself to blame, the name he had chosen was “the GAIA hypothesis,” Gaia being the Mother Earth Goddess. Talking about religion the Mother Earth people now had their goddess, and expressions like. “The earth has a temperature” became commonplace. For me, being a Christian I read with wonderment what God has to say about Creation and the Ecosystem.
Starting in Genesis 1:1; In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This can be described in scientific terms: From nothing God created space and matter. What happened to “In the beginning”? It turns out that matter has to be accompanied with space or it will not work. And time is a derived property from the existence of matter and space. Without space and matter time does not exist. So the creation of matter and space also defined the beginning of time. What about God? The laws of physics tells us you cannot create something out of nothing. This proves that we and everything else cannot possibly exist. But we do, and therefore there must have been something existing before anything existed. This is God, and He can be defied in one word: Presence. When Moses saw the burning bush he asked who it was. And God answered “I am that I am”, in a way describing the eternal presence, without beginning and end. This is the God I believe in: Out of time and space since He created it, and also in time and space since it is part of His creation.
The expression “in the beginning” is in Hebrew bereshit which means in the beginning. The same phrase begins the gospel of John 1:1 “Inthebeginning was theWord, and theWord was with God, and theWord was God.” Here the word translated beginning is “Arch” like in archangel and means “the chief” or “the most important one’ referring to the Word. It is in past tense which means that the Word existed before the beginning. Another reference is found in Titus 1:1 “inthe hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before thebeginning of time,” In this verse the word eternal and the word time is in Greek aionion , which means a very long time, like the time span of a dynasty. Nowadays eon has a meaning of a thousand million years in Geology and Astronomy, but the original meaning is a very long time which may or may not be defined. It is sometimes translated of the ages. Here is a song that spiritually speaks to me:
This Thanksgiving, as families, friends, and loved ones gather in gratitude, may we all celebrate the many blessings of our great Nation. Thanksgiving is at the heart of America’s spirit of gratitude — of finding light in times of both joy and strife. The Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving to honor a successful harvest, made possible by the generosity and kindness of the Wampanoag people. On the way to Valley Forge, as General George Washington and his troops continued the fierce struggle for our Nation’s independence, they found a moment for Thanksgiving. And amid the fight to preserve our Union during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday, finding gratitude in the courage of the American people who sacrifice so much for our country. We are a good Nation because we are a good people. The First Lady and I remain inspired by the everyday Americans who lift this country up and push us forward. Today, so many are among their family and friends, celebrating the love that binds them and creating new traditions that will carry on for generations. To anyone with an empty seat at the dinner table, grieving the loss of a loved one, the First Lady and I hold you in our hearts and prayers. America is a Nation of promise and possibilities — and that is because, every day, ordinary Americans are doing extraordinary things. Our service members and veterans have given all, risked all, and dared all to keep our Nation free. Our first responders, firefighters, and police officers risk their lives every day to keep the rest of us safe. I can see the best of America in them and in our workers and union leaders, public servants and teachers, doctors and scientists, and all who give their heart and soul to ensuring people are treated with dignity and respect. And I find hope in our Nation’s families, who sacrifice so much to achieve the American Dream and build a future worthy of our highest aspirations. This Thanksgiving — the last one I will declare as President — I express my gratitude to the American people. Serving as President has been the honor of a lifetime. America is the greatest country on Earth, and there is so much to be grateful for. May we celebrate all that unites us — because there is nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together. NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 28, 2024, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage the people of the United States of America to join together and give thanks for the friends, neighbors, family members, and communities who have supported each other over the past year in a reflection of goodwill and unity. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
This is a Christian response to this, given by Dutch Sheets (Dutch Sheets ministries, Give Him 15)
November 28, 2024
A Day of Thanksgiving
The pilgrims first celebrated the holiday Americans call Thanksgiving after their first harvest in 1621. History says it was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. The gathering lasted three days. In 1789, our first President, George Washington, issued a national proclamation of “Public Thanksgiving and Prayer, acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God.”(1) Abraham Lincoln issued another proclamation in 1863 and made it a national holiday, referring to it as “A day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”(2) In their proclamations, they refer to God as the: Almighty God (three times); that great and glorious Being; beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; the great Lord and Ruler of the Nations; Most High God; and beneficient Father. So much for the myth of separating God from America’s government.
Washington’s and Lincoln’s proclamations are reverential and God-honoring. I won’t read them, as the verbiage and style of the day are a bit different than ours, but I have included them as an attachment at the end of today’s post for those who do wish to read them. The following is a proclamation and prayer for us to offer today; please agree with me as I read it:
Heavenly Father, we in the U.S. pause today to acknowledge Your gracious and omnipotent hand. America was Your idea. You had in Your heart to form a nation of nations – Native Americans, Asians, Europeans, Africans, Latinos, Middle Easterners, and more. Though our journey included the inevitable challenges associated with human frailties, including evil actions, Your sovereign power overcame our flaws and formed the United States of America. We are very aware that this miracle was not just for our blessing and benefit; we were called to a covenantal partnership with You to release Your redemption from sin’s horrible curse. We acknowledge and agree with the words of Robert Hunt at Cape Henry in 1607: “The gospel of the kingdom will go forth from these shores, not only to this land, but to all the nations of the earth.” We agree with the words from Holy Scripture inscribed on the Liberty Bell: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof,” (Leviticus 25:10). This is our destiny and great honor.
We are thankful, Father, for the covenants our Christian Forefathers and Founders entered into with You. They sacrificed much in order to fulfill Your will, knowing they were drawn here – not just to enjoy liberty – but to accomplish Your divine purposes. We are grateful for their sacrifices made so long ago, and the incredible prosperity we have enjoyed due to their covenantal partnership with You. May they be forever honored and always see righteous fruit from their labors.
Thank You for preserving us in times of war, disease, sin, and rebellion. In the war of our birth, we were saved through appealing to heaven; in the horrific Civil War, we fought one another and lost half a million sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers, yet You kept the dream alive; in two world wars, You preserved us from evil despots intent on ruling the world. Through all the difficulties and trials of four centuries, YOU have been faithful to preserve us. “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen waketh but in vain” (Psalm 127:1). You have blessed this nation – of You, through You, and to You are all things. Thank You, gracious and beneficent God!
Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man, on this day, we as a nation thank You for Your great sacrifice in becoming one of us – a member of the human race. Thank You for experiencing the gnawing pangs of hunger, for feeling the heartbreaking pain of a loved one’s death. Thank You for walking dusty roads to heal diseased bodies, taking detours to redeem thirsty hearts, and spending sleepless nights in prayer. Thank You for exposing the wiles and hatred of the serpent, the destructive power of pride, and modeling true love. Thank You for revealing the Father to us once again, and creating the way for us to reconnect with Him as our Abba, our Papa. Thank You for paying such an incredibly high price: the incarnation, the beatings and lashing, Gethsemane, the mocking, the crown of thorns, the wrath of Hell, the hideous Cross, the stain of sin, and sting of death. Thank You.
Gracious Father, wonderful Savior, and blessed Holy Spirit, though we as a nation have dishonored, rejected, and even mocked You, Your love endures. We have worshiped idols, embraced false religions, shed innocent blood, defiled Your marriage covenant, and expelled You from our schools – yet Your mercies endure. Our government has risen up against You in pride and rebellion, rewritten Your laws, legislated murderous and immoral rights, and declared that You are no longer welcome in their functions and procedures – yet You have demonstrated amazing grace and patience. And while the church should have been Your instrument of preservation from these ills, she became lukewarm, complacent, and ineffective.
In spite of these and many more evils, You have promised to save America, healing our brokenness, returning our hearts to You, and preserving our destiny. Thank You, gracious Father. Thank You for the restoration occurring in the church; thank You for the army of intercessors You have raised up here and around the world – we owe them so much. Thank You for the awakening that has begun in America, regarding both our spiritual condition and the horrible fruit this has produced. Thank You for the overthrowing of evil in our government that has begun. Thank You, in advance, for the greatest worldwide outpouring of Holy Spirit in all of history. Because of Your mercy, America will once again be a strong voice for the gospel of the Kingdom throughout the earth. For all of this and more, we give You thanks.
I have been praying for a revival for a few years, This time it is critical, and when it comes it will be worldwide thanks to the power of internet and what it means for both good and evil. It has enabled the spiritual warfare to increase to unprecedented levels. There was a time not long ago when people communicated with each other, went to church on Sunday and endured yet another sermon they had heard three years ago and it was time to preach it again according to the three year cycle, and not much happened, but there was a few people who preyed for a revival, such a one that had happened before in their youth. Such it was on the island of Lewis in the inner Hebrides, and this short video will tell the story vividly:
This is the day of the one and only presidential debate, and 28% of the people want to know more about Kamala Harris, but only 9% want to know more about Donald Trump. I didn’t know this about him until a few days ago, when I looked up Duncan Hines and the Hebrides revival, a fact he vehemently denied. He claimed the revival had already started when he arrived, thanks to the two old women and the young Donald Smith.
Anyhow the Bible given to Donald Trump by his mother was used at the 2017 presidential. inauguration together with the 1861 Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his taking the oath of office.
This is an example of the synergy of the ages .Two elderly shut-in ladies prayed for years for a revival, and nothing happened, but suddenly it did, and the effects goes down for generations
Pray for the revival. God uses the most unlikely characters to accomplish His purposes.
The house just passed the antisemitism bill HR 6090 320 to 61. It codifies the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. This means that certain historical facts, such as Jesus was condemned by the Jewish leadership for being a blasphemer, proclaiming that He and God the Father are one, and as such he could forgive sins. This was of course blasphemy, punishable by death, but since only the Romans could execute the death penalty Jesus was handed over to the Romans to be crucified.
To blame this generation of Jews for a historical fact that happened 2000 years ago is of course wrong and antisemitic, but history is history cannot be changed. It happened. The Jewish leaders even helped to prove the resurrection by setting a guard to prevent it from happening. To call historical facts antisemitism is as ridiculous as blaming a Swedish immigrant (of which I am one) for being guilty of lynching a black youth in Mississippi in the early 1900’s just for being white too.
From one to another I hear the college uprisings “From the river to the sea. Palestine shall be free” . A reporter asked demonstrators what river they referred to. A few, but not all knew it reo the Jordan river. Then an old song came back to me from the time 50 ears ago when I was just saved, and it has been ringing in my head every time I see video clips from the ivy league colleges. It goes like this:
We have heard the gospel sound; Jesus saves! Jesus saves;
Spread the Good News all around! Jesus saves, Jesus saves.
From the River to the sea; Jews and Gentiles,Muslims be,
Born again and so set free: Jesus saves, Jesus saves
The land between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea is called the holy land by Jews, Christians and Muslims. These are the three religions that claim the land is Holy. The Jews claim the land was given them by God himself, being descendants of of Abraham from ISAAC, the Son of Promise, The Christians claim it is holy by adoption, and the Muslims by Ishmael, the firstborn son of Abraham. It all points to Jerusalem, being the Holy City
First, the Jews: They are looking for their Messiah. The Messiah is fully described in Isaiah 9:6
Child: Shows the humanity of Christ
Son, shows the deity of Christ, being given bu God, of the same kind.
It also shows the unity of God, Father, Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, three aspects of God, three in one, the triune God, the Trinity.
There is one more instance of El Gibbor in the Old Testament. In Jeremiah 32:18 it says: “Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, (El Gibbor) YHWH of hosts, is his name,”
This time there is no question that El Gibbor is Jehovah himself.
The other big prophesy is found in Chapter 53, the Suffering servant. It begins in chapter 12, verse 13. The passage on the suffering Servant is never read in Jewish Synagogues, not in the triennial reading, nor at Holy days. Up to now the LORD, through the prophet Isaiah has referred to his servant Israel, and in one case, in Isaiah 45:1 Cyrus: Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, and 45:4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
Here God refers to the other anointed, the Messiah. No other chapter in the Bible is quoted more in the New Testament. because of this it was more or less mathematically proven that Isaiah was edited and Isaiah 53 was added about 400 A.D. as well as a number of other prophecies. Then in 1947 they found the Dead Sea Scrolls and more than a hundred years of source critical Bible analysis had to be abandoned. The Dead Sea Scrolls had been copied from even older copies more than 140 years B.C. Let God’s word speak for itself.
Chapter 53, the Suffering servant really begins in chapter 12, verse 13. The passage on suffering Servant is never read in Jewish Synagogues, not in the triennial reading, nor at Holy days. Up to now the LORD, through the prophet Isaiah has referred to his servant Israel, and in one case, in Isaiah 45:1 Cyrus: Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, and 45:4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
Here God refers to the other anointed, the Messiah. No other chapter in the Bible is quoted more in the New Testament. because of this it was more or less mathematically proven that Isaiah was edited and Isaiah 53 was added about 400 A.D. as well as a number of other prophecies. Then in 1947 they found the Dead Sea Scrolls and more than a hundred years of source critical Bible analysis had to be abandoned. The Dead Sea Scrolls had been copied from even older copies more than 140 years B.C. Let God’s word speak for itself.
Yet, when Jesus came, he was rejected, not by the people for they loved him, but condemned by the leadership of the Jews, he performed miracles, even on the Sabbath, but worse than that, he forgave sins, which only God can do, so he committed blasphemy and was sent over to the Romans to crucify him, since the Jews did not have authority to execute people. It was all in accordance with scripture, and the Jews of today cannot be condemned for that. They still have the opportunity to embrace Jesus as their Messiah, and thus be redeemed.
For Gentiles shat embrace Jesus it is simple; They become children of Abraham by adoption. This can be best explained in Paul’s epistle to the Romans; Chapter 4.
The important takeaway from this passage is that Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins, the death on a cross. He was buried and the tomb was sealed by the Jewish leaders to prevent him from being taken away from the tomb. But Jesus was risen from the dead. Thar is why the empty cross is the symbol for us, who worship the risen savior! The empty cross symbolizes redemption, we live in the time of grace, our sins are forgiven.
With the Muslim,also claiming Al-Qudz (Jerusalem) as their Holy City. Now it is getting more complicated. The Oslo accords tried to establish a two state solution, Both Istael and Palestine should be recognized as states. Now Yasser Arafat entered and tried to establish a diplomatic solution. In an interview he grudingly accepted Israel as a state, but when the interviewer tried to make him repeat his acceptance in Arabic he hemmed and hoed and could never get himself to do so. Why was that? It is because their Holy Quran states that Israel will never again rise to be a nation. If Israel becomes a nation again that would make Muhammad a non Prophet. There are other diffences between the Bible and Quran The Bible lists ten plagues of Egypt, The Quran has only nine, the death of the firstborn is missing. This plague lead to the passover, one of the most important commemorations in the Jewish Calendar. It is also the day when Jesus was crucified, very important for Christians. The Quran teaches that Jesus was never crucified, it only seemed so to the Jews; instead Jesus was directly translated to heaven. A holy God would never punish his son that way!
The final thing that separates Muslims from Christians is the claim that the Bible is falsified, and when Jesus speaks of another comforter, he really meant Muhammad. This can be found in John 14:
Another Comforter: αλλον παρακλητον ( allon parakleton) meaning one of the same kind as Jesus.
Some Muslims say the Bible has been altered and should have read perikleton rather than parakleton, claming the Bible has been falsified to fit Jewish and Christian beliefs and only the Quran is true.
This requires many steps of faith on account of the Muslims. 1. Jesus, Mary and Moses were really Muslims and spoke of Muhammad. 2. The New Testament is falsified. 3. Ignore the Dead Sea Scrolls, and 4. When Jesus speaks of the Spirit of Truth he really means Muhammad, not the Holy Spirit as He says in verse 26.
As a Christian I am free to take God’s Word for what it says.
What separates Christianity from both Judaism and Islam is the redemption, the forgiveness of sins by the cross, and by accepting this we can participate in his resurrection and have everlasting life. The life will change as we transition from earthly life into the presence of Jesus, and that is why our symbol is the empty cross: We serve a risen savior!
This year, president Biden has decided to sit out the 22 anniversary of the 9/11 attack by being in Alaska. He had to be at the G20 conference but decided to add a trip to Vietnam after the conference. He should have done it before, showing the importance of Vietnam and their rare earth metals. But then again, wisdom has never been the characteristic of Joe Biden:
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1)
The original location where the iron cross was found, standing out in the rubble like this.
For Muslims the cross is an offense since it contradicts the Holy Quran. For them Jesus did not die on the cross but was directly translated to God. For atheists and humanists the cross is an offense since to them it suggests we need a redeemer, and that reminds them of their mortality. But to us who believe it is the symbol of redemption and new eternal life in Christ. If they were not pricked in their hearts when they see the cross they would not be offended.
Christ died on the cross at Ground Zero.
We have only one risen hero.
But the fools reject grace,
stay condemned, cannot face
The truth in The Cross at Ground Zero.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (St. John 3:16-17)
An intermediate location for the cross
The final resting place for the Iron cross near the 9/11 museum.
In 2015, the guest host on OAN shared these thoughts on Aug 28, in preparation for 9/11.
These were the final words of Governor Sarah Palin after a successful week anchoring “On Point” with the One America News.
Governor Palin is a true servant. Her parents, Chuck and Sally Heath, worked at the stinky Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island, New York in January and February 2002 as part of a federal Department of Agriculture program.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Heath said he and his wife had worked to keep sea gulls and rats from scavenging the human remains in the debris. Mr. Heath, then 70, a retired science teacher, and Mrs. Heath, then 68, a retired secretary, had worked for the Agriculture Department for 15 years. They traveled around the world dealing with “nuisance” animals like rats and bears.
“A lot of people just didn’t like the job, it was kind of a morbid thing,” he said of the work at the landfill. “But I thought it was part of history.”
This is the attitude of a servant.
After the 9/11 attack the country got together to rebuild the country again. Many quoted Isaiah 9:10 “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”
Isaiah 9:10 has been quoted by politicians as a message of resilience and hope. This message was scribbled by President Obama in 2012 on a building near Ground Zero. Other Politicians have quoted Isaiah 9:10. John Edwards quoted it directly on the third anniversary of 9/11, not realizing that the message is not one of hope, but of utter arrogance. Today’s message by President Biden is “Build back better”, same message, one of utter arrogance. It is clear from the context:
What comes before the message that came down on Israel? Of course verse 6 and 7:
Child born: Shows the humanity of Christ
Son given, shows the deity of Christ
It also shows the unity of God as Father, Prince of Peace as Son and Wonderful Counselor which is the Holy Spirit, three aspects of God, three in one, the triune God, the Trinity.
This message brings us full circle back to Jesus Christ, the one who died at the original Ground Zero, but rose again. There will be no “build back better” unless there is a revival, a return to God, a great awakening. This present government has by its actions shown that American Exceptionalism is dead, we will do better by abandoning our citizens and allies and negotiate with terrorists who will be fully installed in Afghanistan on 9/11. We will from now on be under Global Governance.
The aim of China is to be the dominant force in the world by 2030. Recent events have made them speed up the time table by at least 5 years after successfully interfering in the last election by openly favoring Joe Biden. The greatest fear of the Chinese Government are the 300 million or so closet Christians in China, a number that just keeps growing. The other fastest growing churches are the Christians in Iran and Afghanistan. In Myanmar Christians are now openly persecuted and some are killed, in Pakistan many are persecuted for blasphemy. There are now more Christian martyrs than ever in history, and even our own State Department considers evangelical Christians our greatest threat, greater than Taliban.
Pray for a worldwide revival of God’s people and an even greater awakening of Biblical Proportion!
Elizabeth Cotten was born Jan. 1893 in Carrboro N.C. She died Jun. 1987. Before she died, at age 92 she performed her song ‘Freight train’, which she had composed at age 11. She got inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame On Nov 7 2022.
No, Joe Biden, it is not age, it is talent, health and a clear mind that makes you able to perform until old age. Let’s begin to count Joe’s blunders. one by one. Here is the first verse: (To the tune of freight train).
One way governments have been trying to combat climate change is to subsidize renewable energy such as wind, solar and biomass. Wind and solar makes some sense since they do not emit any CO2 after the iron and rare earth metals have been mined using mostly diesel fuel and electricity, but biomass?
Ever since the people began to use fire to cook their food, biomass has been the fuel of choice. In forested areas wood was preferred, but if there were no trees grass was used, and if there was no grass people used and still use dried cow dung. It is used to cook the meal of the day in an open fire, a primitive stove or a clay oven. It is very polluting, even toxic, and most of the fertilizing properties of cow dung is lost, depriving the land of replenishing the ground. The environment would benefit immensely by switching to electric. The fastest and least expensive way to electrify developing countries is to build coal fired plants. The only benefit of cow dung is that it is locally produced, and transportation is one of the hindering factors for modernizing.
The biggest change that can happen to any village happens at electrification. The change from cooking over open fire to using an electric stove is enormous. It is also a major health improvement to not have to breathe in toxic smoke. Electrification must come first. In some tropical areas up to 70 percent of the food is destroyed by excess humidity and lack of refrigeration.
The first step in electrification must still be to build small coal fired plants to provide base power.
Meanwhile, during the COP27 conference President Biden promised $55 Billion in aid to Africa to promote ‘climate justice’. The aid would go out in form of solar panels and wind turbines, but most of all in promoting health care in the form of vaccines, ivermectin to protect against river blindness and reproductive rights in the form of free birth control and abortions. The villagers dream of an electric stove to get rid of the unhealthy smoke, and a cell tower to communicate with the rest of the world so they can increase commerce. But the bureaucrats that flew in to Cairo attending the conference in style with limos and lavish dinners dream of ‘climate justice’ money, so they can complete their Mercedes and Land Rover fleet, and drive around their countries making more environmental impact reports on their yet to be started grand plans; to be presented at the next COP conference.
In the meantime forests are being cut down and aquifers depleted leading to an even bleaker environmental future.
The people that have shown the best return on investment are Christian help organizations that concentrate on education and solving the food and water problems, all with a view of understanding how to preserve and improve the local ecology.
Oh, apropos ivermectin, there is a correlation in using it to combat river blindness and COVID-19. The African countries that use it have a 90% less occurrence of COVID-19 than the countries that do not use it. Scientists are puzzled why, not to the point of making a scientific study of it, for ivermectin is too inexpensive to make it profitable. Here is a picture showing the data:
“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”
The quote comes from a speech that President Obama delivered to the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2012 about the death of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. At that time he still blamed a video.
Muslims claim, and the religion of Islam demands that Muhammad was “The Prophet”. This claim comes from what Muhammad called “the Book”, Deuteronomy 18: 17-22
17 The Lord said to me (Moses) : “What they say is good.18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”
21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.
After Muhammad fled from Mecca to Medina he started to proclaim he was “The Prophet” His new followers wanted to make sure he was “the Prophet” so they asked the Jews. The Jews immediately answered “No, he is not The Prophet. The Prophet must be an Israelite, and Muhammad is an Ishmaelite, so he is an impostor”. That didn’t sit well with Muhammad, so he ordered his followers to start praying to Mecca instead of praying to Jerusalem, as had been their practice until then. His always cooperating archangel provided a convenient revelation that that was indeed so. Since then Muslims have prayed to Mecca instead of Jerusalem, and been on the warpath against the Jews.
So, Muhammad was not “The Prophet”. Was he even a Prophet?
Everything a prophet proclaims must come true for him to qualify as a Prophet. One miss, and you are out. One prophecy Muhammad claimed was that the Jews would never be a unified nation again, and that they would not be able to fight militarily against the Muslims.
“They [the Jewish people] will not fight you (even) together, except in fortified townships, or from behind walls. Strong is their fighting (spirit) amongst themselves: thou wouldst think they were united, but their hearts are divided: that is because they are a people devoid of wisdom.” (Surah 59:14).
The seven day war and other wars since the formation of Israel in 1948 proves this prophecy wrong. (The opposite of what was prophecised has occurred)
Logic demands that Muhammad was not a prophet.
The Muslims have chosen another explanation: Israel does not exist, will never exist, has no right to exist and all fighting that has occurred in the Mideast can be explained by other means. There never was a genocide of Armenians, the holocaust never occurred and so forth.
After President Anwar Sadat of Egypt signed the peace accord with Israel together with Begin and President Carter, he was promptly assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is my opinion that the only solution possible for peace in the Middle East is a reformation of the Muslim faith, accepting the violent history of Islam, its slavery and oppression, abandoning all physical claims to future world dominance, separating out the spiritual claims, and abandoning their geographical dreams of physically conquering the world. There are plenty of Muslims here in the USA willing to work towards that goal, but unfortunately they are not accepted by President Obama, who still prefers to work with the Muslim Brotherhood and their affiliates.
This is my take on it: Judge for yourselves.
“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”
The quote comes from a speech that former President Obama delivered to the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2012 about the death of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. At that time he still blamed a video.
Muslims claim, and the religion of Islam demands that Muhammad was “The Prophet”. This claim comes from what Muhammad called “the Book”, Deuteronomy 18: 17-22
17 The Lord said to me (Moses) : “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”
21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.
After Muhammad fled from Mecca to Medina he started to proclaim he was “The Prophet” His new followers wanted to make sure he was “the Prophet” so they asked the Jews. The Jews immediately answered “No, he is not The Prophet. The Prophet must be an Israelite, and Muhammad is an Ishmaelite, so he is an impostor”. That didn’t sit well with Muhammad, so he ordered his followers to start praying to Mecca instead of praying to Jerusalem, as had been their practice until then. His always cooperating archangel Gabriel provided a convenient revelation that that was indeed so. Since then Muslims have prayed to Mecca instead of Jerusalem, and been on the warpath against the Jews.
So, Muhammad was not “The Prophet”. Was he even a Prophet?
Everything a prophet proclaims must come true for him to qualify as a Prophet. One miss, and you are out. One prophecy Muhammad claimed was that the Jews would never be a unified nation again, and that they would not be able to fight militarily against the Muslims.
“They [the Jewish people] will not fight you (even) together, except in fortified townships, or from behind walls. Strong is their fighting (spirit) amongst themselves: thou wouldst think they were united, but their hearts are divided: that is because they are a people devoid of wisdom.” (Surah 59:14).
The seven day war and other wars since the formation of Israel in 1948 proves this prophecy wrong. (The opposite of what was precised has occurred)
Logic demands that Muhammad was not a prophet.
The Muslims have chosen another explanation: Israel does not exist, will never exist, has no right to exist and all fighting that has occurred in the Mideast can be explained by other means. There never was a genocide of Christian Armenians, the holocaust never occurred and so forth.
After President Anwar Sadat of Egypt signed the peace accord with Israel together with Begin and President Carter, he was promptly assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is my opinion that the only solution possible for peace in the Middle East is a reformation of the Muslim faith, accepting the violent history of Islam, its slavery and oppression, abandoning all physical claims to future world dominance, separating out the spiritual claims, and abandoning their geographical dreams of physically conquering the world. There are plenty of Muslims here in the USA willing to work towards that goal, but unfortunately they are not accepted by Ex President Obama, who still prefers to work with the Muslim Brotherhood and their affiliates.
The second hint that Barack Obama is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
On September 1 2014 Egypt’s largest newspaper claimed on its front page that Obama is a full fledged member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood called for “a long, uncompromising jihad” in Egypt just days after a delegation of the Islamist group’s key leaders and allies met with the State Department, according to an official statement released last week.
While the President himself did not attend (as far as we know) the State Department meeting was attended by a deputy assistant secretary for democracy, human rights, and labor and other State Department officials.
The Muslim Brotherhood statement also was issued just two days before a major terror attack Thursday Jan 29 in Egypt’s lawless Sinai region that killed at least 25.
“It is incumbent upon everyone to be aware that we are in the process of a new phase, where we summon what is latent in our strength, where we recall the meanings of jihad and prepare ourselves, our wives, our sons, our daughters, and whoever marched on our path to a long, uncompromising jihad, and during this stage we ask for martyrdom,” the statement from the Muslim Brotherhood reads.
Then February 4 2015 ex President Barack Obama met with Muslim leaders in the East Room of the White House, off limit to reporters. We were not to know the content of the President’s message, only that it is none of our business, neither are we to know who attended the meeting, “since they are private citizens and their privacy needs to be protected”.
This does not pass the smell test.
Which leads to verse 22 of the Obama Impeachment song (sung to the tune of “Please release me, let me go”)
These are my opinions and I do not attribute any of them to Kathy Barnette, except that she has been accused to hold the view that Islam and Christianity are incompatible, you cannot hold both views.
Oh, and one more thing: Kathy Barnette just tweeted:
I have released all my military records. Has Dr. Mehmet Oz released released all his Turkish military records?
President Joe Biden explained today in a short speech on inflation that the biggest obstacle to his program is the Ultra MAGA Republicans that has taken over one part of the Republican party rendering governing nearly impossible considering his small majorities in both the House and the Senate.
It is now one week until the Pennsylvania Senate Primary, so it is time to look who to vote for. I saw the same attribute given to Kathy Barnette. Her fatal flaw is that she is Ultra MAGA. So I took a second look at her, and this is what I found. She is Black, and is running as a Republican. She was conceived out of rape when her mother was only 11 years old. She grew up in poverty on a pig farm. She clawed herself up and got both a bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in economics. She has served many years in the Army Reserve. But she has made the most important choice in her life. She is pro- life. As it says in the Holy Bible:
Deuteronomy:30:15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to say if President Biden believes a 15-week-old unborn baby is a human being during one of her press briefings.
“Does the president believe that a 15-week-old unborn baby is a human being?” a reporter asked Psaki.
“Are you asking me if the president supports a woman’s right to choose? He does,” Psaki said.
This is what a 15 week old unborn baby looks like
The two verses above was from the King James Bible.The context is that Moses, having been forbidden to enter the promised land gave his final instruction to the people before they were to finally end their desert journey by crossing the Jordan River. This is from the New International Bible.
This is one of Kathy Barnett’s commercials telling quite well what it means to be an “Ultra MAGA” person.
In 1995 a girl was born with undeveloped optical nerves and mild cerebral palsy. She was not expected to live more than at most one year. But God had other plans for her. At age two she began to sing. Her love for singing praises to God has never ceased. And so, in God’s providence she was chosen to sing at the 2017 inauguration interfaith prayer service. And sing she did! Her name is Marlana VanHoose, a little girl, but with a voice.
Meanwhile, the media was busy tracking the protest rallies all around Washington that day. I watched all day and never saw it.
How did the audience that was privileged to watch react? It is worth to listen to it a second time, this time around watching the reaction of the public in attendance, notably Melania Trumps reaction.
After the song Melania led the standing ovation to acknowledge God’s grace, not only for the song, but for the whole day and for the whole presidency.
This is what give us evangelicals hope. She not only sang it, she also sang the third and fourth verses, so often omitted in public settings, especially in interfaith services. Why is that so important?
Let us look at the history of “O store Gud”, and how it came to be the most favored Hymn of at least three presidents before Donald Trump!
Clouds have always been my fascination. They come and go, form and disappear, cool by day and warm by night. But most impressive of all are thunderstorms, forming when the temperature and humidity are high, transport a lot of water vapor to higher elevations, there condensing as rain or ice, coming down, cooling and watering the earth. Clouds and thunderstorms are the thermostat of the earth. Without it the earth would respond like climate models, predicting a sharp temperature rise as carbon dioxide levels increase. The models are all flawed, since they predict a hot spot in the troposphere over the equator, but there is none. The thunderstorms in the tropical doldrums take care of that. “Settled science” instead has settled on ignoring the lack of the hot spot, for to acknowledge it would make the global warming claim invalid.
I thank God for providing us with a thermostat that protects the earth from overheating, and especially for thunderstorms!
Such was the case in July 1885, when Carl Boberg, a 26 year young pastor of a small congregation of the Swedish Missionary society was the honored guest of the ladies’ auxiliary annual picnic, held in a meadow near Mönsteråsviken, (a bay of the Baltic Sea in southeastern Sweden). The day was perfect, the sky was clear, pleasant temperatures, the cows were grazing on the meadow, the birds were singing, in short, a pastoral idyll. Then it happened. In a few short minutes thunderclouds appeared out of nothing. There was no time to go home, so they all sought shelter in a barn close by. The rain came down hard, and lightning struck a nearby tree. Then as suddenly as it started the rain stopped and all was calm. In Sweden it turns much cooler after a thunderstorm, and the birds sing like they got a new lease on life.
They all went home, and the young pastor pondered the events of the day. He
080419-11, digital 28,8 mb RAW, 12-00 Koltrast, Turdus merula Uppland
heard the Koltrast singing its melodic, beautiful drill
and in a distance he heard the church bells ringing from Kronobäck’s church. The bay was calm like a mirror, and inspired he started penning the song “O store Gud”. Here are the first four verses in Swedish:
O store Gud, när jag den värld beskådar Som du har skapat med ditt allmaktsord Hur där din visdom väver livets trådar Och alla väsen mättas vid ditt bord /: då brister själen ut i lovsångs ljud: O store Gud, o store Gud!
När jag hör åskans röst och stormar brusa Och blixtens klingor springa fram ur skyn När regnets kalla, friska skurar susa Och löftets båge glänser för min syn – /: då brister själen ut i lovsångs ljud: O store Gud, o store Gud!
När sommarvinden susar över fälten När blommor dofta invid källans strand När trastar drilla i de gröna tälten Vid furuskogens tysta, dunkla rand /: då brister själen ut i lovsångs ljud: O store Gud, o store Gud!
När jag i Bibeln skådar alla under Som Herren gjort sen förste Adams tid Hur nådefull han varit alla stunder Och hjälpt sitt folk ur livets synd och strid /: då brister själen ut i lovsångs ljud: O store Gud, o store Gud!
He continued to write and write of all the mighty works that God has made and what He has given us through His word, and continued long into the night. Before going to bed he had penned over twenty verses. The next Sunday he wove the poem into his sermon. The congregation loved it, but that was about it. Slowly the word got around that the poem was pretty good, and after much editing 9 verses were published in the local newspaper Mönsteråstidningen in 1886. Carl Boberg didn’t make any efforts to publish it further, and was surprised when he heard it sung a few years later to a Swedish folk melody (in 3/4 tempo). This was then published in the periodical “Sanningsvittnet” (witness of the truth) in 1891.
It was translated into German by an Estonian, Manfred von Glehn. Five years later it was translated into Russian by Ivan S. Prokanoff, the Martin Luther of modern Russia. It was published in a book with the title “Cymbals”.
Later, while in the Carpathian Mountains of what is now Western Ukraine the English Missionary couple Mercy and Stuart Hine heard the song sung in Russian, this time as a wandering song in march tempo. He got impressed by God’s great works in the Polish mountains, and as Stuart Hine heard the people singing it on their way to church he penned a translation. This became the first and second verse:
O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder, Consider all the works Thy Hands have made; I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Refrain: Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art. Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
When through the woods, and forest glades I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.
Refrain:
From now on the English version is different from the Swedish original, and it is time to step back and look at a very brief history of Eastern Europe. Before World War I Eastern Europe was basically under the Russian Tsar. Finland was a grand Duchy under Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were separate entities but under Russia. Poland was under Russian rule. Belarus didn’t exist and what is now Ukraine was part Russian and part of the Austrian/Hungary empire. The Russians tried to stamp out the Ukraine language but were only partly successful. Then came the Great War and the world changed. Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and some more became independent states . During the Great War the Russian Revolution started and civil wars broke out. Nowhere was the fighting worse than in what was to become independent Ukraine. Up to six armies were fighting for control, and the corruption was unimaginable. Finally the Bolsheviks took control of Ukraine and Joseph Stalin “restored order”. One of the Bolshevik ideals was to control all production and that included all farming. Ukraine was then known as “the bread basket of Europe”. It was during this time the Hines started their ministry in Ukraine. The collectivization of the farms was disastrous to say the least. Farmers know the right time to sow and harvest, they look at the clouds in the sky, pray and go ahead. This is far more efficient than centrally planning when to sow and harvest by order from bureaucrats in a city far, far away, and so there was famine in both Russia proper and Ukraine. But the Ukrainians had put up a lot of resistance, so Joseph Stalin decided to punish the Ukrainians by taking away all their harvest and dole it out to the starving Russians. This resulted in the Holodomor (death by hunger) and at least 3.9 million Ukrainians died. This was in 1932-33 and the Hines were forced to evacuate to Poland, in what is now South West Ukraine.
This is the origin of the third verse: It was typical of the Hines to ask if there were any Christians in the villages they visited. In one case, they found out that the only Christians that their host knew about were a man named Dmitri and his wife Lyudmila. Dmitri’s wife knew how to read — evidently a fairly rare thing at that time and in that place. She taught herself how to read because a Russian soldier had left a Bible behind several years earlier, and she started slowly learning by reading that Bible. When the Hines arrived in the village and approached Dmitri’s house, they heard a strange and wonderful sound: Dmitri’s wife was reading from the gospel of John about the crucifixion of Christ to a houseful of guests, and those visitors were in the very act of repenting. In Ukraine (as I know first hand!), this act of repenting is done very much out loud. So the Hines heard people calling out to God, saying how unbelievable it was that Christ would die for their own sins, and praising Him for His love and mercy. They just couldn’t barge in and disrupt this obvious work of the Holy Spirit, so they stayed outside and listened. Stuart wrote down the phrases he heard the Repenters use, and (even though this was all in Russian), it became the third verse that we know today: And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing; Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in; That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin.
Refrain:
The second world war broke out, and the Hines were forced to return back to England, but they continued their ministry. The fourth verse was was added by Stuart Hine after the Second World War had ended. His concern for the exiled Polish community in Britain, who were anxious to return home, provided part of the inspiration for Hine’s final verse. Hine and David Griffiths visited a camp in Sussex, England, in 1948 where displaced Russians were being held, but where only two were professing Christians. The testimony of one of these refugees and his anticipation of the second coming of Christ inspired Hine to write the fourth stanza of his English version of the hymn. According to Ireland: One man to whom they were ministering told them an amazing story: he had been separated from his wife at the very end of the war, and had not seen her since. At the time they were separated, his wife was a Christian, but he was not, but he had since been converted. His deep desire was to find his wife so they could at last share their faith together. But he told the Hines that he did not think he would ever see his wife on earth again. Instead he was longing for the day when they would meet in heaven, and could share in the Life Eternal there. These words again inspired Hine, and they became the basis for his fourth and final verse to ‘How Great Thou Art’:
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow, in humble adoration, And then proclaim: “My God, how great Thou art!”
Refrain
The complete song was soon published, not in England but in the Soviet Union (in English). The famous Gospel singer George Beverly Shea got hold of it, liked it a lot, but he wanted to change two words in the first verse: Instead of works, he wanted to use worlds, and instead of mighty he wanted to use rolling. Very reluctantly Stuart Hine agreed, but only for use in the Billy Graham Crusades. It was first sung in Canada in 1955.
It became so popular that in Billy Graham’s 1956 New York Crusade it was sung at all 99 events, and from there the song spread throughout all the world, even back in Sweden where the new version became the popular one. One of the visitors to this Crusade was the little boy Donald Trump, who went with his Father and Mother and Brother (and Sisters?) to listen. God’s word never returns void.
Years have passed since Donald Trump was inaugurated. This is one exchange of views he had with Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO:
The main stream media interpreted this as President Trump wanted to weaken NATO
Joe Biden is now President. Again Ukraine is the center of events, and Putin has decided to invade and subdue Ukraine because they decided to direct their corruption to the West rather than go along with the corruption of Russia. The battle of Kyiv is in its third day, and the people of Kyiv has decided to battle it out rather than surrender. It is beginning to look more like the battle of Stalingrad in WW II where the citizens fought and prevailed, so Germany could not get at the Russian oil in Baku. The Ukrainians hatred for Russia is that great. They remember the Holodomor as told them by their grandparents.
Putin seems to have miscalculated badly. He had his eyes on quickly absorbing Ukraine, then taking the Baltic countries, and maybe even Poland. He is getting more and more desperate and has begun to threaten Finland, and even Sweden to not even think of joining NATO.
The people of Ukraine are joining the military, all males 18 to 60 are forbidden to leave the country, forced to join the defense forces in one form or another, and even many women are joining. They are issued a gun, mostly AR 15 or equivalent and some ammunition. What they lack is military training, so the major purpose is to prevent an easy takeover of the cities. There will be many lives shed. When I saw on the TV the heart rendering farewells of the men separating from their loved ones, knowing full well they may never see each other again in this life, the fourth verse of “how great thou art” flashed back in my mind, and when Putin threatened even neutral Sweden, I realized the song had made its journey around the world, and I realized that after the thunder, the still small voice of the Koltrast singing: God is still in charge, but we must still do what we can, and above all, pray for a revival and a great awakening. As the song was sung in Billy Graham’s Crusades to about two billions all around the world, so will our prayers be a part of the greatest revival and awakening the world has ever seen.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 
