7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you willask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. (John 15: 7-10)
My father was a middle school teacher in a city with many immigrants and refugee children from the second world war. There were Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Polish, Serbs and an occasional Jew. Many children came from single moms since this was a textile city. So naturally he was a flaming liberal. But he had a very developed sense of right and wrong. He had a way with children, so the administrators gave him a large number of children from broken homes. He always tried his best to help them succeed in spite of hardships, and even now, 60 years later they call my mom in thankfulness, even going so far as to say “He saved my life”. Then in the 60’s and 70’s he saw the excesses of a socialist government, year after year taking more than the salary increases in additional taxes, so the take home pay every ear was a little bit lower. Meanwhile we had raging inflation. After his retirement my mom took a job as a therapist for people with cognitive challenges. Many had been in state facilities all their lives. The social administrators decided one day that they too should lead normal lives and gave them a dinner at the town’s most expensive restaurant. Not only did they not appreciate it, but they wanted to go back home and eat what they were used to. When my father found out the size of the bill he said bluntly: That’s it. From now on I am a conservative. But now he had to search out, how shall we then live, so he started going back to his childhood faith, the faith he abandoned as a young man because of the hypocrisy he saw in those to proclaimed to be Christians.
Meanwhile my wife and I had been saved and one of my brothers married a strong Christian, and he searched for the truth.
At his funeral we sang Eventide (Abide with me), and looking through his writings I found this poem: There is a road that’s leading heaven bound. A strait and narrow, not like others found. It ends abruptly at a raging sea, Don’t doubt, your faith your wanderer’s staff shall be. That road is leading homeward just the same, through evil seas of sin, and guilt, and shame. There is a bridge appearing on the scene; To land that no-one mortal ever seen. This land of hope and grace and peace sublime. Thank God, You let me find that road in time.
Written by my father (in Swedish) in 1978.
Wow! Looking at the poem I heard the roaring sea and i heard Finlandia in my head for the first verse. Then for the second verse, Eventide became the obvious choice.
My father indeed found the only way, reconciliation through Jesus Christ. Only a few years later he lost much of his creative abilities, but he was ever thankful God had let him find that road in time.
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
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heard the Coalthrush 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 is the first 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!
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. They all loved it, but that was about it. Slowly the word got around the poem was pretty good, after much editing down 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 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 become the second verse:
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 than the Swedish original. 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. 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 out through all the world, even back in Sweden where the new version became the popular one.
There have been over seventeen hundred documented recordings of “How Great Thou Art”. It has been used on major television programs, in major motion pictures, and has been mentioned as the favorite Gospel song of at least three United States’ presidents.
Now thejust shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him. (Hebrews 10:38)
After having come to faith the first week in February 42 years ago after reading the Gospel of Matthew I grappled with what to read next. I remembered my school years in Sweden, where we had a daily dose of Christianity. Our teacher liked the old stories from the Old Testament, so every morning she drew a map of Palestine, as it was called at that time and talked about Abraham and Jacob and Moses. We were supposed to have Old Testament in grade one and the New Testament in second grade, but our teacher loved the Old Testament so much we never even got around to hear the stories about Jesus. So I read Genesis and Exodus, but when I came to Leviticus, I decided that was too much law for anyone, so I switched back to the New Testament, but which book? Having read the Gospel of Matthew I decided on the letter to the Hebrews, after a brief visit to first Corinthians 13. It was most powerful, but it raised more questions. Am I totally secure in Christ, of are there conditions I have to meet to be fully saved? Then in Hebrews 10:38 it hit me: I must live by faith. I didn’t have to know all the answers, it wasn’t even important I knew the questions. But the second part of the verse started to worry me: if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him. I suddenly realized the faith part was not partial, I had to go all in. As a child I was baptized and confirmed, and I wanted to think that was enough; God knows who is his, but this time it was different, I had to take a stand in obedience and testify of my faith in Christ. So I signed up for baptism, and to my delight my wife decided to join, even though she was 6 months pregnant.
Coming out of the pool, I felt a wonderful release, my wife smiled in agreement; yes at that point I fully knew His soul has pleasure in me.
Through joys and hardships this has never left me, I regained my sense of wonder, and I can sing again the old Swedish hymn: How Great Thou art!
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. (John 3:16, King James version)
Holding up the John 3:16 sign behind homeplate on televised games used to be a time honored tradition, as American as apple pie. The picture above shows the 2012 world Series, game 4, last at bat for Detroit, and the John 3:16 sign was seen live by millions and replayed across the world. Lately, in a pregame, broadcast by ESPN on July 27, 2014, Gino Emmerich arrived at Willie Mays Plaza carrying a sign broadcasting “John 3:16”.
While Emmerich was holding up his sign, a police officer grabbed him from behind by his shirt and neck and moved him out of the view of the camera. Once Emmerich was clear of the cameras, he was surrounded by four police officers and warned, “If you go over there and hold that sign again, we will arrest you and the sergeant will come over here and decide where we are going to take you.” Emmerich then left the plaza to avoid being arrested.
This is how far we have come. It is now offensive to proclaim God’s love in a public forum. How can the promise of everlasting love be offensive?
The New international Bible uses the word eternal instead of everlasting. Is there any difference, and why so?
It is my firm belief that the term everlasting is the correct translation. The universe, and we have a beginning, therefore we are not eternal but everlasting. From Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God” the Bible declared that God was there, pre-existing before the beginning.
From the book of Hebrews (13:20-21 KJV) states:Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Again NIV states the eternal covenant. Am I splitting hairs?
There is a very interesting verse in Revelation (13:8, KJV) telling of the time of the time of the great tribulation: And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.This verse tells that the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. Imagine that! Jesus Christ, the Lamb was slain before the universe was formed! The only way I can wrap myself around this thought is that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit pre-existed as one, yet three, and exist independent of time and space.
This is true eternity: Only God exists both in and out of time and space, without beginning and without end. Everything else is less than eternal, but maybe everlasting, with a beginning but without an end.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-3)
It is hard to explain. Has matter always existed? Take it one step further. Has time and space always existed? Is the universe infinite?
Albert Einstein once said: “Only two things ate infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not sure about the former.”
He is also famous for his theories of relativity. The first, the theory of special relativity states that space and time are interwoven into a single continuum known as space-time, where time is relative. The general theory of relativity stares that massive objects cause a distortion in space-time.
So the question is: Does space and time exist apart from mass and light, or was there a beginning? Let me explain, or, better yet, let Einstein explain.
Shortly after his appointment at Princeton, Einstein was invited to a tea in his honor. At the event, the excited hostess introduced the great man and asked if he could perhaps, in a few words, explain to the guests the theory of relativity.
Not missing a beat, he rose to his feet and shared the story of a walk he had with a blind friend. It was a warm day, so at one point Einstein said to his friend, “I could really do with a glass of milk!”
His blind friend asked, “I know what a glass is, but what is milk?”, to which Einstein replied, “Why, milk is a white fluid.”
“I know what fluid is,” the blind man responded, “but what is white?”
“Oh, white is the color of swan-downs.”
“Down, I know what that is, I sleep on a down pillow, but what is a swan?”
“A swan is a bird with a long, bent neck.”
“I know bird and neck, but what do you mean by bent?”
Einstein took his blind friend’s arm, straightened it, and said “There, now your arm is straight.” He then bent his friend’s arm at the elbow, and said, “And now, your arm is bent.”
To which his blind friend exclaimed, “Ah! Now I know what milk is!”
Einstein smiled and nodded at his audience, then he sat down.
And so it is. We know, according to the laws of Thermodynamics the Universe cannot exist, since nothing can be created out of nothing (first law), that things go from bad to worse (second law), and that nothing can ever be perfect (third law).
But we exist, the whole universe exists, we see beauty and purpose everywhere. As we see how we are wonderfully made, it becomes obvious that this could not have happened by time plus chance plus nothing. There must be a creative force, but we can never grasp it since we are bound, both physically and in our thinking, in a time-space box.
Methinks the beginning of the Holy Bible gives the best explanation of how Creation happened, completely void of scientific jargon.
In those three verses God establishes His principles:
In the Beginning – There was a beginning.
God – God was before the beginning of time and space.
Created – God Created all in the beginning
The Heavens and the Earth. – Yes, indeed every matter.
The earth was without form – Not even the sphere was formed.
And void -No life yet.
And darkness was on the face of the deep – No stars were yet formed, only matter, even water.
And The Spirit of God hovered over the waters – The Holy Spirit – God’s Spirit was there at Creation forming everything.
And God Said – Here is introduced the Word that later became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus Christ was present and active during creation.
Let there be Light – And so, the creation of life could begin.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” ( Jeremiah 1:5)
I woke up this morning with a chorus we sang in Church in the 70:s.
With eternity’s values in view, Lord,
With eternity’s values in view.
May I do each day’s work for Jesus
With eternity’s values in view.
Then it hit me: Is this really right? It sounds so good, but is it right? The words from Jesus in Matthew 7: 21-23 rang in my ears:
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
In the case of the prophet Jeremiah God knew him before he was even conceived, but in the case of the false disciple Jesus never knew him in spite of all the things he did for Jesus. Why the drastic difference? Does God pick winners and losers, or is there anything we can do to be assured to be on God’s side?
The answer may lie in one more quote, this one from the apostle Paul in Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
There we have it: God doesn’t want us to do things for Christ, God wants us – all of us as a living sacrifice. He wants us to die to self and be resurrected to new life in Christ. This is available to anybody – a new life in Christ. Then the Holy Spirit can lead us into God’s perfect will.
One more quote. Many can quote Ephesians 2:8-9, but the answer is really in verse 10: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
By the way, the word handiwork is in the Greek ποιημα (poiema) from which we get the word poem. We are God’s poem. I like that.
But ourcitizenshipisinheaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, (Philippians 3:30)
Down here on Earth, good old United States of America we have four types of citizenship. Both me and my wife are immigrants and while we were yet resident aliens, our three children were born. We applied for citizenship, passed all tests, and as the immigration officer was ready to schedule our immigration ceremony he discovered we had moved 8 miles from Delaware to Pennsylvania, a different federal district, he sent our papers to Pennsylvania. Being federal agency they promptly lost our papers. We waited and waited and finally started the process anew. This time we managed to become naturalized citizens. Since we were resident aliens at the time of the birth, our children are native born citizens. Our oldest son married an immigrant, their firstborn is a native born citizen, the second child, born after she became a citizen, is a natural born citizen. Our daughter married an immigrant, and their firstborn child is a native born citizen. After her husband became a citizen they established residence abroad and their second child was born abroad. He is now a native citizen after moving back to the States. As to our third son, no problem. His children are natural born citizens.
After all this, who can now be president? It is clear that me and my wife cannot. Can our children become president? How about all of our grandchildren? What about the children where the father is unknown?
The constitution clearly states that that only a natural born citizen can become president of the United states, and this is the only office that has that requirement.
Congress determined that John McCain was a natural born citizen, even though he was born in a hospital just outside the Panama Canal Zone. Congress never established the status of Barack Obama even though his father never even was a resident alien.
As Supreme court juctise Clarence Thomas put it: “We’re evading that one.”
The issue of who is a natural born citizen needs to be defined once and for all by the Supreme Court.
In the meantime I am eternally thankful I am a Supernatural born citizen.
At my mature age I try to keep my brain active by making Limericks. There are many types of Limericks, and millions have been made and printed over the years, some straight forward as the one above, some with a twist. I try to stay with the clean ones.
In my childhood’s Sweden we started learning English in fifth grade. The first semester, since English has weird spelling we learned the basics in phonetic script, and right from the start we were introduced to finer English poetry, such as this Limerick:
There once was a lady from Riga
who rode with a smile on a tiger.
They came back from the ride
withe the lady inside
and the smile on the face on the tiger.
Since then I have always loved the format, a strict rhyme scheme (AABBA), and a predominantly anapesticmeter 88668, or in this case 99669.
But my real love has been for songs and music. I have a very hard time to memorize things, but if it is set to music I hear the melody inside me and it stays with me for life. Even now I sometimes wake up in the morning with a song in my heart, a song I heard maybe fifty years ago and have not heard since I emigrated from Sweden. Such is the power of music. The cadence in the song and the melody work together to bring to remembrance the emotions I felt as a young lad.
Coming to America I decided to join the Rochester oratorio society. We sang Handel’s Messiah. It meant nothing to me except fantastic music. But the next piece was Elijah, and at the performance, the great base William Warfield was Elijah. He didn’t just sing, he was Elijah!
We moved away from Rochester and I didn’t sing for five years. Things didn’t go so well moodwise, but circumstances led me to again sing Handel’s Messiah. This time it spoke to me and rekindled in me the joy I once had singing. So I joined a church choir, still unsaved, but they let me sing anyway.
Since I found new life in Christ I have found that whenever things go bad, as they often do, God brings back a melody in my heart, not always with words, but they usually come back to remembrance a little bit later.
Thank God for hymns and songs with melody and words that bring back to remembrance the greatness of God!
(Sometimes I wake up with songs I heard in my youth that has very little to do with God and His greatness, but that is another story).
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell. (Acts 15:28-29
The other day we found a whole pork loin selling at $1.59 a pound at Wegmans. We picked it up and my wife made the most wonderful stuffed pork chops. The meat juice, when heavy cream, flour, water and some secret ingredients are added, makes the most wonderful gravy. we had our son and family over last Sunday, and the two year old grand daughter, small for her age as she is, ate almost a whole stuffed pork chop by herself, saying “I like it” over and over again.
Another food I love are Danish “frikadeller”. They are like Swedish meatballs, but bigger and made entirely from ground pork. Properly spiced they are just magnificently delicious. See the picture!
The principal agricultural export product from Denmark is pork in all of its forms. They have the last few years exported more and more to Russia, but a few months ago, after the collapse in oil prices, they suddenly stopped importing Danish pork. The pork mounds grew, filling up the slaughterhouses. What to do?
It is time to introduce pork in the political discussion.
Denmark has received their fair share of mid-eastern immigrants and refugees. They are now so many that they have started to demand they be served certifiably non-pork based food exclusively. Some communities responded by stopping to serve pork altogether in schools and municipal institutions so as not to hurt the feelings of Muslims. Such was the case in Randers, a seaport city in Northern Jutland, a town with a large slaughterhouse, processing pigs for export.
Monday a week ago the city council had enough. They voted (16 to 15) that pork products must be served at all meals in all schools and institutions. The Muslim children can still opt out of their ham and cheese sandwich, taking only cheese on their sandwich.
Yes there is pork in Danish politics. How about good old U.S.A.?
Iowa is holding its annual Pork Congress January 27-28, just before the Iowa caucus. Time for pork politics?
As for me and my house: Thank God for pork chops and “frikadeller”!
alpolitikerne har stemt ja til et forslag fra Dansk Folkeparti og Venstre om, at det skal være et krav hos alle kommunens institutioner, at svinekød skal være en del af madplanen.
Byrådsmedlem i Randers for Velfærdslisten Kasper Fuhr Christensen var et af de 15 byrådsmedlemmer, der stemte nej til forslaget.
Han kalder beslutningen »unødvendig«, fordi der ifølge ham ikke har været problemer på kommunens institutioner.
»Jeg synes, at det er fuldstændig absurd, når der nu ikke har været henvendelser fra utilfredse forældre. Det er et problem, som man har opfundet ud af den blå luft. Det er stor svineståhøj for ingenting,« siger han.
Forslaget om at servere svinekød for både de muslimske og ikke-muslimske børn blev stillet efter, at flere af kommunens institutioner havde valgt at ophøre med at servere svinekød for børnene.
Et af de steder, hvor man havde valgt at tage hensyn til de muslimske børn ved i stedet at servere halalkød, var Børnehuset Jennumparken, som Jyllands-Posten beskrev sidste år.
Dengang sagde institutionens leder Bente Gråkjær, at det vigtigste ifølge hende ikke var, hvordan kødet blev slagtet, men derimod om børnenen fik en ordentlig kost.
»Der er jo efterhånden også mange etniske danskere, der ikke spiser svinekød. Hos os har vi mange vigtige udfordringer at arbejde med, og så skal maden ikke gøres til en konflikt. Det vigtige er, at børnene får god og nærende kost,« sagde hun.
Muligheden for at forbyde svinekød har institutionerne i Randers Kommune med mandagens beslutning ikke længere. Fremover skal institutionerne i stedet sikre, at »dansk madkultur skal være en del af de kommunale institutioner.«
Under byrådsmødet stillede medlem af Børn- og skoleudvalget, Mikael Firlings Mouritsen (S), ifølge Randers Amtsavis spørgsmålstegn ved, hvordan en forældrebestyrelse skal kunne forstå begrebet dansk madkultur
Manden bag forslaget, byrådsmedlem for Dansk Folkeparti Frank Nørgaard, understregede dog ifølge Ritzau, at forslaget ikke handlede om mistillid til institutionerne og forældrebestyrelserne.
»Vi vil bare sikre svinekød i vore institutioner til de, der ønsker det. Det handler ikke om generel mistillid til institutionernes bestyrelser. Men flere steder i landet forsøger man at luske igennem, at der ikke skal serveres svinekød i institutioner,« sagde Frank Nørgaard ifølge Randers Amtsavis.
En undersøgelse, som Wilke sidste efterår foretog for Jyllands-Posten, viste dengang, at 83,4 pct. af de danske muslimer mener, at der skal serveres halalslagtet kød i danske vuggestuer, børnehaver og skoler.
Omvendt svarede kun hver fjerde ikke-muslimske dansker, at institutionerne skal tage hensyn til de muslimske børns madvaner.
First Thessalonians 5:17 “pray continually” is short and to the point, only two words, as short as “rejoice always” and “Jesus wept”. That is a tall order, it gives no wiggle room, we should always be in an attitude of prayer. How is that possible? I have other things to do.
Prayer is communication with God. It is mostly non verbal, thinking about and listening to what the Holy Spirit living within you wants you to do every moment of every day, certainly in your day-dreams, and maybe even in your dreams. I take this as one of the richest privileges of being a Christian.
The other day I read in the news that about 150 Somali-Muslim employees of a Colorado meat processing plant were fired after they walked out on the job, demanding prayer time, and refused to return.
Approximately 200 employees at Cargill Meat Solutions in Fort Morgan staged the walkout, demanding various blocks of prayer time throughout the day, but a small number returned, according to The Denver Post.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is demanding their reinstatement and return of their prayer privileges and continuing use of the prayer room the company had generously provided for them until then. This had worked well for many years, the company allowed them to go off and pray in groups of 2 or 3 so as not to shut down the assembly line, but the Somali Muslims started to demand that they all should be allowed to pray at the appointed prayer times and only those times to comply with Sharia law.
Why was that so important that they rather lose their jobs than yield to the company policy of staged prayer?
Muslim prayers are different from Christian prayers. Christians can pray at any time, Muslims are prescribed to pray their “Contact Prayers” at specific times, five are obligatory: Pre-dawn, midday, afternoon, after sunset and before going to bed. I take the midday prayer as an example. It cannot begin until the sun has passed zenith, the highest point on the solar arc. If you start too early Allah will not hear your prayer. This means you cannot use standard time but must use solar time. Solar noon is early in the eastern part of a time zone, and about an hour later in the western part of the time zone. In addition it matters which day of the year it is Solar noon in November is half an hour earlier than solar noon in February. Add two minutes to that, and you are allowed and commanded to do your prayers, you and everybody of like faith, turning to Mecca, thus fulfilling Sharia law.
The purpose of these proscribed prayer times is to round up all believers and exercise mind control. You know who your buddies are, and you also know who is an infidel. This is totalitarianism, following the directives of the Imams. In Muslim dominated territories, when the call to prayer is sung from the minarets everybody stops what they are doing, turns to Mecca, prostrates in a very prescribed position and recites their memorized prayer in Medieval Arabic.
I am so thankful to have access to God at any time, giving praise, giving thanks and asking God for His will for me and others, for the hour, for the day and for the future!
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 