Christian – Page 12 – Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment.

Thought for the day: The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

I woke up this morning with what I thought was a true bible verse: “The word killeth, but the Spirit giveth life”. Looking up the verse in the Bible it turned out I was wrong. It says the letter, not the word.

Over 40 years ago my wife and I emigrated to America. She became increasingly disillusioned with life here and got more and more unhappy as we realized more and more of our life goals, two beautiful children, a good job, a new house, two cars, in short, all you could ever wish. But she was unhappy and started to question the meaning of life. Is that all there is? At the same time she started seeking, and enrolled in a study course on great literature. One of her assigned readings was the Gospel of Matthew, and reading it she asked me the question: Since Jesus said: You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28), can that be true? If that is so then heaven must be empty. Nobody can control their thoughts.

I tried to assure her that heaven is just a concept to make us desire to live as good a life as possible and let God sort it out. This didn’t go over well, so she grew more and more unsatisfied. A friend invited her to a bible study and she agreed to go with her once to ask some pointed questions, but to her surprise they didn’t get mad at her but answered all her questions patiently. She went back week after week and she finally accepted that she couldn’t do it herself, but she had to accept the fact she was sinful and only through believing and trusting in Jesus Christ could she find the meaning of life. That changed her attitude completely. Initially I was very glad for her, smiling and even occasionally laughing again, a trait that once made me fall in love with her. But then she decided I needed this new-found purpose of life also, so she started to work me over at least one hour every night and even longer on weekends. This continued for months and she had no success in making me see things her way. The biggest point of disagreement was: What has Jesus to do with that?

Then one night she prayed and cried out to God: God, I can’t do it, you do it! She felt the spirit giving her assurance. “I sure will, don’t worry, just believe.”

From that day, she was different, and half a year later I too became a believer.

What made the difference? For months she had tried to quote scripture at me, thinking something must stick, but nothing worked. She tried to do it herself apart from the spirit thinking the letter of the word would do the work. This is, I believe one aspect of the verse, and I too can testify that the Spirit gives life.

Thought for the day: In the middle of “Snowmageddon”, thank God for creating a wonderful ecosystem!

Genesis 1: 6-8 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

I marvel at God’s creation, especially when it shows its full power. The bird feeder got repaired just in time for the snowstorm, the birds are now flocking to it. We put out the Christmas tree next to it, so the birds can have close shelter when the stealer boys, the Blue Jays come and take over the feeder. I marvel at the persistence of all the small birds, surviving in these conditions.

In Creation, God, the Word and the Spirit created all matter. The water was created before light. And God saw that it was good. That was the first day.

The second day God made the feedback loop of water vapor evaporating, rising to make clouds and giving rain and snow to form a functioning eco-system. So God took a whole day out of Creation just to make the clouds? And He didn’t even say it was good? He said it was good after all the other days of Creation. In the sixth day of Creation, after creating man, God even said it was very good, and then rested on the seventh day! The reason is the total ecosystem does not function well and be stable until all components, clouds, rain, snow, grass, plants, trees, animals and yes, even man are in place.

The story of Creation explains Creation spiritually, but leaves out a lot of details. To understand the functioning ecosystem one has to go about it scientifically, that is: Look at nature and what happens to Earth when something changes, such as burning fossil fuels and produce more and more CO2. Is that good or bad?

The last ice age ended with a massive melting of ice. The northern ice cap extended as far south as the Finger Lakes in North America and the middle of Poland in Europe. Something caused a disturbance to start the melting of the ice. Once going, more ice melted and exposed bare earth and more ocean for even more warming, and a chain reaction started. What had been a stable ice cap for thousands of years melted in a very short time. The level of CO2 was low during the ice age, but as soon as the ice melted some CO2 got released from the ice, and even more from the warming oceans, so with a lag of about 800 years the CO2 levels rose as well. The temperature rose and rose until suddenly they leveled off in what is called the Minoan optimum, with pleasant temperatures. Since then it has gotten gradually colder with small warm periods such as the Roman and Medieval Warm period, and colder periods, the last of which was the Little Ice Age.

During the ice age evaporation was much less than now. Snowfall over Greenland was about half what it is today, and there were significantly fewer clouds in the ice covered areas, much like Antarctica is today, an ice desert. This is what happens: As temperatures rise, more water evaporates and clouds form more often and earlier in the day causing a strong negative feedback so it doesn’t get as warm as it otherwise would have been. This limits the surface temperature to about 88F when thunderstorms occur. If no clouds form it can get substantially warmer. Take New Delhi, India for example. During May the sky is without clouds and temperatures can reach 115F during the day. When the monsoons come in June-July the temperature stays below 100F with high humidity.

We are now well into the bog building phase of the inter-glacial period and the next ice age can start at any time. In fact, it was narrowly averted after the little ice age. With burning more fuel, creating more CO2 we delay the onset of the next ice age by a few thousand years. In addition, added CO2 grows more plants, making it possible to feed an additional two billion people on earth without starving. By lessening the temperature differences between the poles and the equator, storms, hurricanes and tornadoes will be less severe. Droughts will be less severe. Water will be more abundant. The only drawback is that floods will increase, but if we know they can come we can prepare for it.

The conclusion after this long harang is: When you see a cloud forming, thank God for providing a functioning ecosystem, and when you see a rainbow in the sky thank him again for his promise.

Thought for the day: Hooyah for female midshipmen!

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:27, King James Version)

I love this verse in the creation story of the Holy Bible. We are created in God’s image, but lest you think of God as a mere man it shows clearly that both men and women are created in the image of God. The only way to understand it is found in St.John 4:23 – 24: But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Naval Academy alumni, Annapolis residents and others voiced opposition this week to the Navy’s review of job titles in the pursuit of gender-integration — particularly the removal of the word “man” from ranks like midshipman.

Fox news commentator Lea Gabrielle, a former Navy midshipman, said she wore the title as a badge of honor.

The feminists have got it all wrong. Female midshipmen strengthen the notion that men and women are created equal in the sight of God.

Let’s keep it midshipman. According to Genesis 1:27 it is proper English and a valid title for both men and women. Political correctness has perverted the English language to the point of destroying the beauty and clarity of it.

Thought for the day: In everything give thanks.

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (1 Thesslonians 5:18)

After being reborn from above early in 1974 i felt challenged to find my life verse, a Bible verse that would best define me and my new life in Christ.

It was late February, lots of snow on the ground, it started to snow, mixed with sleet. I was in church, and the Pastor happened to mention the verse: Rejoice always. This seemed unrealistic to me, but my eyes fell on the next verse, and I made up my mind to give thanks for everything. Going out, there was a lot of slush in the parking lot, and as I started the car (an old Volvo with manual transmission), after putting the car in reverse my foot slipped on the clutch, breaking the gearbox.

This was the first test, and it was easy to thank God for his protection from something worse. So I gave thanks for the broken transmission.

Years passed and I found it more and more difficult to give thanks for everything that befell me. Then, 40 years later, after revisiting the verse many time I suddenly realized. It doesn’t say “For everything give thanks” but “In everything give thanks”.

Thanks God, that feels much better. With times being what they are it is still possible to give thanks, no matter the circumstances.

One more verse to the Hillary Clinton Nursery Rhyme. Spirits alive.

Following the November 1994 midterm elections in which the Democrats were thoroughly defeated by the Republicans even losing control of both houses of Congress, Bill and Hillary turned to a group of New Age channelers and spiritualists for advice. This shocking development further proves our contention that Bill and Hillary are practicing witches, for this kind of action is precisely what witches would do.

The very fact that Bill and Hillary turned to these type of people at a most trying time in their lives further proves our point that Bill and Hillary are practicing witches. Witches regularly practice this type of spiritual activity, all of which God severely and consistently condemns.

Let us continue with our feature story, as Jean Houston and Mary Catherine Bateson get together several times over the next year, to conduct seances with Eleanor Roosevelt. You will remember the stories in the first year of the Clinton Administration, when Hillary confessed that she regularly communicated with Eleanor; stories at the time even labeled these communications as seances. Not only did Hillary admit she talked to Eleanor, she said Eleanor talked back ! This admission clearly identifies these sessions as seances, since an imaginary, creative mind exercise where a person only imagines they can talk with an historic figure, and can only imagine what response that figure might make based upon what is known about them, never, ever involves that historic figure talking back. (cuttingedge.org)
This adds one more verse to the Hillary Nursery rhyme

Hillary, Hillary, where have you been?

“It’s none of your business, for I am the queen.”

Hillary, Hillary, are Spirits for real?

“Yes, Eleanor Roosevelt sure was, I did feel.”

The whole nursery rhyme: https://lenbilen.com/2015/05/17/hillary-clinton-as-a-nursery-rhyme/

Sweden tasting the bitter fruit of embracing “Refugees.”

Sweden tasting the bitter fruit of embracing “Refugees”.

The Swedish citizens of Märsta, an exurb of Stockholm, Sweden woke up a few days ago with a message in their mailboxes. It was from the religion of peace, and it read: (First the seal of ISIS, meaning “Muhammad is the messenger of God”).

IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MERCIFUL, THE COMPASSIONATE!

You who do not believe will be decapitated i 3 days in the middle of your houses and we will afterwards bomb to death your rotten bodies!

You must choose 1 of these 3 options:

1- Convert to ISLAM!

2- Pay the protection tax! (Jizya, a tax on unbelievers mandated in Sharia law).

3- You will be decapitated!

The Police will not rescue you from being murdered!

It started last summer in Gothenburg with similar threats to Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian immigrants, some of which had converted to Christianity after coming to Sweden, others were Christians since beginning of Christianity. The Police did not take the threats that seriously, deeming them mere harassment.

The pamphlets also appeared in other cities, but the difference now is that many Swedes, mostly from “Sverigedemokraterna,” (a party critical of the immigration polices of the Government,) finally are starting to put up a fight.

Sweden is in trouble. The Police avoids entering immigrant areas for domestic disputes, rapes and minor violence, preferring to let the immigrants solve their internal disputes, sometimes using sharia law. This has emboldened the immigrants and Sweden now has the second highest incidence of rape in the world, second only to South Africa.

The Sweden Democrats entered the Swedish Riksdagen in 2010 with 5.9% of the vote. As punishment the right of center government greatly liberalized immigration criteria. The Sweden Democrats doubled their vote in the 2014 election, and the government choose to yield to the Social Democrats rather than form a coalition with the Sweden Democrats.

The Sweden Democrats may now be the largest party, having doubled again since the last election, being larger than either the Social Democrats and the Moderate conservative party. The next general election is not until 2018, but the anger is growing since Sweden is being totally overrun with “refugees”

To put things in perspective, Sweden is expecting an influx of 190,000 unskilled and unemployed migrants this year — equivalent to 2% of Sweden’s current population. The number is as if 6.4 million “immigrants” arrived in U.S. in one year, or 1.3 million in Britain. …

Verse 72 of the Obama Impeachment song. The ISIS war scam.

Guy Benson | Dec 07, 2015 on Townhall.com shared the following tweet:

John Schindler ‏@20committee

Talked 2 an old friend, snr IC official – who said on #ISIS: “If the public knew the truth, Obama would be impeached.” Friend’s a Dem, btw.

The present “war” on ISIS has been and still is at a level designed to maximize recruitment for ISIS. Much of the equipment in ISIS possession is taken from troops supported by the U.S. that either fled or joined ISIS. The ISIS headquarters were never attacked, nor was their major revenue source, the oil.

This leads to verse 72 of the Obama Impeachment song (as if sung by President Barack Hussein Obama to the tune of “Please release me, let me go”)

If they knew how bad I am,

My Foreign Policy flimflam.

War on ISIL? Just a scam.

Impeach me, I am but what I am.

Here is the complete impeachment song: https://lenbilen.com/2015/02/25/the-complete-obama-impeachment-song/

If Pilgrims were refugees, are Refugees Pilgrims? A Limerick.

President Obama said yesterday that the Pilgrims were refugees, too.

What he is really saying is that the refugees are pilgrims, advancing the doctrine of the Islamic totalitarian Caliphate worldwide.
Way to go.
“The Pilgrims were refugees too.”

Are refugees Pilgrims? Who knew?

For the Caliphate’s sake

they spread death in their wake.

That’s how their dominion once grew.

In this Thanksgiving season we are to count our blessings and give thanks. A thankful spirit is a healing spirit. But Jihadists among the refugees is hard to give thanks for. But the admonition from scripture (1 Thessalonians 5:18) is : in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Notice that it does not say for everything, but in everything. Even Jonah gave thanks with a song of thanksgiving (Jonah 2:10) when he was in the belly of the big fish.

Thanks. Now I feel much better.

In everything give thanks. Two Limericks.

Say, What does it mean to give thanks?

In this world, full of rockets and tanks

it is hard to express

when you are in a mess.

Your thanksgiving meal: Beans and franks.

Yes, the thanksgiving spirit is to give thanks. For what? We may be entering WWIII with terror all around. That is why the verse (my life verse) is 1 Thessalonians 5: 18. In context here is 1 Thessalonians 5: 18-24

¹⁵See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. ¹⁶Rejoice always; ¹⁷pray without ceasing; ¹⁸in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ¹⁹Do not quench the Spirit; ²⁰do not despise prophetic utterances. ²¹But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; ²²abstain from every form of evil.

²³Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.

Notice it did not say we are to give thanks for everything, but to give thanks in everything. This helps, when we are reading the new regulations coming out of the Government trying to regulate every aspect of our life. As the Limerick goes:

Now don’t get me started. You are what you eat.

Don’t eat the hot dogs, they are processed meat.

And the new EPA,

they must have the last say.

With beans you fart methane, which gives greenhouse heat.

On to Paris with the Climate change conference! According to Kerry, Obama, Clinton and Sanders Climate change is the biggest and most urgent threat to mankind.

In everything give thanks.

Verse 69 of the Obama Impeachment song. What is worse: Climate change or WWIII?

Verse 69 of the Obama Impeachment song.

What is worse: Climate change or WWIII?

November 24: Turkey just shot down a Russian Fighter Jet over Turkish air space, but the surviving pilot landed in Syria, taken by Syrian rebels fighting Assad on behalf of Turkey. Turkey is fighting Assad and the Kurds in Syria. Russia is assisting Assad in fighting Syrian rebels assisted by Turkey, and are also fighting ISIS. Iran is assisting Assad in fighting the Syrian Rebels and the Kurds, and maybe ISIS. Turkey is helping ISIS fight Assad. U.S. is helping Turkey helping ISIS and the Syrian rebels, but is also fighting ISIS. France is jumping in fighting ISIS. U.S. say they are helping the Kurds fight ISIS, but are not, because that would offend the Turks and Iran. And then there are the Chinese trying to gain influence in the region. This is the coalition Obama says he is leading fighting ISIS, (or ISIL as Obama insists calling it, as the Levant also includes Israel).

Obama did, together with 40000 other delegates go to Paris Nov. 30 for the 2015 Climate Change Conference COP21. Alongside French President François Hollande at a joint news conference Obama said:

“Next week, I will be joining President Hollande and world leaders in Paris for the global climate conference. … What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be, when the world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children.”

What could possibly go wrong?

Which leads to verse 69 of the Obama Impeachment song (as if sung by President Barack Hussein Obama to the tune of “Please release me, let me go”)

Climate change or World War III?

Yes, Climate Change much worse must be.

World Wars come and go, you see.

But Climate Must Not Change, That’s my decree.