What’s in Store for 2012?

Firstly, I am not a prophet so these words are my own thoughts not God’s. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody. But as someone who watches world events, there are some things that are somewhat obvious:

The global economy will fall into a recession and come perilously close to a depression. A depression may be held off for another year or two because of the strength of the economies in places like China, India, and Brazil. The rest of the world will be dragged into recession by the failing economies of several European countries. Riots will increase in Greece, Spain, Hungary and many other countries as their governments collapse and they abandon the Euro.

Over the past few months several global companies have announced the lay-off of thousands, and even tens of thousands of personnel. Just today they announced that Sears and Kmart will close 100-120 stores. These do not bode well for an economic recovery.

The Occupy Wall Street movement will continue to grow in the US and may be dramatically invigorated by economic and political decisions. The Anti-Putin protest movement in Russia is a form of the Occupy movement and is extremely dangerous. Putin is very ambitious and is not likely to go quietly into retirement. Expect some dramatic development there that requires Russia to have a ‘strong-man’ at the helm. It will most likely be a war, but could be a wave of terrorism triggered and sponsored by Putin himself, but expect something to happen there and soon.

Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons continues despite sanctions. Today, Iran threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz through which 40% of the world’s oil is shipped. This is another dangerous situation with potential to escalate. Mossad has been slowing down the development of nuclear weapons in Iran with mysterious explosions within the many nuclear compounds. At some point, Israel will have to strike these compounds with massive force initiating a state of full-out war with Iran, but this may not happen this year. When it does happen, remember, Russia is a military ally of Iran. That brings in the possibility of the Ezekiel 37 & 38 prophecies of a Russian-Islamic war against Israel. I would be a little surprised if Israeli PM Netanyahu did not launch a strike before the next American elections. The Republicans are staunch Israeli allies but they appear to be shooting themselves in the foot with a routine approaching the Keystone Cops. Netanyahu will want to strike while the Republicans still have some power.

In 'The Inevitable Middle-East War' below, I suggested (actually I first suggested it in 2008) that in order for a Russian-Islamic war on Israel to occur, the US would either have to abandon Israel or  they would be too financially crippled to be able to help them. The latest news from Washington indicates that the military will be reduced by 10-15% over the next ten years. The article also suggests that a similar reduction may have to be announced next year. When the full effect of the Euro-collapse occurs - look for this reduction to be expedited. The article also said that the main focus of the US Military will be switched from the middle-east to the far east. Is this the beginning of drawing away from Israel?

North Korea’s new ‘Dear Leader’ is only about 27 years old and is both a military and political neophyte. North Korea is a nuclear power and, like all communist states, is psychotically paranoid. They have the second biggest army in the world while half the population of the country is half starved. They don’t have the technology that sparked the Arab Spring so most of the population is still completely brain-washed. We can hope and pray that the young Kim Jong-un becomes a reformer and opens the country up to reality. If not, anything can happen there. He may want to establish himself as a great military and/or political leader, and this could be very dangerous.

The Arab Spring has managed to get rid of a few dreadful dictators. One can’t feel sorry for them, however, it is yet to be seen what they will be replaced with. While elections are promised and are being held, they will mostly be won by Muslims. The Muslim Brotherhood is winning the elections in Egypt; hopefully they will win a majority because if they don’t the extreme Salafists may get the balance of power. They want strict Sharia law in place, and may well get it. Muslims will continue to abuse women and children throughout Asia and the Middle East. Stories of horrific abuse will become even more numerous than they have been in 2011. Moderate Muslims will continue to do nothing about it, as will the rest of the world.

All in all, the world will be a dangerous place in 2012. There will be wars and rumours of wars. There will be uprising and riots in streets that have never seen riots before. There will be difficult times ahead, especially for those who are heavily indebted. Apostasy will continue to be the predominant factor in the Christian Church as the ‘fear of God’ virtually disappears from the earth just when it should be rising. Will the Great Tribulation begin before the end of 2012? Probably not, but it is certainly possible.

Horrific Torture of 14 Year Old Bride Because She Won't be a Prostitute

An article today on BBC News revealed that Sahar actually managed to escape from the cellar where her new family tortured her. However, she was returned to her family by neighbours.

Afghan girl tortured by her in-laws for refusing to become a prostitute.

Sahar Gul was married off to a 30-year-old man around seven months ago, when she was just 14 years old. In the video, as Sahar is taken to hospital in a wheelchair, she is asked who beat her. She names her father-in-law, her husband, her sister-in-law, her brother-in-law and her mother-in-law. The 15-year-old says her hair and her nails were pulled out by her mother-in-law.
Police say that she had had her nails and clumps of hair pulled out. In addition they say she had chunks of flesh cut out with pliers.

Under Afghan law, the earliest age for marriage for girls is 16. However, almost half of Afghan women are married when they are younger.

How long, Oh Lord, how long? What an incredible girl to refuse to prostitute herself after absolutely inhumane torture. Such integrity belongs to heroes. May God help her heal.

Zina – Moral Insanity

Update 14th Jan 2012:

After much international condemnation President Hamid Karzai intervened and Gulnaz was pardoned. She now lives in a 'safehouse' with other victims of violence. She wants to go home but cannot return home unless her rapist agrees to marry her and can come up with a substantial dowery. Otherwise she would bring shame on her family and both her and her child would be in danger of becoming victims of 'honour killing.' She has little hope of being able to support her baby or herself except that a lawyer has started a campaign to raise money for her should marrying her rapist fail.

It appears that the rape would have gone unreported except Gulnaz got pregnant. Most rapes go unreported in Afghanistan because the girl's life is ruined if it becomes known.

Half of Afghanistan's women prisoners are inmates for "zina" or moral crimes. Some of the women convicted of "zina" are guilty of nothing more than running away from forced marriages or violent husbands. A documentary commissioned by the EU told the story of a 19-year-old prisoner called Gulnaz.

After she was raped, she was charged with adultery. Her baby girl, born following the rape, is serving her sentence with her.

"At first my sentence was two years," Gulnaz said, as her baby coughed in her arms. "When I appealed it became 12 years. I didn't do anything. Why should I be sentenced for so long?"

For Gulnaz there is now the hope of freedom. Her name is on a list of women to be pardoned, according to a prison official, but as she has no lawyer, the paperwork has yet to be processed.

Gulnaz's pardon may be in the works because she has agreed - after 18 months of resisting - to marry her rapist. "I need my daughter to have a father," she said.

The EU has blocked the release of the documentary citing concerns for the women’s safety!!???

Merry Christmas - Happy Holidays

It’s been at least a couple of decades since the media, followed quickly by big business (or was it the other way about?), began to use the term Happy Holidays rather than the traditional Merry Christmas. Last year, US President Barack Obama became the first president to use the term Holiday Tree. For this he was thoroughly rebuked in a letter from a devout Jew who told him to call it what it is. Though he didn’t believe Christ was the Messiah, he believed a Christmas tree was a Christmas tree. God bless him.

I frequently see my Christian friends complain about people using the term Holiday instead of Christmas, and I have probably done it myself many times. I won’t likely do it again though. It seems to me that we Christians are expecting non-Christians to respect what they don’t believe in. That’s a little absurd. Our frequent complaining must be like the Biblical nagging wife – a constant dripping, a clanging cymbal; it hardly glorifies Christ and certainly does nothing to draw non-believers to Him. That’s what we should be concerned about. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me.” Let’s lift up Jesus instead of beating down the unbelievers.

To all my readers, both of you, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I Got Hit by a Car

 I should have known that dropping an open can of cornmeal on the laptop last night was just the beginning. But I woke up this morning, got dressed and took the pit-bulls (long-haired Chihuahua and three legged toy poodle – King Charles Cavalier spaniel cross) out for a walk. 

The very second we stepped out the door of my trailer it started to rain. Bailey (the tripod), being a refugee from Edmonton, understands weather and was done her business before leaving the yard.

Belle needs a longer walk. She finally stopped right behind a parked Camry. As I was preparing to pick up Queen Isabella's treasure, a car came along, rolled down his window and asked me to recite Bailey's life story while standing there in the rain.

After a brief tri-pedal biography, I turned and bent down to recover the Queen’s jewels and got wacked in the head. What was that? It was the Camry! I was hit by the Camry, and it was still coming at me. I yelled and hit the trunk with my fist and, fortunately, the car stopped. Fortunately, also, that it hit my head where there is very little likelihood of it doing any damage.

Neither the elderly woman driver nor the male passenger bothered to get out of the car. Amazing! And, of course, being a good Canadian I apologized for getting hit by her car.

Oswald Chambers: If we worship God in the trying circumstances, He will alter them in 2 seconds when He chooses. 

I decided I had better go to church.

Honour Killings - What Kind of Insanity is That?

In the news this weekend is the horrific story of a beautiful, 21 year old woman, Hawa Akther Jui, in Bangladesh, who had the audacity to enroll in a college without her husband’s permission. He was away in the United Arab Emirates, and when he returned, he was outraged that she had done this without his permission. He blindfolded her – she thought she was getting a necklace – then taped her mouth shut, tied her right hand to a chopping block and cut of all her fingers with a meat cleaver. What kind of insanity is that? Oh, his name is Rafiqul Islam.

Hawa Akther Jui enrolled in college without her husband's permission

A Montreal man is accused of murdering his 3 daughters, Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, and his first wife, Rona Amir, 41, because his oldest daughter was dating a boy he didn’t approve of. Somehow, the woman and three girls ended up in a car at the bottom of a canal in Kingston, Ontario. It’s called an honour killing, as though murdering half your family can restore honour. What kind of insanity is that? Oh, his name is Mohammad Shafia; he is from Afganistan.

Shafia girls and Mohammad's 1st wife - murdered

Shafia, his 2nd wife, and son - murderers all

In the US, Amina and Sarah Said were murdered by their father in Texas in an honour killing for having boyfriends. He shot them both in the back of his cab. The father was a Muslim from Egypt.

Palestina Isa, a 16 year old was murdered by both her parents in St Louis for dating a black man and taking a part-time job. Her mother held her down while her father repeatedly stabbed her. They were Muslims from Palestine.

Three girls, aged 15, 17 and 18 were allegedly assaulted by Gaddafi’s soldiers at a school near the Libyan city of Misrata, during a two-month siege. When they returned home, their father slit their throats in a so-called honour killing, according to Physicians for Human Rights. What kind of insanity is that?

Every year in the United Kingdom (UK), officials estimate that at least a dozen women are victims of honor killings, almost exclusively within Asian and Middle Eastern families – according to Wikipedia.

Wikipedia reports that during the year 2002 in Pakistan, it is estimated that 245 women and 137 men were killed in honour-killings. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that perhaps as many as 5,000 women and girls a year are killed by members of their own families. Many women's groups in the Middle East and Southwest Asia suspect the number of victims is about four times greater.

In this blog you can read the unbelievably horrific story of Nurta Farah, a girl who was treated with incredible cruelty for converting to Christianity from Islam. 

After months of being shackled to a tree, locked in a closet, forced to take anti-psychotic drugs, and being beaten, Nurta managed to escape to an aunt’s home in another village. She was soon found by her family though and shot and killed, for the honour of the family.

Also in this blog, is the story of a 14 year old Christian girl in Pakistan who was raped by 5 Muslim men. One of the men said, “We attended an Islamic religious convention, and the speaker said if you marry a non-Muslim or rape a non-Muslim girl, you will get 70 virgins in heaven.” That occurred in 2010. What kind of insanity is that?

An expert interviewed in the Hawa Akther Jui case by the BBC suggests that less than 2% of spousal abuse ever gets reported.

Of course, spousal abuse and honour killings are not restricted to Islam. They continue in parts of India and other Asian countries and may occur in Sikh and Hindu, as well as other religions. However, just by reading the daily news it is obvious that the majority of mutilations (including female genital circumcision) and honor killings occur in Islam.

News reports don’t differentiate between Shia, Sunni, Sufi or other denominations but I think someone should be finding out if one or more denominations dominate this evil.

While many Muslims cry that this evil is not taught in the Quran, in fact, many are teaching that very thing even today. As my sample suggests, it is still being taught in many, many countries around the world. While murder is condemned in the Quran, it refers only to Islam (read Muslim men). Killing infidels (non-Muslims) and apostates (disobedient Muslims) is not even considered murder.

 Islam watch tells us that:

“A Muslim woman, who is therefore disobedient, oppositional; critical or rejecting of a Muslim man, may be by extension, considered to be an apostate and rejecting Islam, which is an act and a heresy for which the punishment is or may be, death by beheading, depending upon the momentary disposition of the males within her family.

What is not well understood by non-Muslim’s, is that within the category of an apostate, may readily fall those women who criticize, or are in any way oppositional, or rejecting of a Muslim man, and whose subsequent butchery is considered not only NOT murder, but an act of compassion and righteous redemption; hence the absence of outrage and the resounding silence within the Muslim community.”

There is much more insight on Islam Watch’s web page into the way the Muslim male mind may work. But the question now is, are we going to continue to ignore this evil? Can we continue to turn our backs on it, even when it is occurring in our own country? Unfortunately, most people won’t even read this or similar postings, and most of those who do will do nothing. They won’t even pass this website on to their friends because it might upset them. What kind of insanity is that?

I would like to suggest that, at the very least, we could be lobbying our governments for action during the immigration of Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus whereby they are required to denounce verbally before an elder of their own faith & denomination, and in writing, such specific tenets of their faith that contradict the freedom and equality of western societies.

That would include recognizing the equality of women, the rights of all people to education, to change religions or abandon religion altogether, to associate with whomever they please. They would also need to denounce the right to kill or mutilate anyone except in the extreme event of self-defense. They would need to denounce any physically hostile act as a means of restoring family honour.

Governments need to be pushed because they are afraid of offending a rapidly growing demographic. “Those violent men are just a minority,” they say, and yet, with 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, a minority might still measure in the hundreds of millions.

Peaceful Muslims need to report when Immams or clerics are teaching that which is contrary to the laws of the country, and the government needs to deport such people.

Can we continue to ignore the suffering of women, who are considered only slightly better than dogs, by Islamic men? I tell you, we do so at the peril of our own souls.

Personality

Please read, "Individuality" first.

What’s right with some people? Why are people who are honest, open and sincere much more likeable and admirable than those who have attitudes or agendas, those who just refuse to go beyond the shallow end of the pool? At least they are to me, but they weren't always. When I was operating strictly out of individuality, I found them frightening and uncomfortable to be around. It is these people, the admirable ones, who are most likely operating out of personality rather than individuality.

Personality is much deeper then we can currently imagine. Chambers likens it to an island in the sea, where the island is simply the very top of a huge mountain. If you dove beneath the surface of the sea of individuality, you would get a glimpse of that mountain but would never be able to put it into proper perspective until the entire sea is drained, i.e. individuality is destroyed.

There’s another facet of personality that is important to know, and that is that personality is only complete when it merges with another personality. God made Eve because Adam was incomplete without her. I began to emerge from my sea of individuality only after falling in love with my wife. She began to break through the waves of falsehood, self-image, and constraints that I surrounded myself with and slowly my personality began to be revealed.  

This process also begins when the Holy Spirit comes upon a person. Individuality cannot merge with God, but personality can and, is indeed, designed to do just that. The love of your life may help to break you free from some of your individuality, but it is only the merging with Jesus Christ that totally destroys it and presents you complete and whole.

Love is the output of one personality merging with another. When you connect at the personality level, rather than as two individuals, love is the natural outcome. Connecting at the level of individuality is merely lust. There can be no love in a relationship where there is dishonesty; love requires truth, personality operates only in truth and individuality only in falsehood.

I invite you to go on a search and destroy mission. Search your heart for every part of your character that is less than honest and open. Search yourself for any sign of pride, fear, love of money, power or fame. These things come not out of personality but individuality and must be destroyed. This implies death to self, or more precisely, our right to our self. It is only when we die to our self and live for Jesus Christ that we will ever be complete and know real joy.

Individuality

What’s wrong with some people? Why is it that you can talk to some people on a deep, heart-to-heart level, and others you can’t even approach that level? Why is it that some people make decisions that make no sense? Why are some people pushy and aggressive while others are meek and timid? There are a hundred other questions along this vein that I could ask here, but you get the drift.

During the first four years of my life I was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. Abandoned in the first year of my life by my mother, I was unable to bond with anyone until my daughter was nearly 2 years old. The fear, rejection and loneliness tempered my character most dramatically. I never contemplated disobedience (which might seem like a good thing but is quite unnatural for a child growing up); I was afraid of my shadow, afraid of being embarrassed, of being rejected. I was lonely though I grew up in a large family but enjoyed being alone anyway because it was safer.

My point is that as I was growing up I constructed characteristics that were protective against these fears. I never talked seriously with anyone. If I had something important to say, I would wrap it in a joke; that way it wouldn’t be rejected. It also ensured that I wouldn’t have to dwell on a serious subject which was very uncomfortable for me.

There was no doubt that I had some serious problems and those problems seriously affected me the rest of my life. Had I been given even a little bit of the wisdom that I’m about to share, it might have saved me and a lot of other people a great deal of pain. The wisdom comes not from me, but from Oswald Chambers and ultimately from God.

In his booklet, My Utmost for His Highest, Chambers defines the character construct that I describe above as ‘individuality’ (I’m not sure I like the term, but I like it better than Freud’s ‘id, ego, & superego’). He calls ‘individuality’ the counterfeit of ‘personality’. Individuality is to personality what lust is to love (a cheap imitation).

Individuality is the image we try to project to others. We are cool, smart, confident, in control. If we continue in individuality too long we may start to believe that we are really the person we are projecting, or trying to project. Individuality talks too much or too little. It likes to either hide or dominate. It likes to impress but it doesn't like risks.

Refusing to forgive someone comes out of individuality. Unforgiveness does much more damage to the unforgiver than the unforgiven. Most people know that and still can’t forgive, even though it is a requirement for forgiveness by Jesus Christ.

Chambers further describes individuality as the ‘husk’ of the personal life. As a husk must be peeled off to reveal the ear of corn, so individuality must be peeled off to reveal the true personality. Individuality hinders the spiritual life more than anything else. Individuality is capable of refusing to believe even that which it knows to be true.

I once proved a point on a series of emails to a very well known radio talk show host who admitted that my arguments were persuasive and had merit, but, he said, “I will not believe.” His decision was made in his "will." That’s individuality – spitting in the face of truth for reasons known only to the individual.

My next post will discuss personality and what to do with individuality. Hope you will read it and comment.