Soul and Spirit | Ain't Complicated

Jordan Arrests Eight Evangelists

Eight people have been arrested in Jordan for propagating the Christian faith:

Jordanian security forces arrested eight people, mostly foreigners, after they were caught distributing missionary material to Bedouin families north and east of the Jordanian capital, Amman, the Saudi daily Al-Watan reported.

The authorities received information about the missionaries from local residents who said these foreigners were offering humanitarian assistance to poor Muslim families and distributing fliers promoting Christianity.

Sources said they were “enticing” impoverished youngsters by paying them money and calling on them to marry foreign girls.

I have curious questions about this:

What was the content of the flyers?
From what countries are they?
Why would they be doing such activity in a Muslim country?
What is their denominational affiliation?
Should handing out tracts be kept to relatively safe and friendly locales?
Will a letter-writing campaign be launched in their behalf?
Will the Jordanian government apologize for religious insensitivity?
Are lots of people praying for these evangelizers already?

I know, too many of those are unimportant questions but maybe they’ll make good Google bait.

And a concern (of sorts, anyway): What will become of those eight people?

May the Lord show His grace and strength and glory and love and wisdom through them. May they be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And may God not be ashamed to be called their God.

Remember That Bookmark!

I’ve stuck stuff in books before and eventually forgot.

But this?

Amazing!

Throw the book at him

A 21-year-old Clearwater man was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found a box cutter in a hollowed-out book, authorities said.

About 7:30 a.m. Sunday, airport security ran Benjamin Baines Jr.’s backpack through an X-ray machine and saw the image of a box cutter, according to a report from the Transportation Security Administration.

When searching the backpack, a security officer found a book titled “Fear Itself.” The book was hollowed out, and the box cutter was inside.

After Baines was read his rights, he said his cousin had cut away the pages to make the hollow section in the book. Later, reports state, he said he had hollowed it out himself to hide money and marijuana from his roommates.

Baines told officers he was moving to Las Vegas and forgot the cutter was in the book.

Would his Constitutional right to trial by a jury of his peers mean those on the plane he was to board will constitute the jury pool?

Meanwhile, how long till the copycats crank up?

Kosovo’s Faultlines

So Kosovo is independent.

Now what?

And what is happening below the media’s radar?

Here is my question: What do readers need to know in order to understand the emotions that are currently being unleashed in Serbia and in Kosovo, especially in northern Kosovo?

[…]

Now, click here and tour some of the destruction in Kosovo. Yes, this is a one-sided, pro-Serbia site. But just think of this in terms of art and history â€” like the Bamiyan Buddhas. These holy places are also irreplaceable.

Again let me state that these Serbian church websites documenting the destruction tell only part of the hellish story that is post-war Kosovo and Serbia. Of course. But the destruction goes on and the churches and the monasteries cannot be replaced. That is part of the story.

Search the news reports in the next few days and look for the material on these treasures of art and faith. While many are celebrating, others are â€” sheltered in tiny enclaves protected by foreign troops â€” in mourning. Are there enougn troops to guard all the churches in northern Kosovo? Does anyone in Europe care? How about the United States? This is part of the Kosovo equation that should be included in balanced, accurate mainstream reporting.

This seems a good place to point you to something I wrote way back when: Kosovo and Serbia: A Case Study Regarding Christians in the Military.

Found: Transitional Life Form

Scroll down for updates. Original post date/time: February 18, 2008 @ 09:04

No, I’m not talking about Big Foot or PlatyPus.

Nor am I talking about a winged lizard nor a walking turnip.

Not even a man with the head of a bird and the ears of an elephant.

Nope, it’s something I saw on the Web on Saturday evening and again this morning.

If you want to see in real-time my incredible discovery for yourself, go here.

Dare I hope a Key Bank person sees this?

Now tell me, how’s that a transitional life form?

And another question, what general life lessons do you see in the screen capture above?

And this one yet: How might this post fit under Christianity 101?

OK, now it’s 7:54 am on Tuesday, February 19, 2008 — and nobody’s tried answering my questions.

To answer the first question, here’s what I just got done commenting to Key Bank:

www.key.com/managecredit seems to me to be a transitional life form.

That is, it’s between Brick-and-Mortar philosophy and Web-Business philosophy.

We can do account management online . . . if we do it during certain business hours on business days.

So Saturday I noticed that my payment was due on 2/18. But I couldn’t pay online since it wasn’t Monday-Friday.

So Monday I tried to make a payment, but couldn’t since it was a holiday and your Bricks-and-Mortars were closed.

This morning I was finally able to make a payment. (Thanks for the convenience of using the Web!) Alas, it’s late.

Transitional life forms are frustrating. And in my online banking experience, Key is so far unique. In a not-so-positive way.

Do you have plans to transition fully into the Web-Business philosophy?

Thanks.

Unforgivable?

This type of crime is particularly despicable and contemptible.

Soldier Accused of Raping Girl

Japan’s prime minister on Tuesday denounced the suspected rape of a 14-year-old girl by a U.S. Marine on the southern island of Okinawa, an episode with echoes of a 1995 case that jolted the U.S.-Japan alliance.

[…]

“It is unforgivable,” Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told a parliamentary panel in his first public comments on the latest incident on Okinawa, host to a huge U.S. military presence.

“It has happened over and over again in the past and I take it as a grave case.”

Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed anger over repeated incidents despite frequent promises by U.S. officials to prevent them.

That story reminds me of this event:

Soldiers Rape Girls

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East stated that 20,000 (and perhaps up to 80,000) women were raped, their ages ranging from infants to the elderly (as old as 80). […] According to some testimonies, other women were forced into military prostitution as comfort women.

Has Japan formally asked forgiveness for those World War II events (and many other cases of rape during that war)? It seems it has.

But any possible hypocrisy and double standard aside, and the affairs of nations aside, and the posturing of politicians aside, these stories remind me of what Jesus had to say on the subject of forgiveness.

In Luke 11:4 we have this: “And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.”

And in Matthew 6:12,14,15 there’s this: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Then in Matthew 18 Jesus tells a story on the subject. Here are the concluding verses:

32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:

33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

So, now, which sin will I refuse to forgive?

For which offense or wrong will I continue to hold a grudge?

Who is currently on my No Forgiveness for These list?

Protect Children Online

I don’t usually listen to Christian radio. But I did for a bit this afternoon. And I’m reminded that we live in perilous times that seem to resemble more and more what it must have been like in the days of Noah.

Anyway, as a result of listening to part of the Homeword (that is spelled correctly) program, here’s a book I want to read: