Purim, 2010

Most of us know the story of Purim. An evil man (Haman) got into a place of great power in Persia, and nearly destroyed all the Jews in the empire. But God intervened and turned things around, rescuing the Jews, and turning potential disaster into victory.

What is interesting are the parallels today. The Jews in Israel are threatened by the same power- Iran, which is modern Persia. The same old Iranian demon is still trying to destroy the Jews! And the leader (Ahmadinejad) today is a modern Haman. He has spoken openly about wanting to erase Israel from the middle east, and has developed nuclear weapons with the goal of destroying Israel. Yet few people see him as that dangerous, except the Israelis. This reminds me of the way Hitler was viewed in the 1930's.

The lesson of the book of Esther is that God will raise up deliverance from somewhere for the Jews. But it could be really messy. Keep your eyes on Iran.

Dream

The other day I had two unusual dreams in one night. One was prophetic, but private, and I can't share it here. But here is the other. We were looking through our house. Every drawer, cabinet and spot was filled with drawings and stories by my son Timothy. But one drawer had an incredibly valuable treasure created by him. We were hunting everywhere to find the treasure when I woke up.

Any ideas on what this could mean?

Chinese New Year

Last week we saw the Chinese New Year celebration in Philadelphia. There was a parade where store owners hung out long (about 8 feet) strings of fireworks. A man dressed up lit the fireworks, whose noise is supposed to drive off demons, and then he waved a stick around to scare off the spirits. Meanwhile, several lions made up of people danced in an effort to help drive away the demons. The store/restaurant owner also hangs a head of lettuce out as some kind of offering.

It was all very weird and festive.

Our new kitten

Here is a picture of our new kitten, whom we got from a local pet store Saturday. We are soliciting names- we think the cat is a she (but are not sure). If you want to visit and meet her, let us know and come by.

Any ideas for names?

Ralph's

How many people know that the second oldest Italian restaurant is in... Philadelphia? It is Ralph's a great place right near South St., and not far from the historic district. We had a good time there-I recommend it if you are near.

Cooper's hawk

Last Monday an incredible bird fly into our back yard and sat on our well. It was about a foot and a half high, and very cool looking. Here is a photo from the back- beautiful feathers. It is a Cooper's hawk, also known as a chicken hawk, since it primarily eats smaller birds, including sparrows, robins and chickens. When I tried to get a closer photo, it took off. I have never seen one close before, we usually see red-tailed hawks around here.

US national debt

Last week in church I spoke about getting out of debt, and shared some statistics which shocked a lot of people. Here is some info on what we as Americans owe-
-Each of us now owes about $40,000, much to enemies of America, which is $160,000 for a family of 4.
-2010 government spending is now 40% borrowed- from the future and our children. This is equal to a family making $60,000 a year, and spending $100,000 every year, while also having huge debts to pay out of the 60K. Clearly this can't go on very long, but our irresponsible government is doing exactly that.
-The national debt of about $12 trillion is hard for anyone to comprehend. Imagine it this way- George Clooney just hosted a relief effort which raised 66 million for Haiti, a lot of money. If this was applied to the debt every day, it would take this amount of money every day for 156 years to pay off the debt!

Unless we demand a balanced budget and the reduction of the deficit and debt, it will destroy our country's economy in 20 years. We (if we are young) and our children will have a standard of living much lower than what we have now. Our economy will probably collapse.

The saddest thing is that the destruction of our country is being done by us to ourselves.

Jesus as a child

While studying James (the brother of Jesus) I read some about Jesus as a child. Imagine as a parent, having a child who was perfect-really! Never a lie, exaggeration, attitude, nothing but perfect obedience and attitude. I wonder how his brothers and sisters (Scripture records at least 6 of them) related to Jesus. Did they try to emulate Him as their oldest brother? Did His perfection convict them? Were they jealous of Him? What did they think when He was proclaimed Messiah?
Early in His ministry they thought He was crazy, but later they came around to believe.

It's interesting to think about having a perfect child/brother, an issue none of us have!