Dear People,

Please pray for President-Elect Barack Obama and Vice President-Elect, Joe Biden.

Thank you.

ps.

In case you are wondering why I asked that.

• It is normal to ask believers to pray.
• Jesus said we should pray for others.
• Jesus said God takes requests like a loving Father. Giving good gifts.
• Jesus said his body is a temple and we should pray to God as much as we can.
• Jesus said we should be glad when other people speak badly about us, when we are doing what God wants us to do.
• Jesus said we should be worried when other people speak highly of us.

Please Do Not Misconstrue

This is not a call to "bring blessings" on Barack/Biden by speaking badly about them. But it should be kept in mind that Yeshua/Jesus also said, as recorded in Luke 6:26, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets." (NIV)

So he will be facing difficulties since so many are speaking so highly of him. This should also be believable from the perspective of the notion of high expectations. It's easy to be overly optimistic, then spend too much time thinking about how wonderful everything will turn out, and loose focus of the underlying issues involved and doing the work. Or, having one's dreams dashed by unforeseen circumstances, or lack of interest, or fear, from others.

On the other hand, educators will tell you, it's true that high expectations often lead to better results than predicting low expectations in your students' ears. High expectations of beneficial change, citizens can be a part of, and benefit from, means people will more likely be motivated to work for the betterment of society, even encouraging others, versus trying to take advantage of, and capitalize on, others as much as possible.

Let's look at Jesus' next line in Luke 6, verses 27-28, "But I tell you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you." (WEB)

We need to surprise our enemies with love, not shower them with weapons. Pray for them!!!!

Old Testament Prophet Elisha Teaches a Lesson in Love

A large army showed up, or was it continuously showed up?, at a city, to raid it. A prophet prayed that the surrounding and attacking army would become blind. Once they had all become blind in the next second, the attacking army was rounded up. [2 Kings 6:8-23 ]

The king of the city being invaded asked the prophet if they should kill the invading army, now that they had all been rounded up?

The prophet was dismayed and told the king to sit them all down at a large feast and feed them. After they had been fed, they sent them back to where they came from.

The End?

Once you get rid of war, spies have a harder time messing up various societies.

Once you get rid of greed, spies have a harder time messing up one or more societies.

Will spies ever repent? How can their energies be put to good?

Seems to me the best way to prevent spies from being a disruption through their politics, lies, deceit, treachery, double pledge of loyalty, is to maintain as much openness as possible, as much transparency as possible.

What did Jesus say? Did he say:

• The more you humble yourselves the worse it will be for you, God hates humility.
• The more you humble yourselves the better it is for you, God loves humility.

However, it's written Jesus also said, be clever as a serpent but innocent as a lamb. [] As well as advising that we not give pearls to pigs or things that are holy to dogs. [] He also said that nothing stays hidden forever, "nothing is hidden, except to be made known." []

And Amen.

(And why did I put [] instead of writing the book, chapter, and verse where it's located [John 0:0]? So you could have your own Christmas present finding and reading them yourself! :-) Basically I don't know the exact places where they are located; some folks can tell you where nearly every verse comes from, I don't have the Bible memorized that way. In any case, Jesus has some great lines and stories, I highly recommend you reach each of the Gospels yourself to find out! :-) You will come across those lines. I recommend reading them in this order: John, Luke, Mark, Matthew.)

Happy Jesus' Birthday!

Even though I feel certain he was not born on December 25th. :-)

The only place I can think of, of the top of my head, as to where "December 25th," or "twelfth month, twenty-fifth day" is mentioned is Jeremiah 52:31-33, The imprisoned King Jehoiachin of Israel was brought up out of prison. The current ruler of Babylon gave him an exalted throne, and he was given allowances every day for the rest of his life. It seems there were many calendars in use back then, so it may be there are other days that equate to our version of December 25th, but are called differently due to the use of a non-Gregorian, non-Jewish, etc... calendar.

And by the way, don't forget, please pray for President-Elect Barack Obama and Vice President-Elect, Joe Biden.