History and Understanding

Thomas Jefferson


One of my favorite subjects in school was history. I still enjoy watching the History Channel and other TV shows about the past even though I do not remember all the facts that well.
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When I watch a drama about great events from the past I always think about how blessed I was to have been born when wealth, medical care and shelter are so common and inexpensive.
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We recently visited Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and saw a replica of the one room home where Dolly Parton and her many siblings grew up. It was very, very small. (See http://hookedonhouses.wordpress.com/ for photos) It reminded me of my childhood home. Neither os us had indoor plumbing or central heat. Her home was much smaller than ours, however.

Neither Dolly or I were kept from achieving great things because of childhood poverty. Dolly is a famous multi millionaire and I have a doctorate and an international ministry. Only in America and other democracies can that happen. God has blessed our nation.
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History proves it is poverty of the mind and spirit more than a lack of money that keep us enslaved. As we remember Dr. King's legacy it is easy to miss that his focus was on building up the inner spirit and mind. Yes, he certainly fought against poverty and a lack of opportunity for African Americans, but he knew that the answer was character not just money.


I get a bit irritated when I hear politicians talk about how bad our economy is right now. The unemployment rate in Ohio is less than 6% and that would be considered a record low historically and internationally, but the media weep because they like to say it is too high. The sky is falling!

A British newspaper wrote recently that the USA was in a Depression. yet, England's unemployment is almost twice that of America.

The media love bad news and they shout it out constantly.


Much of the current housing crisis occurred because people with medium salaries tried to buy mac mansions and they couldn't pay for them. We are trying to live above our means and history shows that it never works.


As a Seasoned Believer I often hear younger Christians lament how awful things are today. But they say there is hope if we old fogies would get out of the way so they could fix it. That is a normal thought process for kids but it still irritates me.

I read this morning a quote by Cicero. It goes something like this. "To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child."

Political Giving

Senator Obama received 40 million dollars last month from over a million Internet donors to keep his campaign going. Mrs. Clinton received about 20 million.

WOW!! Why is so much money going to politicians?

Maybe people are expecting the Messiah to come as President of the USA. Maybe donors just enjoy shelling out millions to support TV, radio and Newspaper ads. Maybe they just want to have their person in the White House.

Let's face it. Effective ministries rarely receive much from the Internet.
World Vision, a wonderful ministry to folks in crisis around the world, has a budget of about 4 Billion Dollars. (It is Billion not Million.) Christians are generous, especially Conservative Christians. God is moving and it takes finances to operate a mission and ministry. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Sweeten Life Systems is a 501c3 faith based charity and God is blessing us with numerous opportunities to impact leaders and their organizations. We are engaged in directly training missionaries, pastors and laity how to relate with health and love. We also help pastors and leaders who are stressed and looking for someone who they can speak to in confidence and safety. This is how evangelism and healing proceed effectively.

We all know that dysfunctional churches and dysfunctional leaders do harm to the gospel. In the past few years we have read how deeply the good news has been compromised by broken, compulsive and sinful leaders. We cannot tell you about the many times we have counseled leaders and their organizations when they are in crisis. Their stories are confidential.

Without confidential and skilled assistance many will end up in the evening news confessing their compulsive "mistakes". Others will be in the divorce courts facing the glare of a wounded spouse. I wish I could tell you the several hundred stories of triumph and victory but it is not possible. Pray for us.

We can say, however, that many fragile, depressed, anxious and tempted men and women came to us when there was no where else to go. We offer them highly skilled care and counsel regardless of their ability to pay. Your pastors and leaders are lonely, frustrated and poorly supported. They desperately need your compassion.

The Sweeten Life Systems' team is well known for providing a safe place to get healed, refreshed and re fired. We are being compassionate for you.

Sweeten Life Systems
P.O. Box 498455
Cincinnati, Ohio 45249

En-Joying Life

Taken from From the Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120709012659781613.html



Despite the sharp rise in our standard of living in recent decades, Americans today are little or no happier than earlier generations. Why not?

Americans are no happier today than they were 30 years ago. Why? How would you rate your happiness level right now? There are various reasons we feel sad, mad or glad.
Feeling unpleasant. Think of happiness as having three components. First, there's our basic disposition -- whether we are, by nature, a happy person or not. Clearly, there isn't a whole lot we can do about this.
Second, there are your life's circumstances, such as age, health, marital status and income. Often, this stuff isn't nearly as important as folks imagine. If my income doubled, I would initially be delighted. But research suggests we would quickly get used to all that extra money.
Third, how you spend your time -- something you have a fair amount of control over. This is the subject of a major new study by academics Daniel Kahneman, Alan Krueger, David Schkade, Norbert Schwarz and Arthur Stone. The people were asked to rate three episodes based on feelings such as pain, happiness, stress and sadness. All this was used to calculate what percentage of time people spent in an unpleasant state.


Result?

Women, folks under age 65, those divorced or separated, lower-income earners and the less educated were likely to spend a bigger chunk of their day in an unpleasant state.

The standout cluster of positive feelings were associated with what the authors label as "engaging leisure and spiritual activities." Things like visiting friends, exercising, attending church, listening to music, fishing, reading a book, sitting in a cafe or going to a party. When we spend time on our favorite of these activities, we're typically happy, engrossed and not especially stressed.



Find your passion, calling and gifting and do it. That sounds positively biblical. This is another reason why Seasoned Believers need to find a ministry that will allow them to be actively involved in positive, self chosen activities.



Get out and do something with friends or for someone and you will be blessed. Just as the Bible says: "It is more blessed to give than it is to receive."

The Grace of Aging

Where are women from????
At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies.
PG Wodehouse

On May 5 I will gain poise!!!

Seeking Prayers

It is helpful to remember that there are at least three main categories of prayers. They are: Seeking, Speaking and Soaking Prayers.

Seeking Prayers in which we focus our attention on building our relationship with the Heavenly Father and hearing from Him. In my view this is the key to developing a successful prayer life in the other two realms. If we do not seem to connect with the Lord then trying to Speak meaningfully or Soak a person is dry and boring.

"And Elisha prayed, 'O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.' Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha." - 2 Kings 6:17

Open the eyes of my heart Lord,

Open the eyes of my heart-

I want to see you

I want to see you

Speaking Prayers occur after we have developed a comfortable connection with the Spirit and we hear His still, small voice directing us to focus on a particular person or issue. For example, as I commune with God a certain person or need comes to my mind and I allow myself to follow the Spirit's guidance wherever it takes me. I try to rest in the Lord and not pressure myself to any structure or plan of my making. It is a loose, stream of spiritual consciousness rather than my trying to tell God what to do.

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Colossians 1:9

Soaking Prayers are needed when we face a particularly difficult problem such as a chronic illness, an attack of evil, a family dysfunction or persecution. Here we, sometime with a group, focus on the one person or issue that is broken or under attack. Sometimes we add fasting to the regimen.

"So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes." Daniel 9:3

Seeking Prayers can be a part of our daily activities and become like breathing to us. Breathe out our focus on God and breathe in the Spirit's presence. This is the way we can "Pray without ceasing."

Prayer and Listening-Again!

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one (Deut. 6:4). Meditate on this for awhile and let it sink in to your heart. It is the core of our faith.

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The servant of the Lord in Isaiah 50:4, with whom Jesus is identified, proclaims the Lord morning by morning as the one who wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

The Greek word upakouo that we usually translate as obey possibly can be better said to mean hyper listen or listen intently.

Obey normally means that we have a moral or ethical responsibility to do what we are told. Morals are important of course. However, but they can lead to laws that kill the spirit and soul. On the other hand, if the focus is listening to God, we get a far different idea about how to relate with God. It is much closer to abiding in Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit rise up within us. That changes the emphasis from external rules to internal energy and communion with God.

The prologue of the Rule of St. Benedict begins this way. Listen carefully and incline the ear of your heart.

Since God is holy and awesome, don't talk too much about your external issues and concerns. Take time to be silent and humbly approach God. Seek His inner witness and the Holy Spirit’s energizing force. Find your rest in the Spirit's flow that produces guidance about what to say and how to say it.

ECC 5:3 As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.

We show a lack of peace, wisdom and maturity when we talk too much during prayer. It’s best to settle down, focus and receive His peace before we say anything. Our hyper-talking rather than hyper-listening indicates worrisome self-focus rather than peaceful godly focus.

By listening to the inner witness of the Holy Spirit we will be able to hear that small voice of direction and focus and speak out of hearing not hear out of speaking.

Barbara McClintock is working to develop new and better strains of corn. Highly regarded as a world expert in her field, Dr. McClintock was once asked to reveal the secret that made her so able in her research. She replied: "I lean into the kernel. I lean into the kernel."

This "listening to the kernel" allows her to understand how it lives and reproduces. We need to lean into God to let Him guide our prayers and guide our lives.

Words either kill or heal but caring ears always mend. Gary Sweeten

ECC 5:6 Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, "My vow was a mistake." Why should God be angry with what you say and destroy the work of your hands?”

Our mouths get us into trouble by quickly vowing to God on a matter. It is foolish to promise to act and then fail to carry it out. Hasty words and thoughts are the marks of foolishness leading to the Lord’s discipline.

It also warns preachers not to ask for a hasty commitment from listeners. Some evangelists use psychological manipulation to get a desired response but that is dangerous. They start with simple questions, like “Do you think it is warm tonight” or “How many of you enjoyed that musical presentation?” in order get people in the habit of to raising their hands.

Before long the evangelist will ask if people want to make a vow to follow Christ or never marry and some may raise their hands without counting the cost. Some evangelists gave Bibles to Russian audiences so they would to get used to saying yes. Manipulation is wrong for many reasons. First, it leads people astray from God. Second, it mocks God and teaches listeners to trust manipulation not the Lord. Third, it is an extreme form of works righteousness.

Trust God and do what you want.

Health Care for Seniors

Garrison Keillor of The Prairie Home Companion radio show is one of my favorite humorists. He sees humor and with it insight in many wacky and wonderful places. For example, getting old and getting the government to pay for it.

http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/features/deskofgk/2008/01/22.shtml

The Old Scout

What is Wrong with Our Country Today

January 22, 2008

Q. As a senior citizen, do you feel that the health care system is doing all it can for your health problem?

A. I am not now, and never have been, a senior citizen. I happen to be 65 years old. Not the same thing. I am lively and quick, don't shamble or shuffle, and don't clutch the banister when I go down stairs. The brown spots on the backs of my hands are from experiments with a chemistry set when I was a boy. I have the urinary tract of a young horse. Doctors continue to be astonished.

What was the question?

DollyWood

Our good friends Jack and Sheri Herschend are the chief designers and idea people behind Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. They took that idea and planted it in the Smokey Mountains many years ago. Karen and I first took Julie and Tim down to visit Silver Dollar City about 30 years ago and we had a ball.

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Now it is Dollywood in her home town of Pigeon Forge and she has made herself proud. Dollywood has expanded greatly.

We had a great time and I am highlighting two shows that were outstanding in entertainment and inspiration. The First group I saw (Right photo above) consisted of six male singers from Zambia. Their vocalizing was wonderful and their repertoire varied from Country and Western to Gospel to Zambian.

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The second was a terrific group from Ireland that sang, played traditional instruments and danced. It was thoroughly entertaining.

What talent!

Vacation

Karen and I just returned from a few days in the Smokey Mountains with daughter and her family. We rented an awesome cabin outside Pigeon Forge. It was plenty big enough for all six of us and even more could have slept and played there.

It has been a very long time since our family went to Dollywood and it has grown immensely. The rides and shows were great and the weather terrific.