Shame on the Libs

Shame in the Camp

According to the Australian newspaper just a few hours ago, and their writer, Rick Wallace, Victorian political reporter

"ANOTHER senior Victorian Liberal has quit after being caught sending anti-Semitic emails as the crisis in the state opposition deepens.

Wallace reports, "Liberal campaign director Susan Chandler apologised for referring to a federal Liberal candidate as a “greedy f...ing jew” but has left her job at the party's Melbourne headquarters.

State president David Kemp said today she had the option of quitting or being sacked.

In an email to Liberal staffer John Osborn, Ms Chandler referred to candidate Adam Held as a “greedy f...ing Jew” after he asked for more campaign material during last year's federal election. Ms Chandler released a statement this afternoon saying she had many Jewish friends and was not anti-Semitic. “My comments were completely out of character and were made on the spur of the moment in an email during a difficult period of the election campaign,” she said.""

My thoughts? What I've learned is that people in the heat of moments say exactly what they think. We are like tea bags, and what comes out when people are put into hot water, demonstrates who they are and what is inside them. It's impossible to hide.

I'm sure Ms Chandler had some friendships with Jewish people and used such friendships in advancing her now-terminated political maneuvering.

Let the Liberals sort out their disarray, and I'm sure they will do so. But Ms Chandler needs to repent of hatred, needs to admit her true feelings and let God forgive her of this most obvious sin.

And isn't it good to know God wants to forgive us and give us new hearts? The Bible is rife with such statements. And really that's what comes out if we could put God 'into hot water.' What he is made of is love. What he is made of is hope for true internal change in us. And he will forgive the most wretched of sinners, and the 'best' of us.

Will they let her play?

Will they let her play?

Tomorrow is the finals of the Bible Quiz in Israel. The JTA from Jerusalem reports, "Should Bat El Levy be asked at Israel's international youth Bible quiz next week about the messiah's coming, she may find herself in a bind.

The 17-year-old Jerusalem girl is a world-class scriptural scholar who, as it happens, believes in Jesus."

So who cares what she believes? She was Jewish before she believed anything and she'll be Jewish long after this quiz is even a faint memory.

Today's Jerusalem Post says,
"Both chief rabbis of Israel called on Tuesday to cancel the International Bible Quiz slated for the capital on Independence Day in protest against the participation of a 16-year-old girl who believes Jesus is the messiah.

"Choosing her as a finalist in the International Bible Quiz for Jewish Youth is a transgression of Halacha and is a distortion of the goal and essence of the quiz," wrote Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger in a letter to Education Minister Yuli Tamir. "The Chief Rabbinate of Israel vigorously protests [the participation] of this representative... Bible quiz participants have always been Jews who believed in the Torah handed down by Moses.

"The Chief Rabbinate calls to disqualify this girl from taking part in the quiz. If she is not disqualified, we call to cancel the quiz immediately.

"It is unacceptable that a member of a cult that has removed itself from the Jewish faith will take part in a quiz dedicated to a book that has been holy to the Jews since their inception as a people," the rabbis wrote.

"Nevertheless, Tzurit Berenson, 15, from Nahariya, one of the four Israeli finalists, said that she and the other contestants intended to participate in Thursday's competition.
"We asked our own rabbis what to do and they told us that we should participate," said Berenson, who added that she had taught herself the Bible and has been preparing for the quiz for years.

"Berenson said religious activists have been trying to discourage her and the other participants from taking part in the quiz, "but we have all decided to go ahead with it."

Isn't it a joy to know that 15-year-olds know the ideas of Tenach better than their older counterparts? Good on those young co-participants who challenge the rabbis and who just want to win in tomorrow's finals.

Shame on the ones who are trying to prevent another Jew from experiencing something Jewish. Who cares if any participant is a Jewish Buddhist or a Jewish atheist for that matter? Let these Jewish kids and young adults have a go.

Road rage

Yesterday was a bad day for my new friend Ed. He hurried to his doctor appointment in the morning and as a result was late for work. He wanted to tell me that, but he lost his mobile phone. And he couldn't hear it ring, as it has a flat battery, so he can't even help himself to find it. Oy.

So he comes to work at the shop and parks behind me. No problem there. I get ready to leave a little early because I have to speak last night at a church meeting. So Ed comes down with me to move his car. Simple, right? Except he has left his lights on and now his car battery is dead. Double oy!

OK, so he puts his car into neutral, eases back down the slight hill of a driveway we have. I back out next to him and park, so I can use my jumper cables. This won't take long.

We put the cables onto each car, and the jump start is successful, but Ed's car doesn't want to hold the charge, nor keep running unless he keeps his foot on the accelerator. Oy, oy, oy.

We are making a quick determination about staying or leaving the office, when a woman approaches in her vehicle. Seems I'm parked a bit in her very oversized driveway into the megatower apartment block immediately behind our shop. She can (and does) negotiate her way into the driveway, uses her electric key to enter the property and drives away. Should be no trouble, right?

Except this woman rages against me for blocking her path. She obviously isn't happy. Maybe her Lexus is giving her trouble like Ed's car was giving him? Maybe she had a bad day at work or at the health spa? Maybe something else is going wrong with her. But she yelled at me! Could she not see the jumper cables? Could she not see we were trying to start Ed's car? Did she really think I wanted to park along the path/street and not in my spot a mere 15 feet in front of me?

Yes, I should have been quick to say "I'm sorry for blocking a bit of your drive." But I was a little busy with the jump.

Lesson to self: Be quick to fix other people's problems and never, never, never get in the way of a road-raging woman in a black Lexus in Bondi. And if you do, be very quick to apologize for the inconvenience. (That I could have really done, and should have said so to her. )

BTW, the photo is not of the woman. Don't try to iris scan and find her.

Passover 2008

It's Shabbat, a day of rest and tonight is Pesach, a day to remember the deliverance, the lambs, and our exodus from Egypt. What a great weekend. The Ten Commandments tell us to remember the Sabbath day (for two reasons). First, in Exodus chapter 20, we read to keep Shabbat “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. " OK, so every week we remember the Creation of the World and we remember The Creator.

And we rest and don't do the ordinary things.

But in Deuteronomy we read the reiteration of the Ten Commandments and are told, in chapter 5, "the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day. "

In other words we have two reasons to remember and observe and keep Shabbat.

First God is Creator.
Second God is Redeemer.

Excellent ideas to ponder.

These are not contradictory remarks; they are conjoined. God as Creator made the world and in the Exodus of the Jewish people in about 1500 BCE, we see His involvement to redeem the world. This culminated in Jerusalem about a millenium and a half later, in the person of Y'shua.

Now get this. Y'shua showed He was Creator over and over in his earthly ministry. He healed the lame man (Matthew chapter 9) by declaring him forgiven and only God can forgive sins. Y'shua healed the blind man (John 9) by bending down and making mud and putting it on the blind man's eye sockets. He was demonstrating his own nature as Creator (see Genesis 2) when God made man out of the dust of the earth. He taught the angry crowd about His being God (John 8) when again he bent down and wrote in the dust the sins of the accusers of the adulteress. (Jeremiah 17, Exodus 31, 32).

Y'shua is Creator, the Banger behind the Big Bang, and the Uncause Cause of the Universes.

He also is the Passover Redeemer who delivered all Israel from Pharaoh and all people from Satan and the Curse of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). The House of Bondage is broken open. He was announced as the Lamb of God by his cousin John (John 1.35) and died for our sins, to save us from the slavery of sin.

No wonder this will be a great weekend for us. Shabbat reminding us of Creation and Redemption, and Passover on its heels. Enjoy. Celebrate. Remember. Rest. God has done great things for us. All.

KU winning was not a miracle

I so enjoy the newscasters here in the US, especially here from where I'm writing in Kansas City. They inserted an entire section into the Kansas City Star this morning about the Jayhawks, as they should. The KU basketball team won the men's national championship in an overtime victory last night in San Antonio. It was a great game, with the best two teams in the tournament performing well, and giving the crowd, both there in the Alamodome and around the globe watching on television, a series of thrills.

Unfortunately, the Star's headlines editors entitled the insert section, "Miracle II." Throughout the articles writers sprinkled the reports with "miracle three-pointer" and KU was "in need of several miracles."

Now I'm a die-hard fan. And proud of it. I still have the 1988 final game between KU and Oklahoma, the game that never stopped, on video tape at home in Sydney. But let's get our terms right. The last shot by Mario Chalmers with 4 or 5 seconds left in regulation was not a miracle. It was a great shot, a terrific shot, an unlikely shot, but not a miracle.

You see, if you throw the ball at a certain angle, with the right speed, and the right length, it will go in. That's what science tells us. It's all about repeatability. That's why the Memphis fans should be upset at their Tigers for failing to hit the repeatable free throws at the end of regulation.

A miracle, let' see. What would a miracle have been for KU? Perhaps the appearing of a 6th man on the court, unseen to the referees, or even to the TV audience, but one who body blocked the Tiger big men and as a result allowed easy lay-ups for the Jayhawks. Or how about a time when the ball was physically going out of bounds, bouncing clearly off a Jayhawk, and for no apparent reason, the ball changes directions 180 degrees, increases speed, and kicks off a Tiger. Now that would be a candidate for 'miracle.' See? It's the unexplainable; it's the unrepeatable; it's the invisible.

I guess I'm a bit guarding of the term because, and get this, I DO BELIEVE in miracles. But every day is not another miracle. Every sunrise is not a miracle. Having a baby is not a miracle. It's the natural; it's the ordinary; it's the repeatable.

So when I read about people having cancer and being healed without a drug or battery of radiation, I sit up and listen. When I hear about Red Seas parting or manna falling from heaven in the Passover story, I take notice. God is the author of miracles, and He loves to shake things up a bit. And He will do things for you, as well.

Do you trust Him? Why not ask Him for help today?

Nomophobia

I'd never heard this word before. On the radio the other morning, they commented on this. My first guess was 'fear of the law.' And that would make sense in that I often take my foot off the accelerator when I see a policeman. But that's not what they meant.

They described this new phobia as "Fear of Being Out of Range on your cell (Mobile) phone." (No Mobile Phobia) No doubt this word is not American as US people title their mobile phones, "cell phones." Maybe it's an Aussie word. We'll see.

And I've certainly experienced this phenomenon. What if, when I'm driving here in the US, or between Tamworth and Armidale, someone tries to ring me and they get a 'out of range' commentary from the telecom provider. Oy! Oy vey! This would be so bad, as I spend a lot of time in my car or in the train or ... such.

So I immediately understood their 'new' word of the day. Nomophobia. May it not happen to you.

But what may be more significant, and more of a worry, is NoGophobia. That is the fear of not being able to hear from God. (French: you may need to call it NoDophobia, obviously) After all, when we cannot get a signal to Telstra or AT & T, no worries, God can always get through. I'm sure Billy Ray Cyrus has written something about that. But what if He couldn't? What if we had done something to prevent His communication with us?

Ouch, that wouldn't be good, at all.

So, this April, think about God getting through to you, let Him speak to you. Let His word dwell in you richly, and don't worry about being out of range. He knows where you are.

After all, that's a great comfort.

Israelis and Messianic Jews

Of note today was the visit of the mayor of Ariel to young Ami Ortiz. The story follows from Jerusalem Post online edition.

Anti-missionaries suspected in attack
Yaakov Lappin , THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 23, 2008

Police investigating the sending of a package which exploded in the home of a Christian pastor in Ariel are leaning toward the theory that a Jewish anti-missionary was behind the attack, the preacher told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

David Ortiz's 16-year-old son, Ami, sustained serious injuries in the blast, after opening the package, which was made to look like a Purim gift.

"They [the police], as far as I understand, do not suspect Palestinian terrorism. They suspect a Jewish anti-missionary motive," Ortiz told the Post by phone from his Ariel home, minutes after returning from the hospital.

"At the start of the investigation, they went in the direction of Palestinian terrorism. Now they're going in the other direction," he added.

Judea and Samaria Police spokesman Ch.-Supt. Dani Poleg said he could not comment on the investigation due to a court-imposed media blackout, in force since Friday.

Ami's life was no longer in danger, his father said, but he was still suffering from serious injuries all over his body.

"His neck had an eight-inch [20-cm.] gash like someone slit his throat. He has a ruptured lung. Doctors had to operate on his tongue. He has second-degree burns to his chest and arms, and there is no flesh on the thighs," Ortiz said, adding that doctors were forced to amputate two toes. "They're trying to continue to make sure that he won't lose his arms and legs. His whole body is full of fragments of shrapnel," he said.

Ortiz described the moments after the explosion when the teenager's mother, Leah, "saw flames coming out of the windows after going downstairs to throw out the garbage." After running upstairs, Leah saw "her son on the floor. She held his neck and she kept the wound closed with her hands." Using her paramedic training, "she made a hole so he could breathe. Then the ambulance driver who arrived kept him alive. When we got to hospital, he was operated on in five places," Ortiz said, adding that he considered his son's recovery to be "a miracle." Ortiz's Jewish-born wife, Leah, is a member of Jews for Jesus. The pastor says dozens of families in Ariel have been influenced by his teachings. "We have about 50 families," he declared.

He described a long history of tensions with anti-missionary activists in Ariel, which included flyers and a petition calling for the family to leave the city.

"My neighbor said he had been told by religious Jews that if we were the only ones living in this building, they would have bombed it," Ortiz said. "When we first came into this town, the rabbi visited us and told me I was not allowed to talk about Yeshua [Jesus] outside of my apartment. I told him that as far I know, this is not a crime in this country. This is a democratic country, people can say whatever they want outside their house," Oritz said.

"They put posters all over town warning residents to keep away from us and calling for us to be excommunicated, and there was a demonstration in front of our house. If all my neighbors had signed the petition calling on us to leave, I would have to leave by law. Some of my neighbors refused to sign," he added.

Four of Oritz's children have completed their military service in the IDF, he said. "I have served in the reserves for 15 years. I was shot at and stoned in Nablus. All of my children went to school here, they are normal children, we are normal people. Ami is the captain of his school basketball team."

Rabbi Dov Lifshitz, chairman of the Yad L'Achim anti-missionary organization, said he doubted that Jews were behind the bombing.

"Someone who thinks logically will not do this. It just harms the struggle. I'm sure this is not connected to the anti-missionary cause," he told the Post.

If the culprit is Jewish, the bomber "is either crazy or does not understand the struggle," Lifshitz added.

He estimated that Christian missionaries have succeeded in converting around 15,000 Jews to Christianity in Israel, adding that the missionaries target those "without defense - people ignorant of Judaism, such as Russian immigrants, and the lonely. This is why they succeeded, in a Jewish state, unbelievably. They have 120 branches in Israel," he said, blaming the Jewish Agency and the government for failing to provide a Jewish education to new immigrants.

"We are now pushing for legislation that would make it illegal for members of any religion to try and convert others to their faith," Lifshitz said. "Our struggle isn't against anyone. What we're saying is, we are Jews. Let us be Jews. Christians should remain Christians. In our 50 years of activity, we've never had any violence. We have a big argument with messianic Jews, but that doesn't include violence," Lifshitz said.



And this article is also part of Jerusalem Post online edition in another sector...
Members of the Messianic community in Israel said Monday that while the near-fatal attack last week on 15-year-old Ami Ortiz of Ariel marks a major escalation, it comes after years of anti-missionary violence directed at the community by both Jews and Muslims.


"We get the feeling that nobody in Israel is willing to take a strong stand against violent anti-missionary activity," said Pastor Howard Bass, head of the Nahalat Yeshua [Jesus's Inheritance] Congregation in Beersheba.

"We have experienced numerous attacks on the Messianic communities by haredim over the years," said Bass. "But there is very little sympathy for our plight."

Ortiz was seriously wounded after a parcel bomb in the form of a Purim gift blew up in his face. Ortiz is the son of David Ortiz, a prominent Messianic Christian pastor.


This was the most serious attack against the embattled Messianic community in Israel. Both Muslims and Orthodox Jews, who are vehemently opposed to Christian missionary activity, are suspected of sending the bomb.

The Messianic community in Israel numbers about 15,000, spread out in roughly 120 congregations across the nation. The community members, who believe there is no contradiction between being Jewish and believing Jesus to have been the Savior and the Son of God, has been steadily growing, in large part due to proselytizing activities. About half of the community's membership was born Jewish.

Bass, who was born Jewish, said that he saw the growth of the community of "believers" as another sign of the imminent second resurrection of the Messiah. He admitted that he shared his beliefs with his neighbors in the hope that he would influence them.

"When I was involved with politics I tried to influence people's political views. Now I do the same thing with religion."

Just this week Bass said that two surveillance cameras that monitor his house of prayer were stolen. Last Saturday, during prayers at the 100-strong congregation, a group of haredim stood outside and shouted, temporarily stopping the prayers.

Beersheba has a history of tension between haredim and the Messianic community.

In December 2005, just before Christmas, Bass's congregation was attacked by hundreds of haredi demonstrators who received the backing of the local rabbinic leadership. The demonstrators had heard rumors that busloads of Jewish children were to be baptized by the community.

Calev Myers, founder and chief counsel of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, an advocacy group that represents members of the Messianic community, said that the police did not press charges against the assailants who forced their way into the church and forcibly stopped the baptism of two Israelis. The intruders threw chairs around and pushed Bass into the baptismal pool, according to Myers.

In Arad, another flashpoint for tension between the Messianic community and Orthodox Jews, the Chasdei Yeshua [Jesus's Loving-Kindness] Congregation, a tiny community of about 30, has been harassed repeatedly by the local Ger Hassidic community.

Lura Beckford, a Chasdei Yeshua member whose husband Edwin is presently under house arrest for attacking an anti-missionary activist in Arad last month during a confrontation, said that there had been numerous confrontations over the years.

"They've verbally attacked us on a regular basis and they even tried to burn down our chess club last February," said Beckford.

Meanwhile, Pastor David Ortiz, speaking to The Jerusalem Post from Schneider Medical Center, where his son Ami is hospitalized in serious condition, said that since he came to Israel over 20 years ago he has been the target of violence, mostly by Muslims.

"In the past, I have traveled into the neighboring Arab villages, which are all 100% Muslim, to distribute the whole Bible [Old and New Testament]," said Ortiz.

"Recently, with the deterioration of the security situation I stand outside the villages explaining to people about Jesus. Or I pick up local Arabs who hitchhike and I give them a Bible. I tell them 'This is the history of your people.'"

Ortiz said that he has been beaten up on at least one occasion by Palestinians from a neighboring village while distributing Bibles, and that a Molotov cocktail was once thrown at his car.

In the mid-1990's the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Ekrima Said Sabri, issued a fatwa [religious order] calling to kill Ortiz.

"The fatwa was even published in the Al Quds newspaper. I got a call from the US Embassy asking me to keep a low profile.

"Luckily, I am still here, still ticking. But I live my life as if every day could be my last."

Last November Isa Bajalia, an Arab-American evangelical pastor who works with Ortiz in proselytizing among Palestinians, told the Post that he was forced to flee his hometown of Ramallah after being threatened by a Palestinian security official.

Bajalia, who was born in Birmingham, Alabama, was ministering to a group of 30 to 35 people in Ramallah and carrying out missionary work there.

Ortiz said that he has also been exposed to mild anti-missionary campaigns initiated by Jews. Over the years pamphlets have been distributed in Ariel with his picture on them warning that Ortiz and others that belong to the Messianic community are "masquerading as Jews." But in general, Ortiz, who has brought significant Evangelical Christian financial support to Ariel, enjoys the backing of Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman.

Rabbi Shalom Lipshitz, head of Yad Le'achim, the largest anti-missionary organization in Israel, said that he opposed all violent anti-missionary action. But he added that he saw the Messianic community as an enemy to the Jewish people.

"There is no one who hates Jews more than they do," said Lipshitz. "They are trying to uproot Jewish faith, just like the Spanish did in the Inquisition. The only thing different is that these people cannot use physical force like the Spanish did. But they try to take advantage of the poor. They prey on Jews who do not know anything about Jewish heritage.

"We try to explain the 'truth.' We try to tell people that you cannot be Jewish and believe in Jesus at the same time. It just doesn't go together.

"Our job at Yad Le'achim is to make sure the Jewish people gets bigger, and fight people.”