If Moses had Facebook

Click on this link and then 'play' the video. It's fantastic.Google Exodus
One of the funny things about jokes in the modern world is the capacity for anachronism with the internet. Here some Orthodox Jewish people have mixed in the social media of Facebook, and You Tube and other media and re-told the story of the Exodus. I like that.

Y'shua did this frequently. He told stories and made the people who listened understand old stories anew.

I like to do that. I hope you enjoy this one and that your celebration of the deliverance of the Jewish people is rich and real.

Chag s'meach!

Shameless and Primping

Adelaide’s Channel 9 news reader Kate Collins has made the news having been captured on video in what the Adelaide News calls, “a hilarious unguarded moment.”

Collins, who has been with Channel 9 in Adelaide (Australia) since 2006, was caught preening herself and fixing her hair. The footage has made its way on to AOL daily news, to YouTube and is expected to go viral. But to call it ‘hilarious’ is not on. It’s shameless. She simply is adjusting her hair.

Like Collins is the only person on TV who wants to look good and pays attention to her hair between segments. Please.

Let’s list some others who did it very publically:
1) The Fonz. “Get a black comb. The Fonz always made sure he looked good, especially when he came across his reflection. Pull the comb out from your side pocket when you come across a mirror and check your hair.”

Read more: How to Dress Like the Fonz http://www.ehow.com/how_4523653_dress-like-fonz-halloween.html#ixzz1JuzFFDZm”

2) Edd Byrnes. From his fan page on Facebook:
“Edd… American actor known for his starring role in the television series 77 Sunset Strip. He also was featured in the film version of Grease….His most famous role was as Gerald Lloyd "Kookie" Kookson, III, on the ABC television detective series ‘77 Sunset Strip.’ He played a continuously hair-combing serial killer in the pilot, Girl on the Run, but he was so popular as a result that the producers brought back the following week as a regular cast member in a different role.”
This from Time magazine, Monday, May 11, 1959
“The most famous head of hair in the nation last week belonged neither to Senator John Kennedy nor to Pianist Artur Rubinstein, but to a 25-year-old television actor named Edward Byrnes, who in three short weeks has become the hottest new property on records. The source of Byrnes's top-of-the-head fame is a peculiarly wolfish ditty called Kookie, Kookie (Warner Bros.) in which Byrnes sings scarcely a note. His contribution is a series of jive lingo replies to a marshmallow-voiced girl who implores him over and over again: "Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb!" Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,865832,00.html#ixzz1Jv1tavYf

3) Ted Baxter from the Mary Tyler Moore show. His friend Gavin McLeod wrote, “[In 1981]: I called Ted a delightful Polish ham. Look at him when he gets into his car to leave the studio. There's Teddy combing his hair in the mirror before he starts the motor. Who knows how many fans will spot him and wave on the freeway?”

People love to ridicule others. It makes good comedy, or at least fills television evening comedy time slots. But Ms Collins is merely the brunt of media boredom, hunting for anything which is hysterical, and finding the barely noticeable. Shame on them.

On the airplane today from Dallas, I asked the flight attendant if she wouldn’t mind making a general announcement wishing all the Jewish passengers on board a “Happy Passover.” She declined saying it was against airline policy. What?

I was sitting next to a lawyer, a corporate lawyer and told him of her comment. Well, he said, that’s the safe answer. We spoke about general announcements of sports scores and such, but he said, those haven’t been litigated yet. So the pilot is generally safe in making such known.

Shame. Unbelievable shame. You want to hear one? Up in Washington state, “Up here, a school changed the name of an Easter Egg hunt to a Spring Sphere hunt...ridiculous!” Thanks Stephanie for this news item. Unbelievable.

I remember Christmas concerts when I was a youth. Great music. Baroque, classical, significant. Now, all gone, traded in for Frosty and bells that jingle. What a waste. What a shame.

In fact, shameless is the key concept today.

Brian Lowry of Variety Magazine wrote this in January, “Rossum is certainly appealing, but too many of the supporting players (led by Joan Cusack as a germaphobic mom, and the Gallaghers' wacky neighbors) come across as cartoonish concoctions there to capitalize on pay-cable license rather than service the story.

The series does cast light on a world (relocated to the grimiest part of Chicago) where nothing comes easy, and kids don't have the luxury of idleness or childhood.

For the most part, there's nothing here to be ashamed of. It's just that at a time when TV drama is so flush with riches, "Shameless" plays like a poor relative.”

That’s a review in part of the new television show on Showtime. I hadn’t heard of it until today when I saw a billboard in Los Angeles with the cast and the name. And I thought of the shame in Adelaide and in the airlines and that’s so desperately missing in people’s lives.

A bit of shame is good, you know. When you do wrong, you should feel ashamed. Adam, the original one, not Sandler, was naked and not ashamed before he ate of the forbidden tree. Immediately after he ate, he was embarrassed and that’s healthy. He sought or rather was sought by the Almighty, and the shame he felt was overcome by the blood of the animals killed for Adam.

God has a way to take away our shame. And to give us healthy and sustainable life in its place. For that, I’m especially grateful. And wish that for you today and this week as well.

To all my Jewish mates, Happy Passover!

Israelis and Messianic Jews

This article is worth a read all by itself.

Israeli media stands up for Messianic Jews

Average Israelis may be indifferent at best toward their Jesus-following Jewish brethren, but their distaste for the domineering attitude and behavior of many in the Orthodox Jewish community has resulted in a new phenomenon of average “secular” Israelis coming to the defense of Messianic Jews.

Nowhere has this been more pronounced than in the Israeli media, which over the past several years has on numerous occasion portrayed Messianic Israelis in a positive light.

The latest occurrence of this was on Wednesday evening, when Israel Channel One’s “Second Look” program compared local Messianic Jews to the anti-missionary group Yad L’Achim, which has dedicated itself to harassing and driving out believers in Yeshua (Jesus)... read the whole article (see http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/22729/Default.aspx)

I think the historic Jewish community needs to rethink its strategies against the work of the Lord in the messianic community.

Caroline Glick, Israel, and Jews for Jesus

In the midst of a decent article about American Jews and their views on Anti-Israel Jewry, for some unknown reason, Glick goes into a diatribe, or at least a forthright knock against Jewish believers in Jesus. It seemed to be from left field.

Her article published in the Jerusalem Post on 1 April 2011 begins with "Over the past year or so, American Jewish opponents of Israel like writer and activist Peter Beinart have sought to intimidate and demoralize Israelis by telling us that American Jews either no longer support us or will stop supporting us if we don't give in to all the Arabs' demands. But statistical evidence exposes these threats as utter lies."

OK, fair enough, I get the idea, she wants the anti-Israel sentiment to stop. I get it.

She continues, "In fact, American Jews under 30 are more hawkish about the Palestinian conflict with Israel than Jews between the ages of 31-40 are.According to the Brandeis survey, 51 percent of American Jews oppose a future division of Jerusalem, while a mere 29% would support it."

She cites examples of pressured groups on East and West coasts who have buckled to anti-Israel sentimentalists and organizers. She worries about Israeli support in the USA. OK, I get it, and appreciate her remarks. But out of nowhere comes this, "To get a sense of how unprecedented this is, it is useful to consider the American Jewish community's response to Jews for Jesus. While Reform and Orthodox rabbis agree on almost nothing relating to Jewish laws and practices, since the emergence of Jews for Jesus in the 1970s, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbis have been unified in their rejection of the Christian missionary group's protestations of being Jewish.

Everyone understands that while Jews have a perfect right to change their religion, they have no right to force the Jewish community to accept Christians as Jews. That is, they have no right to change the definition of Judaism to include people who worship Jesus.

So-called Messianic Jews falsely call themselves Jews to undermine the community from within. But no Federation feels compelled to invite a representative of so-called Messianic Jews to proselytize on stage as part of a panel discussion in order to "welcome multiple voices."

Hillel organizations have rightly refused space and funding to Messianic Jewish groups.

But today, American Jews find themselves helpless when a marginal group of anti-Zionist Jews demands - like the Messianic Jews of their day - communal funding and space for their anti-Israel activities.

The anti-Zionist groups make the same arguments as the Messianic Jews. They call themselves pro-Israel even as they engage in activities aimed at harming, defaming, weakening and delegitimizing the Jewish state. They claim that refusing them communal funds constitutes a violation of their free speech rights.

Yet while communal leaders did not hesitate to call the so-called Messianic Jews' bluff, they cannot find the way to expunge anti-Israel groups from their umbrella organizations."

What! What a conflation of ideas and misstatements and borderline indictments. I'm so glad someone (and many have done so) replied. Case in point. Matt Sieger is a senior editor at Jews for Jesus. He took Glick to task in his reply on TownHall.com. I quote him in entirety.

"Dear Caroline,
In your column, "American Jewry's Fight," you use Messianic Jews (those of us who believe in Jesus) as a barometer of what the American Jewish community's response should be to anti-Israel propaganda emanating from Jewish groups. In doing so, you have tarred us with the same brush as those anti-Israel groups. To set the record straight, I would like to make the following points:

• Messianic Jews are almost invariably and unapologetically pro Israel.
• Messianic Jews in Israel show that commitment by joining the Israeli army.
• We do not attempt to "force the Jewish community" to accept us as Jews. We are Jews, descendants of Abraham, who believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.
• We do not seek to "undermine the community from within." Undermining the community is not our agenda. Our only agenda is to proclaim that Jesus is Messiah.
• As far as I know, Messianic Jewish groups demand neither space nor funding from Hillel organizations.

Your one sentence is particularly misleading: "But today, American Jews find themselves helpless when a marginal group of anti-Zionist Jews demands—like the Messianic Jews of their day—communal funding and space for their anti-Israel activities."

This sentence implies two things: 1) that Messianic Jews demand communal funding and space from Jewish groups; and 2) that we demand it for anti-Israel activities. Neither of those statements could be further from truth. I believe you owe us and your readers an apology for that implication. Thank you."

Sieger, don't hold your breath for such an apology, although I generally find Glick a person of good will. We'll keep a watch for whatever comes next.

Flowers of the Son

By Rachel Friedlander

Israel is home to some seven and a half million people. But to billions others, it is a stray and distant thought—the very mention of which often evokes images of terrorism, religious conflict, and concrete rubble. But from amid the sounds of conflict, one group of missionaries hears the cry for peace and salvation.

Flowers of the Son documents the experiences of the volunteers participating in “Behold Your God,” a four week evangelistic outreach that spans twelve geographic regions of Israel. Through pamphlets, banners, skits, musical performances, phone calls, and door-to-door visits, these missionaries engage both young and old, religious and irreligious in conversation about the Messiah, Y'shua.

Directed, written, and produced by Emmy award-winners Herb and Amy Kossover, Flowers of the Son packs quite the punch in a short, 30 minute time slot. Despite its slightly cloying, Hallmark card introduction, this half hour is not filled with typical evangelistic fare—there are no heartrending accounts of injured orphans and puppies, no sickening musical number. It is the truthful, occasionally gruesome story of what these missionaries face on a daily basis.

It is made apparent that whether serving on the front lines or behind the scenes, these campaign workers have the unity of an army and the resilience of soldiers. Despite their uniform of brightly colored t-shirts, they are of different genders and nationalities with unique gifts and testimonies. But just like the campaign itself, this film is a collaboration. The voices of all types of missionaries are heard through narrative, interviews, and both live and reenacted footage.

But the cries of opposition are also heard, loud and clear. Instances of verbal abuse and physical assault permeate the film, providing a realistic picture of the spiritual war that is taking place in the streets of Israel. Fortunately, there is hope amid the horror. Serving as the dessert of this cinematic meal, two inspiring accounts of religious seekers leave a lasting taste of promise.

Whether showing moments of the ugliness of human nature or the beauty of salvation, the audience will be captured by the stunning cinematography, enjoyable soundtrack (including the sounds of New Light Ruins), and vivid storytelling. Flowers of the Son inspires those around the world to look past the crumbling cement and to see the life that is bursting up through the cracks.

Contamination

What a mess in Japan. Now today contamination from Japan's quake-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant would be a problem that would last "for decades and decades'', France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) said on Sunday.

“It's a problem that Japan will have to deal with for decades and decades to come.'' Major anxiety continues throughout the country. The anxiety was compounded by the Tokyo Government's revelation Wednesday that radioactive iodine in the drinking water was more than twice the level deemed safe for infants, although it remained within safe adult limits.

The news triggered a run on bottled water in shops and the city's ubiquitous vending machines, while the Tokyo government started to give families three 550-millilitre (18.5-ounce) bottles of water per infant.

Back in 2008, a major gas leak here in Australia triggered a mass exodus. And today residents learned they will share $17.25m compensation for a gas leak fiasco, but lawyers will take $6m in fees.  The massive class action over Cranbourne's methane gas fiasco was settled this morning, with hundreds of residents winning compensation.

The Cranbourne Leader reports the settlement is set to be $23.5 million, including $13.5m from Casey Council coffers and $10m to be paid by the EPA. Residents will share $17.25m after a $6m payment for the court costs and fees for law firm Slater and Gordon.

The deal also allows another $250,000 for “exceptional circumstance’’ cases. That leaves the 771 Brookland Greens households in the class action to share $17.25 million - an average of $22,373 each.

Countries across the world have shunned Japanese food imports as radioactive steam leaked from a disaster-struck nuclear plant, straining nerves in Tokyo.

The damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant from the tectonic calamity and a series of explosions has stoked global anxiety. The United States and Hong Kong have already restricted Japanese food, and France wants the European Union to do the same.

Russia ordered a halt to food imports from four prefectures - Fukushima, Gunma, Ibaraki and Tochigi - near the stricken plant some 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo.

Contamination is the problem.  Here are some definitions:   
* In food chemistry and medicinal chemistry, the term "contamination" is used to describe harmful intrusions, such as the presence of toxins or pathogens in food or medicinal drugs.
    * In forensic science, a contaminant can be complex materials such as hair or skin particles arising from sources not related to the ongoing investigation.
* In geology and especially geochemistry, it can have similar effects where even a few grains of "modern" dust can distort results of sophisticated experiments.
    * the term "contamination" is sometimes used to describe accidental transfers of organisms from one natural environment to another.

Some Bible verses found in the NIV actually use the same term. All in the same one chapter in the Torah. “If the contamination in the clothing, or leather, or woven or knitted material, or any leather article, is greenish or reddish, it is a spreading mildew and must be shown to the priest.”  (Leviticus chapter 13, verse 49)
“He must burn up the clothing, or the woven or knitted material of wool or linen, or any leather article that has the contamination in it, because the mildew is destructive; the article must be burned up.” (verse 52)
“These are the regulations concerning contamination by mildew in woolen or linen clothing, woven or knitted material, or any leather article, for pronouncing them clean or unclean.” (verse 59)

In this section of Jewish Bible, the seriousness of contamination is clear. Of course the Jewish people received this instruction in the wilderness, on their way to the Land of Israel, about 3500 years ago.

The thing about contamination, whether spent nuclear fuel rods or tainted nuclear cabbage or mildew in woolen clothing in Israel is that there is one way to deal with it. Remove the contaminant, be ruthless, burn it up.

God wants us to be ruthless with those things that will damage us and might damage others. We have to be anti-contaminant in all our dealings with problems and situations. Not hostile to people, ever, but ever removing the things that will destroy us and our nation.

We are so sorry for the troubles in Japan. We are hopeful that the world might go back into the way it used to be.  But in the meantime and in your own life, treat sin ruthlessly. Deal with problems immediately. Don’t let things linger that need to be removed.

Contaminants are like leaven. And as we approach the season of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, (Chag hamatzot), let’s remove the leaven from our lives. It will only fill in the gaps that remain and dominate.

It’s better to be free. Free from sin. Free from evil. Free from those things that hinder and eventually capture us. Be anti-contaminant today and every day. Shabbat shalom!

Pressure, tsunami, and relief

Large areas of Japan's northern Pacific coast have been swamped by a devastating tsunami, engulfing entire towns following a major 8.9 offshore quake. The massive wave of water, as high as 10 metres in some parts, reached more than five kilometres inland. The quake center was 231 miles northeast of Tokyo, and the Tokyo Narita (NRT) airport has been affected. As a result, airline operations to and from Japan locations have been impacted,

The news agencies are reporting this morning thousands being dead. Trains are lost, ships are missing. it's a devastation.

Now there is major concern for nuclear reactor leakage and the massive risks that will bring.

I'm watching the first live photos from NHK World service, houses are lost, cars burning and washed away. I'm devastated.

Pressures are part of the reason for a tsunami. What causes a tsunami? A tsunami is a large ocean wave that is caused by sudden motion on the ocean floor. This sudden motion could be an earthquake, a powerful volcanic eruption, or an underwater landslide. The impact of a large meteorite could also cause a tsunami. Tsunamis travel across the open ocean at great speeds and build into large deadly waves in the shallow water of a shoreline. Here are some photos to explain.

Most tsunamis are caused by earthquakes generated in a subduction zone, an area where an oceanic plate is being forced down into the mantle by plate tectonic forces. The friction between the subducting plate and the overriding plate is enormous. This friction prevents a slow and steady rate of subduction and instead the two plates become "stuck".

As the stuck plate continues to descend into the mantle the motion causes a slow distortion of the overriding plage. The result is an accumulation of energy very similar to the energy stored in a compressed spring. Energy can accumulate in the overriding plate over a long period of time - decades or even centuries.

So pressures come, and ruptures and energy releases. The earth quakes, the waves surge, the world is different than what we knew two days ago.

This happened in Christchurch, New Zealand last month.

Haiti and Chile. Naming them and their recent earthquakes makes anyone shudder.

The earth is shaking, the political situations in Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain...the world is devastated. 

What are we doing? What is the world doing?

Nuclear reaction and another Chernobyl (1986) is possible. Japan is “on the path of a core-melt accident,” a nuclear expert told Newsmax in an exclusive interview.

The news Friday afternoon that the only nation that ever has endured a nuclear-weapons attack is venting contaminated vapor from a nuclear power plant’s containment core could indicate that the coolant loss is quite serious, says Mark Hibbs, a Berlin-based senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a nonprofit think tank. Hibbs, who works in Carnegie's Nuclear Policy Program, has spent 20 years reporting for nuclear-energy journals and has spoken with Japanese officials in the aftermath of the nuclear plant mishap resulting from the earthquake there.

Japanese officials have evacuated 3,000 residents who live near the damaged reactors as a precautionary measure, according to Fox News. The pressure inside the Fukishima reactor containment domes is 1,000 percent higher than normal, the officials say, although they contend that a last-ditch emergency cooling system is intact.

One thing is sure, when pressures come, they must be released. Either naturally via steam or earthquake or explosion or volcano or tsunami. The world will continue to self-maintain. And that will cost human life. And human enterprise. Cities will be wiped out. What I create will eventually be erased.

How do you hear that? Do you feel like what you do is a waste? That nothing matters? I'll hope not. I wish we could make the world a better place. I wish we could repair what others have ruined. And we work to do such.

But understand this, Shaking on earth is reflective of shaking in heaven. Isaiah, the Jewish prophet, said it this way."Then it will be that he who flees the report of disaster will fall into the pit, And he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare; For the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken asunder, The earth is split through, The earth is shaken violently. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard, And it totters like a shack, For its transgression is heavy upon it, And it will fall, never to rise again. So it will happen in that day, That the LORD will punish the host of heaven, on high, And the kings of the earth, on earth."  (chapter 24.18-21)

 

I'm not saying that Japan is suffering today due to some sin in the government or a bad trade imbalance. I'm saying that the aching in the world, the groaning, the shaking is all indicative that there will be a shaking in the heavenlies. And that this shaking has already begun.

Haggai the prophet said something similar with "For thus says the LORD of hosts,  ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land." (2.6)

Be ready; your world may be shaken soon. Your finances. Your relationships. Your physical space if you live in Egypt or Santa Cruz, California, or especially in Japan. There's no human answer. No seismologist report will save you. No Seismic retrofitting.

You want to be saved? Look up and be saved. God has sent His Son, Y'shua to die for us, to save us from our sins, and from the sure judgment to come.