CPT article that I liked

CPTnet
28 December 2007
HEBRON REFLECTION: "It used to be normal"

by Donna Hicks

In 2001, my friend Sue Gilmurray wrote a song that started out, "It used to
be normal to buy and sell people--" and continued, "But some had the vision,
and some had the courage to work all their lives to put an end to that
trade."

I am struggling this year with The Occupation.  I have had it with The
Occupation to way up over my head.  I am beginning to wonder if in my
violence reduction work through CPT I am complicit in The Occupation.  Have
my colleagues and I become invisible to the Powers that be?  Does our
presence and our work make a difference?

"And then the tide turned--"

The tide may turn, but right now, I feel I'm in the water up to my neck and
the water is rising.

Is it normal for Palestinian school children to have to pass through a
checkpoint and metal detector, and to have their school bags searched by
Israeli border police or soldiers? Is it normal to see a five- year-old
cringe away from a soldier at a checkpoint because he doesn't know if the
soldier will yell at him, or take his bag to search it, or smile and wave
him on?

Is it normal to have Jewish-only roads?  Is it normal to have a segregated
public transportation system--one set of busses for Palestinians and another
set for Israelis?  Is it normal to ask a person if she is Christian, Jewish,
or Muslim to determine if she can walk below the walls of the Ibrahimi
Mosque/Cave of Machpelah?

The song goes on, "Today it is normal to justify warfare--.  We talk of a
vision of peace for our children, and who is to say that we are wasting our
breath?"

The visions of Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce, celebrated this year
at the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the UK, the vision
of Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela and the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission in South Africa--these visions made the tide turn.

Will the growing Palestinian nonviolent movement make the tide turn?

"Because the tide turns--although the change seems slow--as the tide turns
and peace can start to grow."

The water may come up over my head, as the Psalm says, but the tide will
turn and peace will start to grow.  It's got to.

Intensity

I've been told that I that I can be intense. It's one of those things in life that is part of me. It is because of it that I am where I am and it is because of it I am not any farther. There are times when I wish I could take it away, times don't know what I want and other times I'm glad it's there. I guess the best description that I like (C.S. Lewis) is all the things that make us us (emotions, physical body, mind ... ) are like keys on a piano and the trick to life is to combine those keys into a masterpiece but knowing us humans we tend to emphasize something to much and it ends up being a one note song that no one wants to hear. Only the Master really knows how to play the piano.

Psalms 31 (WEB)
23 Oh love Yahweh, all you his saints! Yahweh preserves the faithful, and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly.
24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in Yahweh.

Something from High School

I was going through all my old paper and I found some interesting stuff I wrote in high school for projects and stuff.

"This has helped me realize how for me to find a balance. This book has helped me to deal with the issue of balance."
"..no matter what happens God is always in control."
"God works in many ways if we just look for him. This has helped me to see God working in ways I didn't expect. It has helped me get a bigger picture of God."

God Bless

The Command

God has a plan for every one, This really hit home for me. I always want to do something else, wish I was some one else wish I could be more. I guess this is good for personal building always wanting to be better, wanting to grow closer to God, but it has it's down falls like everything when followed instead of God. You never feel satisfied, you always wish for more, you always see your faults. I guess where God has me now is in the thought that, I need to know that in my life whatever happens or what ever I wish for, that no matter what, God has an awesome plan for me and nothing except rejecting him can change that.

Finished a childhood dream

I've always had the wondering of what it was like to live with out a home. What it is like to trust God for your every need. What it is like to have to trust Jesus for everything, having nothing else to lean on. I believe I have had a really good taste of that at the end of this year.

Thank you God for being there for me. Thank you for answering my prayers, and giving me everything I need. I pray that people in need would trust in you. Thank you. Amen

Days like these

It's day's like these that I feel I don't fit in. It feels like I'm left all alone here on this God forsaken earth. It is day's like these I feel I have nothing else to give you God. It feels like there is no place for me here.

And maybe that's just it I am changed so I don't fit in. Giving a craving for something so much more. There is nothing else that I can give it is all yours God. There is no place for God's anointed except in his hands. This earth is not God forsaken but people have forsaken God down here.

Oh God I cry for you. Come help me here oh God. Bless all those around me, fulfill all their needs. I pray that they would have a deep craving for you. They would cry out to you and you would answer them. Oh God help us weak humans.

the Line Between the Two

Where is this guiding force that is supposed to lead me on?
Where is this answer that I am looking for?
Why do I keep looking?

Refusing to take anything fake?
Refusing guidance by half influence?

Nothing here can really influence

Oh God show me the real.
Show me you.

My Trick for Daily Bible Readings

If you want to read your bible every day, if you want to feel your daily reading throughout the day you are going to have to need your daily bible reading to survive the day.

The problem in our post modern society is that we believe that we got everything that we need, and as human history has shown we can believe allot of lies. Read some of my previous blogs if you think you got everything you need from this world.

I guess what I'm trying to get across is that we are insignificant and incompetent, and nothing this post modern world can offer that can change this, all it offers are blindness and ignorance.

This is a hopeless condition with out God. From what we read in the bible there is only one defense that is going to save me from eternal destruction and that is Jesus. So that is the only defense I am going to use against the hopelessness of our condition. My only defense against all the world throws at me is Jesus.

Now what does this have to do with daily bible reading well just try a day without your self defense. What do you do when you fail an exam, what do you do when you feel alone, what do you do when you are made fun of, what do you do when you are with your friends? I find that it is really hard to get through the day, that is why when you strip away the worldliness we need daily bible readings to get through the day.

I don't want any friends, that I have just for self protection, just to be cool, just to be part of a group, just to have a high friend count

I want friends that I can trust, that I can be comfortable with, mess up and still be friends with. We don't have to agree but be willing to put aside our differences and have fun.

John Reuben

"All I have is what God gives me and that's all the life that I was meant to live."