The Manhattan Declaration

I signed this. You should investigate (read) it and consider signing, too. This movement is straight out of John 17. Don't miss this by saying you get too many emails wanting you to sign. Listen to your heart ... Phil

From: Chuck Colson
Dear colleague,

Thank you for your support of the Manhattan Declaration.It is off to an amazing start - over 370,000 signers and growing. And it is indeed historic: Evangelicals, Catholics, Anglicans, and Eastern Orthodox Christians uniting to give common witness to the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage, and religious liberty for all persons. But we need your help: our goal is one million signatures.The marketing pros tell us we will never get to a million signatures without expensive advertising. But we want to prove them wrong. And we can: just think if each person who has signed the Declaration were to get just two others to sign. That would be one million people standing arm in arm in defense of the most vital moral truths in our society. Remember, too, we are not just collecting signatures; we seek a movement of people defending the truth in the public square. We are already witnessing signs of this: Christians in Mobile, Alabama called us 13 days before Christmas to tell us they were planning a large ecumenical gathering for the 23rd of December. I (Chuck Colson) agreed to speak. At 6:00 AM on December 23, 2,000 citizens, led by clergy from all over the city, gathered in a packed hall in the Convention Center for a rousing rally. Seldom have I seen so much excitement in one room - and all of this was accomplished just by word of mouth with only 11 days to organize! Just ten days ago, Cardinal Rigali of Philadelphia, Archbishop Wuerl of Washington, DC, Archbishop Dolan of New York and Archbishop Kurtz of Louisville reached out to all of their brother Catholic bishops asking them to spread this document throughout their dioceses and encourage their clergy and faithful to study it and join as signatories. The Archbishop of Detroit has planned a grassroots effort throughout his archdiocese. The Bishop of Phoenix has already organized a grassroots effort there.We are also receiving many reports of evangelical gatherings in a number of areas - and many evangelical pastors referring to the Manhattan Declaration in their sermons..This bold and exciting movement needs to reach 100 or 200 cities in America. Why not? Can you help? We are urging you to encourage your pastors and community leaders to do what these other cities are doing. Organize ecumenical meetings organized around the Manhattan Declaration; get other concerned citizens to join the effort. Get on the internet or phone and ask friends to join you. If you let us know you want to organize something we can help link you up with others in your area.As with any grassroots movement, the strength and energy has to come from the people. We have no staff and limited budget. We're people who care passionately and deeply about life, marriage, and liberty. So here's what we are asking you to do.

• 
  Pray fervently. Great movements of faith have always spread on the wings of prayer.
  
• Know the issues. If you study this Declaration - and a study guide is available on our website - then you can winsomely explain and defend it to your neighbors and friends. The document itself makes a great apologetic defense for these moral truths.
  
• Look for resources on this website as we're able to post them, and search the websites of the Christian organizations that offer resources in these three areas.. You can see the names of the various leaders who have signed the Declaration and then visit their websites.

• Of utmost importance, get your own church involved. As pastors preach, the movement will spread. Prayer meetings and Bible studies on the Declaration are being conducted in many churches, which is a great step.
  
• Make full use of Facebook, Twitter, and all the devices available today for social networking. Or just go to gatherings in your own community and speak out on this issue. Cultures are changed over the backyard fence, the barbeque grill, and in hair salons - always from the bottom up. Do everything you can possibly do to educate others.
  
• Organize local gatherings like the one in Mobile. If you want an audio or video of Chuck Colson's talk at the event, you will be able to see it on the website in the next few days. You can also read a firsthand report on how they did this.
  
• If you are a pastor or ministry leader let us know if you would like to be added to the Additional Signers list on the website. Just think what might happen in our land if one million courageous Christians declared their uncompromising allegiance to Jesus Christ and to biblical faithfulness on some of the most urgent moral issues of our day. May God give us the strength to do what He is so clearly calling us to do. From our perspective, this is a cause worth giving every last ounce of effort and energy we have.
• Dr. Robert George, Dr. Timothy George, Chuck Colson, ManhattanDeclaration.org
• Go to Contact Us to request addtional information or with questions.

New Guests from Facebook

Howdy, folks! You are welcome to peruse the site. Go back to older posts and comment on the new ones.
Dwayne, I don't know if I can inspire you enough here, but I will try!
I will write stuff here that inspires me, scares me, helps me and comforts me. Maybe what is helping me will help you too. And then again, maybe not.
Anyway, welcome to all.
Let's pray and read the Word and grow together. What are you seeing and hearing? What do you know that can expand our thinking? That's what the comments section is for ... let us hear from you on the subjects you care about.
Thanks and God Bless!

I was reading a review of the recent terrorist attempt to blow a US airliner out of the sky. In explaining the reason Janet Napolitano made the statement that the system worked, the writers agreed that the system worked as it was designed, which has made conservatives howl that it did not work. But they made the point that everyone did all that they were required by law and rule to do. Therefore their personal behind was covered, whether people died or not. Janet was saying that the people of the bureaucracy (TSA) followed the rules ... whether the rules succeded or not.
Here's the statement:
"Of course, being faithful to a process is not the same as being successful, but the U.S. intelligence community’s obsession with process frequently elevates process above success. Certainly, process is needed to operate a vast system, but process also is being used to deny people authority to do what is necessary outside the process, or, just as bad, it allows people to evade responsibility by adhering to the process."
We know this is true with all bureaucracies. The bigger the bureaucracy, the truer the statement is. And NO bureaucracy has even been imagined in the US that compares to the tangled, worthless, non-helping, self-propigating piece of garbage that is being called the New Health Care System. It won't promote health. The people running it won't care that it condemns people to die who wouldn't have to die. Their only worry is that the proper process is followed and as long as the process is followed, they feel they have done their job.
So, if my wife comes to the hospital in agony, but in the haze of pain, forgot her government health card, they will send her away until she meets the requirements of the process. And if she dies while she is tryig to go home to find her card, what is that to them. It's not their fault she didn't have the foresight to bring her card the first time.
What it does do is re-routes the monies involved through the hands of politicians who will gain the power, the control and a cut of the action to propigate their status as the permenant ruling class.
If the Democrats think that we are going to just hang our heads and keep working to finance their dreams of permenant ruling status, they are delusional. Beware. There is great trouble ahead.

DO NOT KILL YOURSELF!!!! God Has Something Good for You

Do not commit suicide. You are not alone. There is hope for you in the days just ahead!
I am writing to tell you something you can do - right now - where you are. I am telling you something you can pray.
This is not a magic chant that you have to email to others.
This is not a repetitive chant for you to lift yourself through the great karma...
There was/is a man named Jesus - Jesus of Nazareth, in Israel. He was a good man, a healer, who went around doing good and healing all kinds of diseases and emotional brokeness in people's lives. He even set people free from demonic mental torment.
Religious people were divided in their opinions about him, just like they would be today. What one guy thinks is great, another sees as terrible. And most of the time we have to just walk away in disagreement.
But in this case, the argument has been settled. Jesus was betrayed by religious leaders who feared he would cause them to lose their cushy positions and incomes. They had him executed on false premises. But three days later, God raised him from the dead and has honored him by making his name the key to unlock a relationship with God.
Give him a chance to help you.
Out Loud, right where you are, call out to Jesus Christ and ask him to hear you and help you. Say something to the effect of:

"IF YOU ARE REAL - IF YOU CAN HEAR ME - Help ME. JESUS, GIVE ME HOPE.

Find a Bible you can read, look in the index and find the Book of Matthew. It gives the testimony - the eye witness account - of real people, in real trouble, who needed hope. It shows you how God helped them.
The whole point is:
if God can give these people hope and
a reason to live,
he can do it for you.
I am living proof.
I am not selling anything.
The only offer here is what Jesus has done and will do for you!

While Praying, Waiting Quietly and Listening, I Found a Poem Written by Arthur Wallace

I have been reading a book by Arthur Wallis entitled "God's Chosen Fast." One of the most moving, inspiring and informative books on a number of subjects I have read in a long time. I have found grace to practice it, too. Actually that has come from 3 sources, the greatest influences I have ever had to fast and pray for my dreams. 1) The current sense in my prayer times that we as a nation are in deep trouble that will include tremendous doses of divine judgment if we don't find mercy in the place of prayer. 2) My wife started doing it w/o me and for long periods of time, because I couldn't find the discipline to forgo meals ... and the sense of shame has been unbearable; and 3) Arthur Wallace's book.
And I am not doing anything for anyone else to be impressed by - even now - but the Father-God, the Lord Jesus Christ, working through the Mighty Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sent to help us, has been helping and visiting with me. Things are changing inside me and I am again sensing a fresh surging of His presence and power.
So, in the light of these things, here's the poem at the end of Wallace's book. I hope it inspires you to begin a journey of prayer, of mourning, of fasting, and waiting on God in behalf of our families, our cities and churches, our states, our nation and other nations that are in grave danger right now whom God can and will save if we will lift up our voices in prayer.


THEY FASTED

On Sinai's mount, with radiant face,
To intercede for heaven's grace
Upon a stubborn wayward race,
They fasted

Once lifted from the miry clay,
When opposition came his way
This soldier-king would often pray
With fasting.

A seer, possessed of vision keen,
Who told the troubled king his dream.
Had light on God's prophetic scheme
Through fasting

The prophetess in temple court
Beheld the Babe the two had brought;
For Him she long had prayed and sought,
With fasting.

He came to break the yoke of sin,
But ere his mission could begin
He met the foe and conquered him
While fasting.

'Set these apart' the Spirit bade.
A spring, that soon vast rivers made,
Broke ope by men who as they prayed
Were fasting.

'So shall they fast when I am gone!'
Was this no word to act upon?
Ask countless saints who fought and won
With fasting.

When we shall stand on that great day
And give account, what shall we say,
If He should ask us, 'Did you pray -
With fasting?'

More on this later. (btw ... Arthur Wallaces books are available on Amazon.com CHEAP!!)

If I could have my dream, it would be ... Jesus Returns to Texas in the Person and Power of the Holy Spirit

Tonight, after our Tuesday night prayer meeting, I was visiting with Jesus, one to one. Felt like he glanced at my KJV (King James Version). I don't pick it up very often anymore, but I grew up reading it and I have NO trouble with the language myself. I usually use other, more current language translations for other people's sake. But I went to Luke's Gospel, 4.14 in King James. I picked up where Jesus is returning to civilization after fasting (no groceries) and camping out for 40 days of prayer ... it says, "And Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about."
That's what I want to happen for us right here in South Texas - word for word.
I want Jesus to return to West Columbia, TX in the power of the Spirit. Not physically, not yet, since it was Jesus ... Jesus himself that said "It is better for you if I go away. If I don't go away, the Comforter (the Helper) will not come. But if I go away the Father will send the Helper, which is the Holy Spirit, to you. I will not leave you helpless. I will come to you." Come! Please Come, Lord Jesus, just like that! We want you in the power and person of the Holy Spirit, doing what you did in the body in Galilee.
My friends in Philippines want you.
My new friends in Alaska want you to come and for a fame of you to spread all over the region. In Tulsa, and Houston, in Baguio, and in Manila; in Los Angeles and Juneau.
It is the Holy Spirit who comes ... but having Him in the room is the same as having Jesus in the room, physically.
He does not speak his own words or on his own authority, but he takes the words and doings of Jesus and shows them to us by words and deeds. And that is exactly what I need him to do. That is what I am asking him to do.
I want Jesus to return to West Columbia in the Power of the Spirit; and for a fame of him to explode throughout the entire region of Brazoria, Matagorda, and Galveston Counties.
What about you?
Ask Him to come to the place where you live. He will NOT turn you down.
He will save anyone who from a sincere heart, calls out his name.
Then, because Jesus has cleansed you with his own blood (see I Peter 1.18, 19), He can fill you with the HOLY Spirit, and when He does, the Helper, begins to help you know Jesus. And knowing Jesus - being his friend and being known by him - is the greatest blessing in the universe and the highest honor I have ever experienced.

Hello, folks! I have done a poor job posting here of late. I have had a lot going on but I love to communicate (that means both ways, as in "comments") with my friends. Here is a great article that I found, read and I link it here for your enjoyment and blessing. We need God's help and blessing. We have to get interested enough to pray and seek the face of God. We need to give him the glory, the credit, and the thanks he deserves for creating us, and for not abandoning us even though as a nation we have abandoned him.
Often, when we are praying, Beth repents for us as a couple and as citizens of this nation. She says, " Father, forgive us for enjoying the gifts and blessings you have provided to us as a nation, and forgetting and forsaking the God from whom it came!"
Remember and Pray. It will help it does matter. He is the God who hears and sees! He still answers the prayers of his children.
http://www.ravenhill.org/prayer.htm