J's Cafe Nette

Archive for May 6th, 2007

I’m not sure of the significance to our country this election is, as Mssr. Sarkozy is of the same party of Chirac, and we all know what Chirac thinks of us, but Nicholas Sarkozy has been elected President of France by a 53% to 47% majority.

He will assume office on May 16.

Sarkozy will take over from Chirac on May 16, and has promised to act quickly to enact key items of his manifesto.

His campaign was based on the theme of “la rupture” — a clean break from past policies which he blamed for creating France’s runaway debt, high unemployment and festering discontent in the high-immigration suburbs

After legislative elections in June — in which he will seek a clear majority for the UMP and its allies — he plans a special National Assembly session to set off his reform drive.

These include the abolition of tax on overtime, swingeing cuts in inheritance tax, a law guaranteeing minimum service in transport strikes, and rules to oblige the unemployed to take up offered work.

On the social front he has pledged minimum jail terms for serial offenders and tougher rules to make it harder for immigrants to bring extended families to France.

His right-wing programme was in sharp contrast to Royal’s promise to extend state protection via the creation of 500,000 public sector jobs and an increased minimum wage.

It’s important to remember the right-wing of most Europeans is to the left of our left-wing here.

Tweet This Post

When I make my petitions known to God daily I always pray for the safety and strength of the Christians who are in Islamic countries, where they are at risk of death for being Christian, and for Christians in such places as China, where they are thrown into jail for long terms for preaching the Word of God.

The Christians in Iraq are mainly Chaldean-Assyrians, people who have lived there since biblical times. Some are Roman Catholic and maybe still others are of other denominations.

Under the kings of Babylon the Chaldeans were soothsayers or magicians and could not be described as Christians in any sense of the word, but when some of the people in Northern Mesopotamia aligned themselves with the Catholic church they became known as Chaldean-Assyrians, grouping them with the Assyrians who also converted to Catholicism.

Any non-Muslim in a Muslim dominated country is frowned upon and treated as a second-class citizen, subject to paying bounties or taxes to stay alive.

I was reminded of all this when I read this article today.

This is the only homeland they have known since before the Medes and Persians conquered what is now Iraq or at least parts of it.

Going through the history of Iraq is like walking through the Bible. The Garden of Eden is located somewhere in Iraq, although we must remember no one can really find it because when God tossed Adam and Eve out of the Garden he had angels with swords of fire guard it so no one could ever enter it again.

Abraham, the patriarch of the Jews and the Muslims, and the adopted partiarch of all born-again Christians, by covenant with God, lived in Ur, which is in Iraq.

Johah refused to preach to the people of Ninevah until God forced him to do so by putting him into the belly of a large fish to be vomited out in Ninevah, which is in Iraq.

And, of course, we have Babylon, home of the Babylonians who played a large part in the Old Testament as the ones who robbed the Temple in Israel and took the holy cups etc. to Babylon, which is in Iraq.

The story of Daniel takes place in Babylon. This is an area that played a large part in biblical history.

These people are fleeing to places such as Syria, I suppose so they can be among a people who understand their language and customs, but who are still mainly Muslim.

In my mind they are merely postponing the inevitable if they flee to a Muslim country, but I understand trying to keep as close to your culture as possible for as long as possible.

There are Christian people all over the world who are being punished by repressive societies simply for their faith. How many of these Christians are actual believers I don’t know, but we know of many devout Christians (what I call born-again Christians) who are being tossed into horrid prison conditions for their faith.

How many in China’s prisons will live long enough to serve their sentences and be set free only God knows, so we need to remember these special people in our prayers daily. We must pray that God will send the Holy Spirit to comfort them and sustain their faith.

We should be lobbying our own government to do something to get these people released and out of the hands of the Chinese Communists.

Our hearts should be burdened for all Christians who suffer for their Lord. We should also remember those who are without a roof over their heads, decent food, clean water, medicine and clothing—things we take for granted, but they can’t. And I’m not talking about just Christians here.

We should be burdened by people who are in need and do what we can do to help them live with at least the bare necessities of life.

If you are not already praying for these and other repressed people of the world I hope and pray the Lord will put them on your heart to pray for their welfare.

Tweet This Post

About 20 years ago we had a rare hurricane come through our area. I say rare because we are at least 3 hours from the coast. It awakened us in the middle of the night and then we heard a terrible roar as though a train were coming past our house.

When it finished we looked outside in the dark and noticed a huge cedar tree in our front yard had fallen away from the house and toward the street. If it had fallen toward the house it would have fallen on our children’s bedrooms.

The roar we heard was a tornado spawned by the hurricane. It was the most scary thing I have ever been through.

Here’s a shot of a tornado posted on YouTube on Friday. This one touched down in Oklahoma.

Tweet This Post

We read in Proverbs 22:6 these words:

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

In Ephesians 6:4 Paul tells us:

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

The Bible talks about children quite a few times. Jesus admonished His disciples for not allowing the little children to go to Him, because He said Heaven is made of such as these.

Being a grandmother has given me more pleasure than I could ever have imagined, although I loved and do love my own children. It’s just that I’m older now and more patient and appreciative of the children since I don’t have to worry about raising them full-time.

My big regret is our son lives in Texas and we get to see our two grandchildren from him only about once a year. We’ve missed a lot of pleasure with them.

Our youngest grandchild is now five and a half years old. I can remember taking him to the school to pick up his older sister and letting him get used to walking in the grass, as he was afraid to step on it.

I remember the joy of watching him discover “bufflies” (butterflies) and him chasing them. I remember his fascination with blowing the white off dandelions after I had taught him how to spread this weed.

I remember how interested he was in feeling the crunch of fallen leaves under his feet for the first time and him chasing them when the wind blew.

Watching birds and squirrels in the yard through the window on cold days was such a pleasure, and it’s all because I was seeing the world for the first time again as a child.

The sweet innocence of children. That’s what Jesus was talking about when He said to allow the children to come to Him because Heaven was made of these things. He meant the sweet innocence of faith and belief that we lose as we get older. He didn’t mean only children will go to Heaven, but that we have to have the faith and innocence of a child to believe, by faith, what God has done and continues to do for us daily.

Ryan is interested in Star Wars characters now. He’s not allowed to see the movie until he’s 8, he told me. He’s been begging my husband for some little Star Wars characters so he can play with them. My husband bought some but then told him he’d spent enough money on them and wasn’t going to buy anymore. Ryan offered to break into his piggy bank for the money but my husband told him he’d better discuss that with his Mommy and Daddy.

That night I got a telephone call from Ryan asking if Dah was here. Dah wasn’t at home at the time, and I told him he wasn’t. Then came, “Will you get Dah to buy me some more Star Wars characters, or do you want me to do it?”

Needless to say, my heart melted. We got Dah on the cell phone and discussed it with him and came up with the following solution:

Ryan would walk our cocker, and not let her loose, and he would clean the toilet bowls (don’t ask me why, but he loves to clean toilet bowls), in return for Dah buying the Star Wars characters.

We set up chores for his sister also so she could have some extra spending money on a Safety Patrol trip she’ll be taking right after school gets out.

We keep the kids every other week-end at night and this is our week-end to have them.

When they came over Friday night Ryan went right to work walking the cocker. We decided to have him do the toilet bowls on Saturday. In his five year old innocence he couldn’t understand the concept of us lending him the money and his working it off. He told me if he didn’t have money he couldn’t pay, so after trying to explain it we decided to have him finish up his chores, I’d pay him $7 and he’d give that $7 to Dah as a partial payment for his Star Wars characters. We’ll keep handing the same $7 back and forth until his debt is cleared and then he can put the money in his “money jar”.

The point I am trying hard to make is that Ryan’s and Ashley’s parents have paid them an allowance but they have to do chores to get it and if they want something they have to pay for it themselves or have the money loaned to them and they have to pay it back.

They are training up their children in the way they should go, and they realize the value of money.

Our grandchildren in Texas also work for their allowances, which we deposit into a checking account for which they have the ATM card.

In addition, they tithe their allowance, which brings up another promise from God:

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Malachi 3:8-10

May we all be as innocent as children.

Tweet This Post