So I see some of the young lady stumblers are still around, posting great stumbles, sharing witty banter, offering fun tidbits…

and still hurting from problems of unrequited and/or hurtful relationships. I’ve only shared light banter with some of these pretty stumblers , even if sometimes they’re obviously sent to carry messages or requests of sorts to usmjam from a third party. The third party prolly figures a pretty face may get more results? I don’t know, nor really care.

What I do care about is that you, pretty lady, are so unhappy. You’re intelligence and otherwise great personality is not appreciated by your love interest in the way you’d like, and that hurts deeply. There are few things that hurt so much, and they are all due to personal feelings: the loss of or serious injury a loved one, the betrayal of one’s trust, things like that hurt. Unrequited or underappreciated love is right up there in the hurt-o-meter.

You don’t chat with my type as much because, among other things, we are poles apart in our beliefs on life, politics, but mainly in our beliefs (or non-belief) in God. But know what? That very belief or unbelief in something much greater than us is everything. Everything else in life hinges on our relationship with our gods.

In the view I subscribe to, we must lose self in order to find love. We must get to understand & love God with our whole heart, life, and soul. Our focus should be totally centered on God, who is holy, pure, all powerful and loving. When we are thus centered on God, we lose self. When we lose self, we lose that appetite that hungers for others to fulfill us. Instead, we seek to do good for others, unrequited as it often is. Losing self gives us the freedom to accept that all our worldly good qualities may just go unappreciated by many, but that if so, its still alright. Our primary focus is to love God, because He loved us first.

So what of our happiness? It comes to us by first loving God. All those personal relationships and other things that make us happy in this world get added onto us. Even then, the imperfection of this world, of fellow humans, and of ourselves will still bring bumps and even big problems in any relationship. But now we know that since only God is perfect that we can forgive, that we can live with each other’s imperfections, and that even the loss of a loved one or of a relationship is not the end-all of our being. We are here for such a short time in comparison to eternity. All things in this world will pass, but our eternal relationship, or lack of one, with God will be forever.

It sounds trite and even uncaring to say. But in order for one to find self fulfillment and true love one needs to lose self. In other words, get over yourself and live for something greater. Otherwise you have made a god of yourself or of your feelings or of your hunger for fulfillment. You find yourself always seeking, hoping, wanting, but never achieving true happiness. That hurts, and I wish you could be spared that pain, but its a self perpetuating cycle. Like that green light in the Great Gatsby, it eludes us all. We try harder and harder, yet never can achieve attainment if we have the wrong focus. “It eluded us then, but that’s no matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms out farther….“. I

I wish you well, and hope that your occasional visits to my SU page are not now spoiled by this message. Heh, it was written for someone else anyway, right?:-) But I do hope you find God without you bringing preconceived expectations such as we often bring to all relationships. Eventually you find someone who shares your likes, especially a love of God. By moving closer and closer to the same God, you both naturally move closer to each other. In that way you will find contentment and true joy that surpasses all understanding. May you find happiness.

Ron Pauls Israel Problem

http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2008/cbarchive_20080115.html

From the page: “Ron Paul’s Israel Problem
by Chuck Baldwin
January 15, 2008

If evangelical Christians are hesitant to support Ron Paul’s candidacy for the Republican nomination for President, two reasons are usually proffered: he does not support Israel, and he wants to bring the troops home from Iraq.

Unfortunately, many (if not most) of today’s evangelical Christians have bought into the whole neocon warmongering mentality. Somewhere along the way, evangelicals have forgotten the historic Christian understanding of “just war,” not to mention our Savior’s promise of divine blessing upon peacemakers. They have allowed President George W. Bush and his fellow warmongers to hijack the legitimate use of defensive war and turn it into a commitment to aggressive and preemptive war.

If the United States continues on its current path of aggressive, preemptive war, incessant nation-building, empire-building, and globalism, our country will collapse. If history teaches us anything, it teaches us that no super-power can long survive global warfare. The economic, moral, and spiritual strain on the nation would be more than it could long endure. In other words, Bush’s war doctrine has put America on a crash course with disaster, and evangelicals are downright foolish to go along with it.

Ron Paul is anything but a pacifist. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran, for goodness’ sake. He believes in Ronald Reagan’s “Peace Through Strength” philosophy. He believes in a strong military. He believes in defending the United States. That is not in question.

Obviously, however, Ron Paul rejects nation-building, empire-building, preemptive war, and globalism. By the way, this is something the Republican Party also used to reject before George W. Bush came along. And please understand, this is something that the vast majority–and I mean vast majority–of the American people also reject. If the GOP nominates a pro-Iraq war, pro-attack Iran, pro-preemptive invasion, pro-aggressive war candidate, they can kiss the November elections goodbye. The American people (except for the most fanatically loyal Bush supporters) are sick to death of American soldiers and Marines dying for Mideast oil, million-dollar Halliburton contracts, and “surrender-your-liberties-because-we-are-at-war” dribble. However, it is evangelical Christians’ misunderstanding of Ron Paul’s position on Israel that seems to be the most problematic.

To be sure, not all believers agree on the subject of Israel. Christians are divided between pre-millennialism, post-millennialism, and even amillennialism. For the most part, pre-millennialists (such as me) believe that God will yet fulfill the Davidic Covenant with the nation of Israel. Post-millennialists, on the other hand, believe that the Church, which is the Body of Christ, is the complete fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and David.

Regardless of one’s particular view of Eschatology, believers should be united in their support for protecting the sovereignty and independence of these United States. If this were really true, the vast majority of believers would enthusiastically support the candidacy of Ron Paul, as there is no one in Washington, D.C., who more faithfully defends the integrity of America’s sovereignty and independence. The problem is, some Christians seem to give more loyalty and support to the government of Israel than they do their own country’s independence and freedom.

In this regard, it is incredible to me how evangelical pastors and leaders can continue to associate with–and support–radical Israel apologists such as John Hagee. His ranting about Jewish people having a special covenant with God and needing not to come to the Father through Christ–and even that Jesus never claimed to be Christ–is nothing short of blatant apostasy.

Whether one believes in a future Davidic Kingdom or not is immaterial to the preservation of America’s freedom and independence. If God intends a future place and purpose for Israel, He is certainly capable of fulfilling that place and purpose. He will not need your help, my help, or Ron Paul’s help. I know that is shocking to the pride and arrogance of many evangelicals, but it is true nonetheless.

Does that mean that an American President should deliberately inflict harm upon the State of Israel? As long as they do not inflict harm upon us, no. No more than he should deliberately inflict harm upon any nation that does not inflict harm upon us. A free and independent nation–not to mention a nation whose roots are grounded in Christian philosophy–should seek only that which promotes peace and prosperity. Of all people, Christians should understand this. Ron Paul does understand this.

Accordingly, Ron Paul rightly wants to return America’s foreign policy to the established and historic principles of its founding documents and sentiments. That means free and fair trade with all and entangling alliances with none. Not even Israel.

Martin Luthers Sacramental Gospel

http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/luther/martin.htm

From the page: “An Evangelical Reputation — A Sacramental Gospel

Luther is quoted favorably by just about everyone in professing Christianity. Evangelicals and Fundamentalists often refer to him as a champion of “Justification By Faith ALONE.” However, that is only half the story. It is absolutely amazing that very few seem to realize that Luther in fact believed that we are saved by “faith alone through baptism.” However, you can’t have it both ways at the same time — “Faith Alone” and “Faith through Baptism.” The addition of “through baptism” in effect contradicts “faith alone.”

In reality, Luther did not hold to JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE IN CHRIST ALONE! If he had really held to this, he would have rejected the doctrine of “baptismal regeneration.” He did not! In fact, Luther called for the death of those (Anabaptists) who outspokenly believed in JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE IN CHRIST ALONE and practiced BELIEVER’S BAPTISM. To get away from a gospel of works salvation, Luther referred to baptism as “God’s Work” and not a work that man does. However, the OBJECT of Luther’s faith was not Christ ALONE, but CHRIST plus BAPTISM. That is ANOTHER GOSPEL!!!”

Gotta run, and not just at the mouth. Sorry to not reply to all yet or to have looked at the forwarded stumbles. Will try to catch up later today and/or tomorrow, the Lord willing. Happy stumbling!

( in the category of “the more things change, the more its still stumble-land” )
A note to anyone else similarly inclined, as some stumblers are, regarding usmjam.

No, I’m not a supporter of the “Religious Right”. In addition, no, I’m not against minority people because of their background and believe the USA is a great nation that can still, and should still, give people the opportunity to legally become Americans and to work out a livelihood here.

To that end, I’m am indeed a Christian and indeed believe in adhering to the fundamentals of Christianity. In addition, I believe it is of utmost importance for the USA to enforce its immigration laws, to have an orderly policy on citizenship, and to rescind the idea that illegals are entitled to the same rights and privileges as its citizens or its legal permanent residents.

Some think the latter two points are contradictory to the first two. Why it appears that way to some may be due to, just might have something to do with, preconceived notions and stereotypes from the observer. Think about it, and lets discuss things if you truly wish to discuss and neither diss nor cuss.

solitarywalkers favorite websites – StumbleUpon

http://solitarywalker.stumbleupon.com/

This is more of a prethumbs-up based on the prior page by the same name. Although we are/were political opposites, SW had great sites and even better blogged pics.

Hoping to see the page thusly fill up again, welcome back SW!

Man, I was away from SU for almost a couple weeks and I feel like I need to get re-acclimated. I’m sending PM’s like its the first time, all truncated and slip-shod. My repeated apologies to a couple stumblers who I responded to like 2-3 times each before I got it right, by not using html!

New Statesman – Religion of despair

http://www.newstatesman.com/200701290030

Amen to what Tim said in the comments section of this page. May I reemphasize on his points. The power hungry “Religious Right” and their alleged mass of despairing followers are patently non-Christian. Otherwise they would be neither seeking power, nor despairing.

There are several books out dealing with the use of religion by empires and would-be empires. In each case where Christianity was used for a power base it nullifies the basic tenets of Christianity. That is some of what Chris Hedges saw, but that is a perversion of Christianity, as Tim points out.

The apostasy and perversion of Christianity that the bible itself predicted began right after Jesus returned to heaven and is being cranked up by the latest power hungry cabal. That fact many are duped into following non-biblical leaders just shows many have gotten overly complacent. We Americans allow the Bush cabal to subvert our very Constitution in the name of “security”, and many think that’s alright. In the same way, Christians have allowed heretical leaders to lead Christian groups. All this was due to neglect and laziness, which is what mxhevyd was saying too.

White Hat’s response is right about Bush, et.al. But that is not the majority of Christians and certainly not what the God’s word instructs us to be.

In times of uncertainty many people do turn to churches, as well as to “the government authorities” for answers. After 9-11, most churches saw a huge jump in attendance. But of the many who now call themselves Christian, too many seem to be tares rather than genuine wheat. “Ye shall know them by their fruits” and “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” That does not sound like what Chris Hedges sought, and apparently found.