I certainly don't agree with everything I've read by Benjamin L. Corey, but there is much truth in this post.

The Kind Of Missionary The World Most Desperately Needs

February 20, 2015 by Benjamin L. Corey 50 Comments

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been a lover of all things related to missions. Peering into the window of missionary life was perhaps one of the first things I remember of my childhood that completely fascinated me- while regular weekly sermons may have been boring to sit through, never once was I anything other that completely engaged when a foreign missionary came to speak. The world of missions for me came to embrace the best of everything that makes my heart tick: Jesus, theology, other people, travel, and experiencing different cultures. It is certainly no surprise that all these years later, this precise area of theology is what I would get my doctorate in. I love missions.

When one is studying missions for the purpose of being a practitioner in the field, one of the first things a person must decide is what “people group” God is calling them to. Determining a people group is crucially important because this will determine the course of the rest of one’s studies and preparations for becoming a missionary. A missionary can’t simply show up in the field one day and expect to be successful– one must first learn and study everything about the “people group” and culture they are called to, first. This process can actually take years for some, because it would also include difficult aspects such as language fluency and the like. However, when one is done with the hard preparation, they’re usually sent off with some bare essentials to begin learning a new culture and finding ways to inject the teachings of Jesus into that culture.

When talking with missionaries, I’ve often found them describing their particular calling in one of two ways: often they’ll either say, “God caused me to fall in love with this culture/people group” or, “God just really broke my heart for this culture/people group.” With the latter description, the missionary has often noticed something desperately broken in a particular culture that screams out the need for the teachings of Jesus, and the need becomes so glaringly obvious that it almost becomes gut-wrenching to look at those needs without doing something about it.

Lately I’ve been having one of those moments in life where my heart is broken and grieved over a people group who desperately need to hear the message of Jesus, in order that it might change their hearts and culture. It is a people group we have historically failed to send missionaries to, we have neglected, and through nominal encounters with Jesus, they have grown to feel inoculated- falsely believing they are no longer in need of the one who alone can radically reshape and renew us.

The kind of missionary the world most desperately needs are missionaries who are sent to introduce the message of Jesus to one of the last unreached people groups: Americanized Christians.

Christianity in so many parts of America has been blended together with American, nationalistic culture to the point that the Jesus many believe they are following is just a false American caricature of the real thing. In many ways, the tradition of Jesus has become a civil religion that is able to exist in complete harmony with American ideals instead of being something that was designed to turn culture on its head– showing those within culture a totally different way of living and being.

This week my heart feels particularly broken for this obviously unreached people group. Case in point: I issued a call to love our Muslim neighbors in our communities– loving neighbors being what Jesus called the second greatest commandment– and it was met with outright hostility, and even calls for acts of violence against Muslims. One Christian minister said that telling people to love their Muslim neighbors was a “slap in the face” and that we should do no such thing. Others said it is impossible to exist with Muslim neighbors. And, even some “Christians” said that the only approach to Muslims is to kill them before they kill us.

Or, there’s the response I get when I suggest that we should actually love our enemies (a core aspect of the message and life of Jesus): outright disgust, and immediately objections that surely, Jesus didn’t really mean that.

Better yet, there’s the times when I suggest that Jesus invites us to give our loyalty to God’s Kingdom instead of earthly nations, and the Christian response is quite predictable. “Go somewhere else” I’m often told, or as one internet commenter said recently, I’d do better to just “shut my mouth and pay homage to our soldiers.”

Day in and day out, I am faced with the heartbreaking reality that perhaps the last unreached people group has been sitting right in our very pews– those who have succumbed to an Americanized, civil religion, that is only loosely based on Jesus.

And so, the kind of missionary the world most desperately needs is the missionary who is dedicated to introducing American Christians to the message of Jesus.

It is a beautiful message.

A counter-cultural message.

A message of hope, transformation, and healing.

But, it is also a costly message- one that invites us to deny ourselves, and to follow in the footsteps of one who willingly died for his enemies.

And this message is precisely the one this last, unreached people group, desperately need to hear.

I hope you’ll join me– right from where you are– in becoming a missionary dedicated to evangelizing Americanized Christians with the radical, countercultural message of Jesus– because that’s the kind of missionary the world most desperately needs.

Yeasted Waffles (with recipe!)

Adrienne saw this recipe in  Benjamin's Cook's Illustrated Baking Cookbook.   A quick look on the internet brought up several...  This is one I found:  http://www.smells-like-home.com/2014/06/yeasted-waffles/

The best waffle recipe we used to make involved separating eggs, melting butter, etc.  Benjamin used to make them.....very good, but a lot of mess!   So when we read about this yeasted waffle recipe we just had to give it a try!  Yes, they are the best, next to the buttery oat ones I mentioned above!  The leftovers are so easy to toast and warm up!  These were really good with grated sharp English Cheddar cheese mixed in.

NB:  choose your vessel well.   The first time we made them we ended up with batter oozed out into a cooler all over the ice bottles and kombucha bottles that were also being stored in the "extra fridge space on the porch"!   Make sure your bowl is large enough!   

Notes from Food.com:  The batter must be made 12 to 24 hours in advance. Texture of the waffles made in a classic waffle iron is better. But a Belgian waffle iron will work, though it will make fewer waffles. The waffles are best served fresh from the iron but can be held in an oven until all of the batter is used. As you make the waffles, place them on a wire rack set above a baking sheet, cover them with a clean kitchen towel, and place the baking sheet in a 200-degree oven. When the final waffle is in the iron, remove the towel to allow the waffles to crisp for a few minutes. These waffles are quite rich; buttering them before eating is not need and may be too much for some.  (NOT us!!!)

 

Yeasted Waffles

Yield: Seven 7-inch round or four 9-inch square waffles

Prep this waffle batter the night before you plan to make waffles and give yourself a break from prepping breakfast in the morning. This works especially well when you have house guests or if you're hosting brunch.

For the waffles:

• 1 ¾ cups milk
• 8 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• 2 cups all-purpose flour  (we used white spelt flour and a bit of oat flour)
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp table salt
• 1 ½ tsp instant yeast
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

 

Topping suggestions:*

• Pure maple syrup
• Peanut butter sauce and bananas
• Whipped cream
• Blueberry jam
• Fresh fruit
  

Instructions

1. Whisk the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast together in a large bowl. Warm the milk and butter in a heatproof liquid measuring cup in the microwave just until the butter melts. Allow the milk-butter mixture to cool until it's warm to the touch. Gradually whisk the milk-butter mixture into the dry ingredients until the batter is smooth. Beat the eggs and vanilla together in a bowl and then whisk this mixture into the batter until incorporated. With a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure there is no loose flour. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
2. When you're ready to make the waffles, heat your waffle iron according to manufacturer's instructions and then remove the batter from the fridge. Whisk it briefly to recombine the batter (it will deflate) and prepare according to your waffle maker's instructions. Keep the waffles warm directly on the racks of a 250° F oven while you make the rest.
3. Freeze any leftover waffles on a wire rack then transfer frozen waffles to a large zip-top bag. When you're ready to reheat, preheat the oven to 250° F and warm the waffles through directly on the rack.  (Adrienne just toasts them)

the BEST pizza ever!

We found this recipe for pizza crust    (and the original recipe for the artisan bread) at Gwen's Nest blog.  Gwen goes into the benefits of long, cold fermentation and carbs and gluten.

 Our dough is much slacker, especially the longer it sits in the fridge, and wetter and we like a thinner crust that you see pictured at Gwen's Nest.   The photos of ours below are from before we worked into making it thinner and wetter.  Sorry!   Maybe one reason ours is thinner is we let the dough sit a lot longer in fridge before using, but we like it like that!   Even though it's thin, it's more soft and chewy than crispy.  Yum!!!

Our basic dough will make 2 - 15" thin crust pizzas:
 

Flour mix of:  approx.  ½ cup barley, 1 ½ cups oat, 4 cups +/- white spelt

1 T. salt

1 ½ tablespoons yeast

2 ½ cups warm water

Mix it up (it will be a wet dough - no kneading required!!!) and let it sit covered until it rises and starts to fall again.  Then put into a container and keep well covered in the fridge for at least a few days up to about 7 to 10 days or so.  It can get a dark gray liquid sitting on top of the dough like a sourdough starter does.  I just pour it off if necessary.    

Cooking instructions:  (details at links at the beginning of post)
450 degree oven - heat with baking stone.  Spread the dough on parchment paper and use a pizza peel to slide onto stone.  Bake for approx. 10 minutes.  Top the pizza and return to oven for about 10 more minutes.  Broil briefly if necessary.  

....one time we let it go so long (maybe 2 weeks?)  and it smelled very much like sourdough, even while baking, but the finished product didn't taste sour at all!  Not that we'd have minded, but our guests might have!  

We've topped it with ALL KINDS of things:  BBQ sauce, brisket (or chicken) and cheddar, sun-dried tomato pesto with mozzarella, cremini mushrooms cooked ahead in butter, olives, sauteed onion and red peppers, pepperoni or homemade Italian sausage....we've used homemade Arugula pesto, Basic pesto and regular tomato paste sauce recipe from Elana's Almond Flour cookbook.   It's our favorite dinner to have when company is coming because it's easy to have things ready ahead of time and the right guests like to help out and make the pizza!   Add a salad and dessert and there you have it!   It's so easy to heat up leftover in the toaster oven briefly and it's almost as good as fresh!   

We try to always have a batch in the fridge ready to go.  It also helps to save the space for the permanent container!  =)   One day soon we will try making some bread sticks like we've seen Julia Child make. 

 The dough is very soft/lax, and as long as your hands are wet, they won't stick too badly.

We like to top the crust with fresh Parmesan cheese, some times we only sprinkle the edges, instead of the whole thing.

 Yum...

Is it ever moral to desert?

My old friends know that I used to think like they do....so there is really nothing for me to consider when it comes to their view point...what grieves me is that (for the most part – I'm not going to lump all my friends together) they won't stop to examine or consider my point of view.   Maybe I have learned something that they haven't, maybe I can see a bigger picture they can't yet.  Maybe my eyes and heart are open to seeing that the Emperor is wearing no clothes. I'm not taking any credit. I know that only God opens eyes. Indeed it is a grave thing to be burdened by so much knowledge. The grief of knowing - the grief of others not seeing - it's all too much sometimes...

The photo that started it all.

We may never know the entire truth about this particular case (Sgt Bowe Bergdahl). The real issue it whether it's moral/just/right for someone to desert (break a contract) when they discover they have been lied to and are merely pawns/cannon fodder for the multi-national corporate interests/global elite. When they discover their mission is protecting poppy fields or territory for oil pipelines or rich mining resources. Or toppling a leader so a more “favorable one” (to US interests) can be installed.

22 suicides per day according to official records, 800,000 plus vets are homeless, how many can't live with themselves for the atrocities they committed or enable others to? Not to mention the fact that they are guinea pigs for pharmaceutical companies! God only knows how many lives and families are ruined as a result.

When did it become “okay” for a “christian nation” and flag waving church goers to champion invasion, death, destruction, plundering, genocide even - all in the name of “patriotism” or rather “nationalism” (expansion/exceptionalism, imperialism)?

Take a look at the history of America from sources beyond the approved government texts. Look at the history from victims' narrative instead of the victor's. When you realize what the Fed Govt of these United States has done over and over again you will never again believe official sources, official news stories coming from the “ministry of truth” and their approved outlets of propaganda – fear mongering, war mongering, fanning the fires of hate, prejudice, distracting, dividing, creating enemies so they can justify and gain support for the latest invasion - annihilation - destruction. It's the same play book they've used for years.

Why do people still believe it? Keep falling for it?

Because if you tell a lie often enough it becomes “truth” - quoting Goebbels. Because if you control the mainstream news outlets and have agents as “journalists” you control what people see, think and “know” - because you can plant disinformation and set up kooks in alternative news outlets to discredit sources outside the mainstream propaganda. When the same corporations who report the news also profit from the perpetual “war on terror” you won't hear the real story. Why would they report something that harms their bottom line? I've read that all mainstream media is controlled by just SIX corporations. You won't get “fair and balanced” from any of them. Just slightly different flavors of left or right and an illusion of any real difference between them!

Because people for the most part are comfortable and don't want their ideas, their beliefs challenged. I know I didn't! It's too much to even consider – that most everything we've been told and learned is fiction or that our tax money pays for CIA covert ops, coups, regime change, assassinations, terror cells, false flags, plundering for the multinational corporations, which ALL result in BLOWBACK. 

The enemies are created for a reason...perpetual war, control of resources, depopulation and billions in profits for military industrial complex, oil companies, those in power, etc. etc.

“American Sniper”

Chuck Baldwin: My Thoughts On The Movie “American Sniper”

January 31, 2015

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Chuck Baldwin | Charles "Chuck" Baldwin is a politician, radio broadcaster, and pastor dedicated to preserving the historic principles upon which America was founded. He was the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 U.S. presidential election and had previously been its nominee for U.S. vice president in 2004. He hosts a radio program and writes an editorial column carried on his website Chuck Baldwin Live.

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Copied from Liberty Crier.   Opinions from Liberty Crier contributors and members are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Liberty Crier.

As did millions of other Americans, I went to see the hugely popular Clint Eastwood-directed movie, “American Sniper.” Here are some of my thoughts:

No one, at least not me, doubts the patriotism, courage, and sacrifice of our nation’s military personnel–especially our combat forces. I certainly do not share Michael Moore’s opinion that Chris Kyle (and the rest of our military snipers) was a coward. Snipers have been effective in helping to wage America’s wars since our War for Independence. In lawful combat, snipers are as needful as any other specialized fighting man.

My issue is not with Chris Kyle–or with any other American fighting man. My issue is with the justness of the war Chris Kyle was ordered to fight. Yes, I realize that we have an all-volunteer army; but let’s be honest enough to admit that the vast majority of our young people joining the U.S. military sincerely believe that they are doing their patriotic duty by volunteering to conduct war against America’s “enemies.” They learn nothing else from family, school, movies and television, and church. The singular message they hear is that everything the U.S. military does is right and righteous and that every military engagement is just and justified. I’m sure Chris Kyle was no different.


 

However, at the risk of sounding unpatriotic, after watching the real-life military exploits of Chris Kyle on the Big Screen, I left the theater extremely angry.

In the first place, Saddam Hussein and the country of Iraq had absolutely NOTHING to do with 9/11, and virtually everyone on the planet now knows it. G.W. Bush and Dick Cheney unabashedly lied to the American people about the necessity of America invading Iraq. We invaded Iraq under false pretenses; we occupied Iraq under false pretenses; and we took (and lost) thousands of lives under false pretenses.

If those miscreants in Washington, D.C., want to invade countries that truly have Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), why don’t they invade Russia, or China, or Great Britain, or North Korea, or India, or Pakistan, or Israel? We haven’t heard the first word about the need to invade and occupy any of those countries. Why not? Each of those countries has known stockpiles of nuclear weapons. And when it comes to abusing human rights, most of the countries listed above have miserable records. But, no one from either party in Washington, D.C., even broaches the idea of invading and occupying (or even bombing) any of these nations. But we were told that the little country of Iraq posed such a severe and imminent threat against the United States that a military invasion was required. Everyone in the world now knows that was poppycock.

And for the benefit of my Christian readers, Saddam Hussein was one of the most tolerant and accommodating Muslim leaders in the entire region. Christian churches thrived under Hussein. For the most part, Hussein happily accommodated the exercise of the Christian religion in Iraq. He even had at least one Christian in his cabinet.

What has happened to Christianity in Iraq since the United States overthrew Saddam Hussein? Several recent reports have documented the fact that, for all intents and purposes, Christianity has been totally expunged from the country of Iraq. Christians have fled the country in terror due to intense persecution. There are no churches left in Iraq. This is AFTER the “liberation” of Iraq and the installation of a puppet government by the United States.

Secondly, as I watched the depiction of U.S. Marines going house-to-house kicking down doors and manhandling old men, women, and children, it occurred to me that these exact same tactics are now being employed by American police agencies against the people of the United States. Our so-called SWAT teams are nothing more than occupying military units on American soil. The strategies, philosophies, mindset, and tactics are exactly the same as soldiers in a war zone.

Thirdly, ask yourself these questions: what if, instead of the place being Fallujah, Iraq, the place was Kansas City, Missouri? Instead of the invasion force being the U.S. military, it was military troops from China, Russia, or North Korea? What if the occupying military snipers were killing American women and children instead of Iraqi women and children? Would we still consider them “heroes?” And would we act any differently from the Iraqi people who were simply trying to defend their homes and communities against an occupying foreign power?

When I left the theater, I was not angry with Chris Kyle because he happened to apparently be the best at what he was trained to do; I was angry with the politicians in Washington, D.C., who sent Chris Kyle into an unjust and undeclared war against people who posed NO imminent threat to the United States.

I am also angry with an American culture that seems to lack the discernment to recognize the difference between just and unjust war. I am further angered by ubiquitous U.S. propaganda against the Muslim people in general (especially by my Christian brethren).

It seems that hardly anyone recognizes that the power-elite are engaged in a global conspiracy to pit the Muslim nations of the Middle East against the West, and vice-versa. Our own CIA has manipulated the internal affairs of Middle Eastern states for decades. The CIA put Saddam Hussein in power. Where do you think those brand new hundred-dollar bills (in the amount of millions of dollars) stored between the walls of Hussein’s house, all wrapped in Bank of America wrappers, came from?

The CIA put Osama bin Laden in power. The CIA created Al Qaeda. The CIA created ISIS. And dare we even talk about the illegal drug-running operations that have been conducted by the CIA in both Middle Eastern and Far Eastern nations (not to mention Central and South America) for at least a half-century?

It might make modern Christian leaders feel morally righteous as they constantly stir hatred in the hearts of their followers against the Muslim people, but what it really does is demonstrate their utter ignorance as to who the real enemy is.

The global elite are using radical Islamists, Jews, and Christians alike to stir fear and hatred among nations. No religion has a monopoly on hatred and violence. I remind readers that it wasn’t Muslims who killed our brave patriot forebears at Bunker Hill, Lexington Green, and Concord Bridge. It was Christians. It wasn’t Muslims who invaded the newly formed United States in 1812. It was Christians. It wasn’t Muslims who were beating, imprisoning, and murdering non-traditional believers in early America. It was Christians.

And for all of you who are scared silly about the threat of Sharia Law, I can tell you for a fact that there are numerous Christian preachers today who openly promote bringing America under the civil laws of Old Testament Israel. Yes, that means legalizing capital punishment for adulteresses, children who curse their parents, people who break the Sabbath (Who would define that?), people who are guilty of blasphemy (Who would define that?) homosexuals and lesbians, etc. If these preachers had anything to do with it, we Americans would suffer as much under their brand of “Christianity” as did the people of Israel under the Pharisees and as many who are currently suffering under the heavy hand of Islamic militants today.

And if you think there is religious liberty for the Jewish people in the modern state of Israel, you haven’t been there. Let a Jew in Israel convert to Christianity and try to publicly witness for his faith (in much the same manner as did the Apostles in the New Testament) and see what happens. The persecution is intense.  

When I was in Israel, I preached in the two Baptist churches in that country. One was in Jerusalem; the other was in Bethlehem. What I discovered surprised me: over ninety percent of the Christians in those churches were not converted Jews; they were converted Muslims. And most of them were Palestinians. In fact, Christianity is growing exponentially among the Palestinian people, even as we speak.

Christians who are constantly fear-mongering against Muslim people are playing right into the hands of the globalists who are using people of different faiths and cultures to inflame hatred and violence, thus creating the conditions for globalists to come to the rescue with their plans for world government. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: The American people have far more to fear from Washington, D.C., than they do from Baghdad, Damascus, or Tehran.

As I left the theater, I was angry with a federal government that cares absolutely nothing about our brave U.S. military personnel. They send them to fight unjust wars only then to treat them like second-class citizens in our VA hospitals. If D.C. truly cared about our military personnel, they would never ask them to risk life and limb except for those times that are truly necessary for the safety and security of the United States.

America has NO RIGHT to take upon itself the role of the world’s policeman. It has NO RIGHT to send U.S. fighting men to vindicate the policies and prejudices of the United Nations. The President of the United States has NO RIGHT to invade and occupy foreign countries without a Declaration of War by Congress.

And in the case of rogue militants who pose an imminent danger to the people of the United States, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison handled it constitutionally by asking Congress for a letter of marque and reprisal. Congressman Ron Paul introduced just such a bill following the 9/11 attacks. Had Congress followed the Constitution and passed Dr. Paul’s bill, much of the turmoil and unrest that currently exists in the Middle East today would have been completely circumvented. But, then again, the globalists would not have been able to inflame the world against each other like they have.
I am angry because, in the name of fighting the War on Terror around the world, the American people are quickly losing the liberties guaranteed in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights. And out of a misguided spirit of patriotism, the majority of the American people seem fine with it.

I am angry because our brave military troops are being asked to give their arms and legs and families and lives for the selfish, political, and economic interests of the ruling elite–and are also asked to take the lives of thousands of innocents in the process.

If you ask me, Chris Kyle was the victim of a sadistic and out-of-control federal leviathan that respects NOTHING. Not the rule of law. Not liberty–at home or abroad. Not family–our own or the families of other nations. Not constitutional government. Not national borders–our own or anyone else’s. And certainly not the sacredness of life.

Yes, I watched the movie “American Sniper.” And I left the theater angry.

P.S. I am in touch with a group of patriot Christians in Springfield, Missouri, who very much desire to start a new non-501c3 fellowship. As soon as this group can grow a little more, I will take my team and conduct a Liberty Church Project conference for these folks. If you live in or near Springfield, Missouri, and would like to join this group, here is an email that you can use to connect with them. Hopefully, there will soon be enough people that we can see a brand new non-501c3 church established in Springfield, Missouri.
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Chia seed "pudding"

Chocolate Chia "Pudding"....not a bad way to get some nutritious goodies into you....

2 cups milk of your choice ( we usually use raw cow milk)
2 Tablespoons (or more) Fair Trade Organic Cocoa powder
Stevia to taste (we use 3 smidge scoops)
2/3 cup Chia seeds (grind in coffee grinder)
add some ground flax seeds or hemp seeds if you wish (maybe 2 Tablespoons)

Stir it up and let it get thick, stirring a few times before putting it in the fridge....we normally let it sit in the fridge a day or more before eating it.  We add toasted almond slices, maybe some granola, dried fruit or a sprinkle of cinnamon.  A squirt of whipped cream makes it more dessert-like, but we usually eat this for brunch (our first meal of the day).  This makes four servings at our house.

Variation:  use vanilla and honey

Inspired by:  milk-and.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/coconut-chia-breakfast-pudding-with.html and allrecipes.com/recipe/chia-pudding/