Likud chairman and opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu said he would not meet with Carter, who is in Israel today (Sunday, 4/13), while President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak (Labor), Minister of Industry and Trade Eli Yishai (Shas) and Member of Knesset (MK) Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beitenu) said they will meet with the former US president.

After his Sunday afternoon arrival, Carter will meet with Peres that evening. A spokesman for the Israeli president cited their "shared past" and Peres' admiration for Carter's role in advancing peace between Egypt and Israel for the meeting. Monday's itinerary include a visit to Sderot, a meeting with Barak and a speech at an event sponsored by the left-wing Israeli daily Haaretz.

Tuesday, Carter is off to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and his colleagues. Before departing for Damascus to meet with the exiled Hamas leader, Carter will share his views with Yishai and Lieberman.  Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni blamed conflicting schedules for not meeting with the former president.

The US State Department said it informed Carter of its opposition to his meeting with Mashaal. "We counseled against it," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormick. "US government policy is that Hamas is a terrorist organization and we don't believe it is in the interest of our policy or in the interest of peace to have such a meeting," he said.

Of course Carter, in his what we’ve come to expect from the mouth of whom I consider the worst President in U.S. history said, "This is a study mission and our purpose is not to negotiate but to support and provide momentum for current efforts to secure peace in the Middle East," read a statement from the Carter Center.

Carter said he feels “quite at ease,” meeting with the Hamas militants over the objections of Washington because the Palestinian group is essential to a future peace with Israel.

.The State Department, including the secretary, Condoleezza Rice, criticized Carter's plans to talk in Syria this week with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in the first public contact in two years between a prominent American figure and the group. Carter said he had not heard the objections directly, although a State Department spokesman said earlier that a senior official from the department had called the former president.

"I feel quite at ease in doing this," Carter said. "I think there's no doubt in anyone's mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process."

Although he said the meeting would not be a negotiation, he outlined distinct goals.

"I think that it's very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and to cooperate with the Fatah as a group that unites the Palestinians, maybe to get them to agree to a cease-fire - things of this kind," he said. The State Department says it advised Carter twice against meeting representatives of Hamas, which Washington considers a terrorist organization.

"I find it hard to understand what is going to be gained by having discussions with Hamas about peace when Hamas is, in fact, the impediment to peace," Rice said Friday, after reports of the planned meeting surfaced.

Carter said he'd be meeting Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Saudi Arabians and others "who might have to play a crucial role in any future peace agreement that involves the Middle East." Asked whether it was right to meet a group that has not renounced violence or recognized Israel's right to exist, he said, "Well, you can't always get prerequisites adopted by other people before you even talk to them."

Pressure to drop the meeting has come from his own party. Democratic Reps. Artur Davis of Alabama, Shelley Berkley of Nevada, Adam Schiff of California and Adam Smith of Washington state wrote a letter to Carter saying the meeting could confer legitimacy on a group that embraces violence.

Several Jewish groups in America have also expressed their opposition to Carter’s meeting and have called on the current Presidential candidates to decry Carter’s meeting. One such group, The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) said Sunday that Sens. Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama should speak out against Carter's possible plans to visit with Hamas terror chief Khaled Meshal in Syria.

"It is unacceptable that a former American president would choose to dignify and legitimize Hamas leader Khaled Meshal with a visit. Hamas is a designated terrorist organization that denies Israel's right to exist, kidnaps Israeli soldiers, fires rockets on Israeli towns, is responsible for the deaths of American citizens and celebrated in the streets of Gaza after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Meshal has even called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 'courageous' for denying the Holocaust," said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks.

"As presidential contenders who have pledged to protect America and stand with our ally, Israel, we urge Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama to speak out forcefully against former President Carter's possible meeting with Khaled Meshal and to ask him not to have this meeting," said Brooks.

Carter has by and large ignored these type warnings by simply stating, "I've been meeting with Hamas leaders for years.”  We must remember that Carter is the disastrous former American president whose misguided policies in the Middle East, specifically his abandonment of the shah of Iran, led to the Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979, predictably sparking off worldwide Iranian-backed Shia terrorism and in response, rival Saudi-backed Sunni terrorism, the results of which are continuing to be felt around the world today.

And just in case anyone needs reminding what a terrible threat Hamas is to Israel and Hamas' relationship with America's enemies, a new intelligence estimate puts its armed fighting force in the Gaza strip now at about 20,000 soldiers including many who trained in Syria and Iran. It's a hell of a lot of guns for a piece of land roughly the size of Brooklyn and Queens combined, with a much smaller population. Every day Hamas looks less like a "terrorist group" and more like a terror army.

With former presidents like Jimmy Carter who work hard to give credibility to terrorists and do everything possible to help America's enemies and harm Western civilization, terrorists of the world can save their money on propaganda - from the likes of Jimmy Carter it comes for free.

The more scarier thought  is that Carter’s actions may be the face of a coming Obama or Clinton Presidency who both have hinted at a similar “willingness” to open up with the enemies of Israel and the United States in hopes that “dialogue” will change an opinion that is nearly 6,000 years old.

The Arab world’s hatred of Israel is not new nor is it without Biblical roots nor is it without prophetic significance for the end times we live in today. Ezekiel called the Arab world’s attitude an “ancient hatred,” that has sought to destroy Israel since the says of Esau, Ishmael and Amalek. The last great conflict to grip the world, which will bring about the deaths of possibly several billion people, will be that of the Antichrist.  The Antichrist will be heralded as one who has solved the “Jewish problem,” yet in his evil mind, the solution to that “problem,” will be the same solution as Adolph Hitler desired, namely the annihilation of every Jew on the Planet. The Antichrist’s efforts will reach their highest point at the Battle of Armageddon, and he will come close to completing his goal, only being stopped by the brightness of the Lord’s coming which will take place at that very time!

The way the world is being prepared for the advent of the Antichrist involves the rise of Islam. A great part of the Muslim world is situated in the Middle East and controls some 60 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Despite the fact that hundreds of billions of dollars go into their coffers every year, the Muslim nations of the Middle East are grossly poor. At the time of this writing, there are about 300 million Muslims in Middle East countries, with about 1.2 billion Muslims existing worldwide. Despite the billions of oil dollars flowing into their economies, those same Muslim countries we speak of steadily grow poorer. Only a tiny few profit from the oil billions, and these few are obscenely rich.

The powers that be in the Muslim world desire that the masses of Muslims remain poor – dirt poor, even agonizingly poor. They then claim, and they constantly claim, that it is the United States that is the cause of this poverty, using these claims as recruiting tools for human bombers who are willing to give up their pitiful lives in order to kill the “infidels.” It does not take a genius or Rhodes Scholar to understand the two enemies of the Muslim world are the United States AND Israel, whom they term the “Great Satan,” and “Little Satan,” respectively.

The Muslims hate the Jews for many and varied reasons, but perhaps the greatest reason is their claim that Ishmael is the true son of Abraham, not Isaac. As a result, they want every Jew dead, and they want to possess every square inch of the tiny land of Israel. Let the reader consider this startling fact. The land area of Israel comprises about one-tenth (1/10th) of one percent of the entirety of the land of the Middle East. All the rest of the Middle East (99.9%) is controlled by Arabs and Muslims, but yet they still want that tiny spit of land called, “ISRAEL.” Why?

The truth is they really don’t know themselves, but the Bible does know! It’s called an “ancient hatred,” rooted in the hearts of the seed of Ishmael toward the seed of Isaac. Israel, according to the Bible, claims to be the chosen people of God, while the Muslims, who refer to their god as “Allah,” claim the same thing through Ishmael.

Ezekiel 35:3-5 -And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. [4] I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. [5] Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:

Incidentally the name “Allah,” comes from one of the ancient Babylonian idols, and was selected somewhat at random by Mohammed. The goal of the Muslims is NOT land! This is the greatest lie and deception the enemy has shrouded the minds of the modern news media and even many in the church with in these last days. The Muslims want to annihilate every Jew and confiscate the tiny land of Israel for their own.  We must understand that Muslims as a people are not the enemy but the RELIGION of Islam that has instilled this hatred in their hearts IS! It’s Islam that creates all the bad attitudes and problems as billions of Muslims seeks to please Allah by fighting against those Islam calls the “infidels,” and “pigs” i.e. the Jews and the Christians. Because of Islam, they lose their lives fighting for Allah in hopes that this will get them to paradise. Because of Islam, there is no forgiveness in the heart of Muslims – either to others or to themselves. The word “love,” is not found on one page of the Muslim’s “holy book,” the Koran.

It is a blatantly false idea that the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and even the current Middle East war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas, is caused by Israel refusing to give the Palestinians their own particular homeland within the borders of the State of Israel. The true cause of the conflict is that the terror group Hamas wants, as does all of Islam, every Jew dead and the entirety of the Land of Israel in their possession. This is a war friend, make no mistake about! Furthermore, it’s not a war fought with just bullets and tanks, but a spiritual war between the forces of the spirit realm controlling Islam and the forces of heaven which under gird those who believe in Christ! People like Jimmy Carter as well as all those who embrace his failed idea that “dialogue” will help the situation do not grasp this is a RELIGIOUS and SPIRITUAL conflict, not a political one. And the stupidity of a former President from Georgia will never change that.

Preliminary reports are still unclear as to whether the storm was an actual tornado or straight line winds. Either way, the damage made Atlanta “look like a war zone,” according to Atlanta news media outlets. Downtown skyscrapers in downtown Atlanta had glass blown out by winds that some weather observers say could have reached close to hurricane force.

One bystander who was involved in the storm commented, “most did not get any warning this type storm was brewing,” making this writer pause and think a second of coming events upon Planet Earth in the very near future.  

I’ve been a weather enthusiast since I’ve been a child studying severe storms and warning mechanisms through the years forecasters have used to do just what this bystander said they did not get in Atlanta moments before this storm struck. I know people and for the most part even if there had been a warning that conditions were ripe for this type weather those warnings would have for the most part been ignored and thousands would have still gathered into the Georgia Dome to watch the SEC Basketball tourney which was going on at the time when these winds ripped through Georgia’s capital city and my hometown.

Watching the scenes of this storm reminded me of the 1975 Governor’s Mansion tornado, a storm this writer and his family actually went through. I remember as a 10 year old child listening to the sounds of tin from an industrial park ten miles away from my dad’s church falling onto the church’s parking lot. Those memories never leave you even 33 years later. 

I know even when bad weather threatens Knoxville where we live and I tell my own family now that bad weather is brewing I’m usually laughed off or ignored for the most part. I have a feeling that my kids probably even laugh inwardly at their old man making such a big deal about the possibility that serious weather is coming and we need to be alert and ready to move to a safe place in our home if need be at a moment’s notice. Many times my concerns about the weather seem unnecessary when storm systems may weaken while other times they come sweeping through with damage and confirm my concerns.

Because I follow the weather I’m very seldom caught unaware of coming storms. It’s just my nature and hobby to study such and keep abreast of what is taking place weather wise. I have been doing this since I was a child. I guess the 1975 event did something to me but I love the weather and storms and learning more about their power and paths.  My family’s lethargy and even amusement at my hobby and keeping abreast at such bothers me at times for sure. But one fact remains. Whether one is keeping abreast of what is going on or, as my family, lethargic and unconcerned about the brewing storm – the storm still comes. And friend – no matter whether one has not received and grasped the warnings, or heard the warnings and just ignored them or blown them off – a STORM IS COMING!  This storm is called the Great Tribulation and it is coming upon Planet Earth. The United States government will not stop it; no president will stop it; no UN measures will stop it; no unbelieving preacher will stop it; no godless denomination will stop it; no apostate church will stop it; it is coming because the Word of God says it will come! (Matthew 24:10-13, 21)  Jesus declared this time of history that is yet future but very soon on the world’s prophetic horizon, will be worse than any time of Earth’s prior history, as well as being worse than any time in Earth’s future history.

Let me state it again. Distant rumblings of thunder and the warnings from God’s Word SCREAM to us that conditions in the world right now are signaling that a storm of unprecedented proportion is brewing on the prophetic horizon and will sweep over this earth just as this tornado went through Atlanta.  It may be true that most in Atlanta Friday night did not have any warning a storm like this was brewing but that only speaks to the sudden nature of how weather-related destruction can hit. I state again that had people received a warning that such conditions were brewing it would not have changed their plans.

Most would have STILL gone to the basketball tourney and screamed and hollered for their favorite team despite the danger of death brewed outside. Such is the nature of a fallen race and especially a nation which has lost its way with God here in America. No matter whether warning was given or not – the storm still HIT! And no matter whether people hear the warning or not – the STORM that is coming upon Planet Earth WILL and IS COMING and will TAKE PLACE! The Apostle Paul said that when the world cries “peace and safety” then SUDDEN destruction shall come upon this earth as birth pangs come upon a woman. No matter how much godless politicians promise “change” to the nation and the world should they get elected let this writer assure the reader that the change that is coming is not the change being promised.

The change that is ahead will be an increase of earthquakes, violent tornadoes, hurricanes, pestilences, wars and rumor of wars, famines, drought, fires and a continued upheaval and shaking of Planet Earth in general (Romans 8). The Bible has given warning and though the voices of preachers who have spoken those warnings have gotten fewer and fewer there are still SOME giving warning to this very hour that a STORM IS COMING.  I pray friend that you know the only anchor that will be sure during this time of terrible calamity that is coming upon the Earth and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s getting late neighbor and the warnings are being screamed that the church age is coming to an end, the rapture is about to take place and the curtain about to rise upon Earth’s darkest hour. The rise of the Antichrist looms as does the stage being set for the Great Tribulation period where nearly 3 billion people may very well die.

Friend, take heed to the warning and if you don’t know the Lord today, hear the Holy Spirit through this writer to make things right with God, be born again, repent, believe the gospel and be saved before it is eternally too late.  

Let this writer make it clear that anyone with half a brain can listen to 5 seconds to what Wright said on March 9 and realize this man is not a Christian, he does NOT know the Lord and needs to be born again and meet the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, with his evident hatred of America and communion with anti-Semitic leader Louis Farrakhan, it surprises this writer why Mr. Wright even wants to live here.

The reason is simple. Only in America can stupidity and moronic ideas like that poised by Rev. Wright freely be spoken. If he got up in a Saudi pulpit, or an Iranian pulpit, or even a Libyan pulpit, and said these type statements against the religion of Islam as he did against whites and America in general, Mr. Wright’s tongue would not be functioning to say these things simply because Mr. Wright would probably wind up losing his life. However, because he lives in a free nation where freedom of speech is one of our fundamental rights granted to us by the constitution and paid for by the blood of those in the military Mr. Wright blasphemes and rails against, Mr. Wright, and other morons just like him can spew their hatred and stupidity without having to be afraid of these type things happening.  

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday denounced inflammatory remarks from his pastor, who has railed against the United States and accused the country of bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks by spreading terrorism.  Obama called the statements appearing on television and the Internet "completely unacceptable and inexcusable" in a Fox News interview and said they didn't reflect the kinds of sermons he had heard from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright while attending services at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Those terms are understatements if you ask me, which if your reading this blog I guess in a way you are. Obama, a member of the church since the early 1990s, said he would have quit Trinity had such statements been "the repeated tenor of the church. ... I wouldn't feel comfortable there."Earlier Friday, Obama responded by posting a blog about his relationship with Wright and Trinity on the Huffington Post. Wright brought Obama to Christianity, officiated at his wedding, baptized his daughters and inspired the title of his book, "The Audacity of Hope." 

Obama wrote that he's looked to Wright for spiritual advice, not political guidance, and he's been pained and angered to learn of some of his pastor's comments for which he had not been present.  "I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies," Obama said in his blog posting. "I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue." In a sermon on the Sunday after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Wright suggested the United States brought on the attacks. "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Wright said. "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost." 

In a 2003 sermon, he said blacks should condemn the United States. "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme." He also gave a sermon in December comparing Obama to Jesus, promoting his candidacy and criticizing his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. "Barack knows what it means to be a black man to be living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people," Wright told a cheering congregation. "Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a nigger." 

Obama told MSNBC that he would not repudiate Wright as a man, describing him as "like an uncle" who says something that he disagrees with and must speak out against. He also said he expects his political opponents will use video of the sermons to attack him as the campaign goes on. Questions about Obama's religious beliefs have dogged him throughout his candidacy. He's had to fight against false Internet rumors suggesting he's really a Muslim intent on destroying the United States, and now his pastor's words uttered nearly seven years ago have become an issue.Obama wrote on the Huffington Post that he never heard Wright say any of the statements, but he acknowledged that they have raised legitimate questions about the nature of his relationship with the pastor and the church.

He wrote that he joined Wright's church nearly 20 years ago, familiar with the pastor's background as a former Marine and respected biblical scholar who lectured at seminaries across the country. "Reverend Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life," he wrote. "And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor and to seek justice at every turn." I would respond to Mr. Obama’s comments by asking a simple question. Are the comments heard on Sunday the gospel of Jesus? ABSOLUTELY NOT! However, for an American church who gets their gospel from Oprah Winfrey and Rick Warren and Joel Osteen, such a statement would make perfect sense to this writer that Obama would believe that is the gospel. 

He said Wright's controversial statements first came to his attention at the beginning of his presidential campaign last year, and he condemned them. Because of his long and deep ties to the 6,000-member congregation church, Obama said he decided not to leave. "With Reverend Wright's retirement and the ascension of my new pastor, Rev. Otis Moss III, Michelle and I look forward to continuing a relationship with a church that has done so much good," he wrote.  And that is the other rub of this issue. A “church that has done so much GOOD,” is the reason he gives for staying at a place where an Anti-Semite and American hater gets up each week and spews his hatred without rebuke from the black community or any black leader who, had this been a white man behind a pulpit saying these things about the black community would have had marches and threats to burn the building down. 

Also Friday, the United Church of Christ issued a 1,400-word statement defending Wright and his "flagship" congregation. The statement lauded Wright's church for its community service and work to nurture youth and the pastor for speaking out against homophobia and sexism in the black community.  Mr. Wright, and I am deliberately not calling him a Reverend because he is a disgrace to the ministry, does not just hold racist views against whites but also holds great contempt for the nation of Israel: “The Israelis have illegally occupied Palestinian territories for over 40 years now. Divestment has now hit the table again as a strategy to wake the business community and wake up Americans concerning the injustice and the racism under which the Palestinians have lived because of Zionism.”

Those are the babblings of a fool who needs to be born again and meet Jesus, Israel’s Jewish Messiah and the Savior of the World. I do not seek to link Mr. Wright’s sentiments with those of Barrack Obama who late Friday evening refuted Mr. Wright’s statements and said he was not present in person when these things were said, adding had he heard these things on a persistent basis in person he would have quit the church. That’s a real stretch considering Wright married Obama to his wife Michelle, baptized his children, and gave him the title of Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope.”  Obama defended Wright however to Fox News Friday night to a degree saying Wright talked a great deal about Jesus, God and helping the poor many times in the past since he and his wife Michelle joined the church in 1991-1992.

That is the rub of the condition of the American Church. If a preacher mentions Jesus once or twice then spews out racist hatred, arrogant anti-America and anti-Semitic rhetoric on a regular basis as Wright has done then he is looked on as a “Christian” minister. Let this writer say this without blinking and with all surety some will take issue with this. No Christian minister who TRULY knows the Lord Jesus Christ would say the things Mr. Wright said about America and Israel and have this history of making these separatist and racist remarks. If this brand of the Christian faith is what most Americans believe is true Christianity then friend we have a serious problem and a severe crisis of faith in this nation. The FOOL has said in his heart, “there is no God.”

The great Apostle Peter further declared that perverse and foolish men who “wrestle” the scriptures like Mr. Wright seems to do on a regular basis do so to their own destruction and the destruction to those who listen to such and embrace them. Wright is not the only black pastor who has shown this type of arrogance and in reality his own stupidity in recent times. The Rev. Joseph Lowery embarrassed himself and the entire black community in 2005 during the funeral of Corretta Scott King accusing President Bush, who was sitting right behind Lowery on the stage with his wife Laura, of lying to the nation about weapons of mass destruction and being a racist because of the government’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Lowery actually received a standing ovation when he remarked before four U.S. Presidents in attendance: “We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance; poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.” Only in America would such stupid, offensive, classless, tasteless, and moronic remarks get a standing ovation.  Only in America would a minister disrespect the President of the United States who took time out of his schedule to attend the funeral of Mrs. King out of respect for Mrs. King and the Civil Rights Movement only to have to sit and listen to Lowery and former President Jimmy Carter slur his name and administration without blushing.

This service that should have been to honor Ms. King and the legacy of her husband, but instead in this writer’s opinion Lowery along with the other black leaders present that day embarrassed the black community and insulted the intelligence of millions who know better.  This type of disrespect for government and leaders in America is a sign friend we continue to rapidly descend into the last of the last days and the foretold apostasy of both the church and the world. The Apostle Jude warned that men would become grumblers and speak against dignitaries without respect for authority in the last days: Jude 8: “yet in the same way these men,….defile the flesh, and reject authority.” Jude 16: These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak ARROGANTLY, flattering people for the sake of gaining advantage.”

What Mr. Wright said is not new nor is it anything different than the hard left in this nation that seeks to put the blame of 9-11-2001 not on Islamic terrorism but on America itself. This is the question I’ll end this blog with. Are we to believe Mr. Obama that in twenty years of sitting in this church never saw Mr. Wright’s connection to Louis Farrakhan? He never saw or realized the connection between Wright and the Libyan government; He never one time heard the same type diatribe Americans listened to on Friday in 20 years of sermons?

I’m going to give Obama the benefit of the doubt – for now. If it is determined he knew these things and even was in attendance while such things were being said and still supported Wright and his church then Mr. Obama’s worst nightmare has taken place and friend to be frank this has all the earmarks of destroying a once high-octane campaign that seemed unbeatable 3 weeks ago.  Part of this blog contains news information from Yahoo News, copyright, 2008.

When man fell in the garden the access into that presence was forever barred. When one beheld the Jewish temple and saw the beautiful sanctuary designed by God to be a picture of the heavenly temple, one could not help but know in their heart that the veil inside the Holy Place was in type a picture of the shut “door” between fallen man and God.

When Jesus spoke in John 10 spoke of Himself being the “Door,” He was in essence saying that because of man’s sin, man was unable to come into the presence of God without being stricken dead just as the Priest of old would be stricken dead if he dared go behind the veil with sin in his life where the Holy of Holies was, the cherubim looking down on the Ark of the Covenant where lay the broken law, Aaron’s budded rod and the manna from the wilderness – all three pictures of not only Israel’s rebellion against God but all humanity’s as well!

Jesus had told the Pharisees on a past occasion that they would “die in their sin,” and that they would not be able to come where He was going. However, because of what Christ did at the Cross, the door into the presence of God is now made available to all who will come to Christ in faith. Through the blood into the presence of God! Through the blood we now have access. Through the blood man does not stand any longer outside the commonwealth of Israel but we are now brought near.

www.spiritjournals.com to Read the entirety of this message.

• December 2001, Richard Reid: British citizen attempted to ignite shoe bomb on flight from Paris to Miami.

• May 2002, Jose Padilla: American citizen accused of seeking "dirty bomb," convicted of conspiracy.

• September 2002, Lackawanna Six: American citizens of Yemeni origin convicted of supporting Al Qaeda. Five of six were from Lackawanna, N.Y.

• May 2003, Iyman Faris: American citizen charged with trying to topple the Brooklyn Bridge.

• June 2003, Virginia Jihad Network: Eleven men from Alexandria, Va., trained for jihad against American soldiers, convicted of violating the Neutrality Act, conspiracy.

• August 2004, Dhiren Barot: Indian-born leader of terror cell plotted bombings on financial centers (see additional images).

• August 2004, James Elshafay and Shahawar Matin Siraj: Sought to plant bomb at New York's Penn Station during the Republican National Convention.

• August 2004, Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain: Plotted to assassinate a Pakistani diplomat on American soil.

• June 2005, Father and son Umer Hayat and Hamid Hayat: Son convicted of attending terrorist training camp in Pakistan; father convicted of customs violation.

• August 2005, Kevin James, Levar Haley Washington, Gregory Vernon Patterson and Hammad Riaz Samana: Los Angeles homegrown terrorists who plotted to attack National Guard, LAX, two synagogues and Israeli consulate.

• December 2005, Michael Reynolds: Plotted to blow up refinery in Wyoming, convicted of providing material support to terrorists.

• February 2006, Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi and Zand Wassim Mazloum: Accused of providing material support to terrorists, making bombs for use in Iraq.

• April 2006, Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee: Cased and videotaped the Capitol and World Bank for a terrorist organization.

• June 2006, Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, and Rotschild Augstine: Accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower.

• July 2006, Assem Hammoud: Accused of plotting to hit New York City train tunnels.

• August 2006, Liquid Explosives Plot: Thwarted plot to explode ten airliners over the United States.

• May 2007, Fort Dix Plot: Six men accused of plotting to attack Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey.

• June 2007, JFK Plot: Four men accused of plotting to blow up fuel arteries underneath JFK Airport in New York.

• March 2008, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: Mastermind of Sept. 11 and author of numerous plots confessed in court in March 2007 to planning to destroy skyscrapers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. 

When I asked her about Mr. McCain, her response was probably what most in this nation feel: “Barrack cares more about the economy than McCain does; he will put money in our pocket. McCain is so old and Barrack is just so young and vibrant." She held a very high disdain for Mrs. Clinton because of what she perceived as both Clinton and McCain being part of the old establishment in Washington and the nation wanting radical and total change in our political atmosphere.

As I heard these words I could not help but pause a bit and think to myself, “is this what electing a President has come to - what they can do to put money in our pocket?” I asked her point blank, “well what good will that money in your pocket do if we are invaded by a foreign power or wind up being destroyed by Islamic terrorism?” The phone went silent as she didn’t have an answer. I also told her point blank that while I don’t agree with every single position Mr. McCain holds I felt he was the most qualified of the three candidates to protect the nation at all costs and be the strongest commander in chief. I reminded her that any President’s NUMBER ONE job is hand down and without debate to protect the American people from all threats domestic and abroad. 

It is NOT a President’s job to put money in people’s pocket and make government a socialist outpost to control people’s lives and tell them how they spend their own money and tax us into oblivion to pay for every social program under the sun. The Democratic Party has long been the party that has produced this view that government, not individuals, knows best how to run people’s lives. If either of the Democrats get elected I can assure you this so-called perception that our economy is bad will be more than just a perception if taxes are raised and money is taken from some to pay the bills of others. The economy is shaking right now because of more than just economics; it's shaking because God is dealing our nation right now as well as choices many citizens have made as well as financial institutions. That is another subject for another blog another time.

My friend and I disagree on whom we will vote for this coming November but she did tell me before she left the phone that I had caused her to think a bit more about her choice and that she had not thought about the national security issue as much as she probably should have. That phone call gave me pause to write this blog today concerning about what is really important in this upcoming election.

People hate President Bush because they feel like he has in many people's opinion done a horrible job running the nation for 8 years. Well, let this writer just stand alone in the wilderness and tell those who think such that President Bush has fulfilled the NUMBER ONE job requirement of what a good President should do - PROTECT the American people and in my book that makes him a Presiden worthy of our respect instead of the snearing and mumuring of a nation with a short memory of what took place on our soil in 2001. 

 September 11, 2001 was not George Bush’s fault as some morons believe. President Bush did not cause the Islamic hatred of America across the world as some morons believe. President Bush did not cause the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 232 individuals as some morons believe. President Bush is not the cause America's standing in the world has went down in the minds of many on the world stage. America has had to do what it had to do to protect itself from enemies seeking her destruction without a thought for the cost of human life-women, children and innocent babies included. Hamas went into a Jewish seminary and killed 8 young men last week as a terrorist act that should have gotten more attention than it did. The Jewish seminary was NOT a military target - it was a seminary - yet terrorists saw fit to shed the blood of innocent students.

President Bush's two biggest mistakes in this writer's mind has been his quickness to embrace the Saudis as friends and his pressure on Israel to sit down and negotiate with those willing to destroy the Jewish state and push Israel into the sea in hopes of some peace plan that would not last 48 hours even if it was signed. President Bush's decision to go into Iraq has been met with great debate as it should have. Only time will tell the end result but had President Bush not acted and Sadaam Hussein had plunged the Middle East into a regional war then the same people screaming about the error of his decision to invade would have been screaming asking why he did't act. He has been in a no-win place since the day he took office to be frank.

Iraq was a haven for a ruthless dictator and as former CIA Director George Tenent clearly stated in recent interviews and his book "At the Center of the Storm," was also a haven for terrorists. Whether those terrorists had ties to Al-Quaeda is not the issue. A terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist no matter the label. Of course if an individual without a brain only wants to bash the President then that little fact goes quietly into the night without thougt.

It is my opinion that had not Iraq been dealt with in 2003, then the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 would have taken on another element that would have meant disaster for even greater numbers of people, not just in the region, but the world.

Iraq's neigbor Iran has never been nor will it ever be a friend to America. We can thank the weak kneed Carter administration of the late 1970s for producing the Iran we see today - a Middle East power on the brink of obtaining nuclear weapons with an ideology that declares it wants both the destruction of Israel and the United States. Had Carter dealt with Iran sternly in 1979 instead of letting this Islamic nation dictate to us the terms of release of our hostages who knows what the landscape in the Middle East would have been.

Islam drives Iran's ideology as it does the ideology of the entire Middle East. Neighbor, this hellish religion is NO friend to America or Israel and  if given a free hand to spread it’s violence across the world unchecked by a weak American President - male or female - Islam will eventually bring its sword to America once again.

My friend mentioned to me how prosperous and peaceful the nation was during Mr. Clinton’s eight years in office and how we've been in such turmoil it seemed since President Bush took office in 2001. I reminded her that the events of 9-11-2001, events by the way President Bush I'm sure did not dream would take place 9 months into his presidency when he took office, were being planned the day after the events of February 1993 when the first World Trade Center was bombed. In 1998 the U.S. Cole was attacked and in 1999 our embassy in Kenya bombed - WITHOUT ANY RESPONSE FROM THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION to confront Islamic barbarism.

But boy we were prosperous and peaceful on the surface weren't we? That was the CNN factor of how the nation perceived things instead of the reality that our enemies were plotting our destruction as they are at this very moment.

These enemies of America can only be defeated by a President who understands the scope of the dangers we face and has the moral courage to not listen to the CNN Gallup polls on how an American-hating press corp want to run the nation but do what is best for the protection of the American people. I believe John McCain is that man. He is not perfect and as stated I do not agree with all his views. But when it comes down to the number one issue in this President race then McCain IS the man in this race who has my support and prayers. If we get the national security issue wrong, the other issues of economy, immigration and taxes will not matter.

Then again in a nation where temporal trapping have become our god, these things again do not enter into the thoughts of most.

As I close this blog, let me remind the reader of this as I reminded my friend. All the money in the world will not save one from eternity. Man is destined to die one day and there is a life hereafter awaiting ALL, with no exceptions. You can have a million dollars in the bank when that moment comes but let this writer assure you - not one penny of that money is following you into the next life - whether that life is in heaven or in hell.

With that same idea in mind, all the money in the world and the greatest economy in the world will not protect America from enemies who want to destroy us.  The empty promises of change and better days ahead from what the Dems view as “failed” policies of George Bush only resonate in the nation right now because we as a nation have become so self-absorbed and selfish in our view of life that we no longer care about eternal things nor about coming to grips with the world in which we live, but we have staked our lives on temporal ones that can be gone in a second. We live in a world that is, not in a world that Barrack Obama and Hiliary Clinton hopes it will be should they get elected. We need to pray for our nation that it experience revival and experience revival fast. God bless. 

NO MAN can affect the type of change America needs. No political party can bring about the radical change this nation must experience if we are not to face judgement in the sorest of terms and instead reap revival, blessing and restoration. The change America needs can only be brought about by a Holy Ghost revival that wakes up a sleeping church and brings the church back to the Cross of Christ! It's at the CROSS where men's hearts are changed and in affect society. 

 I don't mean this to be disrespectful but if Mr. Obama thinks he can do this with his empty rhetoric and dialogue then he has deluded himself as well as the American people who follow him. In many ways he embodies the spirit of Antichrist who will spring forth very soon upon the world stage offering the same type empty promises of change, peace, prosperity and the like if the world but bow down and worship him as God. Billions will do so thinking this demonic creature is the Christ when in fact he will be the Antichrist, the son of perdition, the devil incarnate. He will plunge the world into Great Tribulation waging war against Israel and all those who are left behind yet who get saved after the rapture and name the name of Jesus. It will be Israel's final holocaust and as she faces certain destruction at His hands, God Himself will come down and rescue her at the great Battle of Armageddon.  The spirit of Antichrist is at work today in both the world and the church offering humanity another "door" to God and eternity in heaven outside the path of the Cross! One of Mr. Obama's biggest supporters in this current Presidential race is none other than TV Mogul and host Oprah Winfrey who has just began a year-long course on the New Age teachings of "A Course in Miracles."  Within this course, lesson #29 asks the reader to go through their day affirming that “God is in everything I see.”  Lesson #61 tells each person to repeat the affirmation “I am the light of the world," and lesson #70 teaches the student to say and believe “My salvation comes from me.” This wholly redefined spiritual mindset—a New Age worldview that includes the belief that there is no sin, no evil, no devil, and that God is “in” everyone and everything- has caused millions once grounded in the faith to sadly rethink everything they believe about God and life.

The Course Workbook even bluntly states: “This is a course in mind training” and is dedicated to “thought reversal.” Teaching a Course in Miracles will be Oprah’s longtime friend Marianne Williamson—who also happens to be one of today’s premier New Age leaders. She and Conversations with God author Neale Donald Walsch co-founded the American Renaissance Alliance in 1997, that later became the Global Renaissance Alliance of New Age leaders, that changed its name again in 2005 to the Peace Alliance. This Peace Alliance seeks to usher in an era of global peace founded on the principles of a New Age/New Spirituality that they are now referring to as a “civil rights movement for the soul.” They all agree that the principles of this New Age/New Spirituality are clearly articulated in A Course in Miracles—which is fast becoming the New Age Bible.  

Along side this same heresy is a global peace plan being promoted at the present time by the author of the Purpose Driven Life book that sounds eerily similar to this same course in miracles. The ideology of both are the same. According to the founders and writers of a Course in Miracles, this program/course is allegedly “new revelation” from “Jesus” to help humanity work through these troubled times. This “Jesus”—who bears no doctrinal resemblance to the Bible’s Jesus Christ—began delivering his channeled teachings in 1965 to a Columbia University Professor of Medical Psychology by the name of Helen Schucman. 

One day Schucman heard an “inner voice” stating, “This is a course in miracles. Please take notes.” For seven years she diligently took spiritual dictation from this inner voice that described himself as “Jesus.” A Course in Miracles was quietly published in 1975 by the Foundation for Inner Peace. For many years “the Course” was an underground cult classic for New Age seekers who studied “the Course” individually, with friends, or in small study groups.

Here are some quotes from the “Jesus” of A Course in Miracles:

        “There is no sin. . . "        A “slain Christ has no meaning.”       “The journey to the cross should be the last ‘useless journey.”

       “Do not make the pathetic error of ‘clinging to the old rugged cross.’”        “The Name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol... It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray.”        “God is in everything I see.”        “The recognition of God is the recognition of yourself.”         “The oneness of the Creator and the creation is your wholeness, your sanity and your limitless power.”        “The Atonement is the final lesson he [man] need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation.” 

These words are not coming from some bearded guru in the Arabian desert with a few hundred followers; these words are coming from a book/course promoted by one of America's leading talk show hosts whose influence is go great some who claim their born again, especially women, worship her as a source of truth and godliness. SHE IS NOT! 

Let this writer scream this to the top of his lungs today through the words of this journal: Jesus Christ's death DID have a meaning and that meaning is that mankind was bound by sin's grip; the powers of darkness so controlled man that because of the fall man would never be right and man is STILL not right even today. Man's problems are not tied to man's lack of self-esteem or lack of education. Man is a SINNER and man needs a Redeemer! Sin's grip is so powerful that millions are caught in its grasp, not knowing where to turn or where to go for help. When this imbecilic individual who wrote this course says "the name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol," they are so deluded and in such desperate need of saving faith words beggar description.  

Jesus Christ’s atoning death on the cross of Calvary was hardly a “useless journey but it was where He triumphed over the powers of darkness, broke Satan's chains and the shackles of sin; He TRIUMPHED over sin's penalty which was death then and is still death today - the WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH, but the GIFT of God through Christ Jesus is eternal life! His triumph on the Cross and HIS TRIUMPH ALONE provides man's ONLY salvation to all those who confess their sin, accept Him and follow Him as their Lord and SAVIOUR. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO VICTORY, HEALING AND SALVATION.

THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO DELIVERANCE and there is NOT ANOTHER way into the presence of God except one come by faith through His precarious death, burial and resurrection. His victory on the cross rings throughout the New Testament and has been gloriously sung about in beloved hymns through the ages and is at the heart of our Christian testimony. It's AT THE CROSS where man FIRST saw the light and the BURDEN of my heart ROLLED AWAY; it was there by FAITH, I received my sight and NOW, and NOW, and NOW, and NOW, I am happy all the day. 

It is rank blasphemy and deception to the uttermost that some new age guru with the backing of one of America's most powerful voices would come in His name claiming that a “slain Christ has no meaning” and that we are all “God” and that we are all “Christ.” But ah, let me get down to where you live. This same attitude and spirit not only prevails in society, but it has crept into the church as well. That is why I feel led this week by the Holy Spirit to deal with this passage in John concerning the DOOR to God and how there is not two, three, four, ten, twenty or fifty other ways to get to the Father. There is only ONE DOOR and that door must come through CHRIST and CHRIST ALONE!  

The New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles is being taught as we speak and write these words by Marianne Williamson to millions of listeners on Oprah’s XM Satellite Radio program.  Popular author Wayne Dyer told his PBS television audience that the “brilliant writing” of A Course in Miracles would produce more peace in the world. Williamson’s New Age colleague, Neale Donald Walsch, someone by the way that is quoted over and over again in Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Church AND the Purpose Driven Life, said his “God” stated that “the era of the Single SAVIOUR is over”22 and that he (“God”) was responsible for authoring the teachings of A Course in Miracles. 

 Meanwhile, Gerald Jampolsky’s Course in Miracles-based book, Forgiveness, was sold in Robert Schuler's Crystal Cathedral bookstore as Schuler hosted this past January, “Rethink Conference” at his Crystal Cathedral. At this critical time in the history of the world, the New Gospel/New Spirituality is coming right at the world and the church with its New Age teachings and its New Age Peace Plan. But this New Age Peace Plan has at its deceptive core the bottom-line teaching from A Course in Miracles that “we are all one” because God is “in” everyone and everything. And along that same thought is the feeling that "all paths lead to God" and it matters not whether you are a Buddhist, a Shintoist, a Muslim, a Mormon, a Jehovah Witness, Catholic, or whatever other false faith there may be. We are "all going to the same place," is the cry heard behind news media outlets and now an alarming growing number of pulpits in this nation.

It is time for the Purpose-Driven and Emerging church pastors to address the real issue of the day and become a voice, a trumpet and a prophetic hammer against such. However, instead of that taking place, most pastors are gleefully embracing this false gospel and in turn damning millions of souls to an eternal devil's hell. Our true Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is being reinvented, redefined, and blasphemed right in front of our eyes and hardly anyone seems to notice or care.  Read the rest of the journal here

Police Chief Don Grady said, declining to name the drug or provide other details. Carrying a shotgun in a guitar case and at least one handgun registered to him, former sociology graduate student Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, kicked through a side door to the 200-capacity Cole Hall, walked in quickly and began firing at students and the teacher, Grady said.Police were investigating the motive behind the shootings, which sent 18 people to the hospital. Kazmierczak shot and killed himself on the stage in Cole Hall. There was no known suicide note.

According to news reports, Kazmierczak parked his car near Cole Hall but it was not known how long he had been on campus, Grady said. He had purchased two of the guns just five days earlier.In Florida, Polk County sheriff's officials said they were asked to notify the suspect's father — Robert Kazmierczak of Lakeland, Fla. — of his son's death. The gunman's father, Robert Kazmierczak, briefly came out of his house in Lakeland, Fla., to talk to reporters. "Please leave me alone. ... This is a very hard time for me," he said as he threw his arms up and wept. He declined further comment about his son and then went back inside his house, saying he was diabetic.

NIU President John Peters also said on Friday ABC's "Good Morning America," "By all accounts that we can tell right now [he] was a very good student that the professors thought well of." On the school's Web site, Kazmierczak, who no longer was enrolled at Northern Illinois University, still was listed as vice president of the Academic Criminal Justice Association.Investigators recovered 48 shell casings and six shotgun shells, Grady said. The gunman paused to reload his shotgun after opening fire on a crowd of terrified students in a geology class.

Kazmierczak had been a graduate student in sociology at Northern Illinois as recently as spring 2007, but was not currently enrolled at the 25,000-student campus, Peters said. He also said the gunman had no record of police contact or an arrest record while attending the university, about 65 miles west of Chicago.He was currently enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said NIU spokeswoman Melanie Magara. Witnesses said the gunman, dressed in black and wearing a stocking cap, emerged from behind a screen on the stage of 200-seat Cole Hall and opened fire just as the class was about to end around 3 p.m. Officials said 162 students were registered for the class but it was unknown how many were there Thursday.

And now yet another community seeks answers as to why another tragic, senseless and horrific event took place without warning. One school official called it “an unthinkable act of unspeakable horror.”  The Governor of Illinois said late Friday "we are coming to grips to grasp why this happened and we're not getting answers." Again, the nation mourns the loss of innocent life.

I know the students who survived this tragedy will take months to heal; some may never get over the loss of life associated with Valentine’s Day, 2008. There needs to be a spirit of compassion right now for those hurt by this.

Within the framework of compassion what we say next is spoken in love as perhaps to open the eyes and hearts of our nation as a whole which continues to witness such tragedies on an ongoing basis yet without grasping that we as a society have embraced such a culture and atmosphere of violence that we are only witnessing the results of our choices. TThe Governor of Illinois added to his comments Friday that our nation "must address this culture of violence that promotes these type acts through its video games, television programs and entertainment." The Governor spoke right! It’s hard to say these things to people because everyone gets angry and accuses those calling the nation to look within as not being compassionate or not showing love. It is actually BECAUSE of love and compassion we speak these very things!

These souls who lost their lives yesterday are gone forever into eternity; some went into eternity knowing God, others didn't. While I would like to deal more about that I feel led today to deal more with the present. The hurting families who lost these loved ones are now faced with unimaginable questions that ultimately are usually placed at the foot of God’s doorstep Who is always the One called into account by these events by some. God however, is not responsible for yesterday’s shootings. Nor is He responsible for the ongoing violence in American society and culture – we are.

America continues to rebel and spew its hatred of God on a daily, almost hourly basis through our media outlets, our courts, our governmental institutions and the voice of godless politicians pushing for a society void of any recognizance of God and His principles, yet we stand shocked when we see college kids gunned down on the same day another deranged killer hacked up a New York psychiatrist without any real known motive.

We shouldn’t be shocked. These events should be shaking us to look inside our nation’s soul and see where we stand with God and realize that without Him and His protection and grace over our nation these events will just keep happening and in reality just become more pronounced and more graphic in nature. We are about two months away from the year anniversary of a similar style shooting at Virginia Tech University last April when 33 souls went out into eternity the same way these souls died yesterday – a senseless act of murder.

I can assure you the answer and remedy to these killings is NOT the Purpose Driven Life; I can assure you the answer and remedy to these killings is NOT humanistic psychology. I listened to a psychologist on a well-respected TV network Friday afternoon try and offer up a reason why this young man did what he did on Thursday and even he admitted that these shootings have left the medical and mental health communities shaking their heads because they have no answer to why it took place or what can to done to prevent these type crimes in the future. I mean no disrespect by this but I can further assure you the answer to these killings is NOT in electing a new President in 2008 or embracing the rhetoric of godless politicians.

The remedy to avoiding similar shootings like we saw in Northern Illinois is the GOSPEL of the Lord Jesus Christ, the power of His Love and faith in what He did 2,000 years ago by going to a bloody cross and dying for the sins of mankind; it was at the Cross where Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone broke the powers of darkness over fallen humanity and released sin-bound humanity from the terrible penalty of sin which is death! We saw the results of sin in graphic detail yesterday.

Feel what you will at this writer; I say these words with a broken heart as we deal with yet another senseless act of violence that takes human life in what seems like an ongoing event in this beloved nation we call home.  Because we have embraced a culture of violence, death and rebellion, we are but witnessing the fruits of these choices. Despite all the obvious signs we either just don’t get it or we DO get it and don’t want to admit both the source of the problem and what we have to do as a nation to remedy it. There are not two, three, five or seven remedies – there is ONLY one remedy – and that is REPENTANCE and a humbling of ourselves before the Lord Jesus Christ and recognizing His Lordship over our nation once again.

Please join me in praying for the campus community of NIU today. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much; at this time, our nation once again needs healing. We need to pray for strength and healing for the injured; comfort for those who have lost loved ones; healing for the NIU campus – teachers, students and community who were traumatized; strength for the NIU administration to deal with this tragedy in a way as to assist NIU students to deal with this. We need to pray for an effective, timely and truthful expression of faith from the Christian community.

Our prayers and thoughts again go out to NIU and to the families who have experienced grief beyond words in the loss of their loved ones. We need to pray for our nation today that we come to grips with what is happening and recognize the hour is getting late and time is short.