Members of Burma’s battered and disparate opposition are growing disillusioned with the old methods of the pro-democracy movement and are seeking ways to escalate their armed struggle.

“There is a very real debate among us about how to begin a more sustained armed struggle,” an organizer of last September’s failed uprising told the Guardian. “We are ready for that kind of action, if we can get the supplies and training that we need.”

Speaking from exile in Thailand, Soe Aung, the chief spokesman for the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), an umbrella group representing nearly all facets of Burma’s disparate opposition, said he was witnessing a significant shift in the public attitude across Burma.

“After the September uprising and then the terrible cyclone response, the anger is surging. Some are considering violent means … the Burmese people are not that kind of people, there has been a real change.”

Soe Aung spoke openly of how covert Western support, primarily from the US state department-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its subsidiary the International Republican Institute (IRI), had been fundamental to the success of the uprising.

“The US is certainly doing the most for the opposition. There has been real success in training and forming an underground movement through religious organizations and monastic organizations. These provide the best cover inside Burma. The monks can spread their training very effectively.”

The NED describes itself as a private organization but was created by, and remains accountable to, the US Congress. Set up under the Reagan administration in 1983, it has since played a leading role in influencing civil society and electoral processes in countries around the world unfriendly to US interests.

According to Brian Joseph, the man in charge of the group’s Burma project, the NED gave $3million to Burma in 2007. “We would send more, but there is a limit to what you can do in Burma,” said Joseph.

Opposition activists both inside and outside Burma largely describe the improvements in political awareness and spread of information as a result of NED-funded projects, but also attribute them to the introduction of the internet to Burma in 2003.

“We could see in September how the advances were utilized. It wasn’t just the monks but a massive increase of awareness among Burmese of all types. This was thanks largely due to media organs, the Democratic Voice of Burma, satellite TV, and, of course, the internet,” said Soe Aung.

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As the 60 something pastor of a small church in what some have described as an “anti-denomination,” group health insurance is pretty much out of the question for me and my wife. Not only is it out of reach for us financially, I’m increasingly convinced I would not buy any if it were nearly “free.” I don’t have it, I don’t want it, and I refuse to buy it. So what is available to someone in my situation?

Not much, if one is looking for traditional health insurance; but then traditional health insurance is exactly what I’m not looking for. With a typical health insurance policy, one has no control over how the premiums are spent by the company that “insures” his health. They may be using it to treat STDs, fund abortions, teach “sex education,” or any number of other problematic health issues that have definite ethical concerns.

At the outset, it is pretty important to recognize that health is not the same as disease treatment. Virtually all health insurance of which I’m aware concentrate their services in the area of disease treatment rather than health maintenance. That is probably not the best approach. So, the first counsel I give myself is to take charge of my own health. I shouldn’t do things that have a statistical record of harming my health. So, I don’t smoke; I don’t take recreational drugs; and I avoid a lifestyle that is likely to end up giving me AIDS or some other disease.

Proactively, I attempt to exercise. Admittedly, that is not as easy for me as it was when I was in boot camp back in my teens; but I can still walk without my knees giving way (though they do complain from time to time). So I walk. I try to eat things that are healthy (yes, I like cake and pizza, but that is a smaller part of my diet now) and drink beverages that sustain my health rather than put it at risk.

And about two years ago we did something else. We joined something called “Samaritan Ministries” (SMI). We do not pay a health insurance premium, but we do send a check each month to somebody in the country who is having health issues. But we do far more than simply send a check to a family somewhere. We have a name of someone who needs our prayers and for whom we pray day by day during the month. SMI also also includes a monthly prayer list for people to whom we have not sent money, but who have asked for our prayers.

Important notice: SMI is not health insurance and I’m not a broker for them.

Here is what happened with them last month (July 2008). There were 12,248 member households as of June 30, and needs submitted of just under $3,000,000. A quick trip to the calculator indicates that the total family share for the published needs comes to just under $245 per family for last month. But more importantly, there were 12,000 households praying for those needs to be eliminated by the powerful hand of God.

How great is that? Instead of paying hundreds of dollars per month to support an insurance industry that has dividends in mind as much as the health of policy holders, here are over 12,000 families throughout the US that are actually helping one another and praying for one another. When was the last time your insurance agent promised that there would be people praying for you if you got sick?

There is another solution out there for God’s people. We don’t need overpriced “health insurance,” and we certainly don’t need universal health care (translation: socialized medicine). All we really have to have is the will to help a brother or sister in need and the humility to accept their help should we ever need it.

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The following excerpt is taken from Rabbi Daniel Lapin’s book, Thou Shall Prosper, preview available at Google.

“ServiceMaster Corporation in Illinois was founded by an evangelical Baptist, Marion E. Wade, in 1947. Its primary mission was always “to honor God in all we do.” Wade asserted that running a profitable business was not inconsistent with serving the Lord. He spelled out his notion of using the Bible as a guide to business in a book that for decades was given to every new manager. Yet in spite of and many would say because of its linking of God and profits, ServiceMaster quickly grew into a $6 billion Fortune 500 company that did well by doing good on everything from Merry Maids house cleaning to Terminix pest control and TruGreen lawn care. Early in 2000, ServiceMaster opened its web site on which customers could select, purchase, and schedule any of ServiceMaster’s services directly.

“During 2001, ServiceMaster brought in its first chief executive officer (CEO) from outside the evangelical fold. Nonetheless, new CEO Jonathan Ward was rightfully reluctant to modify the corporate culture that had worked so well for so long in this service-oriented company with its fleet of 23,000 vehicles. For instance, he retained the custom of calling corporate meetings to order by quoting from the biblical book of Isaiah. That may seem irrelevant to modern business, but this company schedules thousands of visits to customers’ homes. If ever a company needed to radiate a message of true commitment to service, this is that company. Even the company’s motto is “We Serve”; and this, coupled with its unabashed embrace of Christianity with its own tradition of service, has certainly played a role in its success. ServiceMaster’s very name proclaims its eagerness to serve.

“In 1989, Fortune magazine listed ServiceMaster among the country’s top companies, and in 1998, the Financial Times was quote in the New York Times as calling ServiceMaster one of the world’s most respected companies. [David Barboza, "In This Company's Struggle, God Has Many Proxies," New York Times, November 21, 2001, C1] I hope it continues to prosper because it serves as a useful reminder that to truly excel at service, some form of inner belief is necessary. If you cannot wrap yourself around the notion that other humans are worthy of your committed service and that you are not diminished but are instead elevated by providing that service, you will never really excel at what you do.”

Is this so different from what Jesus was teaching his disciples the very night he was betrayed and set about ransoming us from the penalty and power of sin? It was when Jesus knew that the Father had put all things into his hands that he then proceeded to give what may be the most excellent example of service in all the New Testament. “He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.” Why would Jesus do something like that? Maybe it was simply because his disciples’ feet were dirty and needed to be washed? But how could he do such a thing? He could do it because he knew that the Father had put all things into his hands. He could do it because of the confidence that he had in God’s ability to conquer the world through service to others. He could do it because he understood what he taught in Matthew 18, “whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

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This coming Lord’s Day, 6th July, 2008 will be a special webcast of FPCR’s afternoon worship service along with the standard morning service of that day. The webcast will begin at 2:00 PM Central time and continue for approximately two hours.

Dr. Richard Bacon will preach from Luke 22:38 and other Scriptures on the topic “Thanksgiving For The God-Given Right To Bear Arms.” This topic is in celebration both of the Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller and the fact that Friday is the 232nd anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence from Great Britain.

Find out why the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution is at least as important as the 1st amendment and how the 1st becomes meaningless without the 2nd.

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I received emails from Rev. Hniar Ling Thang yesterday (11 May). He attached pictures, which I shall do my best to upload. Literally dozens of churches were simply “washed away” in the flooding around Bogalay and Laputta. Six families in his congregation in Yangon lost their homes and are now staying with him and a friend.

I shall attempt to get the pictures up and at the same time explain our relief efforts, but not before next week.

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According to an MSNBC report, “Community activists who disagreed with a grand jury’s decision to clear a homeowner of shooting two suspected burglars blamed the racial makeup of the panel for the outcome, KPRC Local 2 reported Tuesday.”

The members of grand juries are supposed to be “secret,” i.e. the public is not supposed to have access to their identities. So, on what basis are the “community activists” (Quanell X of the New Black Panther Party) claiming that the grand jury had the wrong or politically incorrect racial makeup? What is known of the two men, both of which had Hispanic surnames, is that they were in the country illegally.

Attorney Tom Lambright, who has defended Joe Horn, claims that his client acted in self-defense and feared for his life. The 911 tape has been played on the radio here in Texas for quite some time. What is clear from the tape is that the 911 operator was attempting to dissuade Mr. Horn from taking matters into his own hands. It also appears from the tape that Mr. Horn had been on the phone with the operator for quite some time and that the police had still not arrived by the time the two burglars came out of Mr. Horn’s neighbor’s house.

Joe Horn was not, as Quanell X accused him, taking the law into his own hands or hunting down those accused of wrong-doing as though he were a vigilante or bounty-hunter in the old west. Joe Horn was protecting the social order and the property of his neighbor against theft. To view death as the ultimate evil is morally wrong. Death is the consequence of evil in this case. If Mr. X genuinely wants to be a community leader, he should involve himself in teaching that lesson: actions have consequences, and evil actions are intended by God to receive negative sanctions.

God has, in his word, delegated to man the duty of inflicting the death penalty for certain offenses and that without undue delay and without hesitation. Such pleas as Mr. X makes attempt to set aside the principle of justice in favor of a special status for people if the grand jury does not have a particular make-up. That is, in the final analysis, a plea for death; not just the death of two burglars, but the death of society and law.

The humanistic (”man is the measure of all things”) approach to law and justice ends up with both law and justice being no longer possible. The law breaks down when the faith behind the law is gone. The hostility that humanists have against a man defending himself or his neighbor is, at root, hostility against God’s law. And hostility against God’s law is more fundamentally hostility towards God himself.

God’s law, in Exodus 22:2, states “If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.” But that is precisely what the two men were doing when Mr. Horn “smote them that they died.” They were thieves that were breaking up; they had Horn’s neighbor’s property in their possession; Mr. Horn ordered them to stop and they refused to do so. They fit the very definition of “thieves found breaking up.”

It may be argued by some that Mr. Horn could have handled the situation by means less drastic than shooting the burglars. Of course it is at this point that the grand jury would be in disagreement with the objector. Click on the link at the beginning of this article and look at the pictures there of Joe Horn, Hernando Torres, and Diego Ortiz. Do not simply look at the color of their skin. Look at the size and age of the two burglars when compared to Mr. Horn.

No, we do not want to empower vigilantes. But we do want to empower vigilance and if I had my choice between living next door to Mr. Horn who would undertake to protect my property while I am absent or Messrs Torres and Ortiz who would simply undertake to take it, I prefer the neighborliness of Joe Horn. As the Scripture says, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

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The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele’s The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

Uprightness of life must accompany regeneration, or else it is but like a candle in a dark lantern which burns away to no purpose. This is the very sinew of human society and makes men happy in one another. It is such an excellent thing that they who never practice it yet always pretend to it. The knaves abhor to be so called, and would be reputed and called honest and upright men. And that must be amiable which all men commend, and must be necessary which no society can subsist without. So that there abides a crown of honor for a downright heathen as well as a crown of glory for an upright Christian; and there will be an easier punishment for those "christian pagans" than for the abundance of our pagan Christians.

This uprightness of life is not sufficient without regeneration. It is good, but it is not good enough. To be a fast friend to men and a broken bow to God will yield you little comfort. Yet how many sit down here and think themselves well? They would not steal a shoe latchet from their neighbor for all the world, and yet they make no conscience of stealing from God his honor and his day. They would not wrong their brethren’s name by any reproach for all the world, and yet they make no bones of wronging the name of the great God, and take it in vain day by day. The squareness of your actions may crown you with reputation; but the rottenness of your hearts will leave you in condemnation by that God who tries the hearts and reins. As in the law, without blood there is no remission of sin, so in the gospel, without oil there is no admission into the kingdom of heaven. Civility and sanctity are two separate things.

This uprightness of life cannot be without that uprightness of heart. It loses in truth its name and nature for want of a principle. For that which is truly good must have all its causes, which this lacks. It is a common experiment that water will not ascend above its spring without a violence upon nature; and it is as true that no man’s actions can carry to a higher level than the fountain of them. So to make the life upright, you must begin at the heart; first make the tree good, and then the fruit will be good also.

Now this uprightness of life is the exact agreement of a man’s words and actions with an honest and upright heart. Uprightness is when the life is the picture of the heart, and there is a blessed harmony between the frame of the soul within and the course of the life without; when a man does not frame his life to gratify the company or serve the times he lives in, or the corrupt humors of others, or any carnal ends of his own — but his heart is sincere, and so are his words and deeds. Not that we expect an absolute exactness here; the most upright man on earth has enough to humble and afflict him. But for the most part, there is no known ordinary and willing swerving of his course from his frame within, or of that from the holy will of God.

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The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele’s The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.

And thus I have opened in some poor measure an upright heart. By all this, dearly beloved, you may see the absolute necessity of regeneration, I mean, the thorough change of heart from the state of nature to the state of grace. For certainly man’s heart by nature is false, and is far from this uprightness described. How can the soul receive Christ Jesus as he is offered in the gospel, or resign itself to him, without regeneration? How can the heart of a sinful child of Adam be either single, sound, pure, perfect, or plain without regeneration?

What man will study or practice inward, universal, and constant religion till he is regenerated? Who will walk before God, with God, after God, and like God before his heart is changed? Alas these things are neither conceived by the mind nor received by the will of a natural man. He is ignorant in them and an enemy to them. Oh, you must be new creatures or else all our entreaties stand for nothing. We must still begin here, and can parley no further with you unless you yield in this.

Will you be renewed in the spirit of your mind? Would you give all the world for a new heart? Till then you are but rotten at the heart; you walk in a vain show. For all your talk against hypocrites, you are errand [errant?] hypocrites, and shall be condemned as such when those you have so reproached shall be your judges, and shall be openly honored before angels and men. Those poor Mordecais shall be royally arrayed, and you, like proud Haman, shall see it to the breaking of your hearts.

To prevent this, learn this one lesson, sound conversion, which is but restoring the image that you lost in Adam. Your bones were all put out of joint by the fall; this is the painful pluck that puts them in joint again. Would not any man abide a painful pluck to set one bone in joint? Oh, abide one pluck to bring all your soul into frame again. You must be new men or else you cannot be upright men; you must be in Christ before you can walk like him. Your religion is but skin deep till the Holy Ghost has made a holy change.

And therefore, for the Lord’s sake, and for your soul’s sake, study this point into practice. Give no sound sleep to your eyes while you are such near neighbors to hell; your temperate, just, and honest behavior may make you fall the softer, but without holiness you can never see the Lord — and a carnal heart can never be holy and upright without regeneration.

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There are places (Muslim neighborhoods) in which local block leaders have thrown out Christians for witnessing to the grace of Jesus, referring to such preaching as “hate crimes.”

Read It Here

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The man in this video is my friend Steve Schlissel. Steve pastors a church in Brooklyn, NY and is one of my favorite authors and teachers.

What you can watch above is excerpted from a two-disc video called God’s Law And Society. The film is professionally produced and deals with many of the objections one hears these days to building the laws and society of men upon the laws of God. It is worthwhile watching. FPCR, the church I pastor, watched it week by week for a period stretching over several months.

Jay Rogers has this video available for sale at his website, The Forerunner.

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