Missed Opportunities

Sep 17, 2023

 

Podcast (sunday-thoughts): Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Email | Deezer | RSS | Subscribe to Sunday Thoughts

Subscribe on YouTube

Sometimes we complain that our life isn’t the way that we want, but is it the way it is because we’ve missed opportunities for something else? Some Sunday thoughts.

Timestamps, Topics, & Resources

0:00- Intro

4:29- The point of the Gospel

James 2:26

For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

James 1:27 NIV

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

6:40- Missed Opportunities

Sound of Freedom review

10:25- Missing opportunities for blessings. The story of Saul and David

13:28- Stepping into opportunites – Gideon & the mighty few

15:34- John Mark, the Gospel, and missed opportunities

Dating of Mark with Mike Licona and Josh Pelletier. There are three videos in this series on the Gospel of Mark.

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity
Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity [Qureshi, Nabeel, Lee Strobel] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

 

No God but One: Allah or Jesus?: A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam and Christianity
In this anticipated follow-up book, Nabeel reveals what he discovered in the decade following his conversion, providing a thorough and careful comparison of the evidence for Islam and Christianity--evidence that wrenched his heart and transformed his life.

Timeline of Paul’s Missionary Journeys
https://www.conformingtojesus.com/charts-maps/en/paul’s_letters-journeys_chart.htm

The Incident of Antioch, Acts 15

Paul and Barnabas Separate
36 After some time Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit each city where we previously preached the word of the Lord, to see how the new believers are doing.” 37 Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark. 38 But Paul disagreed strongly, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their work. 39 Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus. 40 Paul chose Silas, and as he left, the believers entrusted him to the Lord’s gracious care. 41 Then he traveled throughout Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches there.

PAUL & BARNABAS SPLIT OVER MARK

Paul & Barnabas Split Over Mark

24:41- Texas Corruption

September 16, 2023: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton acquitted on all 16 articles of impeachment
Only two of 19 Republican Senators voted in favor of convicting for any article — a stark contrast to the more than 70% of House Republicans who impeached the attorney general in May.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-acquitted-impeachment-texas-attorney-general/

September 16, 2023: Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial escalates Texas Republican civil war
Paxton’s far-right supporters doubled down on their promises for swift retribution against fellow Republicans who supported his removal from office.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-impeachment-trial-republican-civil-war

@RobertDownen_ NEW: In closing arguments, the House said Ken Paxton has “no regard for the principles of honor and integrity.” Paxton’s team said there was no evidence and he’s the victim of a witch hunt by his former deputies, Dade Phelan and the Bush family. #txlege

September 15, 2023: Paxton defense calls charges “foolishness,” House argues AG “betrayed us” in closing impeachment arguments
Senators begin deliberating in private after defense lawyers and impeachment managers make impassioned pleas after two weeks of trial.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/15/ken-paxton-impeachment-trial-closing-arguments/

@RobertDownen_ MURR: Ken Paxton “may claim to be one of us … But unlike the public servants here today, he has no regards for the principles of honor and integrity. He has betrayed us and the people of Texas” and he will do it again. #txlege #paxtontrial #paxtonimpeachment

@RobertDownen_ MURR: The reason we are here is because Ken Paxton wanted Texas taxpayers to give $3.3 million to the whistleblowers he fired after they reported him to the FBI. #txlege #PaxtonTrial

@RaisedtoWalk When you’re defending lying, cheating, & stealing, it’s probably a good idea to keep the Bible out of your mouth. But I have a feeling Buzbee’s incoherence will go over the head of the #txlege since “Christianish” is good enough for them

@DianeLangberg You do not need to be extraordinary. You need to be the ordinary inhabited by the extraordinary life of God. A word, a meal, a cup of cold water, have the capacity to bring the life of God to this world and delight His heart.

@DianeLangberg Not a single word in the Beatitudes relates to human notions of what a kingdom is like. Human ideas of kingdom building focus on nation, race, tribe, military strength, and wealth. Jesus teaches that greatness in His kingdom is found in the character that reflects His likeness.

30:31- Humble ISD Corruption

@RaisedtoWalk Trying to catch up & unravel all the affairs coming to light in the @HunbleISD admin (like people haven’t known for YEARS) … Add a pregnancy & embezzlement, and THEN people start getting interested
=And in the middle of the uproar over adultery, domestic assaults, and bribes … Someone drops a suggestion to cut funding to the school. I’m sure this debacle wasn’t what
@GregAbbott_TX’s owners had in mind when they manipulated Fagen’s hiring, but it works just as well
= The admin supporters got so desperate to redirect attention from the board/admin drama, that someone bumped a month old mask scare post. Lol

#DesperateaTimesCallForDesperateMeasures

People are going into full meltdown mode. There has to be something else getting ready to drop
=So. So. Much. Here. And I can guarantee you if the suspended UIL director gets pressed on anything, he will tell everything he knows … Regardless who he is sleeping with.

(And yes, there are all kinds of questions raised about PBK, & bonds, bids, & jobs)

On Manipulation

Afghanistan News

@SarahAh998 « The UN is preparing a treaty on crimes against humanity. Many advocates are calling for the treaty to strengthen protections for women and girls, including in situations like the one in Afghanistan. » ⁦

September 11, 2023: What the World Needs to Do For Afghan Women
The Taliban’s continued attacks on Afghan women’s rights are not just a problem for Afghanistan but for the whole world.
https://inkstickmedia.com/what-the-world-needs-to-do-for-afghan-women/

@BBCYaldaHakim The @WFP says it has cut rations to another two million Afghans this month, due to a further sharp drop in funding. “A world that was willing to spend billions on the NATO military operation there and now not willing to feed the children they left behind” @NRC_Egeland @NRC_Norway

@LucasADWebber The State of al Qaeda and ISIS in 2023 – Very good overview by @KatieZimmerman and Nathan Vincent

@skotrds The hot-takes are just bad and show no understanding of Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood et Al, the role of Egypt (prison system) in the formation of AQ, the role of Afghanistan for OBL and Zawahiri who were there in the early 80s. That the Arab arm of AQ were PNG in MENA. The harbouring of AQ and OBL.

@StephanAJensen The delusional pascifism of many in the West is an extreme luxury.

And it is paid for with the blood and lives of those who can’t -or couldn’t- afford it.

@SaraWahedi 20 years ago, President George W. Bush stated these words which would change our world forever.

20 years later, we are in a perpetual shock of how history repeated itself – right down to the very smallest details:

“In Afghanistan, we see al Qaeda’s vision for the world.

Afghanistan’s people have been brutalized — many are starving and many have fled. Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be jailed for owning a television. Religion can be practiced only as their leaders dictate. A man can be jailed in Afghanistan if his beard is not long enough.

The United States respects the people of Afghanistan — after all, we are currently its largest source of humanitarian aid — but we condemn the Taliban regime. (Applause.)”

– George W. Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People (September 20th, 2001)
=== Reading this speech today, it is difficult to exercise restraint.

This statement could have been written today by President Biden. The Taliban, a regime which does not let women and girls attend school, music is banned and human rights violations are rampant.

These things are happening now.
The terrorist attack which led to so many lives lost was nurtured by this regime.

I think of those lives and the lives of the Afghan people – who became cannon fodder for a war which brought no freedom and justice.

https://twitter.com/SaraWahedi/status/1701278054402662767

@RaisedtoWalk This is a complete and TOTAL load of crap. The Taliban is hunting down NATO allies & killing them, then claiming they are ISIS. The Taliban FUNDS, supports & employs Al Qaeda. Khalizad’s Doha Agreement sold the US out to terrorists & he’s trying to do damage control

@billroggio 1) The Biden administration, via David Ignatius, its CIA stenographer at the
@washingtonpost
, claims that “the Taliban has all but extinguished al-Qaeda.”
2) I rebutted this nonsense before it was even written.
3) Ironically, the Biden administration is parroting
@mikepompeo ‘s nonsense after the Doha agreement that the Taliban would “destroy Al Qaeda”, while upholding the Trump deal as a disaster (it was).
4) U.S. intelligence has been out to lunch on Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and Afghanistan for well over a decade. Its assessment of Al Qaeda is complete at odds with the UN’s Sanctions and Monitoring Team.

@theintercept Thousands of Afghans who fled their homes two years ago are stuck at processing sites coordinated by the U.S. government — yet the Biden administration refuses to disclose basic information about their status.

September 13, 2023: THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS KEEPING THOUSANDS OF AFGHANS IN LIMBO ABROAD
Human rights groups sued government agencies for information about Afghans stuck at processing sites while their applications to come to the U.S. are pending.

The Biden Administration Is Keeping Thousands of Afghans in Limbo Abroad

September 13, 2023: THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS KEEPING THOUSANDS OF AFGHANS IN LIMBO ABROAD
Human rights groups sued government agencies for information about Afghans stuck at processing sites while their applications to come to the U.S. are pending.

The Biden Administration Is Keeping Thousands of Afghans in Limbo Abroad

@Megankstack Using inhumanity as a deterrent because we don’t want to deal with the unpopular politics of US obligations under international refugee convention or our incoherent ideas on immigration and labor

September 12, 2023: Border Patrol once again puts migrants in outdoor San Ysidro camp with no bathrooms
https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2023/09/12/border-patrol-once-again-puts-migrants-in-outdoor-san-ysidro-camp-with-no-bathrooms

35:48- Missed Opportunity for Integrity

Job 23:10-12 NLT

10 “But he knows where I am going.
And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold.
11 For I have stayed on God’s paths;
I have followed his ways and not turned aside.
12 I have not departed from his commands,
but have treasured his words more than daily food.

41:43- What is truth

Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

43:37- Opportunities to Choose

5 Times Irenaeus Refutes Calvinism

What Calvinists Believe

Against Heresies 4.15.2
https://ccel.org/ccel/irenaeus/against_heresies_iv/anf01.ix.vi.xvi.html

And if certain persons, because of the disobedient and ruined Israelites, do assert that the giver (doctor) of the law was limited in power, they will find in our dispensation, that “many are called, but few chosen;”3981 and that there are those who inwardly are wolves, yet wear sheep’s clothing in the eyes of the world (foris); and that God has always preserved freedom, and the power of self-government in man,3982 while at the same time He issued His own exhortations, in order that those who do not obey Him should be righteously judged (condemned) because they have not obeyed Him; and that those who have obeyed and believed on Him should be honoured with immortality.

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

“Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state of the other.”

Matthew 7:21-23

21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’

Hagios Tech interlinear

Daniel 10 and the Prince of Persia

In the third year of the reign of King Cyrus of Persia, Daniel (also known as Belteshazzar) had another vision. He understood that the vision concerned events certain to happen in the future—times of war and great hardship.

2 When this vision came to me, I, Daniel, had been in mourning for three whole weeks. 3 All that time I had eaten no rich food. No meat or wine crossed my lips, and I used no fragrant lotions until those three weeks had passed.

4 On April 23, as I was standing on the bank of the great Tigris River, 5 I looked up and saw a man dressed in linen clothing, with a belt of pure gold around his waist. 6 His body looked like a precious gem. His face flashed like lightning, and his eyes flamed like torches. His arms and feet shone like polished bronze, and his voice roared like a vast multitude of people.

7 Only I, Daniel, saw this vision. The men with me saw nothing, but they were suddenly terrified and ran away to hide. 8 So I was left there all alone to see this amazing vision. My strength left me, my face grew deathly pale, and I felt very weak. 9 Then I heard the man speak, and when I heard the sound of his voice, I fainted and lay there with my face to the ground.

10 Just then a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling, to my hands and knees. 11 And the man said to me, “Daniel, you are very precious to God, so listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up, for I have been sent to you.” When he said this to me, I stood up, still trembling.

12 Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. 13 But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. 14 Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.”

51:12- Opportunities to hlep Afghan Christians

 

·

 

 

Thank You to Our Supporters

Team Kabul Hope

To make a donation, visit donshireministries.org and select "Raised to Walk" for the area of giving.

DonateVolunteer

Learn More

Learn more about Afghanistan and how you can welcome Afghan allies at Bridges USA.

Be a Rescuer

Sponsor an Afghan family through Welcome Corps in Phase 2 (coming soon!)

Follow on Twitter for Afghanistan Updates

Carla Alvarez @RaisedtoWalk

Follow my updates on Twitter about Kabul Hope.

Amanda Lynn @PunishedAmanda

Info on Afghan immigration to Canada

Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) @SIGARHQ

Official US agency for Afghanistan oversight

Clint Stevens @Stevens18Clint

General Afghanistan news & SIV Processing

Stephan Jensen @StephanAJensen

Author & Analyst: Afghanistan & Middle East policy

Kabul Now @KabulNow

Afghanistan News

Beth Braley @BWBailey85

Journalist & co-host of the Afghanistan Project Podcast

Lark Abroad @Larkabroad

General Afghanistan news & Immigration process