Zechariah 8:1-8

Pastor Hagee’s Teachings

The LORD Promises to Bless Jerusalem

1 Again the word of the LORD Almighty came to me. 2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her.”

3 This is what the LORD says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain.”

4 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age. 5 The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.”

6 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “It may seem marvelous to the remnant of this people at that time, but will it seem marvelous to me?” declares the LORD Almighty.

7 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “I will save my people from the countries of the east and the west. 8 I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.” Zechariah 8:1-8

You have the opportunity to witness this modern day miracle first hand. Christians United for Israel is traveling to Israel with hundreds of Christians from America and from other nations of the world.

We will converge in Jerusalem to bring comfort to the Jewish people with a Night to Honor Israel at the Jerusalem Convention Center on Monday evening, March 8, 2010. The following day we will host a luncheon with special guest Deputy Foreign Minister, Daniel Ayalon. After our luncheon briefing we will come together with our Jewish friends in a Unity March through the streets of Jerusalem.

You may choose to travel with any of the Christian United for Israel leaders which are sponsoring tours of the Holy Land during this time.

Please consider coming to Israel with us on this once in a life time journey. Please click here for more information and registration.

The person we despise most may be the person God wants us to reach most. The “good Samaritan” parable is so familiar that we can forget how much the Jews despised the half-breed people of Samaria. Jesus intentionally made a Samaritan the hero of the story to underscore his point that our position in society is much less important than our actions toward others.

Luke 10:30:37 Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

In Business Terms …

I was on a plane coming from Chicago to Milwaukee. I asked for a seat with an empty seat beside it, because I had a writing assignment, and I needed to spread out my Bible and notes, and study. So on this small plane, I ended up the only person with an empty seat next to her. I got out my Bible, and just as we were about to take off, into the plane came this huge man, 6′4″ or 6′5″ – very masculine. But he was dressed like a woman – mini-skirt and stockings, high-heeled white shoes and purse, and wig.

As this cross-dresser came down the aisle, I realized, The only open seat is next to me. He’s going to be sitting next to me all during this flight. And I suddenly wanted to put my Bible away. I’m amazed I had these reactions. Prejudices I didn’t know I had came out. I said to the Lord, “I don’t really care about him. I really don’t care if he goes to heaven or hell. And that’s the truth. I’m writing and preaching about these things, and suddenly here is a real-life human being, and I don’t care a bit about him.” I repented and said, “I’m sorry, Lord. Forgive me, and give me your heart for this man. You died for him.” I didn’t lead him to Christ, but I smiled at him and changed my attitude. I began to ask myself, What’s happened in his life to bring him to this point? At the end of the journey, I had a compassion for him I didn’t have at the beginning.  – Jill Briscoe

Something to Think About:

Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.  -  Bob Pierce

© 2009 LifeWay Christian Resources
One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234
www.lifeway.com

Mordecai – Advocate For The Oppressed

Selections From Esther 3 & 4

Haman informed King Xerxes, “There is one ethnic group, scattered throughout the peoples in every province of your kingdom, yet living in isolation. Their laws are different from everyone else’s, so they defy the king’s laws. It’s not in the king’s best interest to guarantee their security. If the king approves, let an order be drawn up authorizing their destruction. That being done, I will weigh out 375 tons of silver in the hands of the accountants to be deposited in the royal treasury.”… When Mordecai learned all that had occurred, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, went into the middle of the city, and cried aloud bitterly.

If you want to find Mordecai in the story of Esther, look for him out in the street – with one ear on his people’s concerns and the other on the rumors streaming from the palace -  rumors of a plot to destroy them. With Mordecai, the Jewish people had a fighting chance.

Isaiah 58 is one of the Bible’s most probing examinations of the believer’s heart. Speaking God’s words, the prophet takes on the proud proponents of religious observance – those who are sure that God couldn’t be more pleased with their rituals and righteousness. Isaiah reveals that going without food means little while the oppressed go hungry, that wearing sackcloth only makes you itchy if the naked remain unclothed. God’s heart is for the helpless, and his people don’t really know him if they aren’t actively helping them.

Look At It This Way …

Eventually every nation in every age must be judged by this test: How did it treat people? The great dramatic moments of history have left us with monuments and memories of compassion, love, and unselfishness which punctuate the all-too-pervasive malevolence that dominates so much of human interaction. That there is any respite from evil is due to some courageous people who, on the basis of personal philosophies, have led campaigns against the ill-treatment and misuse of individuals.

Each era faces its own unique blend of problems. Our own time is no exception. Those who regard individuals as expendable raw material – to be molded, exploited, and then discarded – do battle on many fronts with those who see each person as unique and special, worthwhile, and irreplaceable. There are choices to be made in every age. And who we are depends on the choices we make. What will our choices be? What boundaries will we uphold to make it possible for people to say with certainty that moral atrocities are evil? Which side will we be on? – Francis Schaeffer

Final Thought:

You can’t champion every cause, but you can visit a nursing home. You can write a letter. You can skip a meal and feed a beggar. Don’t wait for another guilt trip. Go ahead and catch this one.

© 2009 LifeWay Christian Resources
One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234
www.lifeway.com

You are invited to be part of “Christ, Christmas and Recession” -a time of fun and reflection at the Grand Anse Baptist Church on the 13th December ,2009.

Time:  5:00 p.m.

See and be there.

Grand Anse Baptist Church,
Maurice Bishop Highway,
St.George’s,Grenada.
grandansebaptist at yahoo.com.

What Is Sexting?

Sex + Texting = Sexting: When Christian values and twenty-first-century technology collide.

“The increase of sexting: is it the technology or the teenagers? “

“The increase of sexting: is it the technology or the teenagers? “
Item #TC0355
1 Session
$5.00

“Sexting” is the popular name for the act of sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually suggestive photos via a text message on a cell phone or posting pictures on social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace. Some research has shown that technology may increase the likelihood that a teenager will share sexually suggestive material or nude photos, and that many of the teens who post this material have other problems with decision making, lack supportive role-models, or exhibit similar behaviors in real life.

You’re probably wondering: What are teens thinking? It might be more helpful if we ask: What are adults doing to help?

That’s where this study comes in. It provides parents, clergy, and teachers with a foundation for how to help teenagers make sexual decisions in day-to-day life that will also serve to benefit a teen’s interactions in cyberspace. This study also takes an unflinching look at the social and legal ramifications of sexting. Now more than ever, parents, youth leaders, and clergy should talk to children and teens about healthy and safe ways to use new technologies. Adults do not need to know how to use the technology to have a meaningful conversation about it. What’s important is recognizing that teens want to hear what their parents and clergy have to say about friendship, sexual relationships, and personal decision making.

Related Studies:

• Parenting in a Text Messaging World
• Talking with Your Child about Sex
• What’s My Child Doing on the Internet?
• Step Away from the Computer: Using Technology Wisely
• What’s Happening to My Child? Adolescent Biology

Sexting is the practice of texting sexually explicit pictures to others, an increasingly common activity among teenagers. This document discusses sexting from a religious persective and offers parents ideas on how to deal with sexting.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2501975/Sexting-Help-for-Parents

Yeah sexting is just plain wrong for a number of reasons (immoral, degrading, can be illega…etc)

When I was at high school this 15 year old guy and his girlfriend (also 15) recorded themselves having sex and then he sent it to some of his friends. It very quickly made its way through the whole school and then our headmaster ended up on the school announcement system shouting that it was the distribution of child porn and anyone found with it would be expelled and the police would be notified. The guy & girl never got into much trouble for it but they were humiliated. Good side of the story though is far less people wanted to sext after that incident.

Follow forum  on this link

(CBS) According to a recent study, about one in five teenagers have electronically distributed provocative pictures of themselves that could land them in jail. A joint survey by Cosmogirl.com and The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found that 19% of teenagers answered “yes” when asked if they had ever “sent a nude or semi-nude picture/video” of themselves to someone via email, cell phone, etc.

And according to CBS legal analyst, attorney Lisa Bloom, “There are local prosecutors who will arrest you, lock you up, and treat you like a child pornographer.” And being under-age doesn’t protect them. “It is still child pornography,” explained Bloom. “You don’t have to be 18 to possess or distribute child pornography.”

“Sexting” describes the growing trend of sending sexually explicit messages (text, pictures, or video) electronically, mostly via cell phones. The most common reason teenagers give for sending sexy content is to be “fun or flirtatious,” what Bloom described to me as “the digital equivalent of what our generation did – mooning and flashing each other.” Unfortunately, many don’t understand the possible consequences. We live at a time when a moment’s poor judgment can go viral. In Pennsylvania, six teens were charged with child pornography after three girls sent pictures of themselves to three male classmates. Similar events have unfolded in Ohio and elsewhere.

And sometimes flirtation is not the motive. In Florida, an 18-year-old male sent naked pictures of his 16-year-old girlfriend to dozens of her friends and family after an argument; he was arrested, charged with child pornography, sentenced to five years probation, and required to register as a sex offender.

Last year, the ex-boyfriend of an 18-year-old girl in Ohioforwarded nude pictures of her to hundreds of her high school classmates. She was humiliated and ended up hanging herself.

As the father of 13 and 17-year-old sons, I find myself wondering about the increasing blurring of private and public. Some kids have the misconception that electronic communication is always private. Others don’t care; they’ve grown up in a voyeuristic world and think it’s no big deal if others know intimate details of their lives. In fact, that may even be a goal. You can become famous if you’re willing to let the cameras roll. Contestants of the reality show “Big Brother” allow viewers to watch them online 24-7 – everywhere except (for now) the bathrooms.

The answer is not to blame kids, thinking “Why can’t they be like we were, perfect in every way?” Children (and I was no exception) have always been impulsive and had poor judgment. That’s where parents come in. My job is to keep my eyes open, communicate with my sons (that means listen as well as talk), and – in a nonthreatening and loving way – try to set them straight when they aren’t thinking right. When I discussed sexting with Bill Alpert, Chief Program Office of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, he told me, “I don’t think that parents need to overreact. They just need to realize this is going on.”

Alpers said decades of social science research have shown that parents underestimate their own importance in their children’s lives. He noted that when asked about the key influences on their kids, parents usually say “number one is friends, number two is media, and they are number three; but teenagers themselves – in every single survey we’ve done over the past 10 years – have put parents number one.”

So it’s the same old lesson learned by the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, who never did need that diploma to be smart. We parents have the power to help our children safely navigate a world that is increasingly treacherous. We just need to use it.

For this week’s CBS Doc Dot Com, I discuss sexting with psychologist Susan Lipkins, Ph.D. You can find her advice about sexting by clicking here.

Here are tips about sexting from The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy:

Parents: click here.

Teens: click here.

Her teen committed suicide over ‘sexting’
Cynthia Logan’s daughter was taunted about photo she sent to boyfriend

March 6: 18-year-old Jesse Logan took her own life after a nude picture of her was passed around by e-mail. TODAY’s Matt Lauer talks to her mom, Cynthia Logan, and Internet safety expert Parry Aftab about the dangers of “sexting.”
Today show
Slideshow
By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 9:26 a.m. ET March 6, 2009
The image was blurred and the voice distorted, but the words spoken by a young Ohio woman are haunting. She had sent nude pictures of herself to a boyfriend. When they broke up, he sent them to other high school girls. The girls were harassing her, calling her a slut and a whore. She was miserable and depressed, afraid even to go to school.
And now Jesse Logan was going on a Cincinnati television station to tell her story. Her purpose was simple: “I just want to make sure no one else will have to go through this again.”
The interview was in May 2008. Two months later, Jessica Logan hanged herself in her bedroom. She was 18.

________________________________________
Conveying the message
“She was vivacious. She was fun. She was artistic. She was compassionate. She was a good kid,” the young woman’s mother, Cynthia Logan, told TODAY’s Matt Lauer Friday in New York. Still grieving over the loss of her daughter, she said she is taking her story public to warn kids about the dangers of sending sexually charged pictures and messages to boyfriends and girlfriends.
“It’s very, very difficult. She’s my only child,” Logan told Lauer. “I’m trying my best to get the message out there.”
It is a growing problem that has resulted in child pornography charges being filed against some teens across the nation. But for Cynthia Logan, “sexting” is about more than possibly criminal activity: It’s about life and death.
Last fall, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy surveyed teens and young adults about sexting — sending sexually charged material via cell phone text messages — or posting such materials online. The results revealed that 39 percent of teens are sending or posting sexually suggestive messages, and 48 percent reported receiving such messages.
‘She was being tortured’
Jesse Logan’s mother said she never knew the full extent of her daughter’s anguish until it was too late. Cynthia Logan only learned there was a problem at all when she started getting daily letters from her daughter’s school reporting that the young woman was skipping school.
“I only had snapshots, bits and pieces, until the very last semester of school,” Logan told Lauer.

TODAY
After her picture was disseminated electonically, formerly upbeat Jesse Logan began skipping classes.
________________________________________
She took away her daughter’s car and drove her to school herself, but Jesse still skipped classes. She told her mother there were pictures involved and that a group of younger girls who had received them were harassing her, calling her vicious names, even throwing objects at her. But she didn’t realize the full extent of her daughter’s despair.
“She was being attacked and tortured,” Logan said.
“When she would come to school, she would always hear, ‘Oh, that’s the girl who sent the picture. She’s just a whore,’ ” Jesse’s friend, Lauren Taylor, told NBC News.
Logan said that officials at Sycamore High School were aware of the harassment but did not take sufficient action to stop it. She said that a school official offered only to go to one of the girls who had the pictures and tell her to delete them from her phone and never speak to Jesse again. That girl was 16.
Logan suggested talking to the parents of the girls who were bullying Jesse, but her daughter said that would only open her to even more ridicule.
“She said, ‘No, I need to do something else. I’m going to go on the news,’ and that’s what she did,” Logan said.
Finding Jesse
When Cynthia Logan decided to go public with her story, she told Lauer that a school official told a local television station that he had given Jesse the option of prosecuting her tormentors. “That was not so. It’s absolutely not true,” she told Lauer. “And if he did, why didn’t I get a notice in the mail that he gave her that option?”

TODAY
Cynthia Logan is still contending with her grief over her daughter Jesse’s suicide.
________________________________________
After her daughter’s death, Logan quit her job and was hospitalized for a time with what she described as a mental breakdown. When she spoke about finding her daughter in her bedroom last July, tears coursed down her cheeks.
Jesse had been talking about going to the University of Cincinnati to study graphic design. Her mother thought she was over the worst of the bullying. Then one of Jesse’s acquaintances committed suicide. Jesse went to the funeral. When she came home, she hanged herself.
“I just had a scan of the room, her closet doors were open,” Logan told NBC News. “And I walked over into her room and saw her hanging. The cell phone was in the middle of the floor.”
Quest for justice
Logan said she’s been through six lawyers in what has so far been an unsuccessful battle to hold school officials responsible for the bullying of her daughter.
She was joined on TODAY by Parry Aftab, an Internet security expert and activist in the battle to protect teens from the dangers that lurk in cyberspace. Aftab said that there are laws that apply.
“There absolutely is a law,” Aftab told Lauer. “It depends on the age of the child. If somebody’s under the age of 18, it’s child pornography, and even the girl that posted the pictures can be charged. They could be registered sex offenders at the end of all of this. Even at the age of 18, because it was sent to somebody under age, it’s disseminating pornography to a minor. There are criminal charges that could be made here.”
Aftab said that it is normal kids just like Jesse who fall victim to the perils of the Internet and the easy exchange of information on cell phones.
“We talked about her being a good kid, a normal kid. Those are most of the ones that are sending out those images,” she said. “Forty-four percent of the boys say that they’ve seen sexual images of girls in their school, and about 15 percent of them are disseminating those images when they break up with the girls.”
Aftab asked Logan to join her in her fight against the electronic exploitation of kids. “I’m going to get her involved in a huge campaign to allow kids to understand the consequences of this and allow schools to understand what they need to do to keep our kids alive,” she said.
Aftab turned to Logan to see if she would help.“Absolutely,” she said.

RIVERS OF BABYLON by The Melodians
(B. Dowe – F. McHaughton, adapted from Psalm 137:1)
By the rivers of Babylon
Where we sat down
And there we wept
When we remembered Zion

But the wicked carried us away in captivity
Required from us a song
How can we sing King Alfa song
In a strange land
Cause the wicked carried us away in captivity
Required from us a song
How can we sing King Alfa song
In a strange land

Sing it out loud
Sing a song of freedom sister
Sing a song of freedom brother
We gotta sing and shout it
We gotta talk and shout it
Shout the song of freedom now

So let the words of our mouth
And the meditation of our heart
Be acceptable in Thy sight
Over I
So let the words of our mouth
And the meditation of our heart
Be acceptable in Thy sight
Over I

Sing it again
We’ve got to sing it together
Everyone of us together

By the rivers of Babylon…

(Original lyrics from the 1972 album sleeve of “The Harder They Come” o.s.t. )
by Don Julian