What you see here is a compilation of all the blogs by Anawim’s various bloggers. To view their blogs individually, hover your mouse over the “Blogs” menu item, and you’ll see a drop-down list of all our bloggers’ individual blogs.
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Website Gala!
It’s time for a party!
Colorful streamers and ‘splodies!
Oh yeah! Play the soundtrack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG_6CopW9GQ
What kind of party? A website party!
Just look how excited April is!
We are officially opening up our glorious website to everyone!
It’s colorful!
It’s fun!
It’s got cool stories and art!
And… it’s INFORMATIVE!
You may think that informative doesn’t equal fun. Obviously you haven’t turned on the soundtrack yet. Go ahead, play it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG_6CopW9GQ
Look around our website. Join the fun by registering. Get involved in some conversations. Complain about our spelling.
Steve always tells you what he thinks. Be like Steve.
And most of all…
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
Directly across –>
there is an easy way to let us know exactly what you think of us. FEEDBACK! OH YEAH!
(have you turned on the soundtrack yet? You’re missing out on the fun!)
If you like it, go ahead and click the “like” button below. Then everyone will know that you are a fan.
WE LOVE FANS!
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All You Can Do Is Try
There is crying and then there is crying. Some is as a result of unspeakable joy and others are unspeakable sorrow. Some cries are in desperation and some in intercession.
Jesus said, “Let him who has ears hear.” He would also tell His disciples that the reason he told stories was because the people didn’t have the ears to hear the truth and be set free. They also lack the eyes to see the truth or to discern the deception.Today I was out and about collecting money from customers who had been on vacation. At one location I spotted and old friend I hadn’t seen in a while and we were gabbing and remembering our last adventure together and we decided to go grab some coffee and a munchie. As we were approaching this eatery that neither of us had been in before there was this young man in his twenties digging through a garbage can unwrapping things and eating them. I said “Hey bud, let me buy you some food in here.”
The young man erupted into screams of; “Get away from me! this mine! go find your own!!!” He could not hear us. His eyes were glazed in fury and hate and bitterness.
“Yup!” I said.I had a plan. I went in and bought the biggest Cheese Burger they had and the largest order of fries and a huge Cup of Ice Tea.The manager said, “You are going to give this to that guy out there aren’t you?”
I said, “Yup!”
She said “We have a few burgers here that didn’t turn out the way we wanted…” and so she added them to the very big bag.
Now the trick was how to get them into the can which the twenty something was guarding like a junk yard dog. So one of the girls behind the counter took off her apron picked up the bag and went out the back way and walked up to the can and just stuffed it in and then walked back the way she came. The kid opens up the bag and just stares. You would have thought he had died and gone to heaven. And we were in the store behind tinted glass high fiving ourselves over our cleverness when there was another eruption and the guy was screaming profanities concerning the girl who had delivered the package and he dumped out the Ice tea and tore up all the burgers and fries and then urinated in the can and stormed away.
I thanked the manager for her generosity. The server and the manger were under the opinion that this guy was possessed and Fr. Bob and I were in full agreement.
The ability of our enemy the devil to blind the eyes and ears is sometimes beyond words. His ability to deceive and enslave the heart of man is much greater than we give him credit for. This young man would have at one time, just a few years ago, be an extreme example. However not today, their numbers are ever increasing.
Now some of you might ask why we did not cast out the demon?
We did not because if we had and the young man refused to give his life to Christ and be filled with the Holy Spirit, the demon, according to scripture, would have roamed the area for a while come back found the vessel (the man) clean gone out and gotten 7 spirits worse than himself and returned and taken over and then the condition of the young man would have been worse.
Jesus looked unto the people and said that the field is ripe for harvest but the laborers are few. Pray for more laborers. Better yet be a laborer. The devil is working very hard to enslave as many as he can and as it is said: Idle hands is the Devils work shop. There are many Idle hands even in the Kingdom of God so it is time to go to work and let your light shine.
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Homeless Sweeps and Violence
On July 31, this report was broadcast in Portland about clearing the homeless out of parking lots:In this report, the moving on of homeless people is called “cleaning up” the parking lot. Not vacating, not requesting– “cleaning”.
Last night, we receive this report of three homeless people being attacked in Portland:
http://www.kgw.com/news/Homeless-campers-attacked-in-SE-Portland-164782676.html
Here, this is a criminal action. Certainly, the first is done non-violently, and with the approval of property owners. But if the police have to “clean up” human beings, how long will it take for someone to take the “cleaning up” into their own hands. If the homeless are some-thing dirty, filthy, disgusting that must be cleaned, our young people will understand that the homeless are not people at all, but disposable items that should be disposed of in any way necessary.
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The Battle of Food 4 Less
Be ready in season and out of season ….In the letter Ephesians in what we call the 6th chapter St. Paul talks about the Armor of God and that we are to wear it constantly. Then he also says when we have done everything else we need to stand.
This afternoon I was at a Food 4 Less store and I was wandering around trying to remember past Cat food what we needed. Fruit , veggies, buttermilk …you know the drill without the list. (Well, most men know what I am talking about.) So there I am enjoying the air conditioner and really enjoying the cold air off the meat departments’ coolers, when my revelry in the realm of cool air is disrupted by a really angry voice and a whimpering response.
I really do know what it is about me that combination of sounds just upsets me no end. It started long before I was a Pastor in my teens I think. Maybe it is because I am first born and the defense of little brothers is ingrained.
So I start wandering towards the sounds. So here is this young man who is pushing maybe 21 years and here is this young woman maybe a little younger and with a child in the cart and the baby is crying and the young man is angry because the baby is crying . Now I have this line, a restriction for me that I will not physically intervene unless there is going to be violence. So I would allow the young man to rant and rave and stay in the background praying which once they know someone is watching they calm down. But if it begins escalating into him striking her the blow will not occur.
And so this young man crosses the line and he was not going to hit the infant to which he got a loud deep voice commanding “HOLD!”, followed by my presence next to the child.
The guy’s response was screaming, “BUT SHE WON’T SHUT UP!”
“She is afraid of you and since she can’t talk she is crying for help from God and now she has it. So you need to cool off. Go take a walk outside, smoke a cigarette, and calm down. AND then ask yourself this question: am I willing to spend the next 15 years of my life in jail for child abuse.” (Phil, I gave him your card I hope the number is still good. Phil is a friend of mine that helps guys who anger problems. He is really good at what he does.)
The Armor of God gives us the ability to stand in the face of the enemy. It is easy to speak a word and walk away but it is damn hard to speak against the Kingdom of Darkness and when it rises up to challenge your word to Stand Your Ground. I think it is in Revelation that it says that we overcome the enemy by the word of our testimony and the blood of the Lamb and by not loving our lives even in the face of death. The standing part in Ephesians 6 is directly linked to the not loving our lives unto death part.
The end of the Food 4 Less story was that the young man gave the girl a hand full of bills and left to wait outside and the young woman I asked if I could pray with her and she said yes please and so we began to pray when two of her friends who worked there asked if they could join us and I said sure and so in the Isle where all the candles with pictures of all the saints and Jesus were there looking on we had a twenty minute prayer meeting. And the baby never cried once.
