Comment on Stalin

I received an interesting comment with an article from NBC News on my post about genderside in the USSR under Stalin and Lenin. Unfortunately, the Blogger rules would not allow it to be posted so I am placing it here.

I appreciate your comments and feedback. Keep it up.

Why Kill the Men?

Most Americans do not realize the brutality of the Communists in the USSR. Under both Lenin and Stalin multiplied millions of people were tortured, murdered, starved, worked to death and in other ways eliminated. Almost all of them were males. Why did Lenin and Stalin wipe out so many men when they were, themselves men?

Almost every person to whom I have ministered in modern day Russia comes from a family who suffered terrible persecution death and loss of goods at the hands of evil men. Their grief is long standing and generational. Thank God for His wonderful gifts of healing and grace because we are seeing many people brought to faith and wholeness through prayer and God's word.

Part of it was probably due to their evil, paranoid personality disorders. Had they been ordinary citizens they would probably have picked on the poor, weak and helpless members of society. But they were not just ordinary men, they were heading one of the largest governments in the history of the world and it gave them absolute power over their citizens.

But the reign of terror in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic was carried out with such awful devastation on friend and foe, it must have been rooted in some kind of belief system. For example, they carried out a devilishly clever plan to change all workers and they did it in this way. Remember, one of their main slogans was, "Workers of the world, unite!" Here is how they united their Socialist workers.

Every person in a specific work classification was rank ordered from best to worst. All farmers, mechanics, electricians, secretaries, lawyers, doctors, engineers, etc. This meant that a Party Worker could go into the records of a village or town and know with some precision who the best and most productive workers were. It was clear which farmers grew the best crops or the biggest hogs and cattle and which ones were lousy at those and other tasks.

What would you do with such information? You could offer scholarships to the better farmers to go to school and become better farmers. Or, you could send the poor farmers to school to improve their production.

What did Lenin and Stalin do with that detailed information? If any of you can write me with a correct guess, I will send you a free book.

Why Do People Get AIDS?

An article in the CBS News Online tells us why so many people come down with AIDS. In an amazing story it relates that over 40,000 "women of the night" are headed for South Africa to sell themselves for money to the visiting soccer fans coming for the World Cup.

I cannot imagine going to a prostitute in any country but a man would have to be either insane of drunk to take such a chance in a place ravaged by AIDS. But this is what CBS says is happening. I always knew soccer fans were a bit off but this proves how out of control they are.

Henry Africa, 49, drives a taxi in Cape Town and, aside from the usual airport pickups and winery tours, he also operates the "Bright Red Tour," which he expects to be a hit among soccer fans. For the equivalent of 500 dollars, he'll shuttle customers from strip bar to strip bar all night and even bring them over to a safe-sex practicing prostitute, a relevant selling point in a country where one in five adults are estimated to be HIV positive.

The terms "Safe Sex" and South Africa just do not go together.

Hide the Resurrection?

see my new blog Spiritual Healing and Growth for a post on those who try to deny the resurrection.

Billy Graham Association's Leader Declines Pay

An article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy today tells about Franklin Graham giving up his salary for one year but he still makes a lot.


By Noelle Barton

A prominent charity executive who leads two big charities in North Carolina decided this month to stop receiving pay from one of the organizations.

The Rev. Franklin Graham, who serves as chief executive at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, in Charlotte, as well as at Samaritan’s Purse, in Boone, will no longer receive compensation from the former.

Last year the Billy Graham association paid Mr. Graham $633,722, plus benefits of $36,060. Mr. Graham’s father, the Rev. Billy Graham, founded the charity in 1950, and Franklin Graham has been at the helm since 2001.

Also in 2008, Samaritan’s Purse paid Mr. Graham $308,206 and benefits of $174,547. He has served as that charity’s top executive since 1979.

“He just felt it was the best thing to do, given the current economic climate in the country,” said Mark DeMoss, spokesman for Mr. Graham and for both charities, in an e-mail message to The Chronicle. “He did not want his compensation to distract from the work of the two organizations.”

No Retirement Payments
Mr. Graham also directed both charities to suspend contributions to his retirement plans. That decision means the Billy Graham association will not contribute to his retirement in 2009 or 2010, and Samaritan’s Purse, which had already paid his 2009 contribution, will not make a contribution in 2010, Mr. DeMoss said.

“These are not necessarily permanent decisions and will likely be reviewed from year to year,” Mr. DeMoss said.

Both charities are listed on The Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 400 list, just out this week, which ranks the top 400 charities in the country based on private donations.

Samaritan’s Purse, the larger of the two, ranked No. 59, and raised about $291-million in 2008, an increase of about 11 percent over 2007. Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, No. 258, raised about $83-million in 2008, which was down about 5 percent from 2007.



What do you think about this story?

Remember The Victims

Dr. Carol at the Medical Tent. She cared for a lot of people.








Carla and I are standing next to a mural of the Towers in one of the fifty story buildings down the street from Ground Zero. From the top of that building we could see first hand the rubble, destruction and chaos that was the result of the terrorist attacks.





I wept this morning while listening to the radio. I returned emotionally to that day and those weeks eight years ago. How do you feel?


I was there. In person, two weeks after the attacks. The Salvation Army asked Life Way Counseling to provide four Therapists to fly to New York so we could set up a Counseling and Pastoral Care Station for the first responders. We gave out food, clothing, drinks, medical care and TLC.

We met the first responders and listened to their pain, grief and sorrow. It was a privilege and a traumatic time for me but nothing like what was happening to the first responders who were looking desperately for friends and family members.

Carla and I were on from 1:00 AM until 1:00 PM for a week. The Cops and Fire fighters had been up for two weeks with no rest. I was able to listen to them, pray for them and encourage them. Some had break downs because the grief brought back so many old trauma memories. PTSD can last a long time.

Sanford's Hole in the Soul

Gov. Mark Sanford said Tuesday that he "crossed lines" with a handful of women other than his mistress--but never had sex with them. The governor said he "never crossed the ultimate line" with anyone but Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine at the center of a scandal that has derailed his once-promising political career.

"This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story," Sanford said. "A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."

During an emotional interview at his Statehouse office with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanford said Chapur is his soul mate but he's trying to fall back in love with his wife.

No one in his right mind would say these things. How can his "spiritual adviser" allow him to further ruin his already tragic life? Counselors, Pastors and Coaches take note: When our client has lost his way we must step in and make sure he is protected from himself.

Any grown man who so loses himself to another woman has proven that he is living on the surface of things. He is out of touch with his soul and that leads to a loss of conscious choice about reality.

Mr. Sanford was under the care of a "spiritual adviser' who, by overemphasizing consciousness failed to help him plumb the depths of despair and pain in his soul that only God can heal. James Chapter 1 says

12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

13 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to

The term here, evil desire, can be translated, "Hole in the soul" and that is exactly what men in midlife must allow God's Spirit to heal if they are to escape the trial and temptations of a "soul mate".

Obedience and strengthening the will are useless unless we allow God's Spirit to bring up all the old pain and hurts and heal them. Face your pain; face your guilt; face your weaknesses and allow God to heal that hole in the soul.

God is our soul mate. Only God can fill that heart shaped vacuum in the soul. To think a woman can fill my soul is raw idolatry.

Great Relationship

Over the past few days I have spoken with several people whose lives were deeply touched and liberated through the materials we called, Rational Christian Thinking. It is all about building a great relationship with God, self and other people by applying Christian truth to my thoughts.

It is hard to love God if my ruminations about the Father are all messed up and distorted. Yet this is exactly what so many dedicated Believers face on a daily basis. If I have a deep commitment to God but also harbor Stinking Thinking about His character, it can drive me into depression and anxiety.

I have ministered to many Bible believing Christians who suffered from high anxiety and emotional distress because they were convinced that God was sitting in heaven watching their every move to see when a sin was committed just so He could punish them. This sets up a horrible Double Bind making it impossible to live in joy.

What do you think will be the result if I try to love God and know I need to draw close to Him yet I also believe He takes great pleasure in causing me pain? How will that habit cause me to feel in the long run?

I am reminded of the fictional father who placed his little child up on a high cabinet and said, "Jump and I will catch you." The child did and his dad let him fall and hurt his legs. Then the father said, "See what happens when you trust someone."

Many Christians have been trained to think that the Heavenly Father is like that man. He is constantly setting us up to fail just so He can then punish us for failing or sinning.

When I was teaching the residents in our in-patient units I often heard them say that this was what they expected from God. I replied, "If I had that kind of God I would also be depressed. But I have joy because my Father is a loving Daddy who cares for me and gives me a life of abundance."

What kind of Father do you worship? Go to our web and read the materials for downloading. www.sweetenlife.com

Muslim-Christian Conflict and Obama

President Obama is trying to calm the fears of Muslims and secularists around the world by saying nice things to the Turks and bowing to the Muslims. Will it work? Is this an enlightened bit of politics or coming from a naive President who thinks we can convince people to start loving and stop killing each other?

I heard David Brooks on a recent pod cast say an interesting thing about why he is a Conservative and I think it is why I am a Conservative. Like Reinhold Neiebuhr I do not think it is possible to change people as individuals, groups or nations very easily or quickly. Good changes in the life of an individual take a long time and great wisdom on the part of the change agent. Group and national changes take even longer and more wisdom.

Obama wants to change the USA and the world into his image quickly and very radically. He seems to think he can change Muslims by saying nice things to some of their leaders. George Bush thought the same thing but they chose different avenues of bringing the changes.

The Atlantic Monthly has a great article on Neiebuhr with an interview by David Brooks that I suggest you read.

There is also a good article on Obama's approach to Islam in Wall Street Journal Online.

I will close with a prayer written by Rev. Dr. Neiebuhr. Part of it is used by all the Anonymous groups for wisdom, hope and encouragement. It was carried into war by all the soldiers in WWII.

It lays out a large part of my theology and why I am a Conservative.


A Prayer for Courage and Serenity

Rev Reinhold Niebuhr

God, grant me the serenity to accept
The things I cannot change
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time:

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace:
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it:

Trusting that you will make all things right
If I surrender to your will:
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with you in the next

Distributed by Dr. Gary Sweeten
P.O. Box 498455
Cincinnati, Ohio 45249
513-300-5065

Obama's Disgraceful Actions

President Obama just acted to remove all ethical and moral considerations from stem cell research. It is one of the things he and other Democrats promised and they are continuing to claim it is "A return to science over ideology". That claim is a lie and worse. It attacks President Bush for his careful and studied approach to stem cell research and reinforced the lie that such research and cloning can be carried out with no ethical concerns.

I hope you will read the article of Charles Krauthammer in the most recent Washington Post. He brilliantly reveals the despicable approach of Obama and unveils his deceptions.

Russian Situation

I heard from our friends in Russia and discovered that they will not have to leave their rented office space immediately.

Please pray for God's wisdom, guidance and a free space.

Go to the Liferoute web for more information.

What Empowers Christian Growth?

I hear a lot of people talking about Christian growth but few that do much about it. Every week I receive a quote about God's grace from a great ministry that works hard to facilitate individual and church growth.

I normally enjoy it because I agree with it. (I'm funny that way.) The one I received today did not quite agree with my understanding of the ways to enable and empower Christian growth.Read it and see what you think. I would love to hear your insights.

"Conversion is the lifelong transformational process of being remade into the image of God. It is so much more than simply trying to avoid sin. The focus of repentance and conversion is Jesus, not my sin nor my self. My attachment to sinful ways of being is much too strong to ever be undone by mere willpower. There is no substitute for surrender to divine love as the fuel to propel such undoing. Divine love transforms both my heart and my will. Divine love enables me to choose God’s will over mine. Without this, repentance will be nothing more than a self-help scheme based on effort and resolve." David Benner, Surrender to love.

Graced again is compiled by Tom Wood, Church Multiplication Ministries, a non-profit, whose mission is starting, strengthening, multiplying grace-centered churches through consults and coaching church planting pastors, leaders and emerging leaders. Sign up on the web at Graced Again.

Do you agree with Benner? Why? Why not?

Gary Sweeten

http://www.sweetenlife.com/

Speaking of Change

A man was being tailgated by a stressed- out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow just in front of him. He did
the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, 'I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him.' I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do bumper sticker,the 'Choose Life' license plate holder,the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker,and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk.Naturally....I assumed you had stolen the car."

Ouch!

Remember Why We Are Free

In honor of Veteran’s Day...an excerpt from book of the same title:
By Tim O'Brien

They carried P-38 can openers and heat tabs, watches and dog tags, insect repellent, gum, cigarettes, Zippo lighters, salt tablets, compress bandages, ponchos, Kool-Aid, two or three canteens of water, iodine tablets, sterno, LRRP- rations, and C-rations stuffed in socks.

They carried standard fatigues, jungle boots, bush hats, flak jackets and steel pots. They carried the M-16 assault rifle.

They carried trip flares and Claymore mines, M-60 machine-guns, the M-70 grenade launcher, M-14's, CAR-15's, Stoners, Swedish K's, 66mmLaws, shotguns, .45 caliber pistols, silencers, the sound of bullets, rockets, and choppers, and sometimes the sound of silence.

They carried C-4plastic explosives, an assortment of hand grenades, PRC-25 radios, knives and machetes. Some carried napalm, CBU's and large bombs; some risked their lives to rescue others. Some escaped the fear, but dealt with the death and damage. Some made very hard decisions, and some just tried to survive.

They carried malaria, dysentery, ringworm's and leaches. They carried the land itself as it hardened on their boots. They carried stationery, pencils, and pictures of their loved ones - real and imagined. They carried love for people in the real world and love for one another. And sometimes they disguised that love:"Don't mean nothin'!" They carried memories for the most part, they carried themselves with poise and a kind of dignity.

Now and then, there were times when panic set in, and people squealed or wanted to, but couldn't; when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said "Dear God" and hugged the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and God and their parents, hoping not to die. They carried the traditions of the United States military, and memories and images of those who served before them.

They carried grief, terror, longing and their reputations. They carried the soldier's greatest fear: the embarrassment of dishonor. They crawled into tunnels, walked point, and advanced under fire, so as not to die of embarrassment. They were afraid of dying, but too afraid to show it. They carried the emotional baggage of men and women who might die at any moment. They carried the weight of the world.

THEY CARRIED EACH OTHER

Moscow Revisited

I am sitting in a Moscow Internet Cafe named Asia Cafe eating an omlette with Tiger Prawns an cheese although I thought I ordered ham and cheese. Such is the state of trying to communicate in English only with a young waitress who speaks only Japanese and Russian. Living and traveling in the largest city in Europe certainly proves that we are experiencing the global village in a whole new way. The trains, subways and streets are filled with people from every nationality, tribe and tongue. Cars from every imaginable country run rampant through the streets are breakneck speeds and a pedesrtian must always be alert or be killed. It is great fun to experience the excitement of international interaction.

I am staying in a flat (apartment) near Christ The Savior Cathedral and it is a very high class, busy section of this huge city. The Cathedral stands as a huge testimony of the failure of the Bolsheviks. It seems that the Communists hated this church more rabidly than most even though they hated all churches. In a fit of pique they blew it up in an attempt to erase its powerful message from the consciousness of the Russian people for all time. (It was originally built as a memorial to the defeat of Napolean's armies so the pride of Russia and Moscow was great.)

The Communists, in a typical stroke of genius, decided to build in its place a big office building dedicated to the rise of Communism. Here was the problem: God openly rebuked their efforts by making such a structure impossible. The prayers of the people and the church somehow softened the ground under the structure and the engineers and architects found themselves unable to get a foundation to stick. (Hmmm! A lack of foundation. Isn't that interesting.)

So, after several tries, the Party gave up and made it into a big swimming pool. It was as though God placed a large baptismal fount right in the middle of the city for all to see as a symbol of the atheistic attempts to destroy the church. Many of my friends swam in that pool and it kept the story of the Party's failure alive in the hearts and minds of the Muskovites.

Just after the fall of Communism, the Orthodox Church decided to rebuild the Cathedral. Despite warnings that the ground was too soft to sustain it, they went ahead. "How" they asked, "could the ground sustain the original Cathedral and not a new one?" Now Christ The Savior stands as an open rebuke to all attempts to destroy Christ and His message of victory and hope.

My spirits are uplifted each time I see the church and I am reminded of God's power and truth.

Pray for our ministry here. The efforts at helping Christians grow and prosper in a very difficult place are succeeding but it is slow and challenging. Pray for Galina and her team of intrepid and skilled workers. The culture and society has been severely damaged by seventy years of crushing oppression and trauma. Alcoholism and other addictions are rampant destroying many Christian families. Our friends are making headway but the enemy is strongly resisting.

Gary Sweeten

www.sweetenlife.com

www.liferoute.ru

The Palin Paranoids Among Us

If you are unaware of how paranoid some people are toward people like us, read this story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. It is shocking to see that the author is a full professor and that the Inquirer would allow her to write such evil attacks on Palin and other Christians as well as almost everyone who lives in Rural Western America.

I suppose the lady who wrote the article thinks she is helping Obama's campaign but these hit pieces surely turn off almost everyone who has a rational bone in his/her body. Take a look at this angry bit of paranoid accusations with no facts to support it.

It has been years since groups such as the Montana Militia, the Posse Comitatus and the Sagebrush Rebels, and individuals such as Terry Nichols and Ted Kaczynski have made us wonder why so many "angry white men" populated our rural regions. Many of us have forgotten the threat once posed by domestic terrorists and instead have turned our attention to foreign terrorists. But we should never forget that in the late 20th century, ultra-Christian, antistatist and white-supremacist groups flourished in the states of the Pacific Northwest - called by many the "Great White Northwest" - the very region that Sarah Palin and her family call home.

Demographics most basically define this geographic region. In the six states that make up the Pacific Northwest - Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska - only six counties are more than 5 percent African American.

Although home to tens of thousands of native peoples, Alaska is not much different in terms of diversity from the other states of the region... Wasilla, where Sarah Palin was mayor, makes the census' list of the top 10 Alaskan communities with the largest number of African Americans because they make up a full 1 percent of the population. Rough calculations suggest that 65 blacks lived in the town.

But the region also must be defined by its history of intolerance, resentment, antistatism and violence. Appearing in the region in the 1980s and 1990s were some of the most notorious "hate radicals" of our time: militia groups, survivalists, Identity Christians, secessionists, white supremacists and others.

So, everyone in those six western states is a racist, radical with intolerant hatred for anyone different from the? WOW! That is high level, brilliant thinking from a professor who obviously got her job through merit and is not a token female.

I never cease to be shocked by the ignorance, hatred, fear and intolerance of such people who sit in the seats of power.

When I was on the doctoral committee of Margaret Jopheson Rinck I was barely able to stop a movement by radical feminists to kick her out of the doctoral program. The rationale was she could not be objective because she was a Christian. A few years after that she was honored for being a great teacher at U.C. when the facts were the opposite.

We who believe in Christ must stick together and support each other because the fear, hatred and evil intentions of many people are real.

The Decline of Protestant America

There is a great article in the online magazine First Things about the rapid decline of the "Mainline Churches" in America over the past fifty years. If you are interested in promoting better relationships with God through Jesus Christ in America it is a good read.

If you are interested in a strong America you need to know the history of how and why our nation was so strongly influenced by Protestant Christians. Take a look at these stats.
The high-water mark came around 1965, when members of the various churches broadly within these denominations constituted well over 50 percent of the American population. Their numbers, although not their percentages, maintained a little growth through 1975. But, as Kenneth Woodward pointed out in a much discussed 1993 Newsweek ­feature, they have been “running out of money and members and meaning” ever since.
Every survey produces different results, but all of them report a Mainline Protestantism in rapid decline. According to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, only three Mainline denominations still have enough members to be included among the ten largest churches: the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

All three have suffered serious losses: the Presby­terians down 1.6 percent over the previous year, the Lutherans down 1.09, and the Methodists down 0.79. The other Mainline churches show the same pattern: The Episcopalians, for instance, lost 1.55 percent of their members in 2005. By 2025, runs a bitter joke among conservative Anglicans, the Episcopal Church will have one priest for every congregant. And these recent numbers are actually a slight improvement. The greatest damage was done from 1990 to 2000—a decade in which the United Church of Christ declined 14.8 percent, for example, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 11.6 percent.

Those of you who lead or influence your church need to read this article, written in a conservative Roman Catholic magazine. It may help you see what is healthy and unhealthy in the church.

What I Do

In the last post I mentioned that it is difficult for me to say exactly what I do because I try to see the whole person and the whole picture. But, I learned many years ago that this global view does not work if I want to help a person change. Then I must focus on a specific behavior and empower that person to change it.

Many of our most cherisehd theories about influence are wrong. As I mentioned before, I was taught a bunch of different theories about influence in grad school but very little about how those ideas influenced clients to alter their behavior.

People usually go to see a counselor because something in their life is not working. So, we can safely assume that they want a helper to assist them to change. But that means we need to discover exactly what behavior is not working and then change it.

Our book, Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty takes a look at influence and change and sets forth the ways anyone can increase his/her ability to influence others. The most basic insight is to Look for what works and do more of it. Ignore that which is not working and emphasize the things that do work.

Be a detective for good and for God. Do you want your child to change? Look for positive behaviors and reward them. Look for negative behaviors and ignore them. We so often do the opposite by being so focused on negative behaviors that we unwittingly reward them. As a rule verbal injunctions are aimed at negative behaviors and actually reward them even when we think we are being punitive.

Guy Jones was drinking far too much. He came to see me because he was threatened with divorce by his wife. He came to the office angrily and reluctantly and told me in no uncertain terms that he was not going to quit drinking because he loved beer.

Guy: "I drink all the time because I really love," he said. "I am too old to change now and even if I wanted to I don't know if I could. All my friends drink and I have gotten so used to it that I would die on the spot if I stopped."

Gary: "So," I replied after some time of listening. "You are constantly drinking every day and every night and you are sure it is impossible to quit."

Guy: "Yes, that is about right."

Gary: "you must have an unusual job to be able to drink all day at work."

Guy: "I can't drink at work. I would be fired if I did. I have to be sober and clean or my customers would smell it on my breath and stop buying from me."

Gary: (In an Innocent tone) "Oh. I thought you drank all the time. every day."

Guy: "Well yeah, I do but not at work."

Gary: "How can you have so much self control at work and not at other times? Do you get the heebie jeebies?"

Guy: "No, I manage OK because I know I have to."

This is called "Looking for good" and it is designed to show that a person has more self control than may be apparent. It rewards the positive behavior of abstinence rather than the negative behavior of drinking.

Contrast this approach with someone who preaches against "demon rum" and tells Guy how addictive it is. "You can never stop once it has control of you, Guy. It is a serious disease with deadly consequences." Does this approach convey faith, hope and love?

Look for good and for God at work. Anyone stuck in a pattern of self destruction does not need more bad news but may respond to good news. Order Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty if you want to learn how to improve your ability to influence others. Just send me a note and I will send you the book.

Veritas

ePistle is an interesting Christian e magazine has the story of Russian novelist, former dissident, man of God, Alexander Solzhenitsyn who died earlier this month. In memory of his rich, embattled, courageous life, we direct you to the text of a speech he delivered at Harvard University on June 8, 1978.
“I am sincerely happy to be here with you on this occasion and to become personally acquainted with this old and most prestigious University. My congratulations and very best wishes to all of today’s graduates.
“Harvard’s motto is ‘Veritas.’ Many of you have already found out and others will find out in the course of their lives that truth eludes us if we do not concentrate with total attention on its pursuit. And even while it eludes us, the illusion still lingers of knowing it and leads to many misunderstandings. Also, truth is seldom pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter. There is some bitterness in my speech today, too. But I want to stress that it comes not from an adversary but from a friend.

“Three years ago in the United States I said certain things which at that time appeared unacceptable. Today, however, many people agree with what I then said..."

This man tried very heard to bring the truth to the USSR and to the USA. It appears that the current leaders of Russia are resorting to the tactics used by the KGB in the former Soviet Union and returning to their violent ways.

Pray for the Believers in Russia.

Go to ePistle to read the entire story.

Call From Russia

I spent an hour last night on the phone with Galina, a friend in Moscow. Galina is a Christian Psychiatrist and Psychologist. I met her in 1992 and invited her to come to Cincinnati to study our approach to the healing and growth in the church. She is a brilliant and dedicated Believer who has dedicated her life to helping the poor and needy break the cycle of destruction.

She heads a team of dynamic Believers who are training Christians in churches and para-church ministries all over the former USSR. The work they are doing to "Heal the broken hearted and set the captives free" as it says in IS 61, is remarkable and unique.

As you know, Russia has declared war on the former satellite of Georgia and that is causing great pain and anxiety among the people of both nations. I am planning to travel to Moscow in October to continue training the leaders so they can train more people "How to fish".

Please pray for the Liferoute Team and for my trip. Whether the Russians will allow me to reenter that country or not is questionable.

Pray for our finances. This trip will be very expensive because flights are costing more and hotels are some of the highest in the world. You may donate to Sweeten Life Systems by sending it to P.O. Box 498455, Cincinnati, 45249.