WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN….THE EVENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST.

Most of us have watched the events unfold over the last seven or eight weeks in the Middle East, beginning with the demonstrations in Egypt which focused most Americans in on the events and then leading to seven different countries and the protests there for “democracy”. It seems the beginning was in Tunisia,  then moved to,  briefly,  Kuwait, Jordan, then to Egypt,  Yemen,  Algeria,  Libya,   The United Arab Emirates and now even small demonstrations are being seen in Iran.

Many of us that have done work in various phases of interfaith efforts and other venues of bridge building between peoples have seen two sides to this coin. The hopeful side that wants real democracy and the other side that wants Sharia law installed in a government that perforce becomes a theocracy,  which could mean another Iran.

Of course there will be differences all through the mix as well. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is repeatedly sited as a moderating force, but they were NOT the ones who started the demonstrations in Egypt and are relative late comers to the show. But because they have an organised structure it may be easy for them to rise to the top of negotiations and setting up whatever government is to follow.

Supposedly they call themselves moderates, and have at least spoken that way.  But,  the other branches of the Brotherhood,  in other countries,  are not moderate and have elemants of Hamas and Hizbollah and others that are downright terrorist organizations. That naturally concerns people everywhere. Especially in the western world.  And of course Israel.

In Egypt there have been very heartening examples of the people giving succor and support one to another regardless of religion or politics and that is a great hope lifter. In many instances they have shouted,  ” Christian or Muslim, we  are EGYPTIANS FIRST!  This brings great hope that the people’s will to enter the twenty first century alongside the western secular governments that assure freedom of what ever someone believes, and that it can be practiced in safety and security. I myself believe that is the hope of most people no matter where they live or in what country they reside.

With freedom comes responsibility to one another,  as few realise who have never had true freedom before,  but it is a hard learned lesson that has been brought to the people as an example in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Hard won indeed as so many want to hold power over those who are different and subjugate them anew.

It is my fondest wish that we will see the honest brokering with the people and their militaries and current and future leaders for shared power and responsibility in the countries as they shake off the bonds of Monarchies and dictatorships that have endured for,  in some cases,  1400 years!

Let us all pray for these people and the countries they live in that they can find peace,  liberty, and true equality in these perilous times.

Rev. Bruce Holzrichter Sr.  Pastor,  Tree of The Mustard Seed Ministries  and  Co-founder..The People of Abraham,  Christians,  Muslims and Jews.

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Minty-Fresh™.

Crunchy numbers

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,000 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 5 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 98 posts.

The busiest day of the year was February 7th with 22 views. The most popular post that day was Time to do the Mission.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were search.aol.com, search.conduit.com, student-loan-consilidation.com, theamericanmuslim.net, and thermallaminatorreview.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for questions kids ask about god, dr. david barton, religion questions for kids, ecumenical religion, and role of god.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Time to do the Mission December 2008

2

What role does God play in the modern world? June 2008
1 comment

3

HOSPICE, WHAT IS IT? HOW DO I PROCEED ?? June 2007
1 comment

4

WHAT DOES ECUMENICAL REALLY MEAN ? May 2007
3 comments

5

Hospice care death and dying and psychological aspects of care August 2007

To all the readers of Life Religion and Family….THANK YOU!! I have been wondering about discontinuing some of my efforts in some areas….THIS WILL NOT BE ONE OF THEM!!     So once again to all of you THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!! 

Rev. Bruce………………………..Tawodi

How much more of this poison do we need to hear??

The following is from Christians United For Israel’s blog and news letter, which I receive weekly I thought it time to bring some of this here so you can see what you may not be aware of, that is in the world.

Mind you this was at a meeting of held under U.N. auspices.   Is it time for some hard thinking vis a vis our relations with them and others??

Rev. Bruce

Author David Broder from his blog;

Last week, the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day, Iran’s President Ahmadinejad addressed the United Nations anti-racism conference in Geneva.  Here, he did a great favor for all who love Israel — he was honest.  He allowed his virulent hate for Israel and his bizarre anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to flow from his tongue largely unfiltered.  It was an ugly performance. 
 
The delegates from most European nations walked out on Ahmadinejad’s speech.  Even the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, was moved to criticism.  Most other delegates, of course, remained in their seats.  Many cheered. 
 
But Ahmadinejad is rarely so honest.  And he is rarely so helpful.  It is what this man does in the shadows — not what he says in public — that is most dangerous.  And what he does in the dark typically gets far less attention.    
 
In a little-noted development last week, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing an Egyptian source, reported that unidentified warships torpedoed an Iranian cargo ship off the coast of Sudan.  The Iranian ship was reported to be laden with weapons bound for the Gaza Strip.  The warship is believed to have been Israeli
 
In January, there were numerous reports that unidentified warplanes attacked a convoy of trucks passing through the Sudanese desert.  The trucks were reported to be filled with Iranian arms bound for Gaza.  Well-placed sources have confirmed that the planes belonged to Israel.   

Israeli observers believe that this arms convoy contained Iranian Fajr rockets.  Such rockets — with a range of 70 kilometers — would give Hamas the ability to strike the heart of Tel Aviv. 
 
Looming large behind all of these efforts against Israel, of course, is Iran’s nuclear program.  Iran continues to enrich uranium in contravention of United Nations resolutions.  In February, United Nations officials acknowledged that Iran now has enough enriched uranium for an atomic weapon. 
 
Which leads us to one final news item from last week.  In hearings before Congress, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton warned that the US is laying the groundwork for “crippling sanctions” against Iran if diplomacy fails to stop its nuclear program.  This is a certainly a positive development.  Offering Mr. Ahmadinejad carrots without a stick in sight was unlikely to elicit much of a response. 
 
The Iranian threat is not going away.  And walking out on Ahmadinejad’s speeches — while important and deeply appreciated — does nothing to stop his steady, daily, determined actions to confront Israel.  Offering negotiations — while quite possibly a good way to build greater international support — must not be allowed to turn into yet another opportunity for Ahmadinejad to delay and stall.  It is time for the world to graduate from gestures to actions. 
 
Iran has proven itself able to talk and act at the same time.  The Israelis, too, are acting with constant vigilance to keep Iran from arming its proxies on Israel’s border.  There is no reason why we should not act as well.  There is indeed a time for “crippling sanctions” against Iran.  That time is now.  

 These are dangerousd times and we ALL of us owe Mr David Broder and Reverend Hagee our thanks for bringing these things to our attention when so many will not, especially our main stream media.

Rev. Bruce Holzrichter Sr……………………….Tawodi

UPDATES ON ACTIVITIES of THE PEOPLE OF ABRAHAM

Today is the fifth of July, there have been a few changes and additions, for this blog site and, other places on the net, concerning The People of Abraham.

The first order of business is the inclusion of this site in The Tree of The Mustard Seed Ministries, web site index of links and organizations. Look on the right, you will see a widget that contains the link to get there it is a short web page with full support used to promote various aspects of our, and others, work in interfaith efforts. It is run and maintained by me and others, of these ministries. A short word is in order here as another change is going to take place. It is important to not give the impression of the new Ministries link being a “doorway” to the People of Abraham or any other site. The Tree of The Mustard Seed Ministries is a local church,  visitation  and Bible study conducted by me and other people whose calling is to homebound people and those in nursing homes and Hospice care. Since I am one of the founders I don’t mind, but encourage to some degree, the group. T.P.O.A. but, the work I do locally for it, is recruitment and organizational in nature. There are people who do participate in one place only. They have their own churches, or places of worship, but help in our efforts toward peace. The other thing to realize is that neither I, nor anyone else in this ministry, takes one red cent for anything we do…ever.  Donations, sometimes offered, are referred to  nursing home, resident moral funds, or gifts to Ronald McDonald House, or other charities in the name of the person donating it,  or they may do so in our name. We accept no fees whatsoever,  and never will. The same can be said for membership in,  or affiliation to,  The People of Abraham. I felt it important at this time to clear the air on that issue, thank you for your forbearance. It is also for what ever search engines are looking at us!!!  They don’t like “doorways” !!  And now, back to the point!

We are just about ready to field our Board of Advisors. These are people who possess degrees in various fields of religious study, some Masters degrees, others baccalaureates, two with DR. after their name. The purpose of these people is to answer questions from members and non members alike. Too much dissention occurs between people of different faith systems of belief, especially when a person makes a statement about someone’s faith and they don’t even have a firm grasp of their own!!

How anyone can tell me what I believe, when they do not worship in my faith, is a mystery to me, as it is to almost everybody else! Cross religion debate, is not allowed on any of The People of Abraham sites. It too rapidly becomes contentious and destructive and our purpose is to bring people together. Not foster dissention and enmity!!

So, the existence of a board of advisors. If you are engaged in discussion on another site and someone raises a question you would like the REAL answer to, from a scholar trained in that discipline, well, come to one of our sites, pose your question and it will be forwarded to the appropriate person and you will recieve your answer via e mail, ( you must leave an address) If perchance, you do not mind an open posting on this forum here, we will answer it openly, but will not use your name and no information about you will be divulged.

The open posting of questions can take place in the comment section, available after any post. These have been expanded in size, so that an entire page is available to insure you have room to be as thorough as possible, or may have more than one question.

Also if you would like to post an article you have written or present material from you or somewhere else you can use this feature as there is a whole page available, and if you need it, you can simply fill a page, stop, file it by clicking send or submit, and then logging back in and finishing what you are writing and completing your submission. PLEASE! Be aware of copywrite laws and credit material from other sources, as we cannot control access and /or dissemination of material once you post it, we do not want to face copywrite infringment lawsuits!!( niether do YOU!!!)

How do I become a member of The People of Abraham?? EASY, go to the face book site via hyper link, and sign up!! OR do so right here, click on “the google help group site for us, and sign in there, it is more secure as we control access, your information will not be shared. We make no money from these efforts, so there is no reason, at all, for us to give your info to anyone!! We are setting up a directory of benifits and/or activities. You will be asked for opinions, on chat sessions, or maybe even occasional guest appearances on talk shows, if you want to address certain aspects of faith or the group’s outside activities for gatherings and rallies, that sort of thing, to increase the group’s size and scope that you may participate in, or even organise yourself!

Printed materials, to bring to your Church, Synagogue, or Mosque, to share with your congregations to invite people to join us in this effort. We will be making downloadable forms you can download your self and disseminate that way, there is no cost except for the paper, no postage, no printing, etc. etc. This way we can operate with no dues, no membership fees, and each in his, or her own way, can participate for pennies and we can reach so many more people this way.

Print this page if you wish, it is a blue print for all the things that are taking place, or are on the horizon for The People of Abraham. We need you!! Please join in this important work toward peace. So many say they want it, but so few are willing to do anything for it. We are setting this up so most can be of vast benefit to the work right from their office or living room, it doesn’t get easier, or cheaper, than that!!!

Be well all, Rev. Bruce………………………………..Tawodi

ADDING ANOTHER WORLD WIDE GROUP OF FRIENDS

 If you look at the left hand column you will see a new addition!!!  VERVE-EARTH  This is becoming a busy place!!  If you have been here before push the button and go see the world!!  For those  who are new……read the mission statement,   please,  it is important for understanding who we are.

SOOOOO,  welcome to those who come here, from where ever they are in the world.  We seek here,  peace, understanding and acceptance,  of all faiths and,  those  with no faith as it is recognized.

The key word is acceptance,  we do NOT question what anyone believes,  that is their business. All we ask is a genuine effort at reconciliation,  of all peoples and countries.  To work toward this acceptance and the chance to raise our children to live, free of fear, well fed and adequately educated, so they can have a little better life than we as parents have had.  There is not a rational human being alive,  who does not want these things for their children.

That’s it, it is that simple, no hidden agenda, no attempt to convert any one, Religious questions answered off line directly to you, to avoid dissention. You will be directed to the theological person,  qualified to answer your questions and this is free and private for you to use. Everyone  posting or commenting here, will do so with respect or you will be banned from posting again.  All comments are monitored for appropriateness and forwarded if necessary or answered directly on the pages of commentary.

Be well, enjoy the site and begin to cherish the freedom such a place affords you,  to learn and grow

Be well all…………Reverend Bruce  Holzrichter…………………………..screen name, Tawodi