Netanyahu and Congress

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be addressing a joint session of congress this week. Most of the reactions to this event have been misguided, at least in my opinion. The president is worried about whether the invitation was meant to undermine his authority. The democrats are concerned whether sitting in on the speech will signal a rift in the party. The Israeli Press is concerned whether the move will further isolate Israel. The American Press is concerned about how it will affect future elections.

I believe the most important thing is being missed in most of the coverage. I see the same thing happen in other situations not nearly as heady as world politics. People forget who their friends are. After they stop behaving friendly toward these friends, they lose them and the benefits of their friendship. The final step is their world tilts out of balance, and they stand around scratching their heads wondering how it ever came to be so bad. But remember, it started out with them forgetting who their friends were.

What is happening with Israel and the US, is that some of our leaders have forgotten who our friends are. If we stay on the course we are on, we will soon see the world tilt out of balance. The resulting new world will likely result in nuclear proliferation, war in the Middle East, and the acceleration of terrorism.

But this scenario is different, in that Netanyahu is not blind to the outcomes. He is taking bold action to head off these probable results, or at least to try. Of course, like any friendship, he cannot do it alone.

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Friendships

On Wednesday’s I promote my book, The Storeroom of the Heart. If we learn and practice the principle, the heart is like a storeroom, everything we put in there will shape and control our future, then we will have a great tool for our spiritual growth.

 

Below is an excerpt from the book. I hope you will be blessed by it. It is available from any source that sells books, such as amazon, your local Christian bookstores can order it for you, or you can get it from the publisher at this link. The Storeroom of the Heart

 

Another important area of change would be social habits. Where we go for our down time and our social gatherings might need to change in order to bust the patterns in our life. For some people it may be important to change their existing circle of friends. Don’t assume this is extreme. Many people in our society have their friendships centered on un-Christian activities such as drinking, drugs, or promiscuity. These friendships may be genuine, but since we cannot be around them without being around the pattern we are trying to escape, we need to change our friends. Be willing to go for overkill to escape the life patterns trying to kill us. I was recently in a class taught by a drug abuse counselor. He stated a user who refuses to change his patterns of who, what, and where will never stop being a user. It is true for other sins as well. If we’re having problems busting our patterns, it may be caused by stubbornly hanging on to things around the pattern that are not actually wrong. But, these side issues empower the negative habits we want to leave behind.