View allAll Photos Tagged Surrender
everything is the way it's supposed to be. right? RIGHT!??!
photoshop crashed on me while trying to save my first edit; this version was done in 10 minutes of frustration. for those who may have thought i would be spending saturday recovering from this, you were wrong. i was up at 7.00! and no, i didn't cheat and stay up all night! it was a busy day of searching for a birthday present before a friend's party and taking care of my 365.
saturday's denial might make more sense if you know about this and this :)
i mean :( .....
but, really, :)
059/365
A good day for clouds over the Norfolk landscape.
It was surprisingly warm too, at nearly 24c. {View large!!]
Model: Skye McLeod Fairywren
Skin: Vilda by LAQ
Hair: Gibson by Isaura
Dress & Eye Jewelry: Frolement by Champagne Sparkling Couture
Heels: Ilde by Donna Flora
Eyes: Soft Majorelle by Mayfly
Eyelashes Diva by Redgrave
Lipstick: Mizu Gloss by Mock
Eyeshadow: Plum by Izzie's
Nails: French Fresh by Candy Nail
Necklace, Earrings & Bracelet: Diana's Dazzling by Zuri
Ring: Elite Cameo Ring by Zuri
Headpiece: Miss USA by Zuri
Pose: Against the Wall by Frozen
Location: Mont St. Michel at
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mont%20Saint%20Michel/92/4...
This one's much, much nicer viewed large, on black.
“If I'm gonna go down I'm gonna do it with style. You won't hear me surrender, you won't hear me confess cause you've left me with nothing but I have worked with less.”
Ani Difranco
“You're in the midst of a war: a battle between the limits of a crowd seeking the surrender of your dreams, and the power of your true vision to create and contribute. It is a fight between those who will tell you what you cannot do, and that part of you that knows / and has always known / that we are more than our environment; and that a dream, backed by an unrelenting will to attain it, is truly a reality with an imminent arrival.”
Anthony Robbins
Water; Verse 2 (Surrender)
When faced with more than ones power to handle, the easiest escape sometimes is to give up completely (like swallowing water slowly, feeling heavy and drowning), and embrace that one can't fight change sometimes,
oil on canvas 75 x 100
The San Francisco Bay from Cesar Chavez Park
Berkeley, California
September 2007
Copyright © 2007 David Pohl
HOP | House of Pingting Archives
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Everywhere, I follow you
O' Lord,
you have just turned the corner
and disappeared into the crowd.
O' Siva,
my glowing psychedelic blue Lord,
dark as the indigo night skies.
One day,
I shall trick you into a meeting
face to face.
In that instant
when you shine as the world
far flung in the stars
and near my transparent pulse,
I shall surprise you in the act.
Then, looking into your startled but fearless eyes,
O' Lord,
I can be drowned at last
in utter union.
~ Anu Kumar
Shot for DILO (A Day In the Life of One ) group for the theme:Feet
I shot this out of a framed picture hanging on the wall of our house.
The scene of Sri Ram's Coronation(picture in comment below) from the great epic, "Ramayana"
Hanuman ,the faithful monkey-faced devotee of Lord Ram at His feet.If one totally surrenders oneself to the Lord, one will be absolved and protected by the Lord.
A brief story of Ramayana here
My DILO set here
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Another shot on that night.....
I found out Wiz was in her room.
Seems a little conversation but feeling growing more than.....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_D.C._Temple
A sight to behold from the outer loop of the interstate that circles Washington DC. I’ve posted shots of this monumental structure before. Quite a sight.
General George Washington, on horseback, receives the sword of surrender from Major General O'Hare, who represented Lord Cornwallis after his defeat at Yorktown, the last battle of the American Revolution in 1781.
This official Architect of the Capitol photograph is being made available for educational, scholarly, news or personal purposes (not advertising or any other commercial use). When any of these images is used the photographic credit line should read “Architect of the Capitol.” These images may not be used in any way that would imply endorsement by the Architect of the Capitol or the United States Congress of a product, service or point of view. For more information visit www.aoc.gov.
Built between 1941 and 1944 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the USS Missouri (BB-63) was launched on January 29, 1944 and commissioned on June 11, 1944 to serve with the United States Navy in World War II. Active in the Pacific Theater of the war, the USS Missouri fought in the battle of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and took part in the shelling of the Japanese home islands. On April 11, 1945, the ship was attacked by a kamikaze pilot and was struck on the side below the main deck, with the ship suffering relatively minor damage, which is still visible today. On September 2, 1945, while docked in Tokyo Bay, a delegation representing the Empire of Japan surrendered to allied forces on the deck of the USS Missouri, bringing World War II to an official end, with documents being signed by Japanese and Allied leaders. The ship subsequently returned to New York after stops in Guam and Hawaii, and underwent an overhaul in the New York Naval Shipyard. The ship then headed on a training cruise to Cuba before heading back to New York and then east across the Atlantic Ocean, making a stop at Gibraltar before arriving at Istanbul on April 5, 1946. The ship then headed to Greece in order to assist in quelling pro-Communist groups in an attempt to contain Soviet influence in postwar Europe, demonstrating the commitment of the United States to European countries following the war. The ship transported President Harry Truman and his family between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the United States in September 1947 following the signing of the Rio treaty, broadening the Monroe doctrine and establishing solidarity between nations in the Americas. Following the war, most battleships in the US Navy were decommissioned, but the USS Missouri was kept active due to sentimental connections between it and President Truman, as well as the ship’s status as a relatively new vessel. However, the ship hit a shoal near Old Point Comfort, Virginia on January 17, 1950, leading to it becoming stranded and needing to be refloated and repaired. Upon the breakout of the Korean War, the USS Missouri was dispatched to the Korean Peninsula on August 19, 1950, in order to support UN forces on the peninsula. The ship provided artillery support to South Korean and United States forces attempting to push back the invasion of North Korean and Chinese forces, and was active until the end of hostilities in 1953. The ship returned to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard after the war, being overhauled before going on a patrol mission in June 1954, returning in August 1954. After this mission, the ship was sent to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in September 1954, where it was decommissioned on February 26, 1955, ending its first period of active service. The ship became a popular tourist attraction during its period of deactivation, remaining in use as a museum ship until 1984, with the surrender deck having bronze plaques and an exhibit set up to commemorate the ceremony that ended World War II, which occurred on the deck. In 1971, the ship was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its remarkable state of preservation, and the very historically notable events that took place on and around the ship. In the summer of 1984, as part of an initiative to expand the number of active ships in the United States Navy under President Ronald Reagan, the ship was reactivated and sent to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for refurbishment and modernization, with many original features and weapons removed and replaced with far more advanced modern weaponry and systems. On May 10, 1986, the ship was formally recommissioned in San Francisco. The ship participated in patrols and naval exercises throughout the period between 1986 and 1991. During the Gulf War in January and February of 1991, the ship was utilized to assist forces pushing the Iraqi army out of Kuwait, with the ship’s missile and artillery systems being utilized against targets on land. After the end of the Gulf War and due to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the ship was decommissioned once again on March 31, 1992, at Long Beach, California. The ship was returned to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, as part of the reserve fleet, where it remained until January 12, 1995, when it was removed from the Naval Vessel Register. The ship was not operated as a museum ship at this time, and was towed from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on May 23, 1998, before arriving at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor on June 22, 1998, opening to the public as a museum ship on January 29, 1999. The location of the ship in Pearl Harbor was chosen due to the significance of the harbor and the ship to the beginning and end of the direct involvement of the United States in World War II. The ship underwent an overhaul in 2009-10, which has ensured its continued preservation. The ship today serves as a museum to the operating history of the former military vessel, as well as the very historically significant ceremony on September 2, 1945, which ended World War II.
'Laying on your holy bed
By the hallowed door
Feeling like an infidel
Not worthy of your call
Tempted by your innocence
Beckoned to my fate
I won't face the consequence
I wouldn't hesitate
I'm a man of flesh and bone
Rapture
Rushing through my veins
Passion
Flaming
In my heart
Heavenly surrender once again'
lyrics by DM - Surrender
I surrender all to You. Let my heart trust in You let my fear fall. Let Your love carry me through it all. I will hold onto You even through pain. Wont You take me away with You!
All credit goes to..
taken by Jeremy Johnson.(my youth pastor)
edited by me
photoshop
BANGABANDHU SHEIKH MUJIBUR RAHMAN
The life of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is the saga of a great leader turning peoplepower into an armed struggle that liberated a nation and created the world’s ninth most populous state. The birth of the sovereign state of Bangladesh in December 1971, after a heroic war of nine months against the Pakistani colonial rule, was the triumph of his faith in the destiny of his people. Sheikh Mujib, endearingly called Bangabandhu or friend of Bangladesh, rose from the people, molded their hopes and aspirations into a dream and staked his life in the long battle for making it real. He was a true democrat, and he employed in his struggle for securing justice and fairplay for the Bengalees only democratic and constitutional weapons until the last moment. It is no accident of history that in an age of military coup d’etat and ‘strong men’, Sheikh Mujib attained power through elections and mass movement and that in an age of decline of democracy he firmly established democracy in one of the least developed countries of Asia.
Sheikh Mujib was born on 17 March 1920 in a middle class family at Tungipara in Gopalganj district. Standing 5 feet 11 inches, he was taller than the average Bengalee. Nothing pleased him more than being close to the masses, knowing their joys and sorrows and being part of their travails and triumphs. He spoke their soft language but in articulating their sentiments his voice was powerful and resonant. He had not been educated abroad, nor did he learn the art of hiding feelings behind sophistry; yet he was loved as much by the urban educated as the common masses of the villages. He inspired the intelligentsia and the working class alike. He did not, however, climb to leadership overnight.
Early Political Life: His political life began as an humble worker while he was still a student. He was fortunate to come in early contact with such towering personalities as Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy and A K Fazlul Huq, both charismatic Chief Ministers of undivided Bengal. Adolescent Mujib grew up under the gathering gloom of stormy politics as the aging British raj in India was falling apart and the Second World War was violently rocking the continents. He witnessed the ravages of the war and the stark realities of the great famine of 1943 in which about five million people lost their lives. The tragic plight of the people under colonial rule turned young Mujib into a rebel.
This was also the time when he saw the legendary revolutionary Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose challenging the British raj. Also about this time he came to know the works of Bernard Shaw, Karl Marx, Rabindranath Tagore and rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. Soon after the partition of India in 1947 it was felt that the creation of Pakistan with its two wings separated by a physical distance of about 1,200 miles was a geographical monstrosity. The economic, political, cultural and linguistic characters of the two wings were also different. Keeping the two wings together under the forced bonds of a single state structure in the name of religious nationalism would merely result in a rigid political control and economic exploitation of the eastern wing by the all-powerful western wing which controlled the country’s capital and its economic and military might.
Early Movement: In 1948 a movement was initiated to make Bengali one of the state languages of Pakistan. This can be termed the first stirrings of the movement for an independent Bangladesh. The demand for cultural freedom gradually led to the demand for national independence. During that language movement Sheikh Mujib was arrested and sent to jail. During the blood-drenched language movement in 1952 he was again arrested and this time he provided inspiring leadership of the movement from inside the jail.
In 1954 Sheikh Mujib was elected a member of the then East Pakistan Assembly. He joined A K Fazlul Huq’s United Front government as the youngest minister. The ruling clique of Pakistan soon dissolved this government and Shiekh Mujib was once again thrown into prison. In 1955 he was elected a member of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly and was again made a minister when the Awami League formed the provincial government in 1956. Soon after General Ayub Khan staged a military coup in Pakistan in 1958, Sheikh Mujib was arrested once again and a number of cases were instituted against him. He was released after 14 months in prison but was re-arrested in February 1962. In fact, he spent the best part of his youth behind the prison bars.
Supreme Test: March 7, 1971 was a day of supreme test in his life. Nearly two million freedom loving people assembled at the Ramna Race Course Maidan, later renamed Suhrawardy Uddyan, on that day to hear their leader’s command for the battle for liberation. The Pakistani military junta was also waiting to trap him and to shoot down the people on the plea of suppressing a revolt against the state. Sheikh Mujib spoke in a thundering voice but in a masterly well-calculated restrained language. His historic declaration in the meeting was: "Our struggle this time is for freedom. Our struggle this time is for independence." To deny the Pakistani military an excuse for a crackdown, he took care to put forward proposals for a solution of the crisis in a constitutional way and kept the door open for negotiations.
The crackdown, however, did come on March 25 when the junta arrested Sheikh Mujib for the last time and whisked him away to West Pakistan for confinement for the entire duration of the liberation war. In the name of suppressing a rebellion the Pakistani military let loose hell on the unarmed civilians throughout Bangladesh and perpetrated a genocide killing no less than three million men, women and children, raping women in hundreds of thousands and destroying property worth billions of taka. Before their ignominious defeat and surrender they, with the help of their local collaborators, killed a large number of intellectuals, university professors, writers, doctors, journalists, engineers and eminent persons of other professions. In pursuing a scorch-earth policy they virtually destroyed the whole of the country’s infrastructure. But they could not destroy the indomitable spirit of the freedom fighters nor could they silence the thundering voice of the leader. Tape recordings of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib’s 7th March speech kept on inspiring his followers throughout the war.
Return and Reconstruction: Forced by international pressure and the imperatives of its own domestic predicament, Pakistan was obliged to release Sheikh Mujib from its jail soon after the liberation of Bangladesh and on 10 January 1972 the great leader returned to his beloved land and his admiring nation.
But as he saw the plight of the country his heart bled and he knew that there would be no moment of rest for him. Almost the entire nation including about ten million people returning from their refuge in India had to be rehabilitated, the shattered economy needed to be put back on the rail, the infrastructure had to be rebuilt, millions had to be saved from starvation and law and order had to be restored. Simultaneously, a new constitution had to be framed, a new parliament had to be elected and democratic institutions had to be put in place. Any ordinary mortal would break down under the pressure of such formidable tasks that needed to be addressed on top priority basis. Although simple at heart, Sheikh Mujib was a man of cool nerves and of great strength of mind. Under his charismatic leadership the country soon began moving on to the road to progress and the people found their long-cherished hopes and aspirations being gradually realized.
Assassination: But at this critical juncture, his life was cut short by a group of anti-liberation reactionary forces who in a pre-dawn move on 15 August 1975 not only assassinated him but 23 of his family members and close associates. Even his 10 year old son Russel’s life was not spared by the assassins. The only survivors were his two daughters, Sheikh Hasina - now the country’s Prime Minister - and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana, who were then away on a visit to Germany. In killing the father of the Nation, the conspirators ended a most glorious chapter in the history of Bangladesh but they could not end the great leader’s finest legacy- the rejuvenated Bengali nation. In a fitting tribute to his revered memory, the present government has declared August 15 as the national mourning day. On this day every year the people would be paying homage to the memory of a man who became a legend in his won lifetime. Bangabandhu lives in the heart of his people. Bangladesh and Bangabandhu are one and inseparable. Bangladesh was Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s vision and he fought and died for it.
My practical experience, some of new leaders of BNP (retired amla) wants to be leader. They want to show something to Khaleda Zia in strike period. Want to be talk of the day as like Sadek Hossain Khoka. Khoka hold liquid tomato pack with him and blasted in due time while police caught him on the streets. Remember people? Shamsher Mobin Choudhury Beer Bikram Freedom fighter, I salute for his contribution, but I enjoyed his acting on strike period with police SI. He want to be arrested then news will be like this “Beer Bikram Shamsher Mobin Choudhury didn’t relief from the police tortured.
Good attitude but no need to do this simple acting for growing the attraction of Khaleda. Next time he will be foreign Minister if BNP comes to the power.
Bikaner is a city in the northwest of the state of Rajasthan in northern India. It is located 330 kilometres northwest of the state capital, Jaipur. Bikaner city is the administrative headquarters of Bikaner District and Bikaner division.
Formerly the capital of the princely state of Bikaner, the city was founded by Rao Bika in 1486 and from its small origins it has developed into the fifth largest city in Rajasthan. The Ganges Canal, completed in 1928, and the Indira Gandhi Canal, completed in 1987, facilitated its development.
HISTORY
Prior to the mid 15th century, the region that is now Bikaner was a barren wilderness called Jangladesh. In 1488 Rao Bika established the city of Bikaner. According to James Tod, the spot which Bika selected for his capital, was the birthright of a Nehra Jat, who would only concede it for this purpose on the condition that his name should be linked in perpetuity with its surrender. Naira, or Nera, was the name of the proprietor, which Bika added to his own, thus composing that of the future capital, Bikaner. Rao Bika was the first son of Maharaja Rao Jodha of the Rathor clan, the founder of Jodhpur and conquered the largely arid country in the north of Rajasthan. As the first son of Jodha he wanted to have his own kingdom not inheriting Jodhpur from his father or the title of Maharaja. He therefore decided to build his own kingdom in what is now the state of Bikaner in the area of Jungladesh. Though it was in the Thar Desert, Bikaner was considered an oasis on the trade route between Central Asia and the Gujarat coast as it had adequate spring water. Bika’s name was attached to the city he built and to the state of Bikaner ("the settlement of Bika") that he established. Bika built a fort in 1478, which is now in ruins, and a hundred years later a new fort was built about 1.5 km from the city centre, known as the Junagarh Fort.
Around a century after Rao Bika founded Bikaner, the state's fortunes flourished under the sixth Raja, Rai Singhji, who ruled from 1571 to 1611. During the Mughal Empire’s rule in the country, Raja Rai Singh accepted the suzerainty of the Mughals and held a high rank as an army general at the court of the Emperor Akbar and his son the Emperor Jahangir. Rai Singh's successful military exploits, which involved winning half of Mewar kingdom for the Empire, won him accolades and rewards from the Mughal emperors. He was given the jagirs (lands) of Gujarat and Burhanpur. With the large revenue earned from these jagirs, he built the Chintamani durg (Junagarh fort) on a plain which has an average elevation of 230 m. He was an expert in arts and architecture, and the knowledge he acquired during his visits abroad is amply reflected in the numerous monuments he built at the Junagarh fort.
Maharaja Karan Singh, who ruled from 1631 to 1639, under the suzerainty of the Mughals, built the Karan Mahal palace. Later rulers added more floors and decorations to this Mahal. Anup Singh ji, who ruled from 1669 to 1698, made substantial additions to the fort complex, with new palaces and the Zenana quarter, a royal dwelling for women and children. He refurbished the Karan Mahal with a Diwan-i-Am (public audience hall) and called it the Anup Mahal.Maharaja Gaj Singh, who ruled from 1746 to 1787 refurbished the Chandra Mahal (the Moon palace).
During the 18th century, there was internecine war between the rulers of Bikaner and Jodhpur and also amongst other thakurs, which was put down by British troops.
Following Maharaja Gaj Singh, Maharaja Surat Singh ruled from 1787 to 1828 and lavishly decorated the audience hall (see illustration) with glass and lively paintwork. Under a treaty of paramountcy signed in 1818, during Maharaja Surat Singh's reign, Bikaner came under the suzerainty of the British, after which the Maharajas of Bikaner invested heavily in refurbishing Junagarh fort.
Dungar Singh, who reigned from 1872 to 1887, built the Badal Mahal, the 'weather palace', so named in view of a painting of clouds and falling rain, a rare event in arid Bikaner.
General Maharaja Ganga Singh, who ruled from 1887 to 1943, was the best-known of the Rajasthan princes and was a favourite of the British Viceroys of India. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India, served as a member of the Imperial War Cabinet, represented India at the Imperial Conferences during the First World War and the British Empire at the Versailles Peace Conference. His contribution to the building activity in Junagarh involved separate halls for public and private audiences in the Ganga Mahal and a durbar hall for formal functions. He also built the Ganga Niwas Palace, which has towers at the entrance patio. This palace was designed by Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob, the third of the new palaces built in Bikaner. He named the building Lalgarh Palace in honour of his father and moved his main residence there from Junagarh Fort in 1902. The hall where he held his Golden Jubilee (in 1938) as Bikaner's ruler is now a museum.
Ganga Singh's son, Lieutenant-General Sir Sadul Singh, the Yuvaraja of Bikaner, succeeded his father as Maharaja in 1943, but acceded his state to the Union of India in 1949. Maharaja Sadul Singh died in 1950, being succeeded in the title by his son, Karni Singh (1924-1988).[6] The Royal Family still lives in a suite in Lalgarh Palace, which they have converted into a heritage hotel.
TRANSPORT
The internal transport system in Bikaner consists of autorickshaws and city buses. Bikaner railway station is on the Jodhpur-Bathinda line. Bikaner is connected to some of major Indian cities via broad gauge railway. The city has direct rail connections to Sri Ganganagar, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Alwar, Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Bilaspur, Kanpur, Agra, Jalandhar, Baroda, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Jaipur, Surat, Gurgaon, Jalandhar, Puri, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Chandigarh, Kota, Kollam, Jammu, Jodhpur and Ahmedabad, Pune, Indore, Vijayawada. However, there is no rail connectivity for other major Indian cities like Silchar, Indore,[clarification needed] Jhansi, Ranchi, Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Kurukshetra, Faridabad.
Bikaner is well served with roads and is linked directly to Delhi, Jaipur , Agra , Alwar, Ludhiana, Sri Ganganagar , Bhatinda, Ambala, Ahmedabad, Haridwar, Jodhpur, and many other cities. National highways 11, 15, and 89 meet at Bikaner.
CLIMATE
Bikaner is situated in the middle of the Thar desert and has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh) with very little rainfall and extreme temperatures. In summer temperatures can exceed 45 °C, and during the winter they may dip below freezing.
The climate in Bikaner is characterised by significant variations in temperature. In the summer season it is very hot when the temperatures lie in the range of 28–48.5 °C. In the winter, it is fairly cold with temperatures lying in the range of 5–23.2 °C. Annual rainfall is in the range of 260–440 millimetres.
JUNAGARH FORT
The Junagarh Fort and its temples and palaces are preserved as museums and provide insight into the grandiose living style of the past Maharanas of Rajasthan.
LAXMI NIWAS PALACE
The Laxmi Niwas Palace is a former residential palace built by Maharajah Ganga Singh, the ruler of the former state of Bikaner. It was designed by the British architect, Col Samuel Swinton Jacob in the year 1902. The style of architecture is Indo-Saracenic. It is now a luxury Heritage hotel owned by Golden Triangle Fort & Palace P. Ltd. The magnificent structure in red sandstone is one of the most popular destinations for tourists in Bikaner. The Shri ram heritage a unit of Rao Bikaji Groups home stay owend / heritage hotel by Brigadier Jagmal singh rathore VrC, VsM descendant of Rao Bika ji Founder of Bikaner, Rao Bikaji Camel safari a unit of Rao Bikaji Groups.
KARNI MATA TEMPLE
The world famous shrine of Karni Mata can be found in the town of Deshnoke 30 km south from Bikaner on the road to Jodhpur. Karni Mata is worshiped as an incarnation of Goddess Durga.
WIKIPEDIA
“'Was there one thing in particular that caused you to lose your faith in God?' I asked at the outset.
He thought for a moment. 'It was a photograph in Life magazine,' he said finally.
'Really?' I said. 'A photograph? How so?'
He narrowed his eyes a bit and looked off to the side, as if he were viewing the photo afresh and reliving the moment. 'It was a picture of a black woman in Northern Africa,' he explained. 'They were experiencing a devastating drought. And she was holding her dead baby in her arms and looking up to heaven with the most forlorn expression. I looked at it and I thought, “Is it possible to believe that there is a loving or caring Creator when all this woman needed was rain?”'
As he emphasized the word rain, his bushy gray eyebrows shot up and his arms gestured toward heaven as if beckoning for a response.
'How could a loving God do this to that woman?' he implored as he got more animated, moving to the edge of his chair. 'Who runs the rain? I don't; you don't. He does - or that's what I thought. But when I saw that photograph, I immediately knew it is not possible for this to happen and for there to be a loving God. There was no way. Who else but a fiend could destroy a baby and virtually kill its mother with agony – when all that was needed was rain?'” - Lee Strobel interviewing Charles Templeton
“Faith drained them of the guilt that had oppressed them. Faith replaced despondency with hope. Faith infused them with new direction and purpose. Faith unlocked heaven. Faith was like cool water soaking their parched souls.” -Strobel
So here is something I have wanted to write on for a few weeks now. I think that this will be significantly different from some of my earlier writings, in that it is focused more on quotes from scripture rather than my own opinion. So, here goes nothing...
Earlier today I was taking part in a short conversation about free will. How much free will do we have and how much control does God exert over us. Let's take it a step further. How much control does God exert over the world. C.S. Lewis, when talking about miracles, once said that you don't have to look far to find a miracle of God: if you look at a vineyard you will find God taking water from the sky and making it into wine everyday; if you look in the sea you will see God taking one fish and turning it into enough to feed five thousand. The miracles of nature are being performed everyday. But how? We see God's creation still limping along trying to fulfill the purposes God created them for, recreating his miracles. I want to use one of Joe's most quoted verses:
“Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!” Luke 12:24-28
God provides for them. That seems to lean more towards Templeton, who would say because God did not provide, he does not exist. But I think that the fundamental issue we are looking at is possibly a bit different than it first appears. You shouldn't worry about tomorrow, you should trust God to provide. But to hold that alone is to take a verse and twist it. Another verse:
"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor." John 4:34-38
And another:
“Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” -Luke 12:33-34
So now what does the story say? God will provide, both for our bodies and our spirits, real food and spiritual food. How do we get this food? We can't just expect mana from Heaven... honestly. He says it right there! Doing the work of the Father! So now we've established that this is important, food from God is the fruit of serving him.
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing... This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” -John 15:5,8
We bear the fruit! We give the physical and food and we bring the spiritual food, and it is the Holy Spirit in us that makes it possible. Like Shaine Claiborne says, we are the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. It is God working on us like a vine dresser trimming branches. Any part that does not produce fruit, God asks us to get rid of. Going back quickly to Luke, God again calls us to give to the poor. Provide for them! Show your faithfulness to God and he shows you what faithfulness really means. Anyone who has taken part in a mission trip can attest to this: you help someone else, and God helps you, and together you praise God for what he has done. If you can't relate to this, you need to go on one of these trips to experience it yourself. But I will warn you, it's addictive.
Finally, Templeton says that if this child died from thirst, God is a fiend. I disagree strongly. I think that if this child died from thirst, then Christians are fiends. I don't think God could tell us more clearly that this is our part in the world as his followers. If it wasn't clear enough, let me try to clear it up for you again.
“Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, "Come back later; I'll give it tomorrow"— when you now have it with you.” -Proverbs 3:27-28
Any other Americans out there who read this feel ashamed? It's as if God were looking ahead all those years to this moment in time and saying to Christians in America, 'how dare you?'. As Amanda can relate, God is out of time, he is then, now, and in the time still to come, of course he knew we would need to be told this! The duty is ours. Why did this child die? Why did it's mother have to suffer that ordeal? Because God didn't bring the rain? No, it's because we rich selfish stingy fiendish American Christians (if we can still claim the title of Christians, certainly by biblical standards we cannot) would not surrender our rain to those who needed it. We know we have the water, and if we don't have the water we certainly have the money and resources to get it. Charles Templeton died in 2001, having never been given this solution to his objection. But the point, is it is our duty to take up the case for suffering. We need to surrender the rain.
Special thanks to Seth for this final quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace and for economic and racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to say that it has atrophied its will. But if the church will free itself from the shackles of a deadening status quo, and, recovering its great historic mission, will speak and act fearlessly and insistently in terms of justice and peace, it will enkindle the imagination of mankind and fire the souls of men, imbuing them with a glowing and ardent love for truth, justice and peace. Men far and near will know the church as a great fellowship of love that provides light and bread for lonely travelers at midnight.”