food for the soul..

i got this from RBC..

Abuse of Authority

There is a fine line between the healthy and unhealthy use of power. At any time, even the best of leaders can begin making decisions that increasingly put their own interests before the needs of others.
The misuse of authority, however, is not always subtle. History tells the stories of countless leaders who boldly acted as if their position placed them above real accountability.

Biblical examples of misused power
In Bible times, the sons of Samuel used their appointments as judges of Israel to take bribes, pervert justice, and accumulate personal wealth. Later, God’s choice for the first king of Israel, Saul, abused his power in an effort to kill the man chosen to be his successor. When David became king, he misused the authority of the throne of Israel to commit adultery with the wife of one of his officers. Then David conspired to have Bathsheba’s husband killed.
Centuries later, a little-known church leader named Diotrephes misused his position by denouncing others to elevate himself. He was so protective of his own position that he would not even welcome the apostle John into his congregation (3 John 1:9-10). We don’t know how Diotrephes publicly explained his lack of hospitality. But privately he might have assumed that all he had done for the church entitled him to unchallenged prominence in the group.

The principle and the red flags
In biblical times and now, abuse of authority involves a harmful and destructive pattern of leadership that diverts organizational power for personal use at the expense of others.

A culture of fear. Such abuse of authority thrives in a culture whose people fear one another. Leaders are afraid of losing power. Subordinates know the danger of confronting those in authority. Loyalty is emphasized to distract from what is really happening. Mutual intimidation lies just under the surface of what seems safe to talk about or question.

A culture of confusion. In church or parachurch groups, leaders sometimes use spiritual language that implies they have a private line to God. The result is that the group learns to hear the teaching or prayerful decisions of leadership as if they were listening to God. Such confusion leads to trouble.

A culture of control and exclusion. When spiritual overseers are not held accountable to fair process and well-defined checks and balances, they can impose their will in ways that go beyond their rightful sphere of control. Such leaders may remove a noncompliant person from the group, not for the sake of the organization but as a means to protect their own leadership. By threatening exclusion for noncompliance, leaders can require submission in matters that are more personal than public, more cultural than biblical, and more arbitrary than fairly reasoned. Ironically, abusive leaders often suggest that their own accountability to God places them above criticism and question, without granting the same freedom to others.
In the noise and commotion of such abuse, phrases like “touch not the Lord’s anointed” or “obey them that have the rule over you” are used, not to promote a healthy fear of the Lord but rather an unhealthy fear of men.

A better example
Jesus’ example of leadership is a corrective to such abuse of authority. In His kingdom, leaders think and act like servants. They hear the questions and cries of those who are hurting. They give others the consideration they want for themselves.

In Jesus’ kingdom, elders and deacons do not correct someone else without first working on their own faults (Luke 6:39,41-42). They remember the Lord’s words: “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40).

One leader’s inspired counsel
Listen to what one of Jesus’ understudies tells us. Watch for the value the apostle Peter puts on heartfelt service. Note that he wants both elders and church members to serve God not by coercion but because they desire to. Peter writes to fellow elders, “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2-3).

Spiritual shepherds are not to “lord it over” the flock of God. Just as overseers, elders, and deacons are not to be pressed into service, neither are they to intimidate, shame, or compel others to serve, to give, or to follow. Even when confronting false teachers, representatives of Christ are not to be authoritarian in style, but “gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition” (2 Timothy 2:24-25).

Sooner or later, therefore, we need to realize that we don’t honor even the most trusted spiritual leaders by believing everything they say. We give them their rightful place when we weigh their words, ask important questions, and dig into the text of their message for ourselves.
The New Testament record of Acts honors the citizens of Berea precisely because they did not passively accept what they were taught by Paul and Silas. Instead, our record of the New Testament church says of the Bereans, “These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

The implication is clear. God does not give His leaders power and authority to control anyone, but to speak a truth that sets people free.

Father in heaven, please help us to love and reflect the leadership of Your Son. Teach us to follow Him by listening to the questions and cries of the weakest among us, while reserving strong words only for those who are using their authority at the expense of those they have been called to protect.
Father, may those of us who are in supportive roles learn to respect those who are leading, while also learning to think for ourselves. Please give us hearts that are ready to hear Your Word, eager to learn, and ready to express, by our actions, the truth and grace of Your Son.

Da Vinci Code...emmm interesting..

this coming movie ( adapted from the book i guess) has attract a lot of people in the community especially my fellow believers..well read thru on what Mart De Haan says bout the book itself..

Been Thinking About The Da Vinci Code?

By Mart De Haan

A reviewer from Book Sense says, "This is one of those rare books that comes along and makes you question everything you thought you knew about religion, art, and what you were taught in school. It's fast-paced, enthralling, and simply impossible to put down."
The Da Vinci Code begins with a lengthy list of acknowledgments and then a "fact page" designed to leave the impression that the novel is based on careful research of little-known facts.
One of the book's main characters is Robert Langdon, a fictional Harvard professor of religious symbology. Claiming years of research, the professor maintains that for 1,700 years, the church has been covering up the real truth about Jesus. His views are later echoed by a fictional British royal historian referred to as Sir Leigh Teabing who says things like, "almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false" (The Da Vinci Code, p.235).

The title of the book comes from the claim that Leonardo Da Vinci—along with other notables like Sir Isaac Newton and Victor Hugo—was a member of a secret society entrusted with the truth about Jesus. The secret of this group (The Priory of Sion) is that Jesus had a daughter by Mary Magdalene. Mary, according to the Priory, was the true Holy Grail who bore the royal bloodline of Jesus on earth. This, according to the professor, is a fact the church will kill to suppress.

What many readers fail to keep in mind is that The Da Vinci Code is fiction. Worse yet, the story rests not on careful research, but on a documented fraud passed off as truth. The idea that Leonardo was a member of The Priory of Sion is based on a document proven by a French court of law to be a forgery and a hoax (The Truth Behind The Da Vinci Code by Richard Abanes, Harvest House Publishers, pp.48-57).

The Da Vinci Code's "alternative view of history" also falsely states that Jesus was not regarded as a God until the fourth century when the Roman emperor Constantine decided it was in his own political interests to unite the empire by giving Jesus "an impenetrable cloak of divinity" (The Da Vinci Code, p.233).

To make the claim plausible, fictional historian Teabing says, "The most profound moment in Christian history" occurred when "Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ's human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned" (The Da Vinci Code, p.234).

The Da Vinci Code claims that some of the documents Constantine tried to destroy managed to survive in scrolls found in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. These scrolls allegedly "highlight glaring historical discrepancies and fabrications, clearly confirming that the modern Bible was compiled and edited by men who possessed a political agenda—to promote the divinity of the man Jesus Christ and use His influence to solidify their own power base" (The Da Vinci Code, p.234).

The ancient texts found at Nag Hammadi, however, were not "lost books of the Bible," as Teabing claims. They were the writings of a mystery religion known as Gnosticism. Gnostics viewed spirit as good and matter as evil. They denied the physical body and crucifixion of Jesus and emphasized a secret knowledge received only by those initiated into the religion. The early church rejected their teachings long before Constantine.

But even if The Da Vinci Code doesn't stand up under scrutiny, is it possible that the Bible has been altered through thousands of years of countless copies and versions? This is the kind of question that is best answered by those who have applied the principles of science to manuscript evidence. Scholars spend lifetimes examining all available manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts. They note and map any variations of spelling or wording that show up in families of manuscripts that have been copied from a common source. In addition they analyze the writings of second- and third-century church fathers who left extensive quotes of the Scriptures they were reading and studying.

On the basis of such research, scholars assure us that our Bible is a highly reliable representation of the original manuscripts. In The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable, F. F. Bruce writes, "To sum up, we may quote the verdict of the late Sir Frederic Kenyon, a scholar whose authority to make pronouncements on ancient MSS was second to none: 'The interval then between the data of original composition and the earliest extant evidence become so small to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scripture have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established' " (http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/ffbruce/ntdocrli/ntdocont.htm; The Bible and Archaeology, New York and London: Harper, 1940).

Backed by such evidence, the Bible also remains the all-time bestselling and most widely read book in the world. Challengers come and go. What remain are the words of those who were willing to die for their claim that they personally witnessed the miraculous life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. One of those witnesses wrote, "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty" (2 Peter 1:16).

blessed are those who come in the name of the Lord

He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

2 Corinthians 1:4, NLT

Amen! God bless all the broken hearts..

words of the day.....

Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. Stop criticizing others, or it will all come back on you. If you forgive others, you will be forgiven.

Luke 6:37, NLT

have a nice blessed day :)

more on PDA

getting the wrong PDA? the above PDA stand for "Public Display of Affection"
well these days...PDA could be healthy..but sometime...irritate other people in community..till issue like below came out...

Stop spying, urges Ong
LUMUT: Local authorities should stop sending their enforcement officers to spy on courting couples, unless there are excessive indecent acts such as stripping.
Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said the local authorities also should not have their own interpretations on what constituted indecent acts.
“We don’t want local authorities to have their own interpretations and arrest couples who are seen holding hands or putting hands on each other’s shoulders.
“That is not your priority. If a person is found naked in public areas, then they can do something about it, as such an act is intolerable and seriously immoral,” he said.
Ong was addressing the issue of whether hugging and kissing constituted indecent behaviour at the National Municipal Council Conference held at Swiss-Garden Resort and Spa Damai Laut here yesterday.
He said the matter was of grave concern to the public and the Government.
If local authorities were to interpret the park bylaws differently, it would send the wrong message to the outside world, he said.
“Some may say that they cannot have couples holding hands or husband and wife hugging each other.
“If a council head backs such unpopular acts, then you become controversial,” he added.
The Housing and Local Government Ministry, Ong said, would discuss the definition with other agencies such as the Tourism Ministry and the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry before submitting it to the Cabinet for decision, after which it will further be endorsed by the National Council of Local Governments.
On April 4, the Federal Court ruled that the KL City Hall had the authority to enact bylaws to prosecute people for indecent public behaviour.
The Federal Court made this decision when hearing the appeal by two university students who challenged the power of local authorities to enact such bylaws under the Local Government Act 1976 after they were summoned for allegedly behaving indecently at the KLCC Park in 2003.
However, the court also ruled that it would be up to the magistrate hearing the case to decide if hugging and kissing constituted indecent behaviour.
The case is still pending.
Following the Federal Court ruling, several parties including the Bar Council and the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) wanted the authorities to come up with a clear definition of indecency if there was to be legislation on it.

Words for the day.....

Blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank.

Jeremiah 17:7-8, NLT

splashh!!

huhu...wish i could make a get-away trip to some place like this...water somehow always be the best cure to stress and best element for relaxing....for me...i think a lot of people out there agree with me..what say you??

world is getting old...

our world is getting old...read thru the article below, and let get some moral value out of it...
together we make this world a better place :)

Quarter of species gone by 2050, study predicts
‘Global warming will result in catastrophic species loss,' scientist says

By Sara Goudarzi
Updated: 8:26 p.m. ET April 11, 2006
Using several models that project habitat changes, migration capabilities of various species, and related extinctions in 25 "hotspots," scientists predict that a quarter of the world's plant and vertebrate animal species would face extinction by 2050.
A report detailing the projections was released today.
Biodiversity hotspots are some of the richest and most threatened biological pools on Earth. They contain 44 percent of plant and 35 percent of the Earth's vertebrate species on only 1.4 percent of the Earth's land. Each hotspot contains its own set of unique species.
"Climate change is rapidly becoming the most serious threats to the planet's biodiversity," said Jay Malcolm, an assistant forestry professor at the University of Toronto. "This study provides even stronger scientific evidence that global warming will result in catastrophic species loss across the planet."
In the most dramatic of the scenarios, for which carbon dioxide levels grow to double that of today's levels, the models forecasted a potential loss of 56,000 plant species and 3,700 vertebrate species in the hotspots.
Such a climate scenario could become a reality in only 50 years, the study estimates.
"These species lose their last options if we allow climate change to continue unchecked," said Lara Hansen, chief climate scientist at the global conservation group World Wildlife Fund. "Keeping the natural wealth of this planet means we must avoid dangerous climate change—and that means we have got to reduce carbon dioxide emissions."
The study found that certain hotspots were especially sensitive to climate change with extinctions sometimes exceeding 2,000 plant species per hotspot. These include the Caribbean, the Tropical Andes, Cape Floristic region of South Africa, Southwest Australia, the Atlantic forests of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
The results are detailed in the journal Conservation Biology.
© 2006 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

for thouhgt and food of mind...very interesting

please click the link and tell me ur opinion and comment..somehow, facts and finding can be a useful knowledge and topic to be discuss in our life...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12186080/

errrk..

first of all, i accidentaly create this blog simply because i wanted to post a comment in one of my fren's blog...never really active in blogging, but since that it is free, so will make use of this space then..anyway i find it interesting here and be part of the members in blogspot..hope i can share a lot of interesting things with all readers and bloggers..God bless all and have a nice day!