‎"Progress" at what price?

Last Stand for the Xingu River

On a river in the Amazon Basin in Brazil, plans are progressing to build a massive dam, called Belo Monte. The dam(s) will have massive negative impact on the lives of people that have lived in the region for centuries as well as negative environmental impact for the region. Over the years the indigenous people in collaboration with others opposed to the project have been able to slow the advance of the project but it is still progressing and construction is very close to beginning. Those that oppose the project are becoming more focused and organized to stop the project.
Integrity, wisdom, humility demand that we look at the drivers for the need for more electricity production which the proponents say these dams will provide. Love, compassion, righteousness, prudence demand that we look at the impact on others and long term environmental impact that the actions will have and speak out for the oppressed and "weak", at least politically and monetarily weak.
Here is a petition to the Brazilian Government:
I support the demands of Brazilian civil society and urge you to defend the Amazon and its people and stop the Belo Monte Dam Complex.
Sign here.

Son Finds Place Back on Family Farm

This article really spoke to me about building generationally. Even more than just building a business or natural wealth to pass to the next generation, there is building a life with the principles and values of God that is transmitted to the next generation. But certainly working together in a family business gives great opportunity to see the application of those principles.

Deuteronomy 11:18-21 (New American Standard Bible)

 ¹⁸" You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
 ¹⁹" You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.
 ²⁰" You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
 ²¹so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth.

I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC parody

Here's the article.

Reformation

"When we talk of reformation we are not just talking about manifestations of the Spirit designed to bless us. We are talking about a foundational renovation of everything that the Church is. Therefore, there can be no reformation without conflict. There can be no reformation without confrontation. Things have to break, things have to be remodelled, old things have to be renewed. A reformation is the critical activity of transformation within the very structure of the Church.
"'Behold the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah. Not according to the covenant I made with their fathers.' A new covenant is not a cloning of the old. You cannot take the old things into the new. It must be not according. You can't take with you your old attitudes, your old relationships, your old mentality and your old style. Things have to change. As long as we come over into the new, with the position and the mentality, with the desire and the perception of that which you were in the old, we will miss the frequency. The old vision cannot work in that which is new, there must be a re-evaluation of our personal postions in the Spirit.
"As long as we glorify, as long as we honour, as long as we are filled by that which we now have, there will be no transition, there will be no spiritual journey to a new position. Every reformation emerges from a spirit that is filled with hunger. There has to be a deep spiritual discontent. There has to be a breaking of that which is old. We have to come to a place where we recognize that we can no longer call the old success. If we continue with that which was successful, we now begin to define ourselves into a present failure. Therefore, reformation emerges out of that state of brokenness, that state of chaos, that state of personal tumult, that sense of a loss of the way. The passage to reformation is through violent seeking and through strong desire. There is no comfortable, complacent passage towards a reformation move of God."
Dr. Noel Woodroffe from the song, "Reformation"

Community knowledge

Many indigenous cultures don't have a capitalistic or possessive mentality about knowledge or things. Knowledge is held in common for the good of all and God's creation has abundance for all to utilize for themselves and their family. But neither is this culture of community communism or socialism imposed by external force. It is the values in their heart which governs their lifestyle. Here is another article about the conflict some communities in the Amazon encounter when they are forced to interact with society outside of their communities:
Indigenous Community

Making a house a home

You've probably heard the saying, "Home is where the heart is." Certainly a home is more than a house. Here is an interesting article on home-making.
Anyone up for building real relationships?

WAORANI The Saga of Ecuador's Secret People: A Historical Perspective

This article is such a clear presentation of how modern civilization is destroying traditional cultures and teaching them to live in the ways of the corrupt world system which is destroying them.
GOD, LET YOUR KINGDOM COME AND RULE IN THE HEARTS OF THESE PEOPLE.

Not just the Waorani but all the weak and defenseless people being abused by the big, powerful, greedy societies; so-called Western "civilized" society. Help your people to rise up, seize the opportunities to be the voice for these that have no voice, to show them the ways of the kingdom and to true life in Christ.

The prudent sees the evil and hides himself,

Proverbs 22:3 (New American Standard Bible)
The prudent sees the evil and hides himself,
But the naive go on, and are punished for it.

Troubles are a part of life. Don't be lulled to complacency by apparent peace. Please prepare.
This is a very interesting allegory:
The Storm.

 Picture source

Honor and respect in the Xavante people

I enjoy learning and reading about different indigenous tribes.
This is an excerpt from a paper I found on the SIL website, concerning respect and honor in relationships with in-laws in the Xavante people in Brazil, a very popular subject, I'm sure, for all married people! ;) For me it is very thought provoking concerning treating everyone with respect and honor.

1.3 In-laws
 Perhaps the most central and crucial relationship in Xavante society is that of son-in-law–parents-in-law, especially that of son-in-law–father-in-law. When a young man marries, he moves into his in-laws' house. At this point he must accept his father-in-law as head of the household, and treat him with utmost respect. He is obliged to work for him in his fields and in general is subservient to him. During this potentially volatile transitional phase, the son-in-law avoids making eye contact with or speaking to either of his parents-in-law unless absolutely necessary, and usually communicates by using his wife or, less commonly, someone else as a liaison. At those times when he must speak to them, he employs the respect forms. Curiously, the father-in-law rarely speaks directly to his son-in-law as well, despite the fact that he is in a position of authority over him. Again, when direct communication is necessary, he also utilizes the respect forms. Perhaps this serves to emphasize the extreme volatility of the relationship. Avoiding direct address at all costs enables those involved to avoid direct confrontation and the possibility of the severing of the relationship. As the relationship is stabilized and the son-in-law matures, the speech taboo is utilized less and less as a form of avoidance behavior. Nevertheless, the honorific grammatical forms continue to be used by the in-laws to call attention to and encode their relationship. For girls, the above phenomenon involving men which so strongly characterizes Xavante culture is rarely exhibited. A young married girl has little direct contact with her father-in-law, and although she may frequently visit her mother-in-law, the relationship is usually anything but tense. Nevertheless, a mother or father-in-law will use the honorific forms to address a son's wife.

What is happening to our food supply?

A large part of the food industry is a perfect example of a system based upon greed not doing what is right for the welfare of it's customers.
Here is an article on GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) food.

Here is more info on shopping for non-GMO food, including a downloadable shopping list:
Non-GMO Shopping

Here is a petition to Pres. Obama for labeling on GMO food:
Petition for GMO labeling.

Argentina - a blue print for the future of the USA?

Interesting article looking at Argentina's economic history and how the USA is heading in a similar direction.

Simplify

"We must achieve the character and acquire the skills to live much poorer than we do. We must waste less. We must do more for ourselves and each other. It is either that or continue merely to think and talk about changes that we are inviting catastrophe to make."

Wendell Berry, from the essay "Word and Flesh," in the book What Are People For? North Point Press, 1990.
Found here.

"Cash for Clunkers" - Destroying valuable items to stimulate the economy?

What is done with your cash for clunker trade-in, many of which are still usable? It is destroyed.
Well that's helping the environment and the economy then, right? Are you paying cash for the new car or are you getting more in debt? And many of the new purchases are for foreign made cars. So much for really helping the fundamentals of the USA economy. As for the environment, what effect does new car production have on the environment? What effect does scrapping a working car have on the environment?
We have to look at the bigger picture. I like this quote:
“In every deliberation we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” The Iroquois Confederacy

Take a look at this tidbit from history:

During the Great Depression, millions of Americans couldn't afford to buy food. With food prices falling and huge surpluses of food building, the government decided to pass the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 which forced farmers to destroy crops and livestock in an attempt to artificially drive up food prices. The plan backfired and led to millions of Americans starving, prolonging the Great Depression for another six years.
From: http://inflation.us/cashforclunkers.html

Could cash for clunkers be just the beginning of more drastic measures to falsely prop up the failing economy but actually worsening the problem?

e-waste

The results of our high-tech, high waste consumer society:
PBS

I have not reviewed all of the information on the PBS show but it definitely begs the question: How are we stewarding what we have?

God's perfect balance

In my homesteading class today, we looked at the importance of soil and how to care for the soil. It is the foundation of all life. A pound of soil has over 900 billion living things in it. The health of the soil determines the health of the plants, which determines our health and the health of the animals which then continues to impact us when we eat the animals as well. It is amazing to see the synergistic, symbiotic cycle of life. A farm must be seen as a whole system of life on many levels, from the interconnectedness of the physical life systems but also on the level of the earth is a stewardship which God has given to us and how we relate to the life systems which God has designed in the earth is connected to our relationship with God. When we are out of order with how God has designed the earth to operate then it has serious consequences for life. Truly, the earth is groaning for the manifestation of the sons of God, those who are living and governing in the earth according to the design of Father God.

Insight into God's purposes

I would encourage anyone interested in understanding more of what is happening behind the scenes in current events to these sites:
Scott Webster Ministries
Scott is on the Apostolic Core Leadership Team of the Kingdom Community Network of Congress WBN. He also heads the Atlanta Embassy of Elijah Center. Elijah Center, based in Trinidad, is the creative core of Congress WBN. Scott publishes a newsletter that gives insight of the underlying philosophies and mentalities that drive the events in society and how we must realign our hearts with God's principles to establish His rulership in our lives and the earth as a whole.

ICA is a financial and geo-political consultant company that offers a wealth of resources concerning current events. They have daily news briefings, a weekly audio commentary, and monthly newsletter.

The Community web page

I found this on the web page of a Kingdom Community which is part of the Congress WBN:
"At TC, we see ourselves as a part of the “global church” which is not limited by geographical or geopolitical boundaries. We are a people who desire to develop a correct global perspective that empowers us to become a portal of divine activity into whatever nation within which God desires us to build. Our globalness also allows us to build seamlessly between our community, the communities within PTWN, and our affiliation with Congress-WBN."
I thought this was very interesting. It stirs my heart with the vision of God's purpose. Here is the page:
The Community
You can visit them if you are ever in NW Arkansas.

Economy, polity, society

I recently finished a very interesting little book by Blair Adams, published by Colloquium Press. The title is "Severing the Roots of Unsustainability." It is called "A Basic Primer", for it is derived from other much more extensive works. It looks at how culture includes three aspects, economy, polity, and society. What determines the nature of the culture is which of those three is dominant. If economy is dominant then the other two; the public, civil life and inter-personal relationships serve only towards the goal of economic growth. What I would call raw capitalism. If polity is dominant, then the other two are subservient to the expansion of the public/civil life, an authoritarian type of system. In the type of culture where society, meaning personal relationships, is dominant then the basis of relationships is voluntary association with shared principles and values. Thus the civil government springs from the internal self-government of the people. The economy is based on meeting the needs of the individuals and the community, not focused on greater profit.

"A Republic, if you can keep it"

Dr. Benjamin Franklin was quoted as giving the response, "A Republic, if you can keep it" to the question of the outcome of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Concerning this constitutional republic, John Adams second president of the USA, said in an address to the military, Oct. 11, 1798:
"We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."
As we consider the current state of the Union, from the failure of policies towards the native American Indian nations and our national monetary system controlled by a private banking cartel to global police actions and federal entitlements for the broad spectrum of special interest groups, I would say that we have not fulfilled our responsibility to keep the republic. I would further say that it is a matter of the heart. As I read John Adams' quote, because we have not kept our individual lives by self-government under God, our civil government is showing serious signs of failure.

Mexico - USA relations

I am seeing in a new and greater way how I must work to develop a culture in my life and relationships that represents the accurate nature of Christ within me. One way is to develop more collaboration and interaction with other Kingdom minded people with different cultural backgrounds. With the current issues in connection with the USA's neighbor to the south, Mexico, here is a rather interesting article.