Wings of the Wind

Butterflies……

Book review: The Butterfly Effect

Andy Andrews speaks to groups over 100 times a year, and his skill at story telling is one of the main reasons he’s so popular with audiences. One of those stories, The Butterfly Effect, is his most requested, and has now been turned into a book. Just 109 pages long, The Butterfly Effect is a slim book, but communicates a weighty message. The speaker and New York Times best-selling author uses real-life examples to communicate an important principle: the decisions you make and the way you treat others have more impact than you may ever realize.

The book’s title is taken from a scientific hypothesis presented in 1963. It suggested that a butterfly could flap its wings and set molecules of air in motion, which would move other molecules of air, in turn moving more molecules of air — eventually capable of starting a hurricane on the other side of the planet.

Now I’m no scientist, but the whole idea seems pretty fanciful to me. If butterfly wings cause hurricanes, the force of my tire blowing out recently should have caused the planet to be wrenched out of its orbit around the Sun. In the same way, some of Andrew’s accounts seem a bit Bunyanesque. For example, Colonel Vincent Chamberlain, spared a mortal wound when a bullet bounced off his belt buckle during the Battle of Gettysburg, heroically held off rebel soldiers against insurmountable odds (Are there any other kind of odds in war stories?). If he didn’t, the North would have lost the war, the United States would have dissolved, and North America would have turned into a politically fragmented continent like Europe.

In spite of the fact that a number of Andrew’s biographical stories seem like hyperbole, The Butterfly Effect does convey the important message that your life can impact others in ways that are not always immediately evident. I’m reminded of Mordecai’s encouragement to Esther during a time of peril for the nation of Israel:

“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14 ESV)

The Butterfly Effect does provide some serious inspiration. But I’ll hold off on giving it a round of applause. I might cause a typhoon on the other side of the globe.

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David Wilson has a blog called “Faces of Lions.”  This post can be found here:

http://facesoflions.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/book-review-the-butterfly-effect

I have never explained why I’ve used a butterfly as a symbol on this blog.  It has nothing to do with anything in David’s review or Andy Andrews’ book.  Maybe  I’ll explain it someday.

The letter that I’ve printed below is interesting on a number of levels.  Because there’s only a few weeks left for folks to register to vote, I chose to focus on that part of the letter.

I was walking through a church fellowship hall the other day (not my own church) and my eyes happened to notice a letter from a young lady who lives in Uganda.  Evidently, the church sends funding to support the young lady’s education and there is correspondence.

There was a picture of the young teenager next to the letter.

The letter was written by the young lady, in English handwriting, with an obvious concern for neatness.

Enjoy and, if you aren’t, get registered.

By the way; Tuesday is the day school board elections are being held.  I am endorsing Graham McCullough for the Hot Springs School Board.

Chris Reimers

Hello my sponsors,

I’m so glad to write to you again.  So far away from me, but I pray for you always and wish the best for you in your life.

Can you imagine how God does wonders; I am just growing taller without even realizing it.  I now think, talk, and even conduct myself differently from the way I used to Have you experienced this too?

(The young lady goes on to tell of a change in her schooling situation that has created new challenges.)

I know through prayers and by the grace of God, I’ll get used to the (changes).

The government is encouraging people to register for voting.  I can’t vote because I am 16 years old.  They allow voters 18 and older here. Is it the same there?

Are you interested in voting?

Please continue praying for me to work harder because I’m also working hard and praying for you in every situation.

Thank you for your prayers and for loving me.

From your daughter,

(Signed)

Note:  It is June 25, 2012 and I just got a comment about this post today (see comments).  To be fair to the website linked to here that used to give you the option to drop a bomb on the traditional family, IT HAS BEEN CHANGED.  I did not know this until I read today’s comment and came back to this post.  The target and bomb has been replaced by a baby bottle and a baby.  I don’t know when the change was made, but it has been made.  I’m leaving the story up so that you know how it was not long ago.

CR

The following is a portion of an article that appeared on LifeSiteNews today.  I’m really beginning to like the site.

We all know that the traditional family is in trouble.  A large percentage of younger folks, through no fault of their own, have never tasted personally what it feels like to be part of a traditional family.

Times have certainly changed.

As a 12-year-old paper boy in 1970, I delivered papers to the neighborhood that surrounded the home of my youth.  Out of the 120 or so customers that I had, I can remember the widowed woman across the street raising two kids, and the man who lived by himself a few houses down.

Other than those two, everyone else that I collected monthly payments from  were either retired or in a family that had a Dad and a Mom.

Did I hear family members hollering at one another occasionally?  Yes.

Were there a few meanies?  Yes.

Were all of the Fathers great Fathers?  I would guess that not all of them were.

Were all of the Mothers great Mothers?  Probably not.

Was there dysfunction (although I don’t think the word was yet related to families)?

Of course.

Sadly, things aren’t as good for children today as they were in 1970.

I can’t believe how fast and how far things have deteriorated.

I have met heroic young women who are trying to raise their children in a godly way by themselves.

I have met heroic young men who are doing the same.

A good deal of the time today, however, the kids are the last consideration in the fight between former marrieds.

I don’t think I need to quote statistics for those of you who are reading this.  You have eyes.  You can see what is happening.

It is a difficult thing to watch.

Chris Reimers

Here’s part of the article (a letter) from LifeSiteNews:

Dear Friends,

“Destroy the Traditional Family: The Game”

No, we’re not joking. This game is real, and you can play it on this website.

Participants can use the cursor (shaped like a target) to click on images of happy traditional families, and watch as bombs fall onto the collage of smiling portraits, leaving only a black crater in their wake!

And we’re the intolerant bigots?

Of course we realize that the people behind the website have no intention of actually bombing families. But what it does make clear is what LifeSiteNews.com has been saying for years:

Very influential, well-funded people are trying to destroy the traditional family.

Anti-family groups, organizations, and individuals have made it their mission to completely deconstruct the family, giving it a subjective meaning that can be molded and warped to an individual’s liking. The result is not a new type of family, but the destruction of family, the bedrock of civilization, altogether.

Perhaps no institution has done more to further this destruction than Hollywood.

Moreover, the recently released film, “The Kids Are All Right,” starring Julianne Moore and Annette Bening, attempts to give normalcy to a lesbian-headed “family,” where the children were conceived with the help of a sperm donor. The title (and the whole film) is meant to suggest that such a lifestyle is perfectly natural and harmless.

The anti-family movement has certainly made progress over the past few decades, and Hollywood has been the perfect vehicle to spread its propaganda.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10091505.html

You can watch big bombs destroy the traditional family (I guess that includes single parents because a few of them are pictured) by clicking on the red letters above or by going here:

http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2007/09/destroy-traditi.html

Whoever planned the 911 attacks of nine years ago missed the most important “building,” figuratively speaking.  They thought they hit the most important building, but they missed it by a long shot.

The “building” to which I refer is the church of Jesus Christ.

Two tall buildings, and others, were destroyed 9 years ago.

The church will never be destroyed.  It is not a building.  It is a group of people.

Jesus said, “…the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

Some members of the church of Jesus Christ died 9 years ago.  They were attacked and killed, but their souls were not destroyed.

The church can be and is being attacked today. It can’t be destroyed.

Most church goers today have trouble finding 2^nd Timothy.  It is a small book towards the back of the Bible that was written by Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome.  They are his last words before martyrdom.

It would be good for everyone to read the four chapters of this little book today.  It takes about 20 minutes.

From chapter 3:

¹But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

²For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

³unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

⁴treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…

Sure sounds a lot like our world today.

Those men who were responsible for killing over 3,000 Americans 9 years ago could not be described better.

In the final chapter (4) that he ever penned, Paul wrote:

³For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires…”

This is a good description of many within “Christian” churches today.  Many in those churches no longer believe in absolute truth.

The truth is:

An insidious attack took place in New York 9 years ago.

An insidious attack has been taking place within many of the churches for years.

Many think they are going to heaven because of their good deeds.  The Bible says that no one will go to heaven because of their goodness.

We must get back to simple Bible truths.

When Paul wrote these final words, the many churches he had started were experiencing attacks from within and without.  It is no different today.

Today’s news will be filled with stories of the events that took place 9 years ago.  It should be a reminder.  Life is vaporous (Ecclesiastes).  There are no guarantees.

It should cause us to stop and examine our condition.

Do we know God?

Chris Reimers

……..If you aren’t one of the over 20 million people who have seen this via internet, I hope you become one.  There are probably another 20,000,000 who have seen it in the artist’s country alone.

I define true art as something that “moves” you.  Different things move different people.  This is true art in my opinion.

I can’t remember who sent this to me months ago.  For some reason, I just remembered it today.  Don’t know how I forgot to share it.

Chris Reimers

Sand Artist Kseniya Simonova Moves Audience to Tears with Performance Last Year Winning “Ukraine’s Got Talent”

Miss Simonova, 24, drew a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II.

One video clip, of the many now in many places, has gotten over 15 million views

She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated.

It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.

She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.

This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.

The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine, resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.

Click here to watch this incredibly talented young lady (Make sure you watch it in fullscreen mode):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518XP8prwZo

By Manny of “Kairos Now”

The vast majority of the so-called Body of Christ is like a great centipede slowly marching toward the cliffs of deception and whistling as it walks.  At the head of the slick body of the great centipede, snug in the control room, are the leaders of this well-healed, fits-all-limbs spectacle. The leaders flash cue cards ordering a hasty change of tennis shoes. Slowly from the front to rear, the change comes like dominoes falling in succession.

Jesus warned us that there would be deception in the end times:

Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. (Matthew 24:11)

For false Christ’s and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24)

Pollster George Barna has recorded the present state of the Body of Christ for us.

1. 34 percent of those who call themselves “born-again,” 53 percent of all Christians, and 73 percent of mainline Protestants believe that if a person is good, he will go to heaven. In other words, you do not need Jesus to go to heaven.

2. 66 percent of evangelicals do not believe that the bible is totally accurate; 74 percent of Catholics and 42 percent of all Christians agree.

3. 28 percent of “born-again” Christians, 65 percent of evangelicals, and 40 percent of all Christians believe that Jesus was a sinner when He walked the earth.

4. 52 percent of those who call themselves “born-Again,” 72 percent of Catholics, and 80 percent of all Christians do not believe that the devil is real, that he is only a symbol of evil.

5. 55 percent of “born-again” Christians and 61 percent of all Christians do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a person, only a symbol of God’s presence and power.

6. 35 percent of “born-again” Christians and 39 percent of all Christians do not believe that Jesus rose from the dead bodily.

Some modern Christian “beliefs” are pure blasphemies that no longer follow the Bible’s clear teaching. Many religious leaders have joined “ecumenical” movements claiming that you do not have to know Jesus to get to heaven; just live a “good life.” They have bitten into the lie and openly question the authority and accuracy of scripture. Sounds like the same questioning the serpent laid out for Eve and her husband.

Many are endorsing and performing same-sex marriages. Some groups are even ordaining openly homosexual clergy. Moreover, these are church leaders!

Where do you stand? Do you believe they are right? Will you join with them and just fall in step with great centipede?

These are crucial questions. There are many leaders who are so afraid of losing their tax-exempt status that they dare not say anything against the wave of the great Social Gospel and political correctness.

Jesus said:

Do not think that I come to come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in –law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. (Matthew 10:34-37)

Many preachers share a salvation message that promises, “Become a Christian, and God will bless you. You will have everything you ever wanted.”

What is the true Gospel of the Kingdom?

In the early church, the only true gospel of salvation was that of the cross of Jesus. The Apostle Paul wrote:

Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:22-24)

The true gospel of salvation is the cross! Paul wrote:

And I brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

The apostle Paul was a man with a great ability to preach and teach. He was very wise. Why would he admonish us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, and why did he avoid enticing words of man’s wisdom? Because he feared that he would somehow compromise the message of the cross.

Many preachers today have no such fear and trembling, they draw people into their churches with enticing words of man’s wisdom, rejecting the message of the cross and repentance in favor of the promises of blessings and prosperity for anyone who becomes a Christian. The proof is in the previous poll and its sickening results.  Many preachers will not ever talk about  sin, the cross, or the blood of Jesus.

Jeremiah 6:13-15 speaks of preachers of so-called peace. If you look up the definition of peace in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, the definition states peace is prosperity. Some have grown rich and refuse to turn back to God’s ways. For them surrendering your life to God has become passé. Hear what Jeremiah says in the very next verse: Thus says the Lord: stand in the ways and see, ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls.” But they said, “We will not walk in it.” (Jeremiah 6:16).

Some of those who continue to preach the unadulterated truth of repentance, sacrifice, and the taking up of one’s cross, have become unpopular, rejected, and even ostracized. Their congregations may not swell into thousands or even hundreds. They preach what the saints need to hear, not what they want to hear.

Satan’s greatest strategy is to deceive the whole world. Jesus repeatedly warned of the great deception in the end times. Sadly enough, the great centipede is goose stepping its way, flashing lights in the heals of its Reeboks, chanting “gay is okay, just come and sway this way, we have plenty of shoes that will fit in a politically correct way.”

The scriptures stand as given, but many pastors and church leaders are not walking in the truth. It is apparently too hard for them to digest and speak the Word as admonished by Paul in Ephesians 4:15 -”speaking the truth in love…” They speak of a watered down gospel and lead many to damnation.  “Straight is the gate and narrow is the way, and few there be there in.”