We all have expectations of how others should act. Mary, Martha, Lazarus and Jesus Christ were friends. When Mary and Martha called on Jesus to heal Lazarus, their brother who was dying, they expected Jesus to come soon and heal Lazarus. When Jesus didn't come right away, they didn't understand.
In the movie The Flowers of War a Chinese father assists the invading Japanese soldiers as a way to get his daughter to safety. The daughter doesn't understand her dad's involvement with the Japanese, and she thinks his involvement is evidence that he is a bad person.
Doing the unexpected does not necessarily mean doing something unkind. Jesus Christ delayed His visit to Mary, Martha and Lazarus because He wanted to show that what He had been saying (Jesus Christ is God; God can raise the dead; and God can give eternal life) was possible and true. Jesus' delay allowed Jesus to raise a dead and decaying person (Lazarus) from the dead to new life, showing God is truthful and powerful.
When it seems that the Japanese are going to rape and murder the daughter in The Flowers of War, the daughter is discouraged about being rescued and decides to lead herself and other girls to commit suicide.
The devil specializes in creating circumstances to discourage people. A Japanese proverb says, "An evil act runs a thousand miles." Chinese authorities are trying to discourage people from protesting China's one-child policy. Zhang Yimou, the director of The Flowers of War, is being threatened by Chinese authorities with a fine of nearly $27 million for allegedly fathering seven children. After Chen Guangcheng filed a 2005 lawsuit against local officials practicing forced abortions and forced sterilizations as part of China's one-child policy, he went to jail and house arrest. He only got out of house arrest by escape and by negotiation between the U.S. and China. Many boys and girls haven't gotten out and have been killed by forced abortions, and many parents have been involuntarily sterilized.
The advocates of discouragement are not destined to ultimately win. Christian Minister and Human Rights Activist Desmond Tutu says in part of "An Easter Message:"
"Nothing could have been deader than Jesus on the cross that first Good Friday. And the hopes of his disciples had appeared to die with his crucifixion. Nothing could have been deeper than the despair of his followers when they saw their Master hanging on the Cross like a common criminal. The darkness that covered the earth for three hours during that Friday symbolized the blackness of their despair.
And then Easter happened. Jesus rose from the dead. The incredible, the unexpected happened. Life triumphed over death, light over darkness, love over hatred, good over evil. That is what Easter means--hope prevails over despair. Jesus reigns as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Oppression and injustice and suffering can't be the end of the human story. Freedom and justice, peace and reconciliation, are his will for all of us, black and white, in this land and throughout the world. Easter says to us that despite everything to the contrary, his will for us will prevail, love will prevail over hate, justice over injustice and oppression, peace over exploitation and bitterness."
Awesome leaders are born in adverse times. Not long after Jesus Christ was born, Herod ordered that the male babies of Bethlehem, Israel, be killed. Christian Minister and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in 1929 during the American Great Depression.
Even though more than 330 million boys and girls have lost their lives to abortion in China since the implementation of China's one-child policy, and more than 55 million American babies have been killed by abortion since Roe v. Wade, God is up to something good. Unexpected heroes in The Flowers of War rescue the suicidal daughter and girls. Fred Hammond started out as a baby on whom an abortion was attempted; today he is an adult Gospel singer. Don't let the devil suck you into discouragement. Continuously stand up for life, love and freedom. Un dicho (a proverb) dice, "El que persevera triunfa." (Whoever perseveres, triumphs.") An Ethiopian proverb says, "Anticipate the good so that you may enjoy it." God lives inside of creyentes (believers) giving us the power to live 1 Corinthians 13:7 Amplified Bible which says, "Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]."
What are some stories of enduring love and the unexpected? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.
Showing posts with label Zhang Yimou. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zhang Yimou. Show all posts
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
Rich, In The Middle Or Poor Family Planning Persecutes All
Just because God loves us does not mean that He does not get mad at our behavior. Some ancient Jews practiced abortion, infanticide and other forms of child killing. Psalm 106:37-40 Complete Jewish Bible says, "They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. Yes, they shed innocent blood, the blood of their own sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to Kena‘an’s false gods, polluting the land with blood. Thus they were defiled by their deeds; they prostituted themselves by their actions, For this Adonai’s fury blazed up against his people, and he detested his heritage."
The reasons for abortion, infanticide and other forms of child killing may change with the times, but sadly the practices are still common today globally. God didn't like these practices in the past, and He hasn't changed His mind in the present. Hebrews 13:8 Amplified Bible says, "Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is [always] the same, yesterday, today, [yes] and forever (to the ages)."
God created us as sexual beings. Sexuality has multiple beautiful, balanced, Biblical expressions. One expression of sexuality that pleases God is when a married couple enjoys sexual relations and in addition to the closeness of the couple, a new life is created. While sex is the means through which new life may be created at certain times of the month, God is the one determining if new life will be created. The author of human life is God and not the government or any other human being.
But in China and other places, human beings are trying to take the place of God. China has a one-child policy which includes forced abortions and forced sterilizations.
The New York Times "Chinese Filmmaker Is Investigated by Family Planning Officials" May 10, 2013, article by Edward Wong says, "China's most celebrated film director, Zhang Yimou, is being investigated for a potential violation of family planning laws, an official said Thursday, confirming reports in the state news media.
Family planning officials are examining discussions on the Internet that say Mr. Zhang has fathered up to seven children with four women. If he is found to have violated the laws, he could be fined nearly $27 million because the fines are based on the offender's income, according to a report in the online edition of People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party."
Chinese authorities do not just use fines to enforce China's one-child policy. In October 2012 Actor and Activist Christian Bale presented Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-taught lawyer and human rights activist, with an award at the annual gala of Human Rights First. Bale said, "He [Chen] had exposed a program of forced abortion and sterilization in Shandong. A program of forced abortion means that women are being dragged from their homes against their will. They are being forced to have abortions, sometimes late-term -- imagine that -- with some women reportedly dying in the process. Now this is true horror. And in this insane world, this man, Chen, who was helping these women -- who was living by some of the most simple, brave and universally admired values -- values that we teach our children every day, and helping our fellow man -- for this, this man was imprisoned and beaten for over four years."
In 2005 Chen Guangcheng filed a class-action lawsuit against a local Chinese government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy. Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest in Shandong, China, with guards surrounding his house, his cell phone service cut off, access to the Internet blocked and bright lights shinning on his house at night. His wife, Yuan Weijing, and daughter were living with him under house arrest. This family was prevented from meeting their wider family, including Chen Guangcheng's and Yuan Weijing's son, who lived elsewhere with an aunt.
Last spring He Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy in Beijing, so that he could escape house arrest in Shandong, China. Were they traveling in a Corolla, the best-selling car of all time produced by the Japanese company Toyota?
After Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy, the US and China worked out a deal, and Guangcheng escaped to the United States.
Guangcheng and his nuclear family got out of China, but his extended family is being intensely persecuted. Freedom Now, a human rights group, has written an April 29, 2013, letter to the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Torture seeking to get Chen Kegui, Guangcheng's nephew, to a hospital for urgently needed medical treatment and out of jail for a sentence that appears to be retaliation for Guangcheng's outspokenness on Chinese forced abortions and forced sterilizations and other Chinese human rights violations. Also yesterday morning, Guangcheng's brother, Chen Guangfu, was beat up by unidentified men who stopped him while he was riding his electric bike.
Kegui is married to Liu Fang. The couple have a young son, Chen Fubin. The April 2013 Freedom Now letter says in part:
"Chen Kegui is currently suffering from appendicitis, and although prison authorities may have administered intravenous antibiotics, he is in severe pain, has been denied access to a doctor, and has not been taken to a hospital despite reports that his appendix has begun to rupture.
Chen Kegui, 33, was detained by Chinese authorities shortly after his uncle, a prominent human rights advocate, escaped from illegal house arrest and sought refuge at the United States Embassy in Beijing. On April 27, 2012, police, local party officials, and government thugs stormed the family's home and arrested Chen Kegui's father, Chen Guangfu, beating and interrogating him about Chen Guangcheng's whereabouts. Authorities returned to the home and savagely beat Chen Kegui and his mother, Ren Zongju. When Chen Kegui attempted to defend himself from the intruders, a local party official was injured. After disappearing Chen Kegui for a number of days, the government formally arrested him in early May and ultimately sentenced him to three years and three months in prison on November 30, 2012, after a trial that failed to meet international standards for due process."
Families are being torn apart by China's one-child policy. Kegui and his son, Chen Fubin, are just one family that has been separated. Families are also being torn apart due to our American immigration policies.
Samuel Rodriguez, president of The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, America’s largest Hispanic Christian Organization with more than 40,000 member churches, writes in a "Trust Act Seeks to End Trivial Immigrant Arrests" editorial for the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Finally, as a pastor in the Hispanic community, I am constantly confronted with families that have been torn apart when a parent is deported, often times after minor contact with police. The long-term consequences for the children are devastating."
Let's stop China's one-child policy, anti-family immigration policies and abortion/involuntary sterilization everywhere.
A Yoruba Nigerian love poem called "The fulfilment of this earth's law is love" says:
"The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practice love!
With love two can live happily in the smallest of rooms
Without love even in a palace two cannot live in peace.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practice love!
The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!
Love is above the law, and it is the law completely,
Without love there'll be no help of one another.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!
The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practice love!
Love comes before marriage of a man and a woman,
Without love cause for separation is not hard to find.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!
The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!
With love two may enter the closest friendship,
Without love even twins may be irreconcilable.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!"
Please share Nigerian and other people's love songs, poems and prose by writing to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on the social media Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.
The greatest love of all is the love of God because it is effective for people in the past, present and forever. God loves people, and He desires from His creyentes (believers) to act like las reinas y los reyes (the queens and kings) He made us to be. God's royalty helps the oppressed. Proverbs 31:8-9 New Living Translation Bible says, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice."
The reasons for abortion, infanticide and other forms of child killing may change with the times, but sadly the practices are still common today globally. God didn't like these practices in the past, and He hasn't changed His mind in the present. Hebrews 13:8 Amplified Bible says, "Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is [always] the same, yesterday, today, [yes] and forever (to the ages)."
God created us as sexual beings. Sexuality has multiple beautiful, balanced, Biblical expressions. One expression of sexuality that pleases God is when a married couple enjoys sexual relations and in addition to the closeness of the couple, a new life is created. While sex is the means through which new life may be created at certain times of the month, God is the one determining if new life will be created. The author of human life is God and not the government or any other human being.
But in China and other places, human beings are trying to take the place of God. China has a one-child policy which includes forced abortions and forced sterilizations.
The New York Times "Chinese Filmmaker Is Investigated by Family Planning Officials" May 10, 2013, article by Edward Wong says, "China's most celebrated film director, Zhang Yimou, is being investigated for a potential violation of family planning laws, an official said Thursday, confirming reports in the state news media.
Family planning officials are examining discussions on the Internet that say Mr. Zhang has fathered up to seven children with four women. If he is found to have violated the laws, he could be fined nearly $27 million because the fines are based on the offender's income, according to a report in the online edition of People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party."
Chinese authorities do not just use fines to enforce China's one-child policy. In October 2012 Actor and Activist Christian Bale presented Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-taught lawyer and human rights activist, with an award at the annual gala of Human Rights First. Bale said, "He [Chen] had exposed a program of forced abortion and sterilization in Shandong. A program of forced abortion means that women are being dragged from their homes against their will. They are being forced to have abortions, sometimes late-term -- imagine that -- with some women reportedly dying in the process. Now this is true horror. And in this insane world, this man, Chen, who was helping these women -- who was living by some of the most simple, brave and universally admired values -- values that we teach our children every day, and helping our fellow man -- for this, this man was imprisoned and beaten for over four years."
In 2005 Chen Guangcheng filed a class-action lawsuit against a local Chinese government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy. Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest in Shandong, China, with guards surrounding his house, his cell phone service cut off, access to the Internet blocked and bright lights shinning on his house at night. His wife, Yuan Weijing, and daughter were living with him under house arrest. This family was prevented from meeting their wider family, including Chen Guangcheng's and Yuan Weijing's son, who lived elsewhere with an aunt.
Last spring He Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy in Beijing, so that he could escape house arrest in Shandong, China. Were they traveling in a Corolla, the best-selling car of all time produced by the Japanese company Toyota?
After Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy, the US and China worked out a deal, and Guangcheng escaped to the United States.
Guangcheng and his nuclear family got out of China, but his extended family is being intensely persecuted. Freedom Now, a human rights group, has written an April 29, 2013, letter to the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Torture seeking to get Chen Kegui, Guangcheng's nephew, to a hospital for urgently needed medical treatment and out of jail for a sentence that appears to be retaliation for Guangcheng's outspokenness on Chinese forced abortions and forced sterilizations and other Chinese human rights violations. Also yesterday morning, Guangcheng's brother, Chen Guangfu, was beat up by unidentified men who stopped him while he was riding his electric bike.
Kegui is married to Liu Fang. The couple have a young son, Chen Fubin. The April 2013 Freedom Now letter says in part:
"Chen Kegui is currently suffering from appendicitis, and although prison authorities may have administered intravenous antibiotics, he is in severe pain, has been denied access to a doctor, and has not been taken to a hospital despite reports that his appendix has begun to rupture.
Chen Kegui, 33, was detained by Chinese authorities shortly after his uncle, a prominent human rights advocate, escaped from illegal house arrest and sought refuge at the United States Embassy in Beijing. On April 27, 2012, police, local party officials, and government thugs stormed the family's home and arrested Chen Kegui's father, Chen Guangfu, beating and interrogating him about Chen Guangcheng's whereabouts. Authorities returned to the home and savagely beat Chen Kegui and his mother, Ren Zongju. When Chen Kegui attempted to defend himself from the intruders, a local party official was injured. After disappearing Chen Kegui for a number of days, the government formally arrested him in early May and ultimately sentenced him to three years and three months in prison on November 30, 2012, after a trial that failed to meet international standards for due process."
Families are being torn apart by China's one-child policy. Kegui and his son, Chen Fubin, are just one family that has been separated. Families are also being torn apart due to our American immigration policies.
Samuel Rodriguez, president of The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, America’s largest Hispanic Christian Organization with more than 40,000 member churches, writes in a "Trust Act Seeks to End Trivial Immigrant Arrests" editorial for the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Finally, as a pastor in the Hispanic community, I am constantly confronted with families that have been torn apart when a parent is deported, often times after minor contact with police. The long-term consequences for the children are devastating."
Let's stop China's one-child policy, anti-family immigration policies and abortion/involuntary sterilization everywhere.
A Yoruba Nigerian love poem called "The fulfilment of this earth's law is love" says:
"The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practice love!
With love two can live happily in the smallest of rooms
Without love even in a palace two cannot live in peace.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practice love!
The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!
Love is above the law, and it is the law completely,
Without love there'll be no help of one another.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!
The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practice love!
Love comes before marriage of a man and a woman,
Without love cause for separation is not hard to find.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!
The fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!
With love two may enter the closest friendship,
Without love even twins may be irreconcilable.
O, the fulfilment of this earth's law is love,
So, brothers and sisters, let us practise love!"
Please share Nigerian and other people's love songs, poems and prose by writing to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on the social media Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/michelelove30.
The greatest love of all is the love of God because it is effective for people in the past, present and forever. God loves people, and He desires from His creyentes (believers) to act like las reinas y los reyes (the queens and kings) He made us to be. God's royalty helps the oppressed. Proverbs 31:8-9 New Living Translation Bible says, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice."
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