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US State Department Statement Concerning the Deteriorating Human Rights Situation in Iran

Verneda Lights — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 01:40:40 +0000

Deteriorating Human Rights Situation in Iran

Press Statement

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Secretary of State

Washington, DC

February 23, 2011

The United States remains deeply concerned by the persecution of Iranian citizens at the hand of their government. Over the past ten days, we have witnessed the bravery of thousands of Iranians who once again took to the streets to exercise their fundamental rights to peaceful assembly and expression. It has been made clear to the world that Iran denies its citizens the same fundamental rights it continues to applaud elsewhere in the Middle East.

Security forces have beaten, detained, and – in at least three cases – killed peaceful protesters. Off the streets, the regime’s leaders have targeted human rights defenders and political activists, and authorities have recently rounded-up ex-government officials and their families; former members of parliament; clerics and their children; student leaders and their professors; as well as journalists and bloggers. They also continue to deny their citizens access to information by jamming satellite transmissions and blocking internet sites.

Iran’s leaders also continue to persecute ethnic and religious minorities. We are troubled by reports that, of the dozens of prisoners executed in 2011, most are ethnic minorities. At the same time, Baha’is and other religious minorities continue to be subjected to arbitrary arrests and prosecutions, harsh sentences, and unsafe prison conditions. We call on Iran to free all political prisoners and persecuted minorities.

The steady deterioration in human rights conditions in Iran has obliged the international community to speak out time and again. Today, the United States sanctions two Iranian officials – in addition to the eight sanctioned by the President last fall – for perpetrating these abuses. The world will continue to watch and will hold accountable those responsible for these actions. The United States joins the international community in affirming the universal rights to which all men and women – in Iran and around the world – are entitled.

PRN: 2011/273

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via state.gov

Who’s Ready for the World? Rocket Girrrlz! Art Aware Casual Wear

Verneda Lights — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:50:18 +0000

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Meditation for This Evening Feb 23rd: “Take up the cross, and follow Me.”—Mark 10:21, by C. H. Spurgeon

Verneda Lights — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:41:01 +0000

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

This Evening’s Meditation

C. H. Spurgeon

“Take up the cross, and follow Me.”—Mark 10:21.

YOU have not the making of your own cross, although unbelief is a master carpenter at cross-making; neither are you permitted to choose your own cross, although self-will would fain be lord and master; but your cross is prepared and appointed for you by divine love, and you are cheerfully to accept it; you are to take up the cross as your chosen badge and burden, and not to stand cavilling at it. This night Jesus bids you submit your shoulder to His easy yoke. Do not kick at it in petulance, or trample on it in vain-glory, or fall under it in despair, or run away from it in fear, but take it up like a true follower of Jesus. Jesus was a cross-bearer; He leads the way in the path of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better guide! And if He carried a cross, what nobler burden would you desire? The Via Crucis is the way of safety; fear not to tread its thorny paths.
Beloved, the cross is not made of feathers, or lined with velvet, it is heavy and galling to disobedient shoulders; but it is not an iron cross, though your fears have painted it with iron colours, it is a wooden cross, and a man can carry it, for the Man of sorrows tried the load. Take up your cross, and by the power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love with it, that like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it, and it will smell sweetly; remember that it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of trouble. The Lord help you to bow your spirit in submission to the divine will ere you fall asleep this night, that waking with to-morrow’s sun, you may go forth to the day’s cross with the holy and submissive spirit which becomes a follower of the Crucified.

via spurgeon.org

Facts of the Matter February 23: “Code Of Ethics” by Dwight Hill

Verneda Lights — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:46:50 +0000

February 23: Code Of Ethics

Again, the gnarly challenge of ethics in business. I thought you might appreciate seeing The McDonnell Douglas Corporation’s code of ethics. Lots of Biblical truth here:

“Integrity and ethics exist in the individual or they do not exist at all. They must be upheld by individuals or they are not upheld at all. In order for integrity and ethics to be characteristic of McDonnell Douglas, we who make up the corporation must strive to be:

Honest and trustworthy in all our relationships.

Reliable in carrying out assignments and responsibilities.

Truthful and accurate in what we say and write.

Cooperative and constructive in all work undertaken.

Fair and considerate in our treatment of fellow employees, customers, and all other persons.

Law abiding in all our activities.

Committed to accomplishing all tasks in a superior way.

Economical in utilizing company resources.

Dedicated in service to our company and to improvement of the quality of life in the world in which we live.

“Integrity and high standards of ethics require hard work, courage, and difficult choices… Integrity and ethics may sometimes require us to forgo business opportunities. In the long run, however, we will be better served by doing what is right rather that what is expedient.”

I am reminded of Proverbs 14:34:

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”

—Facts of the Matter

Meditation for This Evening Feb 23: “Take up the cross, and follow Me.”—Mark 10:21, by C. H. Spurgeon

Verneda Lights — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:43:34 +0000

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

This Evening’s Meditation

C. H. Spurgeon

“Take up the cross, and follow Me.”—Mark 10:21.

YOU have not the making of your own cross, although unbelief is a master carpenter at cross-making; neither are you permitted to choose your own cross, although self-will would fain be lord and master; but your cross is prepared and appointed for you by divine love, and you are cheerfully to accept it; you are to take up the cross as your chosen badge and burden, and not to stand cavilling at it. This night Jesus bids you submit your shoulder to His easy yoke. Do not kick at it in petulance, or trample on it in vain-glory, or fall under it in despair, or run away from it in fear, but take it up like a true follower of Jesus. Jesus was a cross-bearer; He leads the way in the path of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better guide! And if He carried a cross, what nobler burden would you desire? The Via Crucis is the way of safety; fear not to tread its thorny paths.
Beloved, the cross is not made of feathers, or lined with velvet, it is heavy and galling to disobedient shoulders; but it is not an iron cross, though your fears have painted it with iron colours, it is a wooden cross, and a man can carry it, for the Man of sorrows tried the load. Take up your cross, and by the power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love with it, that like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it, and it will smell sweetly; remember that it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of trouble. The Lord help you to bow your spirit in submission to the divine will ere you fall asleep this night, that waking with to-morrow’s sun, you may go forth to the day’s cross with the holy and submissive spirit which becomes a follower of the Crucified.

via spurgeon.org

Meditation for This Morning Feb 23: “I will never leave thee.”—Hebrews 13:5, by C. H. Spurgeon

Verneda Lights — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:42:50 +0000

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

This Morning’s Meditation

C. H. Spurgeon

“I will never leave thee.”—Hebrews 13:5.

NO promise is of private interpretation. Whatever God has said to any one saint, He has said to all. When He opens a well for one, it is that all may drink. When He openeth a granary-door to give out food, there may be some one starving man who is the occasion of its being opened, but all hungry saints may come and feed too. Whether He gave the word to Abraham or to Moses, matters not, O believer; He has given it to thee as one of the covenanted seed. There is not a high blessing too lofty for thee, nor a wide mercy too extensive for thee. Lift up now thine eyes to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west, for all this is thine. Climb to Pisgah’s top, and view the utmost limit of the divine promise, for the land is all thine own. There is not a brook of living water of which thou mayst not drink. If the land floweth with milk and honey, eat the honey and drink the milk, for both are thine. Be thou bold to believe, for He hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”In this promise, God gives to His people everything. “I will never leave thee.” Then no attribute of God can cease to be engaged for us. Is He mighty? He will show Himself strong on the behalf of them that trust Him. Is He love? Then with lovingkindness will He have mercy upon us. Whatever attributes may compose the character of Deity, every one of them to its fullest extent shall be engaged on our side. To put everything in one, there is nothing you can want, there is nothing you can ask for, there is nothing you can need in time or in eternity, there is nothing living, nothing dying, there is nothing in this world, nothing in the next world, there is nothing now, nothing at the resurrection-morning, nothing in heaven which is not contained in this text—”I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

via spurgeon.org

Faith’s Check Book Feb 23: “lf ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:7) –Spurgeon

Verneda Lights — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:42:13 +0000

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Faith’s Check Book, Daily Entry

C. H. Spurgeon

February 23

Unbroken Fellowship Essential

lf ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. (John 15:7)

Of necessity we must be in Christ to live unto Him, and we must abide in Him to be able to claim the largesse of this promise from Him. To abide in Jesus is never to quit Him for another love or another object, but to remain in living, loving, conscious, willing union with Him. The branch is not only ever near the stem but ever receiving life and fruitfulness horn it. All true believers abide in Christ in a sense; but there is a higher meaning, and this we must know before we can gain unlimited power at the throne. “Ask what ye will” is for Enochs who walk with God, for Johns who lie in the Lord’s bosom, for those whose union with Christ leads to constant communion.

The heart must remain in love, the mind must be rooted in faith, the hope must be cemented to the Word, the whole man must be joined unto the Lord, or else it would be dangerous to trust us with power in prayer. The carte blanche can only be given to one whose very life is, “Not I, but Christ liveth in me.” O you who break your fellowship, what power you lose! If you would be mighty in your pleadings, the Lord Himself must abide in you, and you in Him.

via spurgeon.org

Facts of the Matter February 22: “Business Ethics” by Dwight Hill

Verneda Lights — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:01:11 +0000

February 22: Business Ethics

the term “Business Ethics” is incompatible, like the oxymorons: “Military Intelligence” or “Ambitious Hippie” or “Selfless Teenager”.

It may be that in our struggle to apply Biblical truth to market place realities, we fail to grasp:

The fact that the world’s values and modus operandi are driven by GREED, while Kingdom values are based on GENEROSITY. Hence, the clashing of two cultures.

Jesus reminded us: “You cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:24b TCNT)

Just who we are in Christ: A redeemed people in the process of conforming into Christlikeness, en route to our heavenly home, while temporarily domiciling on planet Earth. As such, we would not want to do anything in our business practices to sully that process. (See Romans 8:29; Hebrews 11:13-16)

The fact that it is God, not us, who provides for our needs: This being true, we need not “prostitute” our integrity by bowing to sub-Biblical ethical practices in a miserly attempt to meet our obligations. (See Hebrews 13:5; Philippians 4:19)

So the next time you are faced with a moral or ethical dilemma in your business or profession, simply ask the question:

“What would Jesus do?”

you are unable to do that, it is highly likely that you are in the wrong profession.

After all, as followers of Christ would it not be better to maintain one’s integrity as a ditch digger, than to PROSTITUTE one’s honor in the running of a multinational corporation?

It all depends upon whether your perspective is temporal or eternal

“For what good is it for a man to gain the whole world at the price of his own soul? What could a man offer to buy back his soul once he had lost it?” (Matthew 16:26 – Phillips)

—Facts of the Matter

Meditation for This Evening Feb 22: “The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power.”—Nahum 1:3, by C. H. Spurgeon

Verneda Lights — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 13:20:22 +0000

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

This Evening’s Meditation

C. H. Spurgeon

“The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power.”—Nahum 1:3.

JEHOVAH “is slow to anger.” When mercy cometh into the world she driveth winged steeds; the axles of her chariot-wheels are red hot with speed; but when wrath goeth forth, it toileth on with tardy footsteps, for God taketh no pleasure in the sinner’s death. God’s rod of mercy is ever in His hands outstretched; His sword of justice is in its scabbard, held down by that pierced hand of love which bled for the sins of men. “The Lord is slow to anger,” because He is GREAT IN POWER. He is truly great in power who hath power over himself. When God’s power doth restrain Himself, then it is power indeed: the power that binds omnipotence is omnipotence surpassed. A man who has a strong mind can bear to be insulted long, and only resents the wrong when a sense of right demands his action. The weak mind is irritated at a little: the strong mind bears it like a rock which moveth not, though a thousand breakers dash upon it, and cast their pitiful malice in spray upon its summit. God marketh His enemies, and yet He bestirs not Himself, but holdeth in His anger. If He were less divine than He is, He would long ere this have sent forth the whole of His thunders, and emptied the magazines of heaven; He would long ere this have blasted the earth with the wondrous fires of its lower regions, and man would have been utterly destroyed; but the greatness of his power brings us mercy. Dear reader, what is your state this evening? Can you by humble faith look to Jesus, and say, “My substitute, Thou art my rock, my trust”? Then, beloved, be not afraid of God’s power; for by faith you have fled to Christ for refuge, the power of God need no more terrify you, than the shield and sword of the warrior need terrify those whom he loves. Rather rejoice that He who is “great in power” is your Father and Friend.

via spurgeon.org

Meditation for This Morning feb 22: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 This Morning’s Meditation C. H. Spurgeon “His bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.”—Genesis 49:24. HAT strength w

Verneda Lights — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 13:19:36 +0000

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

This Morning’s Meditation

C. H. Spurgeon

“His bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.”—Genesis 49:24.

THAT strength which God gives to His Josephs is real strength; it is not a boasted valour, a fiction, a thing of which men talk, but which ends in smoke; it is true—divine strength. Why does Joseph stand against temptation? Because God gives him aid. There is nought that we can do without the power of God. All true strength comes from “the mighty God of Jacob.” Notice in what a blessedly familiar way God gives this strength to Joseph—”The arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.” Thus God is represented as putting His hands on Joseph’s hands, placing His arms on Joseph’s arms. Like as a father teaches his children, so the Lord teaches them that fear Him. He puts His arms upon them. Marvellous condescension! God Almighty, Eternal, Omnipotent, stoops from His throne and lays His hand upon the child’s hand, stretching His arm upon the arm of Joseph, that he may be made strong! This strength was also covenant strength, for it is ascribed to “the mighty God of Jacob.” Now, wherever you read of the God of Jacob in the Bible, you should remember the covenant with Jacob. Christians love to think of God’s covenant. All the power, all the grace, all the blessings, all the mercies, all the comforts, all the things we have, flow to us from the well-head, through the covenant. If there were no covenant, then we should fail indeed; for all grace proceeds from it, as light and heat from the sun. No angels ascend or descend, save upon that ladder which Jacob saw, at the top of which stood a covenant God. Christian, it may be that the archers have sorely grieved you, and shot at you, and wounded you, but still your bow abides in strength; be sure, then, to ascribe all the glory to Jacob’s God.

via spurgeon.org