ORDER OF THE WOODEN CROSS

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."¹

I have read how, "During his reign King Frederick William III of Prussia found himself in trouble. Wars had been costly and in trying to rebuild the nation, he was seriously short of finances. He couldn't disappoint his people, and to surrender to the enemy was not an option.

"After careful reflection, he decided to ask the women of Prussia to bring their jewelry of gold and silver to be melted down for their country. For each ornament received, he determined to exchange a decoration of bronze or iron as a symbol of his gratitude. Each decoration would be inscribed, 'I GAVE GOLD FOR IRON, 1813.'"

Apparently, "The response was overwhelming. The women prized their gifts from the king more than their former jewelry. The reason why is clear, the decorations were proof that they had sacrificed for their king. It even became unfashionable to wear any other jewelry. And thus was established the ORDER OF THE IRON CROSS."2

I wonder how much we who name the name of Christ and call ourselves Christ-ones (Christians) are willing to sacrifice for and give of our best to our king, King Jesus—and receive from him the ORDER OF THE WOODEN CROSS?

CONDOM

What is wrong with using contraceptives?  Personally, I don’t see anything wrong about it.  If you have to have sex with somebody you don’t know you better use the most famous contraceptives of all time, the condom.  It is unimaginable that you get to someone you don’t know skin to skin without the protection you need.  It is always better to be safe.


In view of the Roman Catholics abhorrence to the idea of using condom, it is not fair on their part to make a sweeping statement that these people are really against sex and are lot holier than anybody else in terms of self control.  Well, of course, with the priest celibacy vow, indeed I can’t comment any further.  I salute them to the max!


The use of contraceptive being bad came from the idea that having sex outside marriage is indeed not acceptable.  The bible terms it fornication. If you are a bible believing person, you can tell yourself if you commit fornication to go to hell because that is where you really are going.  It is punishable by death, of course spiritual death.  Fornication is the illicit sexual intercourse of unmarried persons.
Another equally wrong sexual relationship is adultery.  This is commonly known to women who are being charged by their husbands which are a strong case if caught with someone other than their husbands.  Adultery is punishable by imprisonment and is a valid basis for annulment in the Philippines, divorce in the US.  From the context of the bible, it is to have sexual relations with someone other than one's own spouse, husband or wife.  The only difference that the bible has against our perceived adultery is that in the bible, the mere thinking of the girl, imagining her naked, looking at her with lust is already committing adultery.
Matthew 5:28  But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Another type of sexual immorality is having sex with the same sex.   This is gross because I cannot myself afford to do this if given the chance! This is the worse kind of immorality because this was the common practice in the times of Lot in the bible where God burned Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes.  Men were having sex against men, just like what we commonly see in the society today.


The leastof these immoral acts is of course masturbation.  This refers to sexual stimulation of a person's genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by other types of bodily contact (short of sexual intercourse), by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Self masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism. Masturbation with a partner (called mutual masturbation), is also common.  This may not be as bad if you have some sort of medical reasons to do this. Some would say it is good for the heart; others would say it is to relieve them of stress,or what not. We can name all the excuses we can have in the world, but at the end of the day, if you do it because there is no one to express your desire for sex unto,then you are committing an immoral act worthy of the punishment mentioned above.
 
Now, you ask, why then it is not good to use contraceptives?  From my personal point of view, it is not the use of contraceptives that they may be against to but the purpose of where it is to be used.  If you are going to use it just out of lust then you are a victim of your own demonic mind.


The question of population is secondary as far as the church is concerned, as I thought so.  The Roman Catholic wouldn’t care to stop the population growth because this is one way of increasing membership through biological way.  The Roman Catholic population is dwindling all over the world, and the fastest growing religion is Islam, so you make your choice which religion you would want to get ahead in this world.


If the people however are well educated to just be loyal to their spouses and never mind the rising popularity of broken homes, separated husbands and wives, children with no fathers, or no mothers, and just stick to whoever you have, your wife or your husband, of the opposite sex of course, then the fear of propagating the deadly sexually transmitted diseases will be lessened.


We have just taken the church stand to be against the use of contraceptives out of context.  It is immorality that they abhor and not the use of it per se.  They have just been so vocal about being against the use of these sexual tools because it is the only way to get their message across which the common Tao can understand in a flash.


You don’t go to congress and do bible study and educate these people about morality.  Aside from they not understanding it, it will be a waste of tax payers money listening to priestly education. You don’t go to the streets and preach the bad news about having illicit relationships and quote whatever religious verses you have; but you go out there and show to the people your message that can be understood even with just visual communication – and that is condom.

SHEER POWER

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD…. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine."¹

It's not only the influence of some prison guards whose power has corrupted them, but one cannot help but wonder about the power of the news media that daily influences the minds of multiplied millions of people—seeking to shape the minds of listeners according to their particular slant and agenda.

In the U.S., for example, while mostly ignoring all the good that has been done in places like Iraq and other places around the world, the TV news media thrive on reporting the number of deaths of our military personnel in Iraq and/or in Afghanistan. I'm not in any way implying that such deaths are not tragic. They certainly are. What I am talking about is truth and responsibility in reporting. These same news channels rarely mention the daily slaughter on our highways—43,220 deaths in one recent year—that was an average of 118 deaths every day!²

Furthermore, of these 43,200 deaths 17,401 were alcohol related! (By way of interest, not so long ago, while waiting to turn left at a stop light, a driver slammed into by a car that was slammed into by a heavy pickup truck driven by a youth who caused a six-car pileup. I wonder if he had been drinking! the driver was just fortunate that his injuries weren't much worse. The accident caused too much damage to his vehicle.)

Nor does the news media mention the hundreds of babies who are being murdered every day throughout our nation, nor the merciless butchery of partial-birth abortion, nor the accelerating moral decline of our nation. Why aren't these tragedies newsworthy? Is it because it wouldn't be politically correct to report on these issues? Or is it because their TV station would lose listeners and therefore financial support?

Think too of the far-out-of-proportion power of some politicians who are adept at making decisions that they believe will keep them in power, rather than for the good of the country … and those who blame other politicians (or anyone else) for the problems that they themselves helped to create in the first place, or who refuse to call acts of terrorism for what they are? Instead, the war on terrorism has been called "Overseas Contingency Operation."

Furthermore, let's be realistic, the "overseas contingency operation" its not only a war against terrorism, it is a religious war caused by militant Muslims who are hell-bent on destroying and killing Americans, Westerners, Jews, Christians and all who oppose their fanatical, barbarous "interpretation" of their religion. If we don't win the war against this barbaric "religiosity" the consequences will be unthinkable for our children and our children's children. Will our politicians and the news media ever consider calling the "overseas contingency operation" for what it truly is—a war against religious terrorism? Not likely!

How tragic when we use words to twist the meaning of critical issues and in so doing deny their reality. This, too, shows the deceitfulness and hypocrisy of the human heart. Would we dare call poison by any other name? To do so would be murderous.

So wherein lies the answer to the dilemma we currently face? Is it, as Ed Ames asked about the national problems our country faced in the sixties, is it in the "stars, or in ourselves?" Not likely.

If we who claim to be Christians, whose faith is definitely not in the stars or in ourselves but in God and his Word, don't give answers, who will? Godless politicians, the outspoken immoral minority, irresponsible news reporters, and militant religionists will give hopelessly false answers to lead us astray. Of this we can be certain.

APO BLAST

What is a fraternity - a group of people associated or formally organized for a common purpose, interest, or pleasure.

There are known fraternal organizations which existed as far back as ancient Greece and Rome, and analogous institutions in the late medieval period called confraternities, which were lay organizations allied to the Catholic Church. These confraternities evolved into purely secular fraternal societies such as Freemasonry, which in turn was used as a model for many modern fraternal orders and societies.
The development of modern fraternal orders was especially dynamic in the United States, where the freedom to associate outside governmental regulation is expressly sanctioned in law.[2] There have been hundreds of fraternal organizations in the United States, and at the beginning of the 20th century the number of memberships equaled the number of adult males. (Due to multiple memberships, probably only 50% of adult males belonged to any organizations.)

In 1944 Arthur M. Schlesinger coined the phrase "a nation of joiners" to refer to the phenomenon. Alexis de Tocqueville also referred to the American reliance on private organization in the 1830s in Democracy in America.

There are many attributes that fraternities may or may not have, depending on their structure and purpose. Fraternities can have differing degrees of secrecy, some form of initiation or ceremony marking admission, formal codes of behavior, disciplinary procedures, very differing amounts of real property and assets.
In the recent spate of incidents, we recognize that Alpha Phii Omega has been in the lime lights. The hazing incident which killed one aspiring member is one, and the La Salle bombing which implicated an APO to be the culprit. It is easy to throw in the towel against Alph Phi Omega because in many occasions some of its members have abused their sworn oaths as scouts who are there to lead, to serve and to be a friend.
It cannot be denied that an Alpha Phi Omega member can really do such horror to the community but these are individual calls. APO is not what it is painted today. It is perhaps of the dirty politics of the nation where they choose to dwell on the APO issue and focus on its bad reputation to associate Vice President Binay and taint his reputation, but it will not in anyway affect what Alpha Phi Omega stand for.

Alpha Phi Omega (ΑΦΩ) (commonly known as APO but also A-Phi-O[4] and A-Phi-Q) is the largest collegiate fraternity in the United States, with chapters at over 350 campuses, an active membership of approximately 17,000 students, and over 350,000 alumni members. There are also 250 chapters in the Philippines and one in Australia.

Alpha Phi Omega is a co-ed service fraternity organized to provide community service, leadership development, and social opportunities for college students. Chapters range in size from a handful of active members to over 200 active members, independent of each college's size.

The programs of the fraternity are centered around developing its three Cardinal Principles: Leadership, Friendship, and Service. Many chapters plan a several local service projects throughout the year, including blood drives, tutoring, charity fundraising events, Scouting events, used book exchanges, Boy Scout Merit Badge days, campus escort initiatives, and housing construction/rehabilitation. Signature projects include the annual National Service Week, in the first full week of November, and the Global Spring Youth Service Day in April. Many of the operations of individual chapters are left to their own discretion, though most chapters have membership requirements which require a certain number of hours of service each semester. In the United States, on April 14, 2003, the fraternity received the Daily Point of Light Award in recognition of its members, who give unselfishly of their time and energy on a daily basis, and who cumulative donate an average of over 300,000 hours of community service each semester.

The purpose of the fraternity is "to assemble college students in a National Service Fraternity in the fellowship of principles derived from the Scout Oath and Scout Law of the Boy Scouts of America; to develop Leadership, to promote Friendship, and to provide Service to humanity; and to further the freedom that is our national, educational, and intellectual heritage." Unlike many other fraternities, APO's primary focus is to provide volunteer service within four areas: service to the community, service to the campus, service to the fraternity, and service to the nation as participating citizens. Being primarily a service organization, the fraternity restricts its chapters from maintaining fraternity houses to serve as residences for their members. This also encourages members of social fraternities and sororities that have houses to join APO as well.