The household divided against itself will not stand

YohannesY

I am not a politician and Ethiopian politics is not appealing to me. I write this because I am tired of all kind of foolishness around Ethiopian politicians. Especially the way they are conducting the Ethiopian people affairs, I decide to say something.

All Ethiopian political parties including the present Ethiopian government who need to realize that they are trying to represent 77 million Ethiopians. All of you should leave your little box and earn the support and respect of the Ethiopian people.

Now it is inevitable to me all of you will fail because you are so narrow and the way you think and run your politics is extremely constricted, how do you think you will resolve our common problem while you don’t want to work with other Ethiopians? Our problem can be resolved only when we Ethiopians work together as a team because you have a minor issue with so and so you refused to work out your differences then only the wicked one will take over your right and rule you with iron fest.

As the Bible said "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. We are divided with hundred parties and yet you expect us to trust you? You cannot even resolve your own internal affairs, how do we trust you that you can resolve our Ethiopia’s problems?

Well as far as I am concerned the blame goes to the EPRDF government who cannot tolerate the oppositions actually it turns out they turn themselves as a despot and murderers. plus it is a common knowledge among Ethiopians that the government/EPRDF a narrow nationalist who wants to rule Ethiopia with iron fest and supporting tribalism and they gave every tool available to exploit other Ethiopians by small number of Tigetrian, they kicked out all other tribes who wants to help the country to grow with investment .

All these idiotic ideology going on around and the Ethiopian people made the price and yet EPRDF or the government has no care as long as they are ruling the country. They don’t care if they earn the Ethiopian people support or not, they decided to rule the country by force.

Now I prophesied to you, you will fail because you are so narrow, the way you think and run government is extremely limited, how do you think you will resolve our common problem while you don’t want to work with other Ethiopian people. Again our problem can be resolved only when we Ethiopians work together but you refuse to listen to the Ethiopian people and Ethiopian intellectuals.

And yet you continuing abusing the basic human right, as the state department clearly put it this way: unlawful killings, torture, beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees and opposition supporters by security forces, usually with impunity; poor prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention, particularly of suspected sympathizers or members of opposition or insurgent groups; police and judicial corruption; detention without charge and lengthy pretrial detention; infringement on citizens' privacy rights including illegal searches; use of excessive force by security services in an internal conflict and counterinsurgency operations; restrictions on freedom of the press; arrest, detention, and harassment of journalists; restrictions on freedom of assembly and association; violence and societal discrimination against women and abuse of children; female genital mutilation (FGM); exploitation of children for economic and sexual purposes; trafficking in persons; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities and religious and ethnic minorities; and government interference in union activities, including harassment of union leaders.

You will fail no doubt as your previous Ethiopian leaders have. Inevitably history is doomed to repeat itself.

To every negative mind it is seemed impossible...........

By M Yohannes

Having been born from Ethiopian parents in the States, and I have been privileged to live in a great neighborhood and attending a well-to-do school and live in an area where predominately consists of many races from many backgrounds. Since I live in a diverse society, I noticed because of the unity in my community, I have learned also about the division that still ceases to exist. I ask myself now, what makes us united? Is it that we share a common goal? Or is it that we realize though we have diverse backgrounds, we find that we are not so different as it appears?
To be black does it mean that we must be the urban street-gangster who makes a living out of drugs? To be black does it mean that we set our standards low? Being black— does it mean that we ask ourselves who are we to be brilliant, gorgeous, intelligent, strong, powerful and competitive? Truly, the question is who are we not to be? Does being black mean we don’t strive to be better, stronger and happier? We must ask ourselves, what are we proud of as Ethiopians and in general— blacks? Ethiopia has a long history to be proud of, but a famous quote from former President Kennedy states: “Change is a law of life. And those who only look to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” It’s time to make a great future, and one to be proud of when we look back, and can’t look at our differences to find a solution.
If it is only our vastly different cultures that divide us, then why does other countries, like America, are able to come together despite of their differences? Why can’t we do that— as blacks? We don’t hear a British telling an Irish they won’t associate with them because of their differences. We don’t hear a Chinese telling a Japanese they won’t associate with them because of their differences. One doesn't hear an Argentinean saying the same to a Brazilian because of their differences. Why can’t we say the same with Ethiopians among ourselves and other Africans/African descents?
Because we spend our time squabbling among ourselves, we fail to notice how the world is growing around us. We fail to notice that while we debate over trifle issues, the rest of the world is going full speed into the future. For the rest of the world, their future has started yesterday. Where does our future begin?
I suppose that now I should end with something painfully corny, but being corny can be the truth at times. I am an American, and I’m proud to be one. But I’m also Ethiopian, and proud to be one. I’m talking to every African and African descent now. Let us be leaders. Let us show that we can change and we can grow, though secretly in every negative mind it is seemed impossible. The Wright brothers were told that if man were meant to fly, they’d have wings. They said that could never reach the moon. They said that black slaves who voyaged to the New World when America was sprouting from oblivion would never be free, yet now we see a black president as America’s leader. If all this can happen, why can’t we? If they could do it, why can’t we?

****** M Yohannes is 14 years old girl an eighth grader who loves to write********

Light Through Darkness

The work of God in the earth presents, from age to age, a striking similarity in every great reformation or religious movement. The principles of God's dealing with men are ever the same. The important movements of the present have their parallel in those of the past, and the experience of the church in former ages has lessons of great value for our own time.

No truth is more clearly taught in the Bible than that God by His Holy Spirit especially directs His servants on earth in the great movements for the carrying forward of the work of salvation. Men are instruments in the hand of God, employed by Him to accomplish His purposes of grace and mercy. Each has his part to act; to each is granted a measure of light, adapted to the necessities of his time, and sufficient to enable him to perform the work which God has given him to do. But no man, however honored of Heaven, has ever attained to a full understanding of the great plan of redemption, or even to a perfect appreciation of the divine purpose in the work for his own time. Men do not fully understand what God would accomplish by the work which He gives them to do; they do not comprehend, in all its bearings, the message which they utter in His name.

"Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?" "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the
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Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." "I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done." Job 11:7; Isaiah 55:8, 9; 46:9, 10.

Even the prophets who were favored with the special illumination of the Spirit did not fully comprehend the import of the revelations committed to them. The meaning was to be unfolded from age to age, as the people of God should need the instruction therein contained.

Peter, writing of the salvation brought to light through the gospel, says: Of this salvation "the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister." 1 Peter 1:10-12.

Yet while it was not given to the prophets to understand fully the things revealed to them, they earnestly sought to obtain all the light which God had been pleased to make manifest. They "inquired and searched diligently," "searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify." What a lesson to the people of God in the Christian age, for whose benefit these prophecies were given to His servants! "Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister." Witness those holy men of God as they "inquired and searched diligently" concerning revelations given them for generations that were yet unborn. Contrast their holy zeal with the listless unconcern with which the favored ones of later ages treat this gift of Heaven. What a rebuke to the ease-loving, world-loving indifference which is content to declare that the prophecies cannot be understood!

Though the finite minds of men are inadequate to enter
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into the counsels of the Infinite One, or to understand fully the working out of His purposes, yet often it is because of some error or neglect on their own part that they so dimly comprehend the messages of Heaven. Not infrequently the minds of the people, and even of God's servants, are so blinded by human opinions, the traditions and false teaching of men, that they are able only partially to grasp the great things which He has revealed in His word. Thus it was with the disciples of Christ, even when the Saviour was with them in person. Their minds had become imbued with the popular conception of the Messiah as a temporal prince, who was to exalt Israel to the throne of the universal empire, and they could not understand the meaning of His words foretelling His sufferings and death.

The Great Controversy chapter 19

Blessed Country

By Mark Shea

I just got back from Mass. Nobody followed me home in a mysterious black car.
Yesterday, my wife went swimming with her head uncovered and her legs and arms exposed. Nobody tried to beat her to death as a harlot.
Not one of my children are child-soldiers, impressed into some warlord’s guerrilla army and forced to do hideous things that transform them into hardened killers at an age normal children are learning to bat a ball.

In this space I have criticized the Bush administration. I will not be shot and my family will not be sent to a re-education camp for the crime of being my family.
I have weight to lose, not gain.

My four sons are not dying from some easily treatable disease. My wife did not die in childbirth with our second son.

When I think of my childhood, I am not haunted by the faces of government thugs beating out my parents’ brains and shooting my brothers before my very eyes. Instead, I think of fishing on the Skagit River, long lazy summer afternoons in a tree house reading comic books, and joyous Christmases.

My friends moved to distant states, yet no Central Committee monitored their movements or told them they could not pursue the course in life they chose. Should they decide to pursue something else, they are free to do so.

I live in a land where much of Whitman’s Democratic Mysticism, though battered and bloodied by the creeping Paris Hiltonization of our culture, still breathes. Indeed, my people have proven astonishingly resistant to many of the worst lies we tell ourselves. As Chesterton said, the ordinary American is alright. It’s the Ideal American that is all wrong. Much of what our Manufacturers of Culture export via the media appalls the world. But foreigners who visit my country typically remark that it’s not like what they saw on TV. (”Crack heads shooting each other on rainy city streets” was the vision of America an English friend had from the telly—till he came here).

Pope John Paul II read a country’s literature to encounter the soul of a people. I live in a country that can boast The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a founding document almost as important as the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. If those documents are the American Torah then Mark Twain was our Isaiah and Huck Finn remains the best glimpse into the greatness (and the sinfulness) of my people ever written. I am honored to come of a people that could give birth to such a book.
In a hundred ways, America is my mother. I cannot count the ways she has formed me and the gifts she has given me: gifts so much a part of me I doubt I am even conscious of them, any more than I am conscious of the rules of grammar as I speak.

The fundamental thing I feel for America is gratitude for her people, her heritage, her abundance, her faith rooted in equality that is capable of breaking down our own historic sins against justice like the slow pounding of the surf. I love the very land, especially my own home of Washington, first among fifty equals and most beautiful state in the Union. I love the sheer dizzying variety of the American people. I am amazed at our genius for bringing together ethnicities and religions and somehow defusing the fratricidal conflicts which, in the Old World, had gone on for centuries.

God gave people gifts and told us to use them for the good of others. America’s genius lies in no small measure in the fact that it somehow created a culture that trusted this basic fact of divine revelation, unleashing the potential of ordinary people to do astounding things. I am in awe at our ability to self-organize. We do it well in crises (New Yorkers on 9/11 were a proud and moving example), but that’s because we do it all the time—making the US a historic engine of industrial and technological innovation.

Patriotism is simply obedience to “Honor your father and your mother.” We honor our parents because they are our parents, not because they are stronger or better than all other parents. I think “USA! #1!” is not patriotism, but jingoist rubbish. I love my mother because she’s my mother, not because I think she should be everybody’s mother. I don’t believe “My country, right or wrong” any more than “My mother, drunk or sober.” I honor her because she is the mother God gave me. For her I gratefully ask the intercession of the greatest Mother:

THE WORK AND THE LIFE

God is the source of life and light and joy to the universe. Like rays of light from the sun, like the streams of water bursting from a living spring, blessings flow out from him to all his creatures. And wherever the life of God is in the hearts of men, it will flow out to others in love and blessing.

Our Saviour's joy was in the uplifting and redemption of fallen men. For this he counted not his life dear unto himself, but endured the cross, despising the shame. So angels are ever engaged in working for the happiness of others. This is their joy. That which selfish hearts would regard as humiliating service, ministering to those who are wretched, and in every way inferior in character and rank, is the work of the sinless angels. The spirit of Christ's self-sacrificing love is the spirit that pervades heaven, and is the very essence of its bliss. This is the spirit that Christ's followers will possess, the work that they will do.

When the love of Christ is enshrined in the heart, like sweet fragrance it cannot be hidden. Its holy influence will be felt by all with whom we come in contact. The spirit of Christ in the heart is like a spring in the desert, flowing to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish, eager to drink of the water of life.

Love to Jesus will be manifested in a desire to work as he worked, for the blessing and uplifting of humanity. It will lead to love, tenderness, and sympathy toward all the creatures of our Heavenly Father's care.

The Saviour's life on earth was not a life of ease and devotion to himself, but he toiled with persistent, earnest, untiring effort for the salvation of lost mankind. From the manger to Calvary he followed the path of self-denial, and sought not to be released from arduous tasks, painful travels, and exhausting care and labor. He said, "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."* This was the one great object of his life. Everything else was secondary and subservient. It was his meat and drink to do the will of God and to finish his work. Self and self-interest had no part in his labor.

So those who are the partakers of the grace of Christ will be ready to make any sacrifice, that others for whom he died may share the heavenly gift. They will do all they can to make the world better for their stay in it. This spirit is the sure outgrowth of a soul truly converted. No sooner does one come to Christ, than there is born in his heart a desire to make known to others what a precious friend he has found in Jesus; the saving and sanctifying truth cannot be shut up in his heart. If we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and are filled with the joy of his indwelling Spirit, we shall not be able to hold our peace. If we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, we shall have something to tell. Like Philip when he found the Saviour, we shall invite others into his presence. We shall seek to present to them the attractions of Christ, and the unseen realities of the world to come. There will be an intensity of desire to follow in the path that Jesus trod. There will be an earnest longing that those around us may behold "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."*

And the effort to bless others will re-act in blessings upon ourselves. This was the purpose of God in giving us a part to act in the plan of redemption. He has granted men the privilege of becoming partakers of the divine nature, and, in their turn, of diffusing blessings to their fellowmen. This is the highest honor, the greatest joy, that it is possible for God to bestow upon men. Those who thus become participants in labors of love are brought nearest to their Creator.

God might have committed the message of the gospel, and all the work of loving ministry, to the heavenly angels. He might have employed other means for accomplishing his purpose. But in his infinite love he chose to make us co-workers with himself, with Christ and the angels, that we might share the blessing, the joy, the spiritual uplifting, which results from this unselfish ministry.

We are brought into sympathy with Christ through the fellowship of his sufferings. Every act of self-sacrifice for the good of others strengthens the spirit of beneficence in the giver's heart, allying him more closely to the Redeemer of the world, who "was rich, yet for your sakes became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." And it is only as we thus fulfill the divine purpose in our creation that life can be a blessing to us.

If you will go to work as Christ designs that his disciples shall, and win souls for him, you will feel the need of a deeper experience and a greater knowledge in divine things, and will hunger and thirst after righteousness. You will plead with God, and your faith will be strengthened, and your soul will drink deeper draughts at the well of salvation. Encountering opposition and trials will drive you to the Bible and to prayer. You will grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, and will develop a rich experience.

The spirit of unselfish labor for others gives depth, stability, and Christ-like loveliness to the character, and brings peace and happiness to its possessor. The aspirations are elevated. There is no room for sloth or selfishness. Those who thus exercise the Christian graces will grow and will become strong to work for God. They will have clear spiritual perceptions, a steady, growing faith, and an increased power in prayer. The Spirit of God, moving upon their spirit, calls forth the sacred harmonies of the soul, in answer to the divine touch. Those who thus devote themselves to unselfish effort for the good of others are most surely working out their own salvation.

The only way to grow in grace is to be disinterestedly doing the very work which Christ has enjoined upon us,--to engage, to the extent of our ability, in helping and blessing those who need the help we can give them. Strength comes by exercise; activity is the very condition of life. Those who endeavor to maintain Christian life by passively accepting the blessings that come through the means of grace, and doing nothing for Christ, are simply trying to live by eating without working. And in the spiritual as in the natural world, this always results in degeneration and decay. A man who would refuse to exercise his limbs would soon lose all power to use them. Thus the Christian who will not exercise his God-given powers, not only fails to grow up into Christ, but he loses the strength that he already had.

The church of Christ is God's appointed agency for the salvation of men. Its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. And the obligation rests upon all Christians. Every one, to the extent of his talent and opportunity, is to fulfill the Saviour's commission. The love of Christ, revealed to us, makes us debtors to all who know him not. God has given us light, not for ourselves alone, but to shed upon them.

If the followers of Christ were awake to duty, there would be thousands where there is one to-day, proclaiming the gospel in heathen lands. And all who could not personally engage in the work, would yet sustain it with their means, their sympathy, and their prayers. And there would be far more earnest labor for souls in Christian countries.

We need not go to heathen lands, or even leave the narrow circle of the home, if it is there that our duty lies, in order to work for Christ. We can do this in the home circle, in the church, among those with whom we associate, and with whom we do business.

The greater part of our Saviour's life on earth was spent in patient toil in the carpenter's shop at Nazareth. Ministering angels attended the Lord of life as he walked side by side with peasants and laborers, unrecognized and unhonored. He was as faithfully fulfilling his mission while working at his humble trade as when he healed the sick or walked upon the storm-tossed waves of Galilee. So, in the humblest duties and lowliest positions of life, we may walk and work with Jesus.

The apostle says, "Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God."* The business man may conduct his business in a way that will glorify his Master because of his fidelity. If he is a true follower of Christ, he will carry his religion into everything that is done, and reveal to men the spirit of Christ. The mechanic may be a diligent and faithful representative of him who toiled in the lowly walks of life among the hills of Galilee. Every one who names the name of Christ should so work that others, by seeing his good works, may be led to glorify their Creator and Redeemer.

Many have excused themselves from rendering their gifts to the service of Christ because others were possessed of superior endowments and advantages. The opinion has prevailed that only those who are especially talented are required to consecrate their abilities to the service of God. It has come to be understood by many that talents are given to only a certain favored class, to the exclusion of others, who, of course, are not called upon to share in the toils or the rewards. But it is not so represented in the parable. When the master of the house called his servants, he gave to every man his work.

With a loving spirit we may perform life's humblest duties "as to the Lord."* If the love of God is in the heart, it will be manifest in the life. The sweet savor of Christ will surround us, and our influence will elevate and bless.

You are not to wait for great occasions or to expect extraordinary abilities before you go to work for God. You need not have a thought of what the world will think of you. If your daily life is a testimony to the purity and sincerity of your faith, and others are convinced that you desire to benefit them, your efforts will not be wholly lost.

The humblest and poorest of the disciples of Jesus can be a blessing to others. They may not realize that they are doing any special good, but by their unconscious influence they may start waves of blessing that will widen and deepen, and the blessed results they may never know until the day of final reward. They do not feel or know that they are doing anything great. They are not required to weary themselves with anxiety about success. They have only to go forward quietly, doing faithfully the work that God's providence assigns, and their life will not be in vain. Their own souls will be growing more and more into the likeness of Christ; they are workers together with God in this life, and are thus fitting for the higher work and the unshadowed joy of the life to come.

* Matt. 20:28. * John 1:29. * I Cor. 7:24. * Col. 3:23.
Steps to Christ