Cleansing the Temple

I remember the day that God spoke to my heart as if it were yesterday. No, it wasn’t a thundering voice from above. In fact, it wasn’t even a still, small voice. It was a sister in Christ who came up to me after a fellowship in another city and asked to speak to me privately. “Of course,” I said, thinking that she needed some advice, private prayer, or ministering. What a surprise when she indicated that she was concerned about some of the objects in my home.

You see, we had regularly been opening our home for the past few months to the area saints for dinners followed by an evening of prayer and fellowship. We had seen great deliverance in people’s lives and witnessed many healings. At first a little defensive, I thought, “What could be wrong with my house?” God bless her, she told me in a very gentle and entreating way that she “could not help but notice the numerous American Indian artifacts that I had in my den.” She continued to tell me “that she was not telling me what to do but rather had been left with the strong impression that I should carefully look at these items and go to the Lord about them.” She finished our conversation by reminding me of how “although we have romanticized much about the western era, a lot of the Indian culture revolved around paganism, and their worship of Nature was idolatrous.” I promised her that I would honestly consider what she said.

During the two hour trip home, my wife and I discussed how God instructs us to be very careful with what type of material possessions we bring into our homes.

Deuteronomy 7:26 (Amplified)
Neither shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you become an accursed thing like it; but you shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.

We love God with all our hearts, and would never even consider bringing anything devilish or idolatrous into our home. We were very aware of how demons can gain entrance into peoples homes by “riding in” on physical objects. As we reflected on it, I was certain I had “cleansed” all the materials in my home. I thought, “I may not have specifically cast any supposed demons off the objects in my home, but I am a strong and standing believer and so I shouldn’t have to be worried about it. Come on, this is my house we’re talking about.”

As soon as I got home, I made a beeline for the den. Of all the rooms in the house, this was “my” room, the “men’s” room. Filled with leather furniture and decorated in an American Indian motif, with a knotty pine and river rock fireplace, this room exuded testosterone. There were numerous items of special meaning that I had collected over the last dozen years on various motorcycle trips across the states. As I stood there looking around I had to admit, “She may be right.” I could see how some of these objects might bother someone. Maybe it was the buffalo skull over the fireplace, after all, my wife never did care much for that either. Possibly it was the Plains Indian peace pipe with its hand beaded leather bag and tobacco pouch. There was also the framed artwork, one a picture of an Apache called “Dog Soldier” and numerous other knickknacks. “Well,” I thought, “I am not going to take any chances with demons in my home, so right then and there I loudly proclaimed this room and my entire house to be off limits to demons and commanded them to leave in the name of Jesus Christ.” Quite proud of myself, I figured, “That takes care of it once and for all,” and I considered the matter done.

During the next few months, I spent a lot of spare time reading numerous books on Demons and Deliverance Ministries. Without any particular reason in mind, I seemed to be drawn to various books written by men who had built entire ministries around freeing God’s people from demons. As usual, not all the authors were in agreement with each other, but I was able to glean a lot of useful information. It was my intent to prove all things and hold fast to what was true according to my understanding of God’s Word. This period of time was culminated by my wife and me attending a four day Christian training during which time we were able to confront many of the strongholds in our lives. There were even some in attendance who, clearly to us, were delivered of demons.

After returning home from the seminar, it seemed that we were operating on a more sensitive spiritual level. My wife, Lori, and I had recommitted our lives to the Lord and identified numerous areas in our lives where we had not been honest with each other and God. Our commitment to love, honesty, and intimacy began to open new doors in our relationship with God, each other, and others. As I sat in my easy chair praying and reflecting back on the events of the training, I kept getting a nagging feeling about my den. I told myself again that the den was “spiritually clean” knowing that I had cast out Satan’s little minions. But I went to the den, and as I stood there looking around, I asked God to show me if there was anything wrong. On one of the side tables I had a collection of hand painted frogs that seemed to particularly weigh on me. I called to Lori, and when she came into the room I asked her if there were any things in the room that she was spiritually bothered by. Without hesitation she pointed and said, “Those frogs!”

I told her to wait for me and I left the room, returning a few minutes later with a large trash bag. She held the bag as I began to toss in the entire collection of frightful frogs. As I continued around the room, grabbing other offending items, we agreed that we wanted nothing in our home that did not glorify God.

There was a collection of reproduction medicine bags that I now noticed had pagan symbols on them. I stood back and looked at the artwork and began to see pagan designs hidden in the beadwork or subtlety designed into the pictures. Out went the limited edition artworks, the peace pipe with its carved designs and the buffalo skull, clearly now a symbol of death. It was now about eleven o’clock at night, but we were on a roll. We continued through each room looking at every article with a new discerning eye, opening each drawer, examining every item in the house.

By the time we had finished our purge, we had identified a brass incense holder in our daughter’s room, made in India and dedicated to pagan worship. I also gathered up my collection of martial arts ceramics and figurines. I had always avoided the metaphysical teachings of the martial arts and been blessed with an instructor that placed the emphasis on physical training, but I had slowly collected martial arts materials with dragons and other items that had subtle demonic influences. We found a few spiritually unclean books and music in our teenage daughter’s room. Lori completed our efforts by going to her jewelry box and pulling out her Halloween earrings and a witch pendant. We finished by kneeling and thanking God for showing us the various articles that had entered our home. Now we were ready for bed.

The next morning, both of us commented over breakfast how we each had slept more soundly than we had in years. When I arrived at work, I drove straight to the dumpster and smashed every item as I tossed it away. I mentally totaled the value of the articles and realized I had just destroyed more than five thousand dollars worth of art and collectibles. I thought, “I could have sold this stuff, maybe even given the proceeds to the ministry for the work of the Lord.” That’s when I was reminded of the bonfire the saints in the first century church in Ephesus had with their demonic objects and scrolls.

Acts 19:18 and 19
Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.

A drachma represented about a day’s wages. In terms of today’s money, if we used one hundred dollars as a day’s wages, that would place the value of the burned scrolls at a minimum of five million dollars. That’s one heck of a fire! The money that could have been made by selling them is not important. What matters to God is that they would never again be able to exert any influence in anyone’s life or home. Later that afternoon when we returned home, we both felt a new lightness in our house. I knew then that my home really was spiritually clean.

Now I know you could read this and say, “Wow, Dan, how could you be that spiritually dull to let stuff like that into your home?” Well, let me tell you, our adversary, the Devil, is an awfully sly guy. Wouldn’t we all recognize him right away if he entered our lives showing his real colors? He is successful because he sneaks and slithers into our lives in very sly and concealed ways. One small item in your home may not have much influence, but when enough of them enter, the scales will be tipped. I believe strongly that many of the articles in my house were innocuous and of no consequence until I began to take a strong and committed stand for God. I had brought the articles into my house and had therefore invited Satan to use them when he wanted to cause interference and disruption in my life.

The most important lesson in all of this is not about the physical articles and the way Satan can utilize them. Remember, we Christians are called the “Temple” of God, and Satan will use any thing he can to enter our lives. We must examine our lives and cleanse our temples of all his methods for entry. Have you allowed him to gain access to your life through your physical surroundings? Are you giving him entry through bitterness or greed? Are you giving him a foothold through anger, envy, jealousy, or sexual immorality? Let’s be honest with ourselves and with God. Let’s root Satan out of our homes and lives. Let’s not give him an inch, or he’ll become a ruler. Let’s cleanse the “temples” of our hearts, as well as the homes God has given us.

Specialist says … Jealous girlfriend destroyed his property

Dancehall artiste Specialist is now fuming after losing some house appliances and furniture following a feud with his girlfriend.

The feud reportedly started because of his girlfriend’s jealousy and her belief that she was ‘getting bun’.

“Man a ghetto yute, mi start from nowhere and she hear say mi have woman and mash up di ting dem a mi yard. She go up deh when I wasn’t home and mash up mi tv, mi wardrobe mirror and mi wall fan,” Specialist told THE weekend STAR.

In a relationship

According to the deejay, he has been in a relationship with the young lady for a little less than a year, and he even moved her into his home. He said the altercation grew to a head when his girlfriend refused to answer calls from a specific number in his presence, which led him to become suspicious.

“Anything she need, a me haffi sort it out fi her. But she violate me. Normally, when her phone ring, she would tell me say is her mother or her sister a call, now a number a call her and she caan answer it in front of me,” he said.

He went on to say that the girlfriend saw him with a next girl and an argument ensued.

“She see me wid a next girl round a one a mi friend yard, and me and her start argue. Me tell her fi take up her tings dem and come out a mi house cause me nuh deh pon wha she deh pon,” Specialist said.

“She go round deh and a mash up mi tings and mi bredda dem tell her say she must leave me things dem alone. She go up a station and tell police say me bredda dem waan kill her,” he added.

Specialist says that they went to the station but no charges were filed.

He went on to say that he is now focusing on his career including his new single Come Whine which features female artiste Spice.

“Mi inna the business now fi nearly a year and mi have a lot more to learn. Mi a gwaan work pon mi stage show perfor-mances,” Specialist told THE weekend STAR.

Efforts to contact the young lady were, however, unsuccessful.

The Liberian Conflict and the birth of ECOMOG(1)
Filed under: Uncategorized — Mr. Craig @ 1:00 am
“The Accidental Ecowas & AU Citizen”:
By E.K.Bensah Jr
Last week, former Liberian president Charles Taylor was convicted of providing moral support, weapons and operational help to Liberian-backed, drug-crazed rebels in Sierra Leone from 1996 to 2002, in exchange for blood diamonds. The following piece, by no means an exhaustive analysis, is a commentary I wrote back in 2000 when I was just completing university. Written then as a reminder of “African Solutions to African problems”, it serves not only as a timely reminder of the Liberian Conflict, but also of ECOWAS’ baptism of fire in pursuit of sub-regional peace and justice.

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The story of the Liberian civil war appears to be very similar to that of many African countries – protracted, chaotic and violent. It was protracted because each time any attempt was made to resolve the crisis, warring factions in the conflict would make sure refusing to comply extended it. It was chaotic for the same reason; finally, it was violent given the death toll, and the extent of the killings each time ECOMOG clamped down hard on the warring factions.

Nevertheless, the role of ECOMOG in Liberia remains a moot point. This is because there has long been a perception in the West that Africa is a Dark Continent characterized by such violence and chaos that prospects of resolving its problems will not only remain constantly abortive, but will yield foregone conclusions that are effectively chronic failures. Therefore, any efforts for Africa to resolve its own problems may be unfairly judged as potential failures.

However, one useful way to best evaluate this outlook is through the Cold War period when, according to Stanley Meisler , “most people found Africa on their minds when the newly independent Congo erupted in 1960.” The catalyst for this had come from the West African State of Ghana, when, in 1957, it made African headline news as the first (West) African country to declare independence from its European colonizer. Consequently, this sparked the decolonization process to such an extent that by the end of the seventies, most African countries had kicked out their colonialist predecessor.

Most importantly, however, for Africa was how the relatively young United Nations could now help it maintain the peace and stability it so needed. The date 1960 is actually important here, for it is from this point onwards that one sees the United Nations ready and willing to throw a lifeline to a potentially violent situation in Congo through the then secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold and his deployment of almost 20,000 troops under the auspices of the Security Council. It would be in this same year that the man who had been one of the co-architects of peacekeeping, along with former Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson, would (unfortunately) meet his untimely death on his way to broker a fragile peace in the Congo. Despite his death, the spirit with which Hammarskjold worked towards peace has much lived on today in the form of peacekeeping.

In fact, peacekeeping is a very problematic reality these days, therefore, it is important to make the distinction between traditional inter-position of UN forces and peace enforcement. The latter has appeared to be consistently anathema to many of the peacekeeping operations that have been established since UNEF I was set up in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis of 1956.

Today, peacekeeping operations around the world have been deemed by cynics as, at best, inefficient and, at worst, failures. This is not without reason, for implicit in peacekeeping is the idea that there is a peace to keep. However, UN peacekeeping operations have consistently demonstrated that they are powerless in the face of the people whom they seek to protect. Armed with only light weapons, and heavily predicating their raison d’être by a mandate.

Moreover, it begs the question of whether peace enforcement is not a better method in the long run. This is why, in my opinion, the case of Liberia is an interesting point of departure to assess this issue. In this paper, I hope to cover the background of the civil war that erupted in the West African State, and briefly describe the warring parties and factions in this conflict. I will eschew writing a direct history of the conflict since, in my opinion, it goes beyond the scope of this paper.

Most noteworthy, however, will be my attempt to demonstrate and offer an insight into how ECOWAS’ force, ECOMOG, was able, despite its controversial nature, to bring the conflict in Liberia to some type of resolution through the unique and flexible way it shifted from peacekeeper to peace enforcer, as well as outline the various peace accords that brought closure to the conflict. Could it for all its flaws be a putative tool of conflict resolution in the West African region?

WHEN PEACEKEEPING TURNS TO PEACE ENFORCEMENT

They say nature abhors a vacuum. In some parts of Africa, military leaders have seemed all too ready to fill it with their cronies. And what better places to do so than in government. Liberia is a case in point. According to Barry Stein, author of “A Liberian War: A Modern Humanitarian Crisis (URL), “much of Liberia’s turmoil can be traced back to the state’s origins.” . In 1822 a small group of emancipated slaves settled in what is now Monrovia. The movement was sponsored by the American Colonization Society and financed in part by the administration of President James Monroe – same president who declared the (in)famous Monroe Doctrine stating Latin America was the US’s area of influence.

Stein goes on to argue that this idea of Monroe’s was so as to enable freed slaves to settle in Africa (Stein); consequently, “the settlers also imposed forms of government similar to those of the US” . In 1847, they would break ties and proclaim Liberia an independent state”. In fact, whereas all the other countries in the Western sub-region had been colonized by Europeans, Liberia stands as the exception. Consequently, it felt rebuffed when it asked the US for help and was duly snubbed upon; “there was an expectation that the US would intervene in what has often been described as its unofficial colony. But the US initially showed little concern for what it considered would be a brief disruption.” (Online, Ero, Comfort. ECOWAS and the subregional Peacekeeping…) Ero maintains in her essay that the US “government stated that the resolution of this civil war is a Liberian responsibility of a solution to Liberia’s current difficulties will be viable if it is worked (out) by Liberians themselves and has broad internal support” . Actually, the only response that came was “use of 200 US marines to rescue at least 300 US nationals on 5 August 1990 .

Small wonder, then that faced with the prospect of no US assistance in a colony that once belonged to them, the US would be promptly replaced by ECOWAS and its peacekeeping force, ECOMOG. However, this ultimately begs the question of why ECOWAS was actually embroiled in the conflict, and why it felt the need to resolve the Liberian conflict at all?

[Emmanuel wrote this article in 2000. You can read it here: http://un_org.tripod.com/liberia]

In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42nd Generation—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism–Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns “Critiquing Regionalism” (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org). Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integration initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many others. You can reach him on [email protected] / Mobile: 0268.687.653.

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