~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTES  FROM  THE  VALLEY - Special Edition

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil for you are with me."  Psalm 23.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Friends and Family,

I know that there was a wondrous celebration in heaven last night.
(Luke 15:5-7)

The first night of Billy Graham's Central Valley Crusade filled Bulldog
Stadium (Fresno State University) to it's capacity of over 40,000 people.
Our Mayor (Alan Autry) gave a heartfelt introduction that included his
personal testimony of the power of Christ in his life.  The praise and
worship that included a choir of 4,000 people from local churches, lifted
our spirits and brought healing to hurting hearts.  Then, Mr. Graham,
showing his physical age, but still strong in voice and spirit, spoke of
this nation's tragedy and God's love.  His words were translated into a
dozen different languages for the diverse crowd that reflects the marvelous
diversity of our valley - including Arabic.  When the alter call was given,
thousands poured onto the football field in front of the podium and prayed
the Sinner's Prayer with Mr. Graham.  Hundreds of local, trained counselors
then ministered to their needs, heard their confessions, and gave them
materials to help them in the start of their new lives.  So many churches in
this area have come together, and each person will be invited into a church
"home" as part of the post crusade effort that is poised and ready to begin.
When Cathy and I got home, we watched the news on television.  The local
station gave an uninterrupted report of the event that lasted a full 20
minutes and included key passages from Mr. Autry's and Mr. Graham's remarks.
God's love and the saving grace offered by Christ's sacrifice filled the
airways last night as they filled the hearts of those in Bulldog Stadium.

PLEASE praise God with us for the mighty works of last night and be in
prayer for the three nights of the crusade still to come.  God's Word is
going forth into the "Valley" and the Lord says, " . . . It will not return
to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for
which I sent it."  (Isaiah 55:11 NIV)

The following provides a few more articles and e-mails we have received this
morning in response to the edition of Notes from the Valley entitled "Do We
Forgive or Avenge Terrorism?"  I have included a note I felt I really needed
to share with one of our respondents.

As always, our love and prayers for all of you come with this special
edition,

Steve



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Received from Bluegrass:

Article entitled:  "Things We Don't Understand."

New York City - October 12, 2001

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud -- listed by Forbes magazine
as the sixth wealthiest man in the world -- attended a memorial service at
Ground Zero Thursday, exactly one month after the terrorist attacks on the
World Trade Center in New York City. He gave (Mayor) Giuliani a check for
$10 million for the Twin Towers Fund, a fund started by the mayor to aid the
families of city workers who lost a family member at the World Trade Center.
But then Alwaleed's aide handed out a statement to reporters.  In it, the
prince said the United States should examine "some of the issues
that led to such a criminal attack," such as its policy in the Middle East.

Giuliani called the statement "highly irresponsible and very, very
dangerous." In his words: "There is no justification for (the attacks). The
people who did it lost any right to ask for justification for it when they
slaughtered four or five thousand innocent people and to suggest that
there's a justification for it only invites this happening in the future."

(Note from Bluegrass:  "Things we don't understand"??????  O I think we Do.
. . I'm not a New Yorker, but I say God Bless Rudy Giuliani . . . someone
who puts lives ahead of money is refreshing.  "The Lord is my helper, I will
not be afraid, what man can do to me?"  Hebrews 13:5,6 RSV)



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Received via Bible-study@... :

Subject: Re: Do We Forgive or Avenge Terrorism?

Merritt Spencer wrote:

I read what you wrote below and agree for the most part but you mentioned
something that has troubled me You quoted as follows:" . . . This is what
the LORD Almighty says: `I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to
Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the
Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare
them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep,
camels and donkeys.'" 1 Samuel 15:1-3 (NIV)

One of my problems is we do not have God telling us the Americans to do that
to anyone.  Secondly, the injustice of this stands out.  What did the women
and infants and cattle sheep, camels and donkeys have to do with the sins of
the prior Amalekites.  How long back was it that the Amalekites had attacked
Israel?  Was there anyone now living with Amalekites that was responsible
for that attack?

In response to Merritt, Kathy wrote:

" . . . in regards to our forgiving the terrorists, it is not ours to
forgive unless *we* have lost someone or something in the wrong-doing. *We*
cannot forgive an evil done to someone else; if a man steals MY car --- is
that YOURS to forgive? Of course not. I know we as a country lost something
that day, but personally I experienced no loss of family, friend, or
property (I don't even personally own any stocks), so it is not mine to
forgive on the part of those who did lose loved ones or property that day.

Also, I always thought forgiveness was a proper response to someone who had
repented --- who expressed regret and remorse, made restitution (if
possible), and made a reasonable vow not to repeat the offense. I don't
think we've heard that from terrorists or the countries that have harbored
them --- in fact, we've heard quite the opposite. I believe congratulations
and praise were expressed by Bin Laden and others.

One cannot reason with the unreasonable. How can you deal logically with
someone who would plow themselves and passengers into a building with an
airplane? If they developed this evil of a plan, you can assume they have
others plans in development as well. Therefore, I'm not so sure the American
response to bomb the harboring countries is so much revenge as it is
prevention. There must be a consequence to what happened on Sept. 11 --- a
consequence so severe that it will no longer be deemed worthwhile to repeat
terrorist activities. If we cower in response to what happened, they will
only continue the terrorist activities until they have their way --- at
least, to stop the U.S. support of Israel, and at most, to annihilate all
non-Muslims . . . "


(EDITOR'S NOTE: Dear Merritt - The whole point of the edition was that our
God is a just God and we MUST seek Him earnestly in forming our response to
the terrorists.  And I believe and thank God that is exactly what our
President and national leadership is trying to do.  We are seeking to
destroy the means by which terrorists inflict themselves upon the world, we
are seeking to locate them and bring them to justice, and we are feeding and
providing care for the ones the sponsors of terrorism have oppressed in
their own lands.  The point of the Amalekites example was that God has
called His children to wage warfare against HIS enemies in the past and MAY
call us to that warfare again.  If He does, we must not allow fear (the
devil's counterfeit of faith) to hold us back from obedience to that call.
Merritt, you have let your fear cause you to question the very justness of
God Himself.  That is a VERY dangerous place to be, my brother, and I pray
you will repent and seek HIS wisdom in this matter, rather than the council
of your fears.  Your brother - Steve.)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

{Heart Touchers} *Taking a Stand* 10/12/01

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TAKING A STAND

By Joseph Walker


I don't want you to think I was a wimp or anything.  I just didn't believe
in fighting. Which sort of made my friend, Albert, nuts.

"I don't know why you're afraid to fight," Albert said after I pinned him
again during one of our regular wrestling matches. "You're the biggest guy
in the school. I don't think anybody could beat you."

"Chris could, maybe," I said. "And Chuck. I wouldn't want to fight Chuck,
either."

"Yeah, but Chuck's your friend," Albert argued. "Chris is the only one you'd
have to worry about, and I think you could take him if you get him down on
the ground and sit on him."

"I don't know," I said. "I don't like Chris, but I don't have a reason to
fight him."

"Who needs a reason?" Albert said. "Fight him because he's a creep."

Albert had a point. In retrospect, I can see why Chris was the way he was --
troubled childhood and all of that. But from the limited perspective of the
sixth grade, the only thing that mattered was what we saw and understood.
And we saw and understood that Chris was a creep. But somehow, that wasn't
enough for me. At least, it wasn't enough to risk the pain -- and possible
humiliation -- of fighting him.

"OK, let's say I fight him and beat him," I said.  "Chris will still be a
creep. Only now he'll be a mad creep. I don't think that's going to help
any."

"Maybe not," Albert said. "But at least he'll know that you're tougher than
him."

And that's what it always boiled down to:  who is tougher. That's important
to some boys, I guess, but it wasn't important to me. It just seemed like a
stupid reason to get your nose bloody. Which is why I never got around to
fighting Chris. In fact, I made it all the way through grade school without
fighting anyone. Almost.

Albert and I were walking home from school on the last day of sixth grade
when we saw David pushing around Steven, Albert's skinny, scrawny third
grade brother. Life hadn't been kind to David. Nor had those of us who were
his age, which may be why he was taking out his frustrations on someone half
his size.  But I didn't stop to think about the sociological implications of
David's actions. I just reacted - quickly and physically -- to perceived
creepiness.

It wasn't much of a fight, really. Although we were the same age, I had
about the same size advantage over David as he had over Steven. I pulled him
off the smaller boy and pushed him to the ground. He stood up and I pushed
him down again. This process was repeated several times until David finally
got the point. He stayed on the ground and told me to leave him alone.

"OK," I said. "But if I ever catch you picking on little kids again,
especially Steven..."  I didn't even have to finish the threat. He
understood.

"I thought you didn't believe in fighting," Albert said as we walked away.

"I don't," I said. "But I don't believe in letting kids get picked on
either -- especially when they're like family. And I guess I don't believe
in that more than I don't believe in fighting."

I still feel that way. While I hate conflict, it's unfortunately true that
we live in a world in
which we have to be prepared to take a stand from time to time -- physically
and otherwise.  I'm not talking about going after people just because we
don't like them, or because we want to prove that we are tougher than them.
I'm talking about defending ourselves and others -- especially those who are
incapable of defending themselves -- from bullies, thugs and creeps. And
that's something we can all believe in.

Joseph Walker
valuescom@...

Write Joseph and let him know what you thought of his story!

___________________________

Joseph Walker has been writing professionally since 1980, when he left
college to join the staff of a daily metropolitan newspaper. For 10 years --
including six as the paper's TV columnist and critic -- he was part of the
mainstream media, and was painfully aware of the overwhelming negativity of
contemporary journalism. Joe says, "Nobody was looking for real solutions to
the problems society was facing; they were just looking for someone or
something to blame the problems on." So in 1990 Joe began writing
ValueSpeak, a weekly syndicated column that attempts to look at contemporary
issues from the perspective of traditional values. Joe and his wife, Anita,
are parents of five children, and one grandchild.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shared by Bill "Woody" Woodfill

Andrew Sullivan in the London Times

No eloquence can match the impact of their evil. Americans' critical
weakness in the past two decades has been their reluctance to shed blood for
their goals. They believed they could construct a huge military and never
have it fight real wars and suffer real casualties. They thought they could
alter history and advance their interests from the air alone. With the
exception of the Gulf War, which they hesitated to finish, they have shrunk
from the fight. When the current enemy struck again and again throughout the
1990s, Bill Clinton responded without real credibility, struck back without
real endurance, enraged the terrorists without truly hurting them. We are
now living with the consequences of his appeasement, and of his refusal to
challenge Americans beyond what the polls said they already wanted to do.
Whoever launched this war on Americans has now accomplished the task Clinton
didn't dare embark on. America has been bloodied as it has never been
bloodied before.

I would be a fool to predict what happens next. But it is clear that Bush
will not do a Clinton. This will not be a surgical strike. It will not be a
gesture. It may not even begin in earnest soon. But it will be deadly
serious. It is clear that there is no way that the United States can achieve
its goals without the cooperation of many other states - an alliance as deep
and as broad as that which won the Gulf War. It is also clear that this
cannot be done by air-power alone. As in 1941, the neglect of the military
under Bill Clinton and the parsimony of its financing even under Bush must
now not merely be ended but reversed. We may see the biggest defense
build-up since the early 1980s - and not just in weaponry but in manpower.
It is also quite clear that the U.S. military presence in the Middle East
must be ramped up exponentially, its intelligence overhauled, its vigilance
heightened exponentially. In some ways, Bush has already assembled the ideal
team for such a task: Powell for the diplomatic dance, Rumsfeld for the deep
reforms he will now have the opportunity to enact, Cheney as his most
trusted aide in what has become to all intents and purposes a war cabinet.
The terrorists have done the rest. The middle part of the country - the
great red zone that voted for Bush - is clearly ready for war. The decadent
Left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead - and may well mount what
amounts to a fifth column. But by striking at the heart of New York City,
the terrorists ensured that at least one deep segment of the country
ill-disposed toward a new president is now the most passionate in his
defense. Anyone who has ever tried to get one over on a New Yorker knows
what I mean. The demons who started this have no idea about the kind of
people they have taken on.

But what the terrorists are also counting on is that Americans will not have
the stomach for the long haul. They clearly know that the coming retaliation
will not be the end but the beginning. And when the terrorists strike back
again, they have let us know that the results could make the assault on the
World Trade Center look puny. They are banking that Americans will then
cave. They have seen a great country quarrel to the edge of constitutional
crisis over a razor-close presidential election. They have seen it respond
to real threats in the last few years with squeamish restraint or surgical
strikes. They have seen that, as Israel has been pounded by the same
murderous thugs, the United States has responded with equanimity. They have
seen a great nation at the height of its power obsess for a whole summer
over a missing intern and a randy Congressman. They have good reason to
believe that this country is soft, that it has no appetite for the war that
has now begun. They have gambled that in response to unprecedented terror,
the Americans will abandon Israel to the barbarians who would annihilate
every Jew on the planet, and trade away their freedom for a respite from
terror in their own land.

We cannot foresee the future. But we know the past. And that past tells us
that these people who destroyed the heart of New York City have made a
terrible mistake. This country is at its heart a peaceful one. It has done
more to help the world than any other actor in world history. It saved the
world from the two greatest evils of the last century in Nazism and Soviet
Communism. It responded to its victories in the last war by pouring aid into
Europe and Japan.

In the Middle East, America alone has ensured that the last hope of the
Jewish people is not extinguished and has given more aid to Egypt than to
any other country. It risked its own people to save the Middle East from the
pseudo-Hitler in Baghdad. America need not have done any of this. Its world
hegemony has been less violent and less imperial than any other comparable
power in history. In the depths of its soul, it wants its dream to itself,
to be left alone, to prosper among others, and to welcome them to the
freedom America has helped secure. But whenever Americans have been
challenged, they have risen to the task.

In some awful way, these evil thugs may have done us a favor. America may
have woken up for ever. The rage that will follow from this grief and shock
may be deeper and greater than anyone now can imagine. Think of what the
United States ultimately did to the enemy that bombed Pearl Harbor. Now
recall that American power in the world is all but unchallenged by any other
state. Recall that America has never been wealthier, and is at the end of
one of the biggest booms in its history. And now consider the extent of this
wound - the greatest civilian casualties since the Civil War, an assault not
just on Americans but on the meaning of America itself. When you take a step
back, it is hard not to believe that we are now in the quiet moment before
the whirlwind.

Americans will recover their dead, and they will mourn them, and then they
will get down to business. Their sadness will be mingled with an anger that
will make the hatred of these evil fanatics seem mild. I am reminded of a
great American poem written by Herman Melville after the death of Abraham
Lincoln, the second founder of the country:

"There is sobbing of the strong,
And a pall upon the land;
But the People in their weeping
Bare the iron hand;
Beware the People weeping
When they bare the iron hand."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Received via The Potter's Hand's Ministry

A friend of mine called me last night to ask if I knew where a certain golf
course was.  He had heard what a beautiful course it was, with it's lush
green lawns and rolling hills . . . But he had no idea where the place was
or how to get there.  The golf course is kind of out of the way, tucked up
in the hills where there isn't much else around, so it is a bit hard to
find.

Well, I gave him directions to the place and told him to enjoy his game.

He said that we should get together for a game of golf in the near future
which I naturally told him I would be more than happy to do.  We said our
good-byes and hung up the phone.

I then went into the kitchen, poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down at
the table to start to read.  But before I started reading I recalled the
first time I went to play that same course.  I had no idea where the place
was or how to get there either.  I called Grandpa and he gave me directions
to the place.  But even with the directions I somewhere along the way made a
wrong turn and I ended up having no idea where I was or where I had gone
wrong . . . So I found the nearest pay phone, called Grandpa and said
"Grandpa, I'm lost."

Grandpa with his sarcastic wisdom said "You're not lost, you are where you
are."

I asked him "What is that supposed to mean?"

He replied "You're not lost, you are where you are, it's just not where you
ought to be."

I said "Grandpa, if I knew where I was I wouldn't be calling you telling you
I am lost now would I".

Again he said "You are not lost, you are where you are. Now look around you
and tell me exactly where you are and I will direct you."

Well I gave him an idea of where I was by telling him some of the things
around me, like the gas station on the corner and the bakery across the
street.  He knew exactly where I was and told me how to get to where I
needed to go.

Well, I thought about that conversation with Grandpa last night as I sipped
my coffee. . . How he had told me "You are not lost, you are where you are .
. . it's just not where you ought to be."  And then I realized that
sometimes in our Christian walk we come to a point where we feel like we are
lost.  But then just like Grandpa said "We are not lost, we are where we
are."  And all we need to do is take a good look around us, see where we are
in our spiritual walk and then reach out for the Lord to direct us to where
we ought to be.

(You know, sometimes I wonder if Grandpa used to talk in circles like that
just to get me thinking.) Just a thought over coffee. Durango  ><>