Beijing Fumes As Obama Calls Visiting Dalai Lama A 'Good Friend'

By Monica Cantilero
10 FEBRUARY, 2015

U.S. President Barack Obama called the visiting Dalai Lama a "good friend" during their first public encounter in Washington last week, a move that infuriated Beijing which described the American president as "playing with fire."

At the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, Obama offered praise to the Dalai Lama, a fellow Nobel peace laureate who is considered by China as a separatist, The Guardian reported.

"I want to offer a special welcome to a good friend," the President said.

Obama said the Dalai Lama is "a powerful example of what it means to practice compassion."

The President nodded and smiled at the Dalai Lama, after doing a bow-like gesture towards the spiritual leader who was seated at a table in the front row across from the President.

Chinese state media criticized Washington's welcoming of the Dalai Lama, saying the move "is a political liability which backfires."

"Chumming with a secessionist is playing with fire, which severely harms the mutual trust between China and the United States, and downgrades Obama's credit as a national leader for breaking his commitments to China on the Tibet issue," the state media Xinhua said in a commentary just before the meeting. "What lies under their hypocritical relationship is nothing but political deals and cold calculations," Xinhua said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing is "against foreign countries interfering in China's domestic affairs under the pretext of Tibet-related issues."

"The Dalai Lama is seeking support from foreign countries to realize his political end, but he cannot succeed," Hong added, describing the spiritual leader as "a political exile who has long been engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the pretext of religion."

South Africa, one of the countries that depend on China for investment, has declined the Dalai Lama's request to visit the country thrice, including one to attend a summit of Nobel peace laureates.

Obama's accolade to the Dalai Lama was only a brief part of his 25-minute speech to his audience of 3,000, with the President talking mostly about the "perils of spiritual certainty."

Obama called on the world's church leaders to have more "humility and doubt" and not be "so full of yourself that you are right and God speaks only to you."

"We should assume humbly that we don't always know what we are doing," he said. "As people of faith we are summoned to push back at those who seek to distort religion for nihilistic ends."

The President received "polite, if somewhat muted applause" when he talked about how professions of faith were often used as a weapon and "twisted in the name of evil."

"From a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris, we have seen violence from those who profess to stand up for faith and in the name of religion," said Obama.

He also emphasized the Islamic State's "horrific acts of barbarism in the name of religion" and the "rising tide of anti-Semitism and hate crimes in Europe, so often perpetrated in the name of faith."

He clarified, however, that the problem is "not unique to one group of religion."

"There is sinful tendency in [all of] us, that can distort our faith," he added. "Particularly in those of us who profess to believe."

"No God condones terror, no grievance justifies the taking of innocent lives or the oppression of those who are weaker or fewer in number," Obama said.

original link: http://www.christiantimes.com/article/beijing.fumes.as.u.s.president.obama.calls.visiting.dalai.lama.a.good.friend/50868.htm

Demons vs. You -- You Don't Stand a Chance, Part 4

Continued from: Demons vs. You -- You Don't Stand a Chance, Part 1
Demons vs. You -- You Don't Stand a Chance, Part 2
Demons vs. You -- You Don't Stand a Chance, Part 3

Continuation of this five part series blog I will cover and inform all of the readers on an important aspect in the realm of spiritual warfare.  In this fourth part I continue this discussion regarding why you don’t stand a chance against a demon.  This portion is geared now towards the person who thinks they are walking righteous with God but truly are still holding onto ways of this world.

Now if you’re a serious devoted Christian who is determined to please God with your life, you are a major thorn in the side of the demons and thus they detest you.  Let me be clear on this, demons only care about you because it is God who cares about you.  If God wasn’t emotionally invested in your life they wouldn’t be at all concerned with you.

This is a major aspect as to why demons do what they do.  Do not get caught up with your own silly pride voyages thinking that as humans we are intrinsically threatening to demons.   Truth be known as a species, they (demons) couldn’t care less about us.

For when we commit sin or whatever we do (our flesh) that displeases and makes God groan makes demons giggle with glee.  However, if you are a devoted Christian and walking righteously, you are one of the souls who is bringing God the most joy upon this earth.  Due to your choice to walk righteously which you made, this moves your name up to the top of Satan’s hit list and places a target upon your flesh.

Therefore if Satan can manage to turn you away from God, thus a major score for his kingdom.  Now you are starting to see a clear picture of a spiritual battle taking place.  The Holy Spirit is going to do everything possible to strengthen your devotion to our Heavenly Father and Holy Spirit will use Satan as his pawn to accomplish our Heavenly Father’s agenda.  As I state to all clients which I work with, the will of God is always done whether you approve of it or not!

For all the exaltation which Satan receives about the power Satan has in this world with titles like “the prince of the air”, “the great adversary”. “the lion who devours”, “the serpent” and a slew of other titles.  However, from the perspective viewed by God, Satan is just another pawn being used to edify God.  Therefore this is another reason we should not need to fear Satan when we are staying aligned with God as Satan can do nothing but help us.

The Holy Spirit is always upon our side.  Everything the Holy Spirit does to us is for our own spiritual best and growth.  When we really understand this, it changes how we as humans react to the Holy Spirit allowing demons to come upon or at us.  When we can see the Holy Spirit sliding open that door in front of us and we see our enemies (wolves) racing towards us, we ought to learn to think like in a manner as follows “Okay, this means I’m ready to go to the next level.”  The Holy Spirit is always teaching us and the more we trust this character upon our lives, the more we trust God's methods to teach and draw us closer in relationship with God.

Imagine learning a subject in which you’re very interested in acquiring knowledge.  Being so excited when the teacher starts a brand new chapter in the book the anticipation is nail biting to say the least.  Each time it’s the Holy Spirit who lowers this guard upon us so that we may learn the ways of the Lord.
It is as if the turning of another page in this spiritual teaching manual is occurring and we are to progress forward.  The lesson doesn’t matter even if it’s a lesson we’ve gone over before many times, as every time we review the lesson the principles sink in deeper within us.  The lessons may seem boring at times, but when they impact how we react to Satan’s forces we can rest knowing the Holy Spirit is providing the necessary lesson to be protected.

Whenever demons come at us, the demons know that they have a very limited window of opportunity.  The Holy Spirit will heave them away from us unless the hedge is to remain open from God requesting this.  When this occurs they are not going to waste a moment to come upon us.  The demons want to inflict as much damage as they possibly can, but in many cases, that would be far more than you can physically or mentally handle.  So the Holy Spirit places restrictions on them as instructed by God before the Holy Spirit lets them loose at us.  So to be clear none of us are ever dealing with demons straight on.

So if that was allowed we would be instantly demolished by the demons.  Our enemies, the demons are always working from a handicapped position.  This is not by choice of the demons, but because the Holy Spirit is keeping them on a limited leash.  Thus you might get exhausted hearing Satan constantly harping condemnation in your mind.  Nonetheless, we are to notice that Satan isn’t being allowed to appear in raw form directly in front of you.

Now consider all those creepy and eerie ghost stories we read about in which some person is driven mad by hearing voices and noises that no one else can hear.  Thus Demons can manipulate the physical realm in many strange ways.  Some of the examples of this manipulation are: they have the ability to throw physical objects, twist the laws of physics and create fantastic illusions.  Therefore if you were trapped in one of their “freak” shows you would quickly go insane from watching all of their frightening feats.  Hence one of their aspects they hope to acquire is to take a sane person and turn them insane.

However the Holy Spirit doesn’t let them toy with us to their hearts content so to speak for they have no heart.  Instead the Holy Spirit only allows them to do what works for just in the moment.  As an example if God wants you to practice trust, it is God who instructs to the Holy Spirit to let them come at us with an arsenal of doubt, as the Holy Spirit will block the demons from hitting us in some other area that God has not allowed.

I will continue this series blog regarding demons vs. you as you don’t stand a chance!

Rev. Bradley Luoma