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May 8-18, 2010 will be your last chance to join Chuck and Nancy Missler on the Berean Tour to Israel. After 2010, the Berean Tour will be hosted by Dan Stolebarger, Executive Director of Koinonia Institute, and other guest teachers. Chuck Missler will continue to accompany the Issachar Tour in the fall. So, if you have ever wanted to walk the Land with Chuck, then this will be your last opportunity on the traditional Berean Tour. This May, Chuck will be joined by Nancy as well as Dan Stolebarger (Director of Koinonia Institute.) Be sure to sign up right away. Besides spending time with Chuck, we know that the imagery of the Holy Land will stay with you the rest of your life – your Bible will no longer be just black and white letters on a page; your Bible will come alive in living color!

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." - Genesis 1:27

Satan is an expert at twisting truth. The power of his deception often lies in taking the facts and mutating them into poisonous ideas that still resemble the truth, but lead to death.

In Genesis 3:4-5, Satan deceived Eve by mixing truth and lie. "Ye shall not surely die," the Serpent told Eve. "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

Yes, eating the fruit did open Adam and Eve's eyes to good and evil, but the price was the death of the entire human race. Our first parents did not become gods, but in fact lost their positions as close companions of the true God, the Creator of the Universe.

Satan hasn't changed tactics since the beginning when he deceived Eve. He still directly contradicts God by twisting and perverting the truth. The descendants of Adam and Eve continue to seek to be gods, all the while throwing away their true positions as God's redeemed and adopted children.

In our sinful nature, we humans constantly demand our own way, fight for high positions and insist, "We decide right and wrong. We are in control of our destinies. We are God." Deceived and deceiving, we reject the Word of God and embrace deceptive words that scratch our ears and rub our feel-good emotions.

Angels of "Light":
How to we avoid being deceived? By already knowing the truth. Plenty of New Age ideas out there come from spiritual voices that talk to people. A Course in Miracles, for instance, was allegedly dictated to Helen Schucman by an inner voice, whom she identified as "Jesus." The problem? The principles in A Course in Miracles - for instance, that God did not create the world, and that there was never a separation from God - directly contradict the Word of God. We need to study God's Word and know it so that we aren't misled.

Paul the Apostle warns in Galatians 1:8, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."

Aren't angels good? Certainly some are, but not all of them. As Paul notes, "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light," (2 Corinthians 11:14).  There are many spirits out there.

Who We Are In Christ:
The human condition is an extremely interesting one. We constantly err and do evil, and we deserve death (Romans 6:23). We are called to be servants of one another, to be meek and humble (Matt 18:4), to wash each other's feet (John 13:14). Jesus says in Luke 17:7-10:

"But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do."

Humbling as that is, it is more than we deserve. It is an honor to serve the truly pure, All Mighty God.

And yet. Yet, we are precious to God. We have absolutely tremendous value to Him, so much so that He sent His only Son to die for us. He allowed us to humiliate and slaughter Jesus so that we could be cleansed and made new (John 3:16, 1 Peter 2:23-24). One day, we will be given new bodies and will be like Him (1 John 3:2). Those who suffer with him will also be glorified with him and will reign with him (Romans 8:17, 2 Timothy 2:12).

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." - Romans 8:18 8

Here is the greatest wonder. While we are to say, "We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do," Jesus himself will come to his faithful servants and he himself, the King of the Universe, will serve them.

"Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." - Luke 12:37

That is astonishing news.

The World demands the liberty to do whatever it likes. Christ offers us freedom from corruption. The World tells us to fight for first place, to climb to the top. Christ calls us to humility and servanthood. We are not called to be servants because we are nothing. We are called to be servants because we want to be like Christ, who is everything. 

God loves us and gives us tremendous worth.  Then, on top of loving us, He makes us able to do great things.  In Christ, we have strength and wisdom. In Christ we have power and authority over the enemy. In Him our brilliance and creativity can have eternal consequences, and He gives us passionate love that changes lives. In Christ, we have everything that it means to be made "in His image."

We human beings fail to reflect our Creator much of the time. He's perfect. We're not. He knows everything. We just think we do. He's holy. We fall on our faces. Despite all our many faults and failures, though, God can work through us to tear down any mountain and throw it into the sea. It isn't about us, it's about Him. But, God created us to be His children, to look like Him. Through Jesus, we regain what Adam and Eve lost, and so much more.

Iran reacted negatively to reports this weekend that the US is building up defenses in the Persian Gulf yet still agreed to send its uranium abroad for enrichment. In the meanwhile, Iran will be executing more of its own people, and still holds hostage three US hikers who accidentally wandered into Iranian territory last summer.

Missile Defenses:
Tensions between Iran and the United States were cranked a bit tighter this weekend over US plans to build up its missile defenses in the Persian Gulf. The Obama Administration is reportedly sending in ships armed with missile-targeting capabilities off the coast of Iran, and is also placing anti-missile systems in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the US of causing weakness and division in the Middle East, and Iranian Parliament speaker Ali Larijani on Tuesday insisted that Iran is no threat to its neighbors.

"America's new puppet show for protecting and implementing security in the region is nothing but a new political trick to pave the way for its presence at others' expense," Larijani said in comments to the house carried by the state broadcaster.

Iran regularly puts on war games in the Persian Gulf and has threatened to hit Western targets if the US or Israel attack Iran's nuclear power plants.

Uranium Enrichment:
In the midst of these tensions, after four months of stalling, Ahmadinejad on Tuesday announced that Iran is willing to send its low-enriched uranium abroad for enrichment. He offered a slightly different timetable than the International Atomic Energy Agency, though. Originally, the IAEA plan called for Iran to get the uranium back after a year, but Ahmadinejad agreed publicly to less than half that time.

"If we allow them to take it, there is no problem. We sign a contract to give 3.5 percent enriched uranium and receive 20 percent enriched one after four or five months," Ahmadinejad said.

The plan is geared toward making sure that Iran sticks to using its uranium enrichment for peaceful nuclear power purposes only. The fuel rods Iran would get back would be suitable for nuclear power, but would be difficult to turn into weapons grade material. Sending 70 percent of its uranium out of the country in one batch would also theoretically delay Iran from pursuing a weapons program.

It isn't certain that Iran intends to follow the actual guidelines set up during the six world power talks last October. Ahmadinejad did not mention whether Iran would swap the entire 70 percent of its uranium at one time, as outlined by the talks. He did, however, express a willingness for Western countries to come in and build nuclear power plants in Iran, saying, "They want to cooperate? OK, we cooperate. We do not have any problem. Let them build 20 nuclear power plants. Is there a problem? Russia, France and the U.S., come and build."

Hikers:
January 31st marked six months since three UC Berkeley graduates, Sarah Shourd, 31, Shane Bauer, 27, and Josh Fattal, 27, were arrested in Iran after having accidentally crossed the border while reportedly looking for a waterfall. The Americans speak some Arabic, but not the Persian language Farsi. Because the US does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, Swiss proxies have been working to get the Americans released, but have not seen the hikers since October. Two Belgian tourists who were released from prison in December said that Iran was keeping the hikers in solitary confinement. The hikers' families are anxious for their release and have hired a prominent Iranian attorney to represent them, but he has not yet been able to see his clients.

Executions:
In the meanwhile, Iran is preparing to celebrate the 31st anniversary of the fall of the Shah on February 11. Leading up to the celebration, Iran has started executing some of the protestors who were arrested after the controversial reelection of Ahmadinejad last June 12. About 4000 people were arrested during the post-election protests, which have continued despite the police crack down.

Tehran's Revolutionary Court gave death sentences to eleven people last month, two of whom were hanged last week. Nine more will soon be put to death as traitors, and Mir Hossein Moussavi, the Iranian opposition leader is slamming the Iranian leadership for simply continuing the tyranny of the Shah.

"In the early years of the Islamic Revolution, most people were convinced that the structure of the revolution would destroy the past political situation of tyranny and dictatorship, and I was one of them who believed that," said the former prime minister, a symbolic leader of Iran's protest movement against the current regime. "The current political situation in Iran indicates the presence of the remaining roots of tyranny and dictatorship of the Shah.”

Legislator Hassan Noroozi named Moussavi among three people whom he said "must be arrested." The other two are Mehdi Karrubi, another Iranian opposition leader, and Fa'ezeh Hashemi, daughter of the former president, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

"They must not remain on the sidelines and be safe," Noroozi said. "Those who issue statements and invite people to create chaos in the streets and attack one another must be dealt with according to Islamic laws."

Imagine driving down a road made of giant solar panels. White strips of LED lights in the road brightly mark the lanes - especially helpful in the early morning darkness. Additional lights in the road suddenly blink on to warn, "Caution. Deer crossing." Sure enough, two hundred yards later, four deer hop across the road and bound into the snow on the other side. Thick white flakes still pour down, but they melt as they hit the road surface because the road is self-heated. Welcome to a solar road.

Scott Brusaw of Sagle, Idaho hopes to make solar roadways a reality. Last summer, he received a $100,000 small business contract from the US Department of Transportation to develop prototypes of his invention. Working with Pennsylvania State University's Materials Research Institute, Brusaw has been spending the past five months getting his product ready for testing. He's scheduled to deliver the panels to the DOT by February 12, 2010.

The positives? Thousands of miles of roads would not only get us from here to there, but would provide for all our energy needs. Solar energy from the roads would power the LED strips, as well as all houses and businesses in the vicinity. Not only could this technology eliminate the need for other power plants, but gas guzzling cars could also get phased out. Brusaw imagines a series of recharge stations for electric cars along the new solar highways. The self-warming roads would save states millions of dollars per year in snow-plows, sand and cinders, not to mention the added wear and tear on asphalt. Goodbye to black ice forever. Brusaw also claims that all electric and phone wires could be run under the road so that we could get rid of unsightly telephone poles and their tendency to get knocked down in storms.

It sounds fantastic. Solar roads could provide us with a massive supply of renewable energy and solve the endless problem of how to pay for road and infrastructure maintenance.

Brusaw and the folks at Penn State still have a series of hurdles in their way, though. First off, they need glass strong enough to withstand the constant beating of tractor trailers zooming along at 80-miles-per-hour month after month. The glass has to be textured in order to give vehicles traction and to allow water to run off. It also needs to be able to handle it when tires roll over dirt and rocks and branches and dead opossums. The areas of highest population will also have to deal with cars covering the roads, blocking sunlight. While Wyoming and Nevada may produce a surplus of power, that may not necessarily help New Jersey.

The cost will be another issue. Yes, states will theoretically be able to generate revenue from the roads once they are installed, but the $6,900 price tag for a 12 x 12 panel is a hefty initial cost for something that's never been tried before. There are other questions to answer too. How hard would the panels be to replace? How will the energy be harnessed and distributed, and who will be in charge of it all?

Brusaw is used to skeptics. The Infrastructurist called Brusaw's solar road a "dubious green scheme" last September and offered to buy him dinner in New York if he actually produced a prototype that did most of what he claimed it could. Brusaw responded by saying:

'The contract that we have with the U.S. Department of Transportation requires us to have a working prototype Solar Road Panel by February 12, 2010. That's actually the easy part. We knew early on that getting the DOT, DOE, EPA, and Homeland Security on board would be the tough part. In the DOT contract, it states, "It is anticipated that this project may be of interest to the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency for Phase II funding. That leaves Homeland Security, which we expect will be very interested in the ability to track hazardous materials and known terrorists in real time…

'Just for the record, Julie and I are fond of Red Lobster and Marie Calendar's. I don't like to gloat, so a trip to New York would be a waste of time. Perhaps you could send some gift certificates?'

We hope Brusaw and his wife get to enjoy that free Red Lobster dinner, and we look forward to seeing what happens to his Solar Road Panels after February 12th.