Linda > Recent Status Updates

“All things, including God, are subject to this ‘force of faith’ because it works according to spiritual ‘laws’ of the universe….The world and the physical forces governing it weee created by the power of faith - a spiritual force.’” And faith is a substance God transported in a container of words.

“The (Word Faith) movement ‘uses so much evangelical and Pentecostal terminology and so many Biblical proof texts that most believers are lulled into a false sense of security as to its orthodoxy.’”

Good summary. “While the (Word) Faith movement is undeniably cultic - and particular groups within the movement are clearly cults - it should be pointed out that there are many sincere, born-again believers within the movement.” They are wholly unaware of the leaders’ heretical teachings and haven’t internalized them.

“most people don’t post about the slog because it’s more interesting to share the milestones than the grunt work”.

“Women wanted to learn about finances from other women, but the financial consulting industry was traditionally male dominated.”

I like the emphasis on not allowing the pesky stepsister of imposter syndrome (comparisonitis) to let you compare yore back-end work (complete with loose ends and late nights) to someone else’s front-end work that’s polished and pristine.

Building an email list is like owning a house, versus building a social media presence, which is like “building your business on rented land”. Plus email does a better job of turning prospects or avatars into paying customers.

“In today’s marketplace, building your business is building your email list.”

Content creation calendar: For 30 to 60 minutes, brainstorm 8 weeks of free content.

Create and share content once a week. Give away your best stuff for free. Batch similar tasks and work on them simultaneously, to decrease distraction and increase productivity. And schedule out your time.

“One of the oldest tricks in the Party’s book of tricks: charge your enemy with exactly the crime you are committing, make the charge deafening, and make it stick with all the authentic details that you as the criminal know so well.”

The illustration of chess or jungle warfare is quite applicable to Party politics. “He said that all the divisions, the halter-shelter overlaps and apparent lack of logic, were intended to mislead and to create walls of separation among the agents, as well as keeping them…ignorant of the structure in general and each others’ activities and identities.”

“Teachers make a fatal mistake when they find something partially true and ride it exclusively.”

“The question to ask is, what did you not want to know? I suppose for many Germans thirty years ago, the answer would have been, ‘I don’t want to know where all those people are going in those trains.’…because they did not want to know, turning their minds to more pleasant things, including what the regime promised for the future.”

Applies to cults and Marxism. “I came to believe that the control of information needed to be about more than simply keeping information secret. It needed to be about creating an alternative reality, providing a convincing narrative…The second thing I was convinced of…was the importance of snob appeal to the revolution”.

“New revelation outside of Scripture is a mark of all of the cults.”

“Adherents of the cults ….are, almost always, victims of what might be termed a mass delusion of grandeur coupled with a dogged sense of personal pride.”

“There is no authority in the Word of God for neglecting one’s responsibility as an ambassador of Christ, and the cults do not constitute a special category of evangelism.”

Also true that the reprogramming/exit counseling method (with the assumption of inevitable victimhood) “makes the cultist not responsible for his cult membership, the gospel extraneous, and the solution a social reorientation rather than salvation by grace alone”.

True enough about the “psychological barrier…that cultists must be a special breed of individuals impervious to standard techniques of evangelism and generally well enough versed in the Bible to confuse, if not convince, the average Christian.”

“The one neat division between Arab radicals and Arab conservatives has been replaced by internal fissures…Most destabilizing, arguably, is the growth of terrorist organizations, global in outlook and adamant in their theology, transcending all borders and contemptuous of any attempt to restrain them.”

So Jewish neighborhoods were attacked in 5 countries, survivors of a pogrom in Tripoli are herded into camps, 20% of Egyptian Jews were arrested and property confiscated, and Damascus and Baghdad Jews were expelled. But 1.2 million Palestinians were protected by Israeli martial law, except 3 Latrun Corridor villages.

“After the cease-fire, Israel insisted that the 1967 refugee problem, like that of 1948 before it, would have to be solved within the framework of a comprehensive peace treaty. The Arab states uniformly rejected this demand, and insisted on unconditional repatriation and compensation for the refugees.”

Equal but opposite reaction? “Just as the Egyptian effort to spur the Soviets to intervene effectively pushed them to promote a ceasefire-fire, so, too, did the Soviet attempt to deter the Israelis drive them to accelerate their attack.”

From allies, the Arabs expected honesty - or support. “But the Arabs were hardly pleased that ‘all measures’ amounted to Soviet acceptance of a ceasefire they did not want and which permitted Israel to retain conquered Arab land.” At last, the Soviet sickle bled its own hand by being too clever.

The Egyptian rout was a complete mess of conflicting directions, cross-fire propaganda, and internal chaos. “Israel never would have achieved a quarter of its victory if not for the confusion and chaos.”

The Palestinian notables lived in a fantasy world, fueled by Radio Cairo’s mendacious boasts about aerial superiority. They made no preparations for war and told themselves that the planes circling overhead were Jordanian….until the Star of David flew over the Rockefeller Museum.

When you have five hours to gather scattered paratroopers and storm an ancient city. “The problem was not how to do it right, but how to avoid doing it terribly.”

Brigadier Zaki: “Israel spent years preparing for this war, whereas we prepared for parades…The drills for the annual Revolution Day parade went on for weeks…but there were no preparations for war.”

“‘The Belgians, writes one U.S. diplomat, ‘are waffling.’” The Canadians gave in to Arab pressure and let them set the pace about reinstalling the same UNEF that had been booted out a few years ago.