Dear
Doves,
Lest we be
deceived, the heart of a natural man is deceitful, full of
murder, lies and terrible cruelty. Look
at how one Dutch city entertained the Jews
that were in hiding, or in the death camps during WW
Two. Death
and taxes, death and taxes. Nobody ever
cheats his way free from death and taxes. That was true
until the living
God became fully God
and fully man. I thank God for introducing us all to the
Holy Spirit and the concept of grace.
Until Jesus came to us as a
mortal living, breathing and struggling man. He personally
tore down the walls separating
us all from all eternity.
I also
thank God for The Diary of Anne Frank.
In that situation, an entire brave Dutch
family hid a young
girl and her family for
many agonizing months.
All for nothing, it seems to us on the mortal surface.
However, we
serve a God that doesn't keep
score by our rules.
We have got to remember, this life is
quickly passing away. We will not be judged for our
many failures and limitless
betrayals. We will
be judged for the way we acted when we were given opportunities to
exhibit the selfless spirit and
otherworldly
behavior that marks us forever as Children of our Lord and King;
Jesus Christ. When we abandon our
primitive
instincts of survival and operate contrary to
Mendelian genetics, we introduce a spiritual anomaly
into the entire
human equation.
The predictable formula that normally governs decadent mankind
unravels.
Faced by the grace of Almighty God,
primitive beings are transformed into a new resurrected
creation. Not due to
anything we do,
but by grace, so that no man may boast. It's all grace, so
the next time you have the chance to sacrifice yourself
for the truly
lost, the real outcast, or for the stranger; do this remember
Jesus Christ, the ultimate expression of grace.
What have you done for the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ today? If you're like me, you fumble
about and struggle to
provide a worthy
answer. What chances have you taken today? How have you
shown those around you grace? Who have you
told they are
lost, naked
and eternally damned without grace? We are very close now
everyone, hang on tight to Jesus!
Agape,
Michael Curtiss
Amsterdam fined, taxed
Holocaust survivors in hiding
Times of Israel ^ |
4/2/13 | JTA
THE HAGUE (JTA) — The
City of Amsterdam fined hundreds of Jewish Holocaust
survivors for failing to pay taxes while they were in
hiding or in concentration camps.
The affair was exposed in
an article in Het Parool, a local daily, on March 30.
Many of the houses in question were confiscated and used
by members of the NSB Dutch Nazi party while the Jewish
owners were in hiding or in camps.
The city went after
survivors as late as 1947, the report said. Other Dutch
municipalities waived such debts, Het Parool reported.
The following year the city agreed to reimburse half of
what it charged to some Jews who were taxed in absentia.
The city’s archives contain 342 requests for
reimbursement, Het Parool reported.
The documents about this
taxation were discovered by Charlotte van den Berg, a
23-year-old university student. She said she found them
bundled with an elastic band in the archive section of
one of the city’s departments while conducting research
on Jewish home owners.