Dear friends & family in Christ You may click the following links for more excellent media coverage of last week's 'Public Assurance of Cooperation' co-signing agreement between Australian Christians (AC),…
The story that follows is what happens in a land where people are not free – and what happens when people like you, people who are free, choose to step up and help the helpless.
Here you see a photo of precious Bao Yu (name has been changed to protect her identity).
When Bao Yu’s mother was 8 months pregnant, she went to the hospital to determine the sex of the child. Her mother already had a three-year old daughter, and her family was determined that this second child would be a son. (In the countryside, where your first child is a girl, you can have a second child. Many regard this second child as their last chance to have a son.) When the doctor told Bao Yu’s mother she was carrying a girl, her family tried to force her to abort.
The family wanted a boy, and because of the coercive enforcement of the One Child Policy, they knew they could not have a boy if they kept baby Bao Yu. Even though Bao Yu’s mother couldn’t see her daughter in the womb, she knew that she loved her and felt her growing day-by-day. Still, because of the intense pressure from her family, she felt like she had no other option but to abort her full-term pregnancy – just because her baby was a girl.
JP Update – 29th July 2014
In a small gathering only several blocks from where a massive rally in support of Israel was set to shortly take place outside the United Nations, several dozen protesters, most of them young adults who were dressed in mournful black outfits, stood in front of the midtown Manhattan office building that contains the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, chanting the mourners’ Kaddish and reading aloud the names of the hundreds of Palestinians, along with the Israeli soldiers, who have been killed since the beginning of Israel’s defensive war against Hamas in Gaza.
The demonstration was organized by “If Not Now, When?,” a hastily pulled-together group of “anti-occupation” Jewish protesters.
Their demonstration was overwhelmed by the “New York Stands With Israel” community-wide rally held next to the UN two hours later. The large gathering, which was officially co-sponsored by UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Conference of Presidents, in conjunction with the Reform, Conservative and mainstream Orthodox movements, drew a passionate crowd of 10,000 people, said Shira Dicker, who has a public relations firm but was speaking as a rally participant. Participating in the rally is “exhilarating,” Dicker said.
Dear friends & family in Christ, You may click the following links for media coverage on yesterday's 'Public Assurance of Cooperation' co-signing agreement (attached) between Australian Christians (AC), Democratic Labor…
John Bingham – The Telegraph –
David Cameron has insisted that being a Christian helps make him a better politician.
His comments came as he became the first prime minister since Margaret Thatcher to attend Britain’s national parliamentary“prayer breakfast”.
It follows a debate over Mr Cameron’s remarks earlier this year that Britain is still a “Christian country” and that followers of the faith should be unashamedly “evangelical” about their beliefs.
Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, who is an atheist, also attended alongside 80 MPs, 20 peers and almost 600 churchgoers, campaigners and lobbyists for the early morning gathering in the medieval Westminster Hall.
5/29/2014 Jennifer LeClaire – Charisma News
Few of us know what we want to be at the age of 9, but evangelist Reinhard Bonnke is one of the exceptions. The German evangelist, who has preached in front of crowds exceeding 1.6 million in Africa, says it was at that tender age that he got his calling to be a missionary.
Now, after 35 years and preaching in front of more than 74 million people, Bonnke is bringing his message, “American Shall be Saved,” to the United States. His gospel crusade will bring his message from the Lord to Miami, Greensboro, Long Island, Houston, and Pittsburgh.
“Evangelism must always lead into the church,” Bonnke says. “This is a central truth I have practiced everywhere. I, the evangelist, bring my nets and borrow the boats of the local churches. Together we will cast our nets into the human ocean and pull them in to be emptied on the beach. My promise to you is not to take a single fish but to leave them all with the local churches. Then I will dry and mend my nets and move to the next place.”
By Morgan Lee , Christian Post Reporter – July 1, 2014|
FCBC Senior Pastor Lawrence Khong called upon those in attendance to “preserve purity in the home,” and said that while he had relationships with members of the LGBT community, he believed that the church could not bend on its definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.
“We are not pushing a religious issue on our nation; we are standing here on a social and moral issue,” he said. “Today, we wear white not because we want to preach to people, but [because] we want to share with them that we stand on the same moral ground that is healthy for our nation.”
Khong insisted that his values were in line with those of the government’s and stated that he was “confounded” by some who criticized FCBC as “confrontational,” when Pink Dot was “a value generally not acceptable in our land.”
“We, as Singaporeans, have the right to decide what kind of Singapore we want it to be,” he said.
By John Stonestreet , Christian Post Guest Columnist – June 26, 2014|
Oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case ended earlier this year, and a decision is expected within days. And in the meantime, this Christian-owned business has had to make its case to critics of corporate religious freedom outside the courtroom too—even to some inside the Church.
Last Tuesday writing in “The Week,” Christian author and columnist Jonathan Merritt argued that we should stop calling Hobby Lobby a “Christian business.” Because in Hobby Lobby’s case, he says, he smells a strong whiff of hypocrisy.
The H.H.S. mandate, part of the Affordable Care act, requires employers to provide abortion-inducing drugs in their insurance policies. Hobby Lobby president, Steve Green, along with leaders of other Christian businesses, not-for-profits, and institutions have been fighting it in court for almost as long.
“We’re Christians,” Green told me, “and we run our business on Christian principles.”
Dear family & friends in Christ, Last Sunday afternoon 10th August at 12 midday, hundreds of Jewish people and pro-Israel supporters gathered outside the Victorian Parliament steps to call for…
Smith was right, except for his statement that this was in the Qur’an. Child marriage is obliquely referred to in the Qur’an’s dictum that the three-month waiting period for divorce applies even to women who have not yet menstruated (65:4), but Muhammad’s marriage to six-year-old Aisha is not in the Qur’an. Nevertheless, few things are more abundantly attested in Islamic law than the permissibility of child marriage. Islamic tradition records that Muhammad’s favorite wife, Aisha, was six when Muhammad wedded her and nine when he consummated the marriage:
“The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)” (Bukhari 7.62.88).
Another tradition has Aisha herself recount the scene:
The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became Allright, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, “Best wishes and Allah”s Blessing and a good luck.” Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah”s Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age. (Bukhari 5.58.234).
Dear friends & family in Christ, 1) Click the following link for a must watch 5 minute video of Andrew Bolt exposing the Pro-Islam Anti-Israel bias around the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8GkE1EY_QA&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop…
Chinese Christians vowed to “guard their church to the end” while facing the growing anti-church campaign in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province.
Local pastors and church members from various churches published a public letter the Wenzhou City government which included a list of eight ways the government had been illegally demolishing their church buildings and crosses. The government ignored their pleas, and within a week local authorities had forcibly removed the cross from the roof of Yahui Church in Pingyang County, Wenzhou City, and threatened church members harm if they talked to the media or petitioned Beijing. The Chinese government has since blocked the content of the public letter on websites within mainland China.
It is reported that over 360 churches in Zhejiang Province have been completely or partially demolished under the guise of “removing or modifying illegal constructions.” The government of Zhejiang Province says it is removing or modifying illegal buildings for urban development. However, in a news release, International Christian Concern (ICC) reported, and later the New York Times corroborated, that the target has been religious buildings at the exclusion of all others.
Dear friends & family in Christ, 1) Click the following link to watch a powerful 2 minute video clip on Fox News with an American Military Colonel on Gaza. Hamas…
5/7/2014- Spirit-led Women
She speaks wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household…her children arise and call her blessed…Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all. Proverbs 31:26-29 selected
My earliest memories of Mother’s Day include the white or red roses that ladies wore to church, pinned to their lapels on Sunday morning. A red rose was worn to honor a mother who was living, a white rose was worn to honor a mother who had stepped into eternity. So one of our annual rituals was for me to go out early Sunday morning, and find five red roses on a scrubby little bush that I kept for just that purpose.
We don’t keep that tradition any more. But I have reflected on what my grandmother passed along to my mother, and my mother passed to me, and I have passed along to my two daughters, and now my daughter is passing along to my three granddaughters. What has been passed along from generation to generation among the women of my family is a strong, personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
May 06, 2014
I am constantly asked, “Chuck, why don’t pastors take a stand and speak out?” I’ve been a pastor most of my adult life. I believe I am qualified to answer that question. Here is the stark reality: the vast majority of pastors today are “success” oriented. Beginning in Bible College or seminary, and continuing throughout a pastor’s ministerial life, the emphasis is success. And that means church growth, larger congregations, bigger buildings, bigger offerings, burgeoning statistics, greater notoriety, denominational praise, invitations to speak at conferences, applause from fellow ministers, not to mention the financial perks and benefits that come with pastoring a “successful” church.
And the way to learn how to build a successful church is to learn from those who have done it. Pastors regularly attend church growth conferences to learn from the “big” church pastors on how it’s done. They purchase books, magazines, newsletters, etc., that are all geared towards telling pastors how to build a successful church. They are constantly being schooled in the latest and greatest “how to” strategies of church growth and success. This usually entails more and more sophisticated programs, music, sound, lighting, atmosphere, classes, seminars, organization, etc. Everything, and I mean everything, is geared toward success as described in the aforementioned paragraph.
Most pastors today are in reality not spiritual shepherds as much as they are corporate CEOs. The same mentality, philosophy, and strategy that drive corporate boardrooms also drive the boardrooms of modern churches–to a tee. Pastors act like CEOs, dress like CEOs, talk like CEOs, manage like CEOs, and think like CEOs.