Rick Warren Calls ‘The Bible’ Series the Best He’s Ever Seen

By Stoyan Zaimov , Christian Post Reporter – March 1, 2013

Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California commented on the much-anticipated “The Bible” TV series, which premiers on the History Channel on Sunday, saying it is by far the best Bible movie he has ever seen.

“I have seen probably every film made on the Bible in the last 50 years. This is by far the best one,” Warren said, giving top marks to the 10-hour series, which will air each Sunday until Easter, March 30.

The best-selling author has been eagerly promoting the upcoming project, created by TV producers Mark Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey. On Saturday, the California pastor will air a 90-minute simulcast featuring a behind-the-scenes look at the production of “The Bible.”

“One way to build a bridge between God’s Word and the issues of our day is to tie a sermon series into some cultural event, something that has already caught the attention of many people,” Warren stated.

“For instance, when we enter the current economic crisis, I preached a series on God’s principles for money management. It taught people that the Bible offers wise and practical advice on how to handle your finances.”

The project, which was filmed in Morocco, covers hundreds of years of history, beginning with the story of Isaac’s sacrifice in the Old Testament, and ending with the crucifixion of Christ. Other major events that will be covered in the show include Samson destroying the pagan Philistine temple and David’s fight with the giant Goliath.

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Another newspaper article regarding Doveton mosque

You may click the following link to read a newspaper article from the Dandenong Leader regarding the Doveton mosque. Rise Up Australia and take your stand for Jesus and your…

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The Age full page article on RUAP, including front page coverage, personal interview and photo of National President Daniel Nalliah

You may click on both photos to see The Age hard copy full page presentation of RUAP, including front page coverage, personal interview and photo of National President Daniel Nalliah.…

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Islamic Peace Conference in Melbourne a real failure

From Bernie – 21st March 2013

Six surprises from the Islamic ‘Peace Conference’

Surprise no 1: Free tickets were not honoured: We arrived at the Conference on the first morning (Friday) to be told that our free tickets would not be accepted. Thousands of free tickets were printed to be given to non-Muslims to attract them to the conference so they would hear the message of Islam and become Muslims – the conference was really all about da’wah or propagation of Islam. Conference reception staff told us that the Victoria Police had advised that everyone must pay the $50 entry fee. We refused, saying that we had not come prepared to pay $50, since we had free tickets. We said that it was false advertising to issue free tickets and then not to honour them. Eventually a young Muslim reception girl had pity on us and spoke to her supervisors on our behalf and we were let in free.

Surprise no 2: Muslim numbers were low: The organisers had hoped for 20,000 attendees, including 4,000 non-Muslims. However they did not achieve anything like this. The biggest day was Friday, when it was planned that 5,000 Muslims would pray behind the Imam of Mecca who was coming from Saudi Arabia. However news of his coming brought condemnation in the Age, Herald Sun, Australian newspapers and Jewish organisations because he had called for the extermination of the Jews, referring to them as ‘monkeys’, ‘rats’ and ‘the scum of the earth’. Although he never applied for an Australian visa (probably due to this negative publicity), it was not until the night before that the conference organiser announced on their website that he was not coming. Consequently, only 1800 people turned up for the prayers. The other main speaker, a sheik from Kuwait, arrived but fell sick and was not able to attend the conference. Muslims were disgruntled at the high price of the conference, expensive food and carnival rides, and the cancellation of some meetings. Eventually cold driving rain sent people home and kept them away the next day. Meetings set up to hold thousands were attended by a couple of hundred people.  If the conference was relying on gate takings for income, it will be in significant financial trouble.

Surprise no 3: Opportunities for Christian witness were high. Over the weekend, a team of 60 Christians turned up to witness to Muslims. The vast majority, by the grace of God, managed to get in free. We had applied for and been given permission to hire stalls and sell or give away Christian literature including Bibles. However this permission was withdrawn by the conference organisers saying they could not guarantee the safety of Christians from radical Muslims inside the Showgrounds. This ban on Christian stalls turned out to our advantage, as it enabled us to spread out, rather than being concentrated in one place. Christians could be seen all over around the conference, making friends with Muslims, asking questions and sharing their faith in Jesus. It soon became obvious, and non-Muslims arriving at the gates were asked by the reception staff: “Are you part of Bernie’s team?” Sometimes conference staff would order Muslims to stop talking to the Christians and send them away. Despite this, we had hundreds of wonderful conversations about Christ throughout the weekend and arranged to meet up with some more open Muslims afterwards.

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God’s Love Message Is the Sweetest Gift of All

2/11/2013 Sandra Clifton, D. Min.

“What are you thinking?” I asked my husband, Terry, who was staring at the lineup of 15 throwaway cameras that graced our kitchen counter.

“Valentine’s Day,” Terry answered.

You’re not married for 26 years without getting a glimmer of your spouse’s next thought. So I revealed it to him: “I know—you were going to find a photo of us from these and frame it!”

“Right; how did you know?” Then Terry added with an ornery smile, “What you didn’t know is that I bought a special frame to hold it. It says, ‘BE MINE!’”

We surveyed the cavalcade of cameras and tried to guess what special moments were on each one. In all these pictures there were probably 10 good photos of us smiling as a couple but 1,001cute cat photos! (Did I tell you we have two spoiled cats, Sammy and Barnie, who are naturals on camera?) Terry and I began to wonder which of the 15 cameras contained that one good photo of us.

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Darwin RUAP campaign meetings turn into Reconciliation with Indigenous Australians / Melbourne Western Suburbs campaign meeting with Lord Monckton on 22nd March

Dear family & friends in Christ,

1) Last weekend in Darwin, Pr Daniel along with Peter & Melanie from CTFM, ministered at several church meetings and also RUA Party campaign meetings, which were very well attended. This was Pr Daniel’s first time visiting Darwin after having prayed for 13 years.

We thank God that during the week heading up to the meetings, the Northern Territorial newspaper wrote two articles about his visit to Darwin. These articles, along with the help of the Darwin Christian Radio 97.7FM, helped get the message out, which brought many people to the CTFM & RUAP meetings where they were mightily touched by the power of God.

Click the following links to listen to radio interview and to read one of the articles.

https://reformationharvestfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/01-Darwins-97-Seven-Pastor-Danny-Interview.mp3

https://reformationharvestfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/RUAP.pdf

At the altar many were weeping and some others received a real healing touch from God. Many people, who were there for the first time, were tremendously blessed by the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. We also had the opportunity to speak on the Christian Radio Station on Monday which was very good.

The real highlight of the weekend was on Monday night, which was scheduled as a campaign meeting mainly focussed on spending time with the Indigenous people of Australia, but something amazing happened.

In his speech at the National Press Club at the RUAP National Campaign Launch in Canberra last month, Pr Daniel stated, “the Indigenous people are very spiritual and that providing only their physical needs would not fix their problems. RUAP has the answer to meet their spirituals needs too.”

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Media Release: UK Human Rights Lawyer to speak on Persecution of Christians in Islamic countries at RUAP Campaign Meeting in Melbourne

General Immediate Media Release 14th March 2013 A very prominent Christian Human Rights Lawyer will speak on the persecution of Christians in Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries, at the…

Continue ReadingMedia Release: UK Human Rights Lawyer to speak on Persecution of Christians in Islamic countries at RUAP Campaign Meeting in Melbourne

Council approves Doveton mosque next to CTFM

Dear family & friends in Christ,

Yesterday on Tuesday 12th March at the City of Casey Council Planning Committee Meeting, the Council approved the proposed mosque in Doveton next to CTFM future home.

8 Councillors voted in favour, 1 was absent, and 1 great woman of God, Rosalie Crestani, was the only Councillor who voted against the mosque.

She did not back off, taking on the fight all by herself.  It is so sad that political correctness has so infiltrated all offices of the federal, state and local government, that they no longer can see what is right from wrong.

You may click the following links to watch and read media reports.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/south-east/council-considers-large-doveton-mosque-proposal-after-1600-complaints/story-fngnvmhm-1226595666979

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/video/21479491727/SBS-1030-News-12-March-part-2  (watch between 7:17-9:27)

http://www.caseyweeklycranbourne.com.au/story/1359684/doveton-mosque-given-council-green-light/?cs=1187

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/deal-with-mosque-pastor-told-20130312-2fy55.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-13/church-leader-vows-to-fight-mosque-decision/4569414

Community concerns were literally completely overlooked and ignored,  even though at least one resident who opposed the mosque had a death threat and some others were intimidated. Already some of the residents have put their houses up for sale. This is a very sad day in Australia, where so many government officials no longer stand for the truth. In the CTFM vs Islamic Council of Victoria Court Case around 6-7 years ago, the VCAT Judge stated that truth was irrelevant.

I want to personally thank everyone who prayed and supported us. Unfortunately, even though there were more than 2000 people complaining against the mosque, it was still approved.

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Rise Up Australia Party article mentioned on front page of Age Newspaper

Of race, religion and politics

The Age – March 10, 2013 – John Elder

With its anti-Islam, anti-multicultural stance, Danny Nalliah’s Rise Up Australia Party has been compared to One Nation. But will its policies win seats in the Senate?

National president of Rise Up Australia, Danny Nalliah, left, and below speaking at the election campaign launch in Hallam.

The most interesting thing about Pastor Danny Nalliah isn’t that he reportedly raises people from the dead, or that Jesus talks to him in dreams, or even that he wants every school to be issued with a wooden spoon for the smacking of naughty bottoms – it’s that his moral authority as a politician comes from the colour of his skin.

He both affirmed and joked about it recently at the Victorian launch of his Rise Up Australia Party. During his speech, Nalliah told a story of being interviewed by an SBS journalist who asked if the party, which is stridently anti-Islamic and calls for an end to multiculturalism, was just another Pauline Hanson white-Australia affair.

”Of course,” said Nalliah, whose voice has an unfortunate tendency to become high-pitched when speech-making, ”he couldn’t see me because I was on the telephone. The fact is, he didn’t realise he was born in the day and I was born at night. I said … the man you’re talking to is a black fellow.”

The congregation laughed and clapped, and was then made part of the joke. When the hooting died down, Nalliah continued: ”I said this is not a white Australia Party. More than a third of our members are of non-Anglo-Saxon origin.”

True enough. Among the 100 or so people gathered in Nalliah’s church hall at Hallam – he heads both the fledgling party and the Catch the Fire Ministry – was a healthy sprinkling of black and Asian faces. Nalliah says there are 30 ethnic groups among his followers. ”We have Fijians, Samoans, Arabs, Africans, Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis … so many, and they all feel the same way,” he said.

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When Casting Out Devils Brings Retaliation

Charisma News – Jennifer LeClaire – 12/8/2012

When you cast out devils by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you (Luke 11:20). But what comes next isn’t always as much fun. There is often natural and spiritual retaliation for setting the captives free.

Although no weapon formed against a deliverance minister can prosper, the enemy nonetheless forms a weapon and takes his best shot. After all, when you cast out devils—when you set the captives free—you just did marked damage to the kingdom of darkness. Whether you are an experienced deliverance minister or just beginning to study the gospel art of casting out devils, entering the battle without expecting the backlash is not wise.

Retaliation From Flesh and Blood

Deliverance was an earmark of Jesus’ ministry. His keen ability to cast out demons was one of the things that made his ministry so popular among the people. But Jesus faced His fair share of retaliation for casting out devils—and so will you if you engage in deliverance ministry.

After Jesus cast the devil out of two demon-possessed men in the region of the Gadarenes, sending them into the swine, the entire town came out to meet Him. But instead of glorifying God as one might expect, they begged him to get out of town (Matt. 8:22-33). If that wasn’t insulting enough, when Jesus cast a devil out of a blind and mute man the Pharisees suggested He was using the power of Satan (Matt. 12:24). And religious spirits were especially indignant that Jesus cast out a devil on the Sabbath day (Luke 13:14). Ultimately, one of the reasons the religious spirits wanted to kill Jesus was because he was setting people free from demonic oppression and, in doing so, threatening their dead religious rule.

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March for Life Counters Lack of News Coverage With Social Media

By Alex Murashko , Christian Post Reporter – January 26, 2013

Participants in this year’s March for Life, marking the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, seemed less bothered by the mainstream media’s lack of coverage of the estimated half-million people descending on Washington, D.C. to demonstrate against abortion on Friday. That’s because they relied heavily on social media to help shine the spotlight on the movement.

Outside the march, supporters of the pro-life movement were not deterred either. Pope Benedict XVI gave a shout-out on Twitter in nine languages. “I join all those marching for life from afar, and pray that political leaders will protect the unborn and promote a culture of life,” Benedict tweeted. The Pope has 2.5 million followers on Twitter in just six-week time since he began using the social media heavyweight.

“We have the biggest social media movement online for the pro-life movement educating almost a million people a week with the truth about human life and abortion,” Lila Rose of Action Network, a pro-life investigative journalism group, told Fox News. “Our Facebook at over 430,000 is bigger than Planned Parenthood’s Facebook and they’re a billion dollar abortion chain.”

While TV reports on the march were scarce, a quick Google search Friday evening showed minimal mainstream online media coverage as well. The news of Burt Reynold’s bout with the flu that landed him in the hospital took the top-center slot at CNN.com, while the March for Life story was nowhere to be found on its homepage.

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Human Rights Activist: Many Christians ‘Ignorant’ of Extent of Persecution

By Michael Gryboski , Christian Post Reporter – January 9, 2013

WASHINGTON – A human rights activist with more than 25 years’ experience in ministering to persecuted Christians said Tuesday that many Christians are “ignorant” of the extent of persecution globally.

Dr. Ron Boyd-MacMilan, chief strategy officer for Open Doors International, told The Christian Post that the church in America and elsewhere should spread greater awareness of what is happening to Christians in many parts of the world.

“I think the key thing though is that the church needs to get its story out to the worldwide church better,” said Boyd-MacMilan. “There are still far too many Christians in the world that are either just ignorant or even deliberately so of the true extent of Christian persecution.”

Boyd-MacMilan also told CP that he felt that “we can get out our story better, that there are literally hundreds of millions of Christians in the world who cannot exercise their freedom of worship.”

His remarks came as he was one of two featured speakers at a press conference on Tuesday morning sponsored by Open Doors at the First Amendment Lounge of the National Press Club. There were two major themes of the event: first was the release of Open Doors’ annual “World Watch List” which ranks the countries where persecution of Christians is severest.

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12 Hot Spots for Holy Ghost Revivals

Charisma News – J. Lee Grady- 11/23/2012

The Holy Spirit is working in places you might never expect. The move of God happening in these 12 locations is notable, and these hot spots are great places for evangelists and missionaries to set their sights.

China.  Nothing in the history of missions rivals the success story that is China. Mao Zedong tried to wipe out Christian faith in the 1970s when there were only 2.7 million believers. Today, the most conservative estimate is that China had 75 million believers in 2010. A few years ago the greatest growth was among rural “house churches.” Today Christianity is also growing in China’s major cities, and charismatic renewal has infiltrated state-sponsored churches.

India. Despite language barriers, tribal divisions and violent attacks by Hindus, indigenous church-planting movements have flourished all over India in the last 40 years. Fifteen years ago in Andhra Pradesh, a woman who heard a gospel radio broadcast, asked if someone could plant a church in her remote village. Within the first year after a pastor came, the church had 75 converts. After a church building was constructed in 1994, this church planted 125 churches with a combined membership of more than 5,000. This type of growth is occurring throughout India today.

Iran. Despite crackdowns on church gatherings, arrests of pastors and confiscation of Christian videotapes and other materials, Iranian believers are finding increased openness to the gospel in this stronghold of Shiite Islam. The leader of one indigenous ministry says, “Everyone we share the gospel with wants to become a Christian.” His ministry actually considered limiting outreach until it could obtain more Bibles and train workers to handle the overwhelming response. (more…)

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A Prophetic Word for 2013: Return to Antioch

Prophetic Insight from Charisma – Jennifer LeClaire – 09/01/2013

Charisma News Editor Jennifer LeClaire is sounding the alarm with a clear prophetic directive to leave behind the Hollywood Christianity, the pillow prophets, the prosper-me gospel.

I was taking a long drive from South Florida to Orlando, praying in the Spirit, and asking the Lord to reveal some prophetic direction for 2013. I must have prayed in the Spirit for two hours before I heard these three words: “Return to Antioch.”

With a long, dark stretch of highway still in front of me, I could not readily dive into Scripture to seek understanding about what the Holy Spirit was trying to tell me. So I continued praying in the Spirit and meditating on those three words: “Return to Antioch.”

When I opened my Bible to Acts 14, prophetic revelation for the body of Christ—particularly the leadership of the body of Christ—began to unfold:

When Paul and Barnabas were serving together in the mission fields, they made a return visit to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch. With the return to Antioch, they had a clear mandate: to “strengthen the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God’” (Acts 14:22).

I like how the Amplified Bible draws out this verse: “Establishing and strengthening the souls and the hearts of the disciples, urging and warning and encouraging them to stand firm in the faith, and [telling them] that it is through many hardships and tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

And the Message Bible puts it this way: “putting muscle and sinew in the lives of the disciples, urging them to stick with what they had begun to believe and not quit, making it clear to them that it wouldn’t be easy: ‘Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times’.”

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Why President Obama Does Not Defend Persecuted Christians – By Egyptian Christian Author

By MidEast Christian News – January 13, 2013

Writing in the monthly conservative Townhall Magazine, Michael Youssef has asked why President Obama, a self-proclaimed Christian, has failed to defend the cause of the harassed and persecuted Christians around the world.

Dr. Michael Youssef, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen who has authored 27 books including ‘Blindsided: The Radical Islamic Conquest,’ examines Obama’s dealings with Egypt over the past two years.

In his article, Youssef suggests a number of factors that could explain Obama’s position regarding Christians around the world. He says that on the outbreak of the January 2011 uprising, Obama urged Mubarak to step down. In fact, writes Youssef, Mubarak was a secular and capitalist dictator and his regime was corrupt for sure. However even after Mubarak’s departure, the situation has not changed and corruption is still present under what Youssef calls “the Islamic dictator who replaced Mubarak.”

The presidential elections (May 2012) ended by a narrow victory for Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate. Even though the presidential elections were allegedly marred by fraud and Christians reportedly prevented from voting, Youssef says that the White House and the U.S. State Department were quick to “embrace Morsi as the victor.”

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