Dear friends, We’re pleased to bring to your attention that the official launch of Rise Up Australia Party – Victorian Division will be held from 11am – 12:30pm on Monday…
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.
4/30/2014 Jared Moore
One argument in favor of gay marriage made by professed Christians and unbelievers is “Jesus didn’t say anything about homosexuality.” Is this statement true? Yes and no.
It’s true that we have no record of Jesus specifically mentioning homosexuality during His earthly ministry, but He didn’t mention bestiality or molesting children either. Does this “argument from silence” (a logical fallacy) prove that Jesus was OK with these things? Of course not.
We do know, however, that Jesus affirmed marriage as between one man and one woman in a one-flesh relationship for life by appealing to creation. (Of course, Jesus is God the Son incarnate. He affirms the entire Old Testament. Yet even if I grant that Jesus’ words, the red letters, during His earthly ministry are more authoritative than the rest of Scripture, the argument still fails.) He essentially said, “It’s Adam and Eve, and not any other definition.” Thus, Jesus rejected every other so-called definition of marriage beyond what was given in Genesis 1:27 and 2:23-24.
In Mark 10:2-9, we read, “And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate’” (ESV).
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.
Dear friends, 1) You may click the following link to read an excellent newspaper article from the Gippsland Times in Sale, Victoria, about Rise Up Australia Party contesting the Victorian…
Friday, May 30, 2014 – By Dan Wooding – Founder of ASSIST Ministries
Following on the heels of the shocking case of a 25-year-old pregnant Pakistani woman who was allegedly stoned to death on Tuesday, May 26, 2014, by her own family in front of a Pakistani high court – for marrying the man she loved, comes the equally shocking news that Dalit girls who were gang-raped and hanged in an Utter Pradesh village.
In the first case, Farzana Parveen, who was three months pregnant, was killed before a crowd of onlookers in broad daylight front of the high court of Lahore, in what the family called an “honor killing.”
Police official Naseem Butt said the 25-year-old had married Mohammad Iqbal, with whom she had been engaged for years against the will of her family.
However, in an amazing twist to the story, Britain’s Daily Mail is reporting that the husband of the pregnant Pakistani woman has admitted he murdered his first wife to be with her.
“Today, the victim’s husband confessed he killed his first wife so they could marry – and revealed that Farzana’s older sister was also murdered by her family in an ‘honor killing,’” said the Daily Mail story.
May 28, 2014 by Arnold Ahlert
Those looking for the real war on women–as opposed to the one promoted by the American left and their media enablers—should focus their attention on Pakistan and Sudan. In the former nation, a 25-year-old pregnant woman has been stoned to death by members of her own family, with her father dubbing the atrocity an “honor killing.” In the latter nation, a 27-year-old woman has been sentenced to death for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. She was also pregnant, and has given birth while awaiting her sentence to be carried out. The common thread in both cases is as predictable as it is disturbing: the religion of Islam and the endemic mistreatment of women practiced by far too many of its followers.
Farzana Parveen was killed in broad daylight by nearly 20 members of her family before a crowd of onlookers outside the High Court in the eastern city of Lahore, Pakistan. As she walked up to the court’s main gate with her husband Mohammad Iqbal, relatives waiting for the couple’s arrival fired shots in the air and attempted to snatch her away. When she resisted, the attackers, who included her father, two brothers and her former fiancé, started beating her and her husband, before escalating the attack with bricks obtained from a nearby construction site.
Parveen subsequently sustained severe head injuries and was pronounced dead at the hospital, according to police.
Dear friends & family in Christ, 1) You may click the following link to watch a 2 minute video from an Egyptian Doctor regarding the current crisis in the Middle…
May 12, 2014 – Erik Eckholm – The New York Times
Alan Sears, who has run the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom since its founding 20 years ago, turned to a picture of Abraham Lincoln in his office here and noted the decades of blood and tears it took to abolish slavery.
“I think there is no question that one day, this country will again recognize that marriage is between a man and a woman,” said Mr. Sears, a former top official in the Reagan Justice Department.
The comparison may or may not prove apt, but these are heady days for Alliance Defending Freedom, which, with its $40 million annual budget, 40-plus staff lawyers and hundreds of affiliated lawyers, has emerged as the largest legal force of the religious right, arguing hundreds of pro bono cases across the country. It has helped shift the emphasis of religious freedom enshrined in the Constitution. For decades, courts leaned toward keeping religion out of public spaces. Today, thanks to cases won by the alliance and other legal teams focused on Christian causes, the momentum has tilted toward allowing religious practices with fewer restrictions.
The group last Monday celebrated a major victory in the Supreme Court, where a client, the Town of Greece, N.Y., won the right to open council meetings with mainly Christian prayers.
Dear friends & family in Christ, You may click the following link to read an excellent article about RUAP that recently appeared in the Loddon Times in Country Victoria. http://riseupaustraliaparty.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/RUAP-in-Loddon-Times-Newspaper.pdf…
By Harriet Alexander – 25 May 2014
Apostasy is not just something that scandalises people in far off lands. Harriet Alexander hears the story of a British woman whose life was turned upside down when she left Islam – echoing the plight of Meriam Ibrahim, who awaits a death sentence in Sudan for the same “crime”.
If Amal Farah were not living in Britain, she believes she might well be dead.
For the 33-year-old financial manager had carried out an act so heinous, her family felt she deserved to die.
Her crime? She had renounced her Islamic faith – “and within my community, that’s a capital offence,” she said. “They believe you deserve to die.”
Mrs Farah, who was born in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, but now lives in Britain, has never told her story before.
Dear friends and family in Christ, 1) You may click the following link to read an article with RUAP National President Daniel Nalliah that recently appeared in The Australian Women’s…
By John Stonestreet, Christian Post Guest Columnist
May 22, 2014|7:26 am
When it comes to same-sex “marriage,” our culture just like our president, has definitely evolved. After all, it was only in 2008 that a strong majority in California-yes, California-passed Proposition 8 which defined marriage as between one man and one woman.
But when our president changed his mind a few months before the 2012 election, the cultural floodgates opened, particularly in the American workplace. Later that summer, Chick-fil-A faced angry boycotts when CEO Dan Cathy’s views and donations in favor of traditional marriage became public knowledge.
The workplace pressure has only continued. Christian bakers and photographers who do not want to participate in what they consider to be a sin have been fined and faced being shut down. Attempts to protect their religious liberty, such as Arizona’s State Bill 1062, have been crushed through threats of economic boycotts and media shaming.
More high-profile voices have also faced this smash-mouth, brass-knuckle treatment. Just weeks ago Brendan Eich, the accomplished founder and CEO of search-engine company Mozilla, was forced to resign when he was “outed” for donating all of $1,000 to Proposition 8 eight years ago.
The Christian Post – Michael Gryboski
The Rev. Franklin Graham told a large gathering of pastors on Thursday to address controversial issues from the pulpit, declaring that “God hates cowards.”
Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, based his remarks on Revelation 21:8, wherein God lists eight groups of people who will be “in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Of groups like murderers, idolaters, unbelievers, and others, the first group of persons listed were the cowardly. It was this first group that Graham focused on for his speech, titled “Standing Strong on the Controversial Issues,” at the Thursday evening session for the 2014 Watchmen on the Wall National Briefing.
“The definition of a coward: a coward will not confront an issue that needs to be confronted due to fear. That is a coward,” said Graham.
26 May 2014 | Cath Martin – Christian Today
Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi is due to have an appeal hearing on her death sentence for blasphemy on Tuesday, but will it be cancelled again?
A hearing has been scheduled on four previous occasions only to be cancelled at the last minute by the court.
The last time, it was reportedly postponed when the counsel for the complainant did not turn up.
Bibi, a mother of five, has been in prison since being sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010. The accusation followed a heated dispute with Muslim colleagues.
Blasphemy is a serious crime in Muslim-majority Pakistan and carries the death sentence, but human rights groups say the charges are often trumped up as a means of settling personal scores and vendettas.