Dear family & friends in Christ across this Great South Land of the Holy Spirit, As many people have been inquiring, we're very excited to announce that the next National…
Dear friends & family in Christ,
On this Australia Day Monday 26th January 2015 from 10am – 1pm, hundreds of patriotic Aussies from many different ethnicities, Christian denominations and churches will unite as one to pray for peace in Australia at the premises of Catch The Fire Ministries at 30 Star Crescent in Hallam, Victoria.
This intercultural interdenominational prayer vigil will focus on beseeching Almighty God’s Grace, Peace and Protection over this Great South Land of Australia.
Special guest speaker is Reverend Donnie Swaggart, son of the well-known Reverend Jimmy Swaggart from USA.
Special dance presentation from 25 Indonesian Australians from Sydney and many other special cultural items.
There will be bible reading from Psalms 23 & 91 and the Lord’s Prayer.
This National Prayer Day for Australia is a major opportunity for reconciliation and unity as different ethnicities, churches, and denominations, including Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians, Protestants, Pentecostals, Charismatics, Evangelicals, Salvation Army and others, come together to corporately pray for our nation’s Government, Armed Forces, Emergency Services, and protection over our country from bush fires & Islamic terrorism.
Ps Daniel stated “As government leaders look for answers as to how to deal with the increasing threat of fundamental Islamism, we as the church need to play a major role in praying and standing shoulder to shoulder with our fellow countrymen to protect our nation. The church must not stay silent, as the silence of the church in history was partly the reason for the success of Nazism, Communism and now Islamism. I call on the church will rise up, pray and act as a united voice to stop the violence and to promote peace.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – THURSDAY 22nd JANUARY 2015
The President of Rise Up Australia Party Daniel Nalliah stated this morning from his office in Melbourne,
“As an immigrant from Sri Lanka who now calls Australia Home, when I first saw the Australian flag I just loved it. Every Australia Day I fly our Australian Flag at home and on my car. But most of all, I fly our Australian Flag every day in my heart because I love Australia and will fight to Keep Australia, Australian for the next generation.
I was shocked to read the survey results from the University of Western Australia a couple of years ago (http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201201234297/research/study-shows-racist-views-link-car-flags) stating that flying the Australian Flag was an act of racism. I know this view is supported by the push for Multiculturalism. For me this is very offensive and at once my instincts are to react by promoting every Australian to fly the flag, not just on Australia Day, but every day of the year.
I called Australia home around 18 years, and if this is what I feel, I wonder how much more offensive it is to every patriotic Australian, especially our diggers who fought for our flag and the relatives of the many who lost their lives.
Multiculturalism has been a great mistake the West has embraced. Today the host countries in the West, such as people living in Australia, are forced to think twice before displaying their flags for fear of being called racist.
November 26, 2014 – Israel Today – David Lazarus
A new generation of Arab and Jewish followers of Jesus met together last week to strategize on how to “turn Israel upside down.”
Two hundred and sixty Messianic Jewish and Arab pastors, youth leaders, evangelists, Bible-school teachers and ministry leaders gathered for a three-day council to discuss, study, pray and work together to effectively bring the word of God in power to Arabs and Jews throughout the whole Land of Israel.
These seasoned men and women of faith embody decades of labor proclaiming the Gospel to local Arabs and Jews. Most have given up everything to preach Messiah to their unbelieving Muslim and Jewish families and friends. Despised because of their faith, they have lost jobs, suffered rejection and endured multiple other hardships, yet their passion to bring the Good News to their people remains unquenched.
“We will keep preaching and teaching the Word of God until it changes the people of Israel,” declared one leading pastor. “We must be willing to suffer for the sake of the gospel and keep going no matter what happens. God will accomplish His will through the power of His word.”
Baptist Press – William Bagsby –
A year after more than 85 churches and Christian institutions across Egypt were destroyed and burned, and three years after the country’s longest serving president stepped down in the wake of nationwide protests, Christian workers there are finding an openness rarely experienced before.
Some workers noted that forgiveness — along with persistence in sharing the Gospel — shown by local Christians toward Muslims has played a large role in the change.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down after 18 days of nationwide demonstrations during what is now called the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Since then Egypt has gone through various protests, elections, presidents and the quake of upheaval.
In August last year more than 85 churches and Christian institutions were attacked and burned as a result of demonstrations across Egypt calling for an Islamic state.
11/18/2014 Josephine McKenna/RNS – Charisma News
Prominent U.S. evangelicals Russell Moore and Rick Warren blasted the sexual revolution at a Vatican conference Nov. 18 and said it is destroying the institution of marriage.
Moore, the public face of the Southern Baptist Convention, said sexual liberation had created “a culture obsessed with sex” that had simply led to a “boredom of sex shorn of mystery.”
“Western culture now celebrates casual sexuality, cohabitation, no-fault divorce, family redefinition and abortion right as part of a sexual revolution that can tear down old patriarchal systems,” Moore told a global gathering of leaders from Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and other faiths as part of the “Complementarity of Man and Woman” conference convened by Pope Francis.
The Southern Baptist ethicist said the sexual revolution appeared to have imposed a new patriarchy that enabled men to “pursue a Darwinian fantasy of the predatory alpha male” for the pursuit of “power, prestige and personal pleasure.”
“Does anyone really believe these things will empower women and children?” he asked. “We see the wreckage of sexuality as self-expression all around us, and we will see more yet.”
11/18/2014 Mark Andrews – Charisma News
Franklin Graham, who is widely respected as the heir-apparent to his father, iconic evangelist Billy Graham, isn’t shy about speaking out for God’s truth. So when he saw Christians compromise their principles to reach out to false religions in the name of ecumenicalism, it was no surprise that it drew a harsh response.
Graham this week slammed the National Cathedral in Washington for allowing Muslims to hold their first prayer service there last Friday.
“It’s sad to see a church open its doors to the worship of anything other than the One True God of the Bible who sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to earth to save us from our sins,” said Graham, head of the Samaritan’s Purse humanitarian aid ministry.
The younger Graham took to Facebook and spoke to the news media to register his extreme displeasure that a Christian cathedral—long a Washington landmark—would willingly be handed over to Muslims by the Cathedral’s Episcopalian leadership.
By Dr David Curry , Christian Post Guest Contributor – November 13, 2014
In June and July of 2013, Tahrir Square became a place where history was made. This Cairo, Egypt landmark housed the largest outpouring of protest against the radical Jihadist agenda in the Middle East, with estimates of over 20 million people protesting the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood. The loss of power for the Muslim Brotherhood brought repercussions to Egyptian Christians, both Coptic and evangelical, as the Brotherhood sought to both appeal for support among Islamic radicals, and punish Christians for speaking out against the brutality of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hundreds of churches were burned to the ground, homes and businesses were attacked and many Christians lost their lives.
As CEO of Open Doors USA, I have the privilege of regularly interacting with heroes of the faith, people who have suffered great persecution. I often meet people who have lost their entire families, businesses and homes, simply because they choose to be followers of Jesus. I was in Tahrir Square last January when Egyptians voted to adopt the new constitution and chart a path away from the rule of Islamic Jihadists. I watched as the Brotherhood demonstrated with violence, desperately trying to hold on to their death-grip of power over Egyptians. And I watched as Christians were targeted for brutality.
But just days ago, I returned again from Egypt. What I saw this time was a Church that has grown strong in spite of the horrendous difficulties that it faces. I saw Christians, both Coptic and evangelical, who have come to understand they must seek a common path together in faith. These are important first steps. What I saw was the first steps in the rebuilding of an Egyptian Christian Church focused on the saving grace of Jesus.
Dear friends & family in Christ, 31st December—New Year’s Eve Worship Service at 9.30pm with Communion followed by supper (bring a plate of finger food) – no hot food please…
By Stephanie Samuel , Christian Post Reporter – November 26, 2014
A September Lifeway Research survey reveals that nearly a quarter of Americans have received food from a church-run food pantry. Minorities and churchgoers commonly benefit from church pantries, according to the survey.
The Nashville-based Christian research firm polled 1,158 respondents about church food pantries and found that 22 percent said they have relied on a church program to feed their families. Of those who have received food from a church pantry, 26 percent were churchgoers. Over a third identified as evangelical.
More than one in three church pantry users (37 percent) were African Americans, 25 percent were Hispanic while 19 percent of the pantry users were Caucasian.
Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research, said of the survey’s results, “There is an abundance of food in the U.S., but plenty of people still go hungry.”
Some 50 million Americans struggle to put food on the table, according to national food bank network Feeding America.
September 09, 2014
Male violence against women is a real problem in our culture, one the church must address. Our responsibility here is not simply at the level of social justice but at the level of ecclesical justice as well.
We must teach from our pulpits, our Sunday school classes, and our Vacation Bible Schools that women are to be cherished, honored, and protected by men. This means we teach men to reject American playboy consumerism in light of a Judgment Seat at which they will give account for their care for their families. It means we explicitly tell the women in our congregations, “A man who hits you has surrendered his headship, and that is the business both of the civil state in enacting public justice and of this church in enacting church discipline.”
Church discipline against wife-beaters must be clear and consistent. We must stand with women against predatory men in all areas of abandonment, divorce, and neglect. We must train up men, through godly mentoring as well as through biblical instruction, who will know that the model of a husband is a man who crucifies his selfish materialism, his libidinal fantasies, and his wrathful temper tantrums in order to care lovingly for a wife. We must also remind these young men that every idle word, and every hateful act, will be laid out in judgment before the eyes of the One to whom we must give an answer.
Charisma News – Melanie Korb
While some “grinches” try to secularize Christmas and remove any mention of Christ from Christmas, the majority of Americans still celebrate the “reason for the season.”
According to Rassmusen Reports, 78 percent of Americans believe that Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth to die for our sins; 79 percent of Americans say religious holidays should be celebrated in public schools, and 70 percent prefer “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays” on store signs.
The majority of Americans believe that Christmas should be celebrated in public schools. Public schools are not religion-free zones. Classroom discussion of the religious aspects of the holidays is permissible. A holiday display in a classroom may include a nativity scene or other religious imagery, so long as the context also includes secular symbols.
A choral performance may include religious songs. Indeed, the majority of the songs may be religious, so long as the performance also includes secular holiday songs. If the students select their own songs, there is no requirement that the songs include secular numbers. (more…)
9/18/2014 Peter Youngren
Muslim militants are committing unspeakable and barbaric atrocities. If America and its allies ever needed “boots on the ground,” that time may be now. This evil must be stopped for a host of reasons, including for the sake of Christians whose lives are threatened in Syria, Iraq and across much of the Islamic world.
Unfortunately, in this climate of fear, some are ready to write off the world’s 1.7 billion Muslims as beyond the hope of salvation, unfit for redemption and predestined to be eternal enemies of God and His gospel. To do so would be a grave error.
Scripture gives many reasons to expect a gospel awakening across the Islamic world.
1. God promised Abraham that the Arab world would know “the way of the Lord.” Abraham had at least eight sons, first Ishmael with Hagar, then Isaac with Sarah and finally six more sons with Ketura (Gen. 25:1). While Christ would come through Isaac, God promised that all of Abraham’s “children” would know the “way of the Lord,” for “I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him” (Gen.18:19). Ishmael and the sons of Ketura are forefathers to the Arab world, and God’s promise is clear that they will know the way of the Lord. That divine promise can only be fulfilled if they know Him, who said “I am the way.”
2. God promised blessing to Ishmael. “As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly….I will make him a great nation (Gen. 17:20). God promised His blessing on Ishmael. Is there any blessing apart from the knowledge of Jesus Christ? Later when Hagar and Ishmael were dying of thirst, God opened Hagar’s eyes, and “she saw a well of water.” If God cared enough to show them a spring of water to quench their physical thirst, is it not reasonable to expect God will also show Ishmael and his descendants the “living water”?
Dear friends & family in Christ,
One needs to first understand that “Muslims” are a group of people. Islam is the Religion and the Koran is their text book, where they get their ideology from.
I am sure we all know that one can choose their friends and partner, but not your family or the religion you are born into.
The siege in Sydney had a very sad ending. All night I kept waking up, checking the news, and saying prayers for the hostages, their families and our security forces. I can just imagine the terror that the hostages went through for so long, and then to hear the news that two were killed, was so very sad.
I know that emotions will be running very high right now and that feelings towards Muslim people can be very negative. We must be careful however not to brand all Muslims with the same label. We need to love them and make them feel at home as many of them do not practice the Koran and have chosen to live a peaceful life.
Let me take Sri Lanka as an example. Due to racial riots, thousands lost their lives. Then because of terrorism many were killed. But since the terrorists were from the minority group, even though most people from the minority did not support the terrorists, all those who belonged to that minority community became victims of revenge attacks, insults and were looked upon as if everyone from that community was a terrorist. I hope that does not happen to Muslims living in Australia.
Dear family & friends in Christ in Australia & around the World,
May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas, in addition to a victorious New Year in 2015, overflowing with the supernatural power and glorious presence of the Holy Spirit!
I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for believing in and supporting the vision of Catch The Fire Ministries and Rise Up Australia Party to take Australia and the Nations for JESUS!
Thank you for your support, prayer, action and many forms of contact that have been such a blessing to me, my family and each team member.
I pray God’s richest blessings upon you and your family during this extraordinary season of remembering the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ!
I just love Australia and the people of all nations. I just absolutely love to see souls won into the Kingdom of God.
I look forward to working in the Spirit of unity with all of the body of Christ in the New Year in 2015 and beyond until His Kingdom come on earth as it is heaven! United we stand; divided we fall.
Let’s all reach out in love to those in need this Christmas season. Invite someone in need to your home. Invite your neighbours home for a meal and those who do not know Jesus that He is the reason for the season. Make peace with someone you have been angry with.
Share the love of Jesus as we remember His birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!