More & More Arab Youth Are Openly Blessing Israel

David Lazarus : May 4, 2015 : Israel Today

“As an Arab who lives in Israel, it is a great honor for me to live side by side with my brothers the Jews. I bless them and love them and it is a privilege to tell them about my faith in their book, the Bible. There is a real way that we can live together in love, unity and peace, Arabs and Jews—through our Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.”

Young people from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen and many other Arab countries are turning to social media to tell the world that they love Israel.

The trend began, according to Al-Monitor, a popular pan-Mideast media outlet, when an Israeli Arab Muslim who served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wanted to convince other Israeli Arabs that the (IDF) are not an “army of evil” and that its soldiers are not as bloodthirsty as they tend to be portrayed in Arab propaganda films.

But instead of messages from the Israeli Arab audience he was targeting, he began receiving messages of peace and love from young Arabs all across the region.

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Earthquakes of Faith

By Brian C Stiller , Global Ambassador, World Evangelical Alliance – April 28, 2015

A shaking is taking place in the Muslim world with tectonic rumblings. Signs are early and evidence is anecdotal, yet stories abound and are persuasive. The unsettling of entrenched Islamic faith is making its way into places and with people we assumed were closed to conversations about the Christian faith.

Returning from the Middle East, a journey I’ve made regularly in the past few years, I spoke with those engaged in Christian witness about some possibilities they would not have verbalized twelve months ago. I begin with a story from meeting with Syrian refugees on the Lebanese side of the border.

A worn, gnarled hand gently stroked the bruised face of her two-year-old granddaughter whose front teeth had been broken and face scraped by a serious fall. I sat next to them in their scrabbled together shack in a Syrian refugee camp in the Beqaa Valley, just over the mountains from Syria. The life of “Fadwa” had been shattered first by her husband having been taken prisoner in Syria. Then her daughter died in childbirth because Syrian soldiers at a checkpoint refused to let her go to the hospital in time. Then to stay alive Fadwa was forced to flee from her home in Lebanon and walk three days over the mountains. Today she cares for five adults and six children in a makeshift abode, the main room curtained off from the sleeping room.

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Doing Church on the Streets of Baltimore

May 05, 2015 – The New York Times – Ron Nixon and Scott Shane

The Rev. Warren Savage, a former gang member, is trying to persuade members of several gangs to direct their energy away from violence. (Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times)

For the past few days, as a rare national media spotlight has shined on this city’s troubles, the Rev. Warren Savage has taken the opportunity to meet with self-described members of the gangs that many residents blame for some of those woes: the Crips, the Bloods and the Black Guerrilla Family.

He has found them on the streets, sat down with them in churches, and talked to them about their anger and their aspirations, urging them to redirect their energy from crime and violent feuding to more productive ends — including tamping down unrest that followed the death of a young black man, Freddie Gray, who suffered fatal injuries in police custody two weeks ago.

In Ferguson, Mo., community leaders seemed unable to come together to stem the violence after the police killing of Michael Brown in August. But in Baltimore, an array of pastors, politicians, community leaders and even gang members have repeatedly taken to the streets to calm crowds, effectively helping the police impose a curfew so far.

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After Devastation and Death, Nepali Church Returns to Worship

May 06, 2015 – Baptist Press – Susie Rain

Members of a small Kathmandu church gather at an alternate place of worship one week after their building was damaged in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal on April 25. IMB Photo

The small Nepali congregation started worship Saturday (May 2) right where they left off the previous week — singing.

Two dozen voices gained momentum, clapping hands, dancing and raising their faces to heaven in song: “Still I will love You and spread Your love to the people.”

The congregation breaks into prayer, for this is the moment when the song was interrupted by Nepal’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake a week earlier, on April 25.

They shed tears and cry in reliving the moment together: … The congregation grabbed hands and crouched against an inner wall of their fourth-floor room. Someone prayed aloud and others joined. The pastor, Rajaan Tamang*, looked up and saw the outer wall shaking. He looked over his shoulder and saw a crack form across the wall where they had sought shelter. He knew that if they didn’t get off the fourth floor, they all might die. They lurched down the stairs and gathered in the field outside. A few moments later, a building across the street crumbled and killed seven people. They were safe and together….

A lone voice gently leads the Kathmandu congregation back to the present by finishing the song: “Heaven has seen me. The cloud of testimony is surrounding me. Soak me with Your anointing power.”

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Ex-Muslim: Qur’an revealed a religion I did not like

May 1, 2015 – By Robert Spencer – Jihad Watch

Mona Walter grew up a Muslim in Somalia. When she moved to Sweden, she started studying Islam, and found that she did not like what she was learning. Now she has left Islam and is called an “Islamophobe” and worse.

What should she have done? Stayed in a religion she disliked and believed to be false so as to avoid threats and opprobrium? What should she do now? Stay silent for fear of charges of “Islamophobia” that inevitably come to everyone who dares utter a critical word about Islam and jihad?

In the West today one must like Islam, or is considered to have some kind of moral defect. One need not like Christianity or Judaism, or socialism or capitalism or democracy or communism, but one must like and respect Islam, or you will be considered to be “hateful,” “bigoted,” and “racist,” as well as “Islamophobic.”

This is one reason why AFDI and Jihad Watch are co-sponsoring the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest in the Dallas area Sunday. The point is not mockery of Islam. The point is not poking religious people in the eye. The point is defending the principles of free speech and free inquiry, without which society and human beings are not free, but are slaves to the people in power. Those who wield the real power are not necessarily those who hold office. Those who wield the real power are those whom one dares not criticize, to say nothing of mocking, on pain of violent reprisal: if they’re allowed to frighten people into silence, then essentially they can do whatever they wish, knowing that no one will dare to cross them.

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Guest Speaker Pastor Wally from USA at CTFM this Mother’s Day

Dear friends & family in Christ, Pastor Wally Magnangal from Christians in Crisis, based in the USA, will be ministering God’s prophetic Word and praying for people at CTFM in…

Continue ReadingGuest Speaker Pastor Wally from USA at CTFM this Mother’s Day

In 35 Years, Majority of Christians will be in Africa & South America

4, April 2015 – DAVID MASCI  – Pew Research Center, FactTank

The global Christian population has been shifting southward for at least a century and is expected to continue to do so over the next four decades, according to new demographic projections from the Pew Research Center. Overall, the share of Christians in the world is expected to remain flat. But Europe’s share of the the world’s Christians will continue to decline while sub-Saharan Africa’s will increase dramatically.

Nearly half of the world’s Christians already reside in Africa and the Latin America-Caribbean region. By 2050, according to the Pew Research study, those two regions will be home to more than six-in-ten of the world’s followers of Jesus, with just a quarter of Christians living in Europe and North America.

This was not always the case. In 1910, for instance, Europe was home to roughly two-thirds (66%) of the world’s Christians, with North America a distant second with 15%.

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Can This Be True? 2 Million Indonesian Muslims Find Jesus Per Year

4/3/2015 Steve Strang

Amid all the news about Islam’s gains around the world, here is some startling news you’ve probably never heard: In Indonesia—the most populous Muslim nation—2 million Muslims are converting to Christianity per year. That’s right. That’s one new convert every 15 seconds. At this rate, Indonesia will be mostly Christian by 2035.

Some Muslims are so alarmed they’ve created a video on YouTube to alert other Muslims to this menace and are trying to raise $2 million to start a TV station aimed at Muslim youth to keep them in Islam.

Called “Save Maryam,” it depicts a young teen named Maryam representative of all disillusioned Muslim youth who have responded to invitations to gospel events or someone handing them a tract that says “Jesus Loves You.” Watch the 4-minute, 45-second video yourself if you don’t believe me. It’s from Muslims in their own words, alarmed at the rate of conversions to Christianity.

It ends by urging Muslims to stop this trend (thereby “Saving Maryam”) by alerting other Muslims to the threat by forwarding the video on social media.

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Pr Daniel ministering in QLD over Anzac weekend 24-26 April

Dear friends & family in Christ, Pr Daniel will be ministering in Townsville & Ingham, QLD this Friday 24th, Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th April over Anzac weekend. You may…

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Videos of Christians forgiving Islamic State spread through Middle East

Stories of forgiveness from people affected by Islamist extremism have now been watched by more than a million people, according to the SAT-7 satellite broadcasting organisation.

Most of those who have watched the videos of a 10-year-old Iraqi girl displaced by Islamic State and of the brother of two Egyptian labourers beheaded in Libya live in the Middle East.

SAT-7’s Egypt director Farid Samir said that the massive interest in the clips shows the impact of “resisting violence through forgiveness”.

The video of 10-year-old Myriam saying she “will ask God to forgive IS” was watched by more than 200,000 people within 42 hours of appearing on the SAT-7 ARABIC Facebook page.

An earlier clip in which an Egyptian Christian called in to a SAT-7 worship programme within days of his two brothers’ deaths at the hands of IS was watched by at least half a million people in the first week and shared on news sites around the world. The videos have also been uploaded by other sites not linked to SAT-7 pages, so that the total viewership is higher still.

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ISIS, Iran Are Agents of ‘Apocalyptic Islam’ Paving Way for ‘Islamic Messiah,’ Says NYT Bestselling Author

By Samuel Smith , Christian Post Reporter – February 26, 2015

Joel Rosenberg speaks at the National Religious Broadcasters’ International Media Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, February 24, 2015.

Speaking in a discussion on Islam at the National Religious Broadcasters’ International Christian Media Convention on Tuesday, New York Times bestselling author and Middle East expert Joel Rosenberg explained that the biggest threat facing the Western world is not the rise of radical Islam, but rather the rise of “apocalyptic Islam.”

In one of four Islam discussions held at the three-day conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Rosenberg, who authored the bestselling book series The Last Jihad, criticized the Obama administration for refusing to acknowledge the threat posed by radical extremist terrorists as a threat from “radical Islam.”

Rosenberg continued by saying that although many people feel that the rise of radical terrorist groups is one of the biggest threats to America and Western nations, a bigger cause for concern in the West should be the rise of two nation-states — Iran and the Islamic State — with leaders promoting an “apocalyptic” brand of Islam focused on the “annihilation” of the United States and Israel.

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Wishing you a very Happy Passover & Resurrection weekend!

Dear friends & family in Christ,

1) Pastor Daniel, his family & all at CTFM & RUAP would like to wish you all a very Happy Resurrection weekend!

May it be a special time for you as you spend time with you family & friends.

Let’s remember that Jesus is the Reason for the Season, as we rejoice in His death & resurrection, bringing life, joy and hope to all mankind!

2) You may click the picture on the left to read a very encouraging Passover message by our Prime Minister Tony Abbott, especially for the Jewish community in Australia.

According to the Jewish calendar this Friday night 3 April is the eve of Passover which continues through till Saturday 11 April.

On Saturday night 4 April there will be a blood moon eclipse visible in Australia.

3) This year 2015 is one of those unique years when the man-made timing of Easter coincides with the God-ordained timing of Passover.

We’re posting the following article ‘Criminal on the Cross’ from Billy Graham’s Grandson regarding the true meaning of Easter.

By Will Graham, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

The cross means different things to different people. For some it’s just a pretty piece of jewellery. To others it’s a decoration for their home. To Christians it is a symbol of the sacrificial love of Christ and His conquering of the grave.

However, to criminals under Roman rule in the first century, and those who witnessed the punishment, the cross was a symbol of torture, cruelty, death and humiliation.

As we enter the Easter season, we can learn from a man on a cross. This individual’s name is only known to God. We find this man – a criminal sentenced to death – hanging beside Jesus in Luke 23:39-43.

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Former Terrorists Helping Wycliffe Associates With Bible Translation

OneNewsNow.com – Chris Woodward

Bible translation is underway in areas hostile to Christianity and Westerners, but the real story may be the people doing the translation work.

Bruce Smith, president and CEO of Wycliffe Associates, tells OneNewsNow about Scriptures for New Frontiers.

“In this particular case, we’re talking about translation in the Middle East and other hostile areas to Christianity,” he explains. “Actually there are some incredibly exciting things happening, where first-generation believers are really risking their lives to bring God’s Word to their own language groups and communities and have reached out to us to help them in that process.”

Smith goes on to share that some of the people in the national translation teams are former members of well-known terrorist organizations, whose objectives were to expose and eliminate Christians.

“Paul’s testimony is one that’s actually quite similar to many of the testimonies of the guys that are now doing Bible translation,” the CEO compares. “So what was possible and even miraculous back in the first century is still happening today.”

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Awesome move of God in the Gold Coast / Links to 2 more Christian TV programs in the US with Ps Daniel Nalliah / This Sunday live webcast

Dear family & friends in Christ, 1) We thank and praise God for His mighty hand at work on the weekend as Ps Daniel ministered in the Gold Coast at…

Continue ReadingAwesome move of God in the Gold Coast / Links to 2 more Christian TV programs in the US with Ps Daniel Nalliah / This Sunday live webcast