Dear friends & family in Christ, 1) This Pentecost Sunday 8th June beginning at 7:30pm Pr Daniel will be speaking on a must watch live webcast right here at www.reformationharvestfire.com…
Sunday 18 May 2014 – Patrick Cockburn
Earlier this month, Saudi liberal activist Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, 10 years in prison and a heavy fine for insulting Islam. In fact, his crime was to establish an online discussion forum where people were free to speak about religion and criticise religious scholars.
He had been charged with “apostasy” in 2012, because of his writings and for hosting discussion on his Saudi Arabian Liberals website, and was sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes but on appeal a heavier sentence was imposed.
Mr Badawi will appeal against the verdict, but it is complicated by the fact that his lawyer and brother-in-law, Waleed Abulkhair, is himself in jail. He was detained without explanation last month when on trial for damaging the image of the kingdom and breaking his allegiance to the king. Under Saudi Arabia’s harsh Sharia code, almost any critical word or deed makes a person liable to severe punishment.
Lashings and beheadings generally get little publicity except where a foreigner is involved. The local media is muzzled and foreign press for the most part excluded. This contrasts with the blanket coverage of the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram, the al-Qa’ida type movement in northern Nigeria.
JewishWorldReview.com | Cal Thomas – May 15, 2014 / 15 Iyar, 5774
Once, Social Security was the “third rail” of politics. Touch it and face political death. Now it is homosexuality. Criticize anything gay people do and you risk ostracism, fines, suspension or loss of your livelihood.
Michael Sam, the first openly gay player to be drafted by a National Football League team — the St. Louis Rams picked him 249th in the last round — is being treated by the media and those in the gay rights movement as the equivalent of an early American pioneer.
Miami Dolphins safety Don Jones, apparently, didn’t get the memo. Jones tweeted “OMG” and “horrible” after he saw Sam and his boyfriend kiss each other live on ESPN. His tweet was quickly taken down, but the political correctness police swooped in anyway. Jones has been fined and suspended. He’s also being forced to attend “educational training” to get his “mind right,” to borrow a phrase from the film “Cool Hand Luke.” This sounds like the old communist “re-education” camps.
Dolphins Coach Joe Philbin called Jones’ comment “inappropriate and unacceptable.” Jones issued a statement that read like it had been written by a lawyer, apologizing for his “inappropriate” tweet and taking “full responsibility” for his comment.
Dear family & friends in Christ, 1) For those of you in the Melbourne area, we wish to invite you to our special dedication service of Catch The Fire Ministries…
May 9, 2014 by Nonie Darwish
It is a tragedy and a shame that it had to take the mass kidnapping and sexual enslavement of 300 Nigerian girls by Muslim jihadists for the world to finally express its outrage over Sharia’s evil deeds. Similar stories of Christian girls being kidnapped, forcibly married and converted to Islam by their Muslim captors, have been a reality for decades. But unfortunately, and tragically, they have been ignored by our mainstream media. Only a few “Islamophobic” journalists have cared enough to report on such atrocities in Egypt, Syria and elsewhere — until reality exploded to such a great magnitude that it awakened the world’s conscience.
Former Muslim women like Wafa Sultan, Ayan Hirsi Ali and myself have been writing and speaking about the oppression of women in Islamic society for a long time now. I have written a book dedicated to connecting the dots between Islamic law and such kidnappings, rapes and other forms of oppression of women. But instead of helping our voices be heard, the leftist media and academia have ignored us, called us names and done everything in their power to silence us. They have treated the American people like children who are told they should not be outraged about far away cultural practices — because all cultures are equal.
Advocates of cultural relativism who are brutal in judging conservative and Christian Americans, and call them slanderous names, have no problem in tolerating Islamic tyranny over women and other minorities.
After 9/11 Americans asked: “Where are the voices of Arab Americans who condemn Islamic terrorism?” This question led a few brave former Muslim women to stand up and speak. But when we did (at our own peril), the leftist media and academia called us “Islamophobes” and “racists.” What is Islamophobic and racist about warning America about the tyranny of the barbaric religious legal system that we lived under and came to America to escape from its vicious clutches?
By Dr David Curry , CP Guest Contributor – May 2, 2014
$12.50. This reportedly is the current “market” price for Nigerian girl brides in some areas of Cameroon and Chad.
Two-hundred and thirty Nigerian girls, mostly Christians ages 16-20, were kidnapped from a boarding school in the northeastern village of Chobok by members of the Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram on the night of April 21. Approximately 200 girls are still missing.
The parents have taken to the streets and pleaded for help from the government to rescue the girls. But the government seems powerless to make a concerted rescue attempt.
It probably is too little and too late. Some of the girls could have already been married to Muslim men and forced to convert to Islam. If the past kidnappings of Nigerian girls are any indication, some are now sexual slaves for Boko Haram members, while also making their meals and doing their dirty work.
A worker with Open Doors International, which partners with churches in northern Nigeria, states: “The abducted girls will most probably be responsible for cooking and cleaning for the insurgents. But there is every possibility that these children could be forcefully converted to Islam and married off to members of the group or other Muslim men.”
ASSIST News Service (ANS) – Tuesday, May 13, 2014
ATLANTA, GA (ANS) — One year after nearly a thousand people made commitments to follow Christ at Leading The Way’s revival gatherings in Jakarta’s Istora Stadium last May, the ministry is continuing to impact the world’s largest Muslim nation.
“Our Indonesian revival was only the beginning of a long-term outreach to Indonesia,” explained Leading The Way’s Founder and President Dr. Michael Youssef.
He added: “On March 1 this year, we launched THE KINGDOM SAT in the Indonesian language. So now on satellite television we have what we’ve been broadcasting in the Arab world for five years. Now anyone in Indonesia with a satellite dish will have access to the Gospel subtitled in their language. That’s remarkable growth from just a simple stadium evangelistic outreach.”
A team of 100 Christian leaders is following up with each person who committed his or her life to Christ at last year’s meetings in Jakarta. One of those team members was a former Muslim extremist who had become an evangelist and risked his life to bring people to the meetings: “He brought 17 buses of people every night. The second night, 30 people showed up at his doorstep, and they threatened to kill him if he took people to the final night. So he shows up with all these buses, and at the end of the meetings they were interviewing him on camera with his face covered, and my son Jonathan asked him, ‘How come they threatened your life, and yet you are here and you brought all these people?’ He said, ‘If they kill me, I go to Jesus,’ with a big smile on his face. “I wish every Western Christian could watch this incredible man of courage. He’s not afraid. He said, ‘I’d rather see these people saved than worry about my life,’ and he is one of those people who is doing a lot of the follow-up.”
Dear friends & family in Christ, 1) We thank and praise God for every opportunity He gives us to lift His name on high! Yesterday the City of Casey Council…
Dear family & friends in Christ,
In the past few years there has been something amazing happening in almost every place Pr Daniel goes to minister, and that is that the rains come down.
Many have watched the DVD ‘Faith like Potatoes’, the incredible story of the South African Preacher Angus Buchan, who leads God’s people in repentance and prayer, with rain often following.
Well, this amazing falling of rain in many parts of Australia started after we carried out the prayer assignment on Mount Ainsley.
CTFM teams who have been on tour have seen this first hand in several parts of Australia and so it did happen once again in Mildura.
As the vehicle passed the sign which said ‘Welcome to Mildura’, it started pouring down with rain.
Not quite sure whether it had been raining before, a CTFM team member asked the receptionist at the apartments who stated, “I cannot remember when I last saw the rain.”
Then the Pastor of the church stated, “You have brought the rain with you.”
This happens almost every trip and Pr Daniel gets calls from farmers to come on their land and pray for rain.
Now you might wonder why so much emphasis on the rain.
This is very important as the Bible states in Deuteronomy 11:13-14 “It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil.”
In the Australian military, as in the American military, Islam is a protected topic. No one dares utter a critical word for fear of charges of “Islamophobia” and the attendant career ruin. The most shameful examples of this were the strongly favorable performance reviews given to the Fort Hood jihad mass murderer, Nidal Malik Hasan, even after it was abundantly clear that he was a jihadist and many of his colleagues were threatened by his behavior.
“Criticising Islam, gays sets army major up for a fall,” by Paul Sheehan for the Sydney Morning Herald, March 17:
Major Bernie Gaynor jnr has served three tours of duty in Iraq but he is going to be thrown out of the army this week, or next, or very soon. And he is not going quietly.
Last week, I attended a conference in Melbourne called the Symposium on Islam and Liberty in Australia, organised by the Q Society, and Gaynor was one of the speakers. I also interviewed him at length about why a patriotic, articulate Australian intelligence officer, now serving in the Army Reserve, has become an unbearable presence for the Chief of Army, among others.
In his blog, Gaynor describes himself as ”a conservative Catholic who writes what normal men dare not speak out loud”. I put it to him that his commentary online and on Twitter had evolved into a provocation to the army.
Robert Spencer – Jihad Watch
This study makes a statement that is absurd on its face when it says that “religious practice” plays no role in “violent radicalization,” when in reality we have seen time and time again that jihad terrorists are devout, observant Muslims who appeal to peaceful Muslims by invoking the Qur’an and the example of Muhammad and portraying themselves as the true Muslims. But nonetheless, this study debunks once again one of the core assumptions of the Washington foreign policy establishment: that poverty causes terrorism, and that therefore throwing money at the problem of jihad will make it go away.
“Risk factors for violent radicalization: youth, wealth and education,” from Medical News Today, March 21 (thanks to LA):
New research from Queen Mary University of London has found youth, wealth, and being in full-time education to be risk factors associated with violent radicalisation. Contrary to popular views – religious practice, health and social inequalities, discrimination, and political engagement showed no links.
The pioneering research assessed population prevalence of sympathies for terrorist acts – a key marker of vulnerability to violent radicalisation – and their relationship with commonly assumed causes of radicalisation. The community study surveyed over 600 men and women of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Muslim heritage in London and Bradford, aged 18-45.
Robert Spencer– Jihad Watch
Savan Masih was accused of blasphemy after a Muslim barber, who no doubt considered him an unclean Infidel (in accord with Qur’an 9:28), refused him a haircut, and they started to argue about religion. Following that, a 3,000-strong Muslim mob rampaged through a Christian area of Lahore. And no Savan Masih, if convicted, will be executed.
“NEWS ALERT: Verdict Expected In Pakistan Blashemy [sic] Case,” from BosNewsLife, March 21:
LAHORE, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)– A verdict was expected in Pakistan Saturday, March 22, in a controversial case involving a young Christian man charged with blasphemy against Islam, which sparked one of the country’s worst anti-Christian riots.
Savan Masih, 27, was detained in March 2013 after allegedly making derogatory remarks about Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Residents said the problems began when Masih was refused a hair cut by the local barber shop’s Muslim owner, Imran Shahid. The incident triggered a heated exchange about religion between the two men, residents said at the time.
SOURCE: Christian Institute
Christian weddings should be stripped of their legal status, a justice minister has said.
Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes proposes that only secular, state-recognized ceremonies should have legal recognition in the U.K., a system adopted in France.
In practice, his proposals would mean that in order for a Christian couple to have their marriage recognized, they would need to have a secular ceremony in addition to a church wedding.
The French system is based on laïcité—a concept that separates state and religion—and Hughes says marriages on the British side of the channel should be subjected to the same principles.
Speaking at the Liberal Democrat spring conference, he said, “We should do what the Belgians do and the French do.
“It can be done even in the same building on the same day, but you would have a ceremony by which the state recognizes the marriage, the wedding, and then the faith community has the ceremony which gives that the authority.”
Raymond Ibrahim – Frontpage Magazine
Why are Christians, as a new Pew report documents, the most persecuted religious group in the world? And why is their persecution occurring primarily throughout the Islamic world? (In the category on “Countries with Very High Government Restrictions on Religion,” Pew lists 24 countries—20 of which are Islamic and precisely where the overwhelming majority of “the world’s” Christians are actually being persecuted.)
The reason for this ubiquitous phenomenon of Muslim persecution of Christians is threefold:
Christianity is the largest religion in the world. There are Christians practically everywhere around the globe, including in much of the Muslim world. Moreover, because much of the land that Islam seized was originally Christian—including the Middle East and North Africa, the region that is today known as the “Arab world”—Muslims everywhere are still confronted with vestiges of Christianity, for example, in Syria, where many ancient churches and monasteries are currently being destroyed by al-Qaeda linked, U.S. supported “freedom fighters.” Similarly, in Egypt, where Alexandria was a major center of ancient Christianity before the 7th century Islamic invasions, there still remain at least 10 million Coptic Christians (though some put the number at much higher). Due to sheer numbers alone, then, indigenous Christians are much more visible and exposed to attack by Muslims than other religious groups throughout the Arab world. Yet as CNS News puts it, “President Obama expressed hope that the ‘Arab Spring’ would give rise to greater religious freedom in North Africa and the Middle East, which has had the world’s highest level of hostility towards religion in every year since 2007, when Pew first began measuring it. However, the study finds that these regions actually experienced the largest increase in religious hostilities in 2012.”
Gospel for Asia
Kalith and his forefathers had a deal: He worshipped them with sacrifices of goats, pigs and chickens, and they kept him from harm. So when Kalith started experiencing severe stomach pain, he couldn’t figure out why his forefathers didn’t heal him.
Kalith and his family performed the regular rituals and sacrifices as he tried medicine after medicine, but the illness continued for three years. It wasn’t until Gospel for Asia pastor Oojam asked to pray for Kalith that things began to look up.
“I tried everything to get healing, but nothing is working in me,” Kalith told the pastor. “Pray, and if your God answers your prayer and heals me, I will [follow] Him.”
A week later, through Pastor Oojam’s prayers, Kalith was healed, and his neighbors took notice. Kalith, his wife and two other couples became the first believers in the village, and others quickly joined them.
The new congregation built a temporary church building to meet in, but even that didn’t have enough room for the growing fellowship. The building wasn’t strong enough for the local weather either. The building’s thatched roof leaked all through monsoon season.
