London Protest: Christians Persecuted in Pakistan Demand Equality

by Enza Ferreri – 4th March 2013

Saturday 2nd March I attended in London the protest against discrimination and persecution of Pakistani Christians.

Organized by the British Pakistani Christian Association, it included the presentation of a petition both to London’s Pakistani Embassy and to the British Prime Minister’s residence in 10 Downing Street. Several religious figures and human rights campaigners were speakers at the demonstration.

A Peace Rally and Memorial Concert in Trafalgar Square followed, in memory of Shahbaz Bhatti, the Roman Catholic man who was Pakistan’s first Minister for Minorities Affairs from 2008 until Muslim extremists assassinated him in 2011 for his work to abolish the country’s blasphemy law which has been used to persecute faith minorities. He was the only Christian in the government.

Minister Bhatti had received repeated death threats for his consistent defence of the rights of Pakistan’s religious minorities and for his fight for the abolition of Pakistan’s shameful blasphemy laws, which mandate the death sentence for anyone thought to have spoken ill of Muhammad or to have in any way offended Muslim sensitivities: the standard of accepted evidence is very low, and intent or lack of it is not a consideration in passing the sentence.

Two months before the assassination of Bhatti, another man campaigning for the same cause, Provincial Governor Salman Taseer, had been killed by his own bodyguard, who for his crime was welcomed as a hero by many Pakistani Muslims.

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Gay Rights Activists Can’t Put the Church in the Closet

1/28/2013 Michael Brown

 There are many people today who despise conservative religious beliefs, but they are quick to say, “We don’t want to restrict your religious freedoms in any way. Just keep your beliefs in the church.” What they fail to realize is that the church is not a closet, and it is our private beliefs that fuel our public acts. Shouldn’t it be this way?

President Obama claims that it was conversations he had with his daughters, coupled with his interpretation of the teaching of Jesus, that caused him to take a public stand for same-sex “marriage” last May. Did his supporters criticize him for bringing his private beliefs into the public square? (If anyone could be criticized for this, it is the President of the United States, because of his massive powers and influence.)

When gay clergy fought for the redefinition of marriage in their respective states, based on their religious beliefs, were they faulted for this? Did the secular media vilify them for violating the separation of Church and State?

Just a few days ago, Sen. Dianne Feinstein opened up her anti-gun press conference by inviting Rev. Canon Gary Hall, the gay-affirming Dean of the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, to offer up a prayer. As reported by the Washington Examiner, “Hall spoke briefly before the prayer, calling for Washington lawmakers to stop fearing the gun lobby and fulfill their ‘moral duty’ to restrict guns.

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Sex Symbols Who Speak in Tongues?

Charisma Magazine – 12/4/2013 Michael Brown

I was at the grocery store the other day when I was unexpectedly confronted with an adult-oriented magazine located right next to the vitamin section. I immediately had to look away from the front cover, which featured a scantily-clad, seductively-posed, sex symbol. Yet it was only a few weeks ago that I read an article about how this same sex symbol loves to speak in tongues and has to restrain herself from outbursts in tongues while attending church services. What?

This is actually a perfect illustration of American charismatic Christianity, where you can say you love Jesus (like the rapper “The Game” claims to do) and still frequent strip clubs (as “The Game” still does), or where you can flow in the gifts of the Spirit and become a made-for-TV preaching sensation, only to announce that God told you that you married the wrong woman, leading to a quick divorce and remarriage.

Yes, this is the “gospel” of the 21st century, “Spirit-filled” church of America, where the cross is bypassed, denial of the flesh is scorned, purity is called legalism, and anything goes if it feels good.

It is the “gospel” of self, in which Jesus dies to make you into a bigger and better you, a “gospel” in which God is here to serve you and help you fulfill your dreams, and where the measure of all things is not how God feels about it but how you feel about it (or how it makes you feel).

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Neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s Politically Incorrect Speech at Prayer Breakfast a YouTube Sensation

By Leonardo Blair , CP Contributor – February 11, 2013

Dr. Benjamin Carson, Gifted Hands author and director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., brought an audience of dignitaries, including President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle, to their feet last Thursday after dishing a speech packed with parables, wit, biblical scriptures and punch at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. Now, it’s resounding with everyday Americans, too.

The doctor’s 25-minute speech displayed a “logical” and “common-sense” approach to issues like freedom of speech, education, taxation, the national debt and spirituality, and has already captured more than a million hits on YouTube and elicited headlines and calls like the Wall Street Journal’s “Ben Carson for President.”

“Smart man! Put him in the White House,” agreed Mary Ledet on Monday in her comments posted on the video of Carson’s speech, which was uploaded to YouTube on Thursday.

“LOL! I absolutely love how Ms. Obama was applauding at the end of the speech. I really don’t think she realized how much of what Dr. Carson said was in direct CONFLICT of everything her husband is doing to this country,” noted another commenter under the screen identified as 4stripguy. “I actually think she enjoyed and even agreed with much of what Dr. Carson said for if one does not, one wouldn’t applaud as hard…” the commenter continued.

Faith-based groups like the Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network also gave Carson’s remarks their blessings on Monday.

“Dr. Carson verbalized sentiments felt but rarely voiced by a strong majority of American Christians who are committed to living according to the commands of scripture,” said Sam Rohrer, president of the Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network, in a statement. “Tenets like personal responsibility, moral uprightness, and fiscal restraint are not just smart politics; they are also biblically and constitutionally sound and the basis for America’s success since its inception,” he noted.

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Sydney mum saw son hacked to death

Nine MSN News 19/03/13

The mother of a man hacked to death with meat cleavers during a violent home invasion pleaded with his murderers to kill her instead, a Sydney jury has been told.

Four members of a gang, The United Brotherhood, broke into Kesley Burgess’ home at Lurnea in southwest Sydney on July 1, 2010, attacking him with meat cleavers, the Supreme Court heard on Tuesday.

Mahdi Mir, 22, Mohammad Karimi, 25, and John Khoury, 32, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Burgess, as well as several other charges including armed robbery.

The crown alleges Mir was one of four men who entered the Burgess home, while Karimi waited outside.

It alleges Khoury helped plan the attack and supplied weapons, making him part of a joint criminal enterprise to carry out home invasions. (more…)

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WHAT AN ORPHAN CAN TEACH

By Mary Hutchinson , CP Guest Contributor – February 13, 2013

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinner, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” (Ps. 1:1-2)

At 11-years-old, Su Su Thtwe knows more about walking in the counsel of the godly than most people her age do. She knows more about it, even, than some adults.

Every night, Su Su sleeps on the dusty concrete floor of a church in Myanmar. Given away by her mother, and then by her sister, she has nowhere else to go. The only things she can call her own are a little pink dress and a school uniform. But Su Su is happy. She delights in being raised in a Christian ‘home.’

The youngest of six children, Su Su was born in Kywe Lan Village, Myanmar, a small village of bamboo huts, located 3 ½ hours from the nearest major city, Yangon. Her parents struggled to care for the children and an elderly relative, and when Su Su’s father died, her mother gave up.

By then Su Su’s older siblings had married and moved on, leaving Su Su alone. Her mother didn’t want to deal with her, and asked Su Su’s sister, who had two children of her own, to take her in. For almost three years, she lived with her sister in another bamboo hut nearby. (more…)

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Will New Kenyan President Work to End Christian Persecution?

3/14/2013 World Watch Monitor – Charisma News

Among their first formal meetings as president and deputy president-elect of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto met senior religious leaders on Tuesday, even ahead of meeting outgoing President Mwai Kibaki.

Kenyatta emerged the winner by garnering 6173,453 votes, meeting the threshold of the country’s Constitution which required a 50 percent +1 vote of all total votes cast. This was the first election to be held under a new Constitution passed by Kenyans in 2010.

The threshold requirement was the first of its kind in the country, aimed at ensuring Kenya does not slip into a situation such as the last elections in 2007, where disputed presidential results led to post-election violence. Over 1,000 people were killed and 660,000 displaced from their homes.

Kenyatta, son of Kenya’s first post-Independence President Jomo Kenyatta, and his deputy face indictment at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, charged for their alleged role in organizing that 2007-8 post-election violence.

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REAL CHURCH CRISIS

 2/1/2013 Steve Strang

Do you sense a depression in the body of Christ in America, as if something is badly wrong? We’re losing influence within our culture as the anti-Christian sentiment grows, yet you’d never know it in most churches—the smoke, lights, loud music and preaching rolls on as if all is well.

The situation is exacerbated by this simple fact: We don’t have our act together in the body of Christ. Too often people come to the church, are deeply disappointed and as a result are turned off from the gospel. The church promises solutions but only offers lip service. We’ve become excellent at giving people a show on Sunday but lousy at showing them how to actually live. In fact, most church members are as bound up as those in the world—they’re in financial bondage, struggling with addictions and their families are in disarray.

This includes leaders in the church. I believe, as John Maxwell says, that everything rises and falls based on leadership. So allow me to address the leadership situation within the charismatic community.

Charismatic churches and ministries typically grow when leaders are passionate and have a vision. It doesn’t matter if they have seminary degrees; if they can preach the gospel and if people gravitate to them, they suddenly have a growing church! Anointing is more important than academics. That’s partly why our churches are growing while other areas of the body aren’t.

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KINGDOM LEADERSHIP vs. CHURCH LEADERSHIP

Joseph Mattera

There is presently a revolution taking place among those on the leading edge of change in the evangelical church. The result is a transition from a church mindset to a kingdom mindset in which the walls of church buildings are no longer able to contain the raw creative energy of Christ-followers who are committed to preaching and applying the Gospel of the Kingdom to all the world, including its systems and structures.

As political solutions and big government attempts to heal our land fail miserably, more people will look to faith-based partnerships and churches to find solutions. Hence the irrelevancy of old church patterns and traditions will become more noticeable in the decades to come.

Consequently, it behooves us to continue to study the contrasts between leading-edge kingdom practices and old, irrelevant religious church patterns that have failed to effectively evangelize and transform communities with the gospel.

The following is a contrast between leaders with a kingdom mindset and those with a church mindset.

I. Kingdom leaders interpret Matthew 28:19-20 as referring to discipling all nations. Church leaders believe it only refers to all individual ethnic peoples.

The body of Christ is now re-thinking the Great Commission scriptures of Mark 16:15 and Matthew 28:19-20. Instead of viewing them as commands to merely evangelize individual souls, now many are viewing the command in Mark 16 to ‘go into all the world and preach’ as a command to apply the gospel to both individual sinners and world systems. Matthew 28:19-20 is now regarded as the New Testament equivalent to the Cultural Mandate found in Genesis 1:28.

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Much of the Church needs Resurrection / Will the Church betray Oz as it did in Germany? by Pastor Daniel Nalliah

Dear friends & family in Christ,

Following is an Easter message and challenge for the Church to wake up and take a reality check!!

When Adolf Hitler rose to power, he spoke out through his book Mein Kampf and his many speeches as to what he was planning to do. What did the Church do to stop him?? Unfortunately, the Church was MUTE, either because of political correctness, apathy or fear. The Church pulpits were very much silent on this issue.

I am sure many of you know of Chuck Missler, who in his teachings, states that the rise of Hitler was contributed by the silence of the Church pulpits.

The end result was much destruction with more than 10 million people slaughtered, including 6 million Jewish men, women and children. Today much of the Church is doing the very same thing all over again. Secular humanism, through its vicious attack on absolute moral values, has successfully forced much of the Church into MUTE mode.  They take the easy way out by saying, “We will love and pray”. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?? In Germany and Europe in WWII the results were much death and destruction.

Right throughout Europe, USA, Canada & Australia, many of the Church pulpits have gone on MUTE. Once where there was strong Judeo-Christian values, today as a result, there is a massive vacuum for absolute values. Well guess who is filling it up?? Islam. A faith of deception, death & destruction. No question, there are millions of very good Muslim people, who need to be loved and cared for, but the true nature of Islam is on an onward march into the West.

The questions needs to be asked, Can the Church be resurrected?? Even as Jesus rose from the dead, bringing hope and joy to all mankind, the answer is YES. The Church can be resurrected once again, but it will take some bold Christians to rise up and take their stand against all odds. I admire the Muslims for their fearless passion for their religion.

When Jesus died on the cross the Church was on MUTE,  but when He rose again, the Church and all mankind was ushered into great victory and hope. This Easter I pray that the Church will be resurrected out of its present state.

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Live Webcast of Good Friday & Easter weekend at CTFM / Healing Testimony / Pray for Ev Jason & Pr Gary on Asia mission trip

Dear friends & family in Christ,

1) We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be live webcasting our very special Good Friday service at 10am on 29th March & Easter Resurrection Sunday 9:30am service on 31st March. (Australian Eastern Standard Time -AEST).

 Pr Daniel will be ministering God’s prophetic Word and praying for people at all of these special services and also our Easter Resurrection Sunday 6:30pm service at CTFM at 23 Melverton Dr Hallam, as we celebrate the sacrificial death and victorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!

 2) Following is a wonderful testimony of God’s love, faithfulness and goodness that we recently received from a CTFM supporter.

“In March 2012 (at Jackie’s 40th Birthday party), my husband, Niro & I shared with you our desire to fall pregnant and have a healthy baby. We told you that for as long as I (Gail) could remember my monthly cycles were very irregular and therefore, I had to take the pill to regulate them – which I did for over 5 years. Although, I had numerous scans / tests to find out the reason why my periods were so irregular and which even stopped for more than a year, specialists doctors didn’t have an answer. Doctors had informed me that I may only be able to fall pregnant by means of I.V.F.

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Two more newspaper articles about RUAP

Dear family & friends in Christ, You may click the following links to read two more newspaper articles about RUAP. http://www.wyndhamweekly.com.au/story/1390196/rise-up-australia-one-faith-one-culture-this-partys-policy/?cs=1553 http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/south-east/cr-rosalie-crestani-has-joined-daniel-nalliahs-rise-up-australia-political-party/story-fngnvmhm-1226606961065

Continue ReadingTwo more newspaper articles about RUAP

Passover celebration report at CTFM

On Monday March 25th almost 100 people enjoyed a wonderful evening of singing, dancing, teaching and feasting as they celebrated Passover at Catch the Fire.  One person commented that this was one of the best days of her life and another said that he had no idea how relevant an Old Testament story was for us as Christians today.  The focus for this year was a visually illustrated in-depth teaching which tied the 4 cups of Passover (Ex 6:6-7 – representing sanctification, deliverance, redemption, praise) with the 4 Biblical covenants  – (blood, salt, sandal, and marriage covenants).  Each covenant takes us into a more intimate relationship with our Lord – from serving our Master, to friendship, then inheritance as sons and daughters and ultimately marriage as the Bride of Christ with Jesus, our Bridegroom.  The explanation of the biblical betrothal and marriage customs  shed much light on Jesus’ end-time teachings and the book of Revelation.  Many were brought to tears as they recognised the depth of our Saviour’s love for us.

The culmination of the night was when a couple from CTFM who will be officially married in less than a fortnight, played the part of the bride and groom, dressed in white and stood under the chuppah (marriage canopy) under the blood covering and the prayer shawl (tallit).  The bride was carried in seated on a handcrafted sedan chair like Solomon built in Song of Solomon 3:9-10, which reminds us of the ark of God that was carried through the desert on the shoulders of the priests.

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Great meetings in QLD / RUAP Melbourne Western Suburbs

Dear family & friends in Christ,

1) We thank and praise God for His mighty hand at work in our nation of Australia.

Last Friday, RUAP had a campaign meeting in the Westerns Suburbs of Melbourne. It was so encouraging to see around 60-70 people turn up for the meeting at 10.30 in the morning on a working day.

We were so pleased to see the encouraging response and support from many people. The local media too was present. We’ll email the article as soon as it is available.

You may click the following link to read another newspaper article about RUAP with a great photo.

http://www.caseyweekly.com.au/story/1386420/rise-up-australia-casey-councillor-aims-for-senate/?cs=1438

2) Directly after the RUAP Western Suburbs of Melbourne meeting, Pr Daniel took a flight to QLD and spoke at several meetings on the weekend, including a Pastor’s and Leader’s breakfast in Toowoomba. All gathered were greatly challenged. Now they have asked Pr Daniel to come back in May, so that many more could hear the vision of taking Australia for Jesus by 2020.

He then spoke at 3 services at a Cook Island Church in Brisbane. The presence of the Holy Spirit just absolutely swept through the place. At one service almost all who came out to the altar, who did not pray in tongues, were baptised in the Holy Spirit and prayed in tongues for the very first time.

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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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