The Daily Mail recently had a story about Mary Onuoha, a nurse who was forced out of her job by Britain’s Croydon Health Services NHS Trust (CHS) for wearing a small crucifix.
There have been books written on how to have a successful prayer life by people who have studied and lived a life of prayer. So, I don’t want to come across as someone who has the final answer on what it takes to have your prayers answered. But I do want to discuss a teaching that Jesus gave about prayer in Luke 18:1-8, which provides several keys to successful prayer. In this parable, Jesus talked about a widow who was seeking justice from a corrupt judge. The Lord described the judge as a man who did not fear God or care about what people thought of him (v 2). He was a narcissist. All he cared about was himself. In other words, justice was for sale in that town. Judges in this day typically travelled from village to village, where they set up a tent, so people could come to plead their case. Often you had to bribe the tent’s gatekeeper just to get a hearing, much less a favourable ruling. And Jesus used this …
Protests have broken out across Europe, as people have taken to the streets opposing the lockdowns and the vaccine passports being implemented in various countries, requiring people to be fully vaccinated to participate in society.
One thing that COVID has done is divide people. According to a recent poll by CoinStar, one in eight people stated that they will not be buying Christmas presents to friends and even family who disagree with their position on COVID.
There have been hundreds of archaeological discoveries confirming the accuracy of the Old and New Testaments, but the ones I appreciate the most are those that confirm the obscure mentions, where an individual whose name is only mentioned once in the Bible is confirmed by archaeology. Even the smallest of details is accurate. In the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet warned Judah that with Babylon poised to invade the country as part of God’s judgment, the Jews should simply give up, and they would be treated mercifully by their Babylonian captors. However, false prophets rose up who told the King of Judah to resist the Babylonians and God would bring a great victory. They were wrong. Part of this resistance included King Zedekiah asking an Egyptian Pharaoh by the name of Hophra to help Judah resist Babylon. Hophra failed and Jerusalem was conquered and the people of Judah were hauled off into captivity. 30 This is what the Lord says: ‘I am going to deliver Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies …
By Dr. Michael L. Brown For many years now, I’ve said that I’m not as much concerned with the presence of darkness in America as I am with the absence of light. Darkness will always be present, but light can drive it out. That’s why our greatest need is to get our light shining brightly again. Otherwise, darkness will prevail. As Jesus said in a different context, “If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23b) We all know the saying that you can’t put the horse before the cart. But before you can hitch the cart to the horse, the horse needs to be healthy. Without that, no one is going anywhere. And that’s where we stand today in America: the greatest need is a healthy Church. Then, with a healthy Church, the “cart” of cultural and moral and political change will follow as a natural consequence. But it’s not a matter of either-or, as if we must focus either on spiritual life or on cultural life. Instead, …
According to a report by Royal Mencap Society, people with learning disabilities in Britain were told if they caught COVID, they would be given “Do Not Resuscitate Orders.” Breitbart provides the details: The Royal Mencap Society, a top charity for people with learning disabilities, claimed that it had received reports in January from people with mental handicaps who said that they were told if they contracted the coronavirus, they would not be resuscitated. Mencap’s chief executive, Edel Harris, told The Guardian: “Throughout the pandemic many people with a learning disability have faced shocking discrimination and obstacles to accessing healthcare, with inappropriate Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) notices put on their files and cuts made to their social care support. “It’s unacceptable that within a group of people hit so hard by the pandemic, and who even before Covid died on average over 20 years younger than the general population, many are left feeling scared and wondering why they have been left out.” READ: Coronavirus Patients with Learning Disabilities Given ‘Do Not Resuscitate Orders’ in Britain According …
When a senior bureaucrat in the Canadian city of Calgary stated that the city may implement a hard lockdown of all businesses for 28 days, that bureaucrats don’t consider essential, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms immediately sent a letter to the city stating it would challenge such a lockdown in court, if implemented.
It’s from the ‘what did you think would happen file’. During the ongoing COVID outbreak, California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom decided to release hardened criminals from prison because they might catch COVID.
You may have read several reports recently that scientists believe they have found evidence of life on Venus. Of course, using that same argument, we also have evidence of dinosaurs on Titan.
Apparently a Satanic Temple based in Salem, Massachusetts is claiming that abortions is one of the group’s rituals and is raffling off a free abortion as part of this religious experience.
On November 27, 2019, a Florida man, Chase Davis, 21, was sentenced to six months in jail, a $1,440 restitution fine and 400 hours of community service after pleading guilty to making death threats on Facebook against a Christian conservative organization, America Family Association (AFA).
An Alaskan Airlines jet was forced to make an emergency landing in Seattle, when a man went berserk on the plane and threatened to kill everyone if they did not accept that Jesus was black.
Strange story out of the Daily Beast, a very left-wing news site. It involved a white woman, who police charged for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at a police car in New York on May 29, 2020.
With calls to defund and even completely dismantle the police, it is tough to be a cop these days. So, a police officer in Nashville, Tennessee was deeply touched when two black women paid for his breakfast at a Cracker Barrel restaurant.
According to Fox News, the police questioned the leader of a protest movement in New York City (NYC), who allegedly threatened to burn NYC’s Diamond District, if the State Governor Andrew Cuomo and City Mayor Bill de Blasio didn’t meet with him The man who referred to himself as the leader of a group called FTP said in an interview with Fox News: “Today I’m leading a demonstration from Barclay Center at 6 p.m. to City Hall, and that’s the first stop. We’re hoping de Blasio and Cuomo come out and talk to us and give the youth some direction. But if they don’t, the next stop is the diamond district. And gasoline, thanks to Trump, is awfully cheap.” According to the Fox News reporter, the area allegedly threatened is a district where many of the businesses are owned by Orthodox Jews. READ: NYC protest organizer questioned after threat to take violence to Diamond District: ‘Gasoline … is awfully cheap’
27 I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. (1 Samuel 1:27 NIV) This was the Bible reference that was tattooed on the shoulder of Oregon business woman, Lindsey Graham, visible as she was recently interviewed by the media. It leads a person to believe that there is an untold story behind this scripture reference. In defiance of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s (D) lock down orders, Graham has reopened her hair salon, Glamour Salon, located in Salem. Graham told KPTV-TV: “I’m risking going to jail to do it. That’s how important it is to my family. I’m deciding that it’s more important for me to feed my family and pay the bills that are going to keep our home and our family alive than take the risk to remain being shut down for an undisclosed amount of time.” Of course politicians and bureaucrats are still being paid and don’t have to worry about such mundane issues as feeding a family and on cue, Graham said Oregon’s Occupational Safety …
Nostradamus was a French predictor, possibly a prophet who said something about a “twin year” when life would change for the whole Earth. I am no expert on the writings of Nostradamus, but I know he lived almost five hundred years ago. If he told us something about a pandemic in our time, we should pay attention. One big problem with the writings of Nostradamus is that they are cryptic, like a puzzle. It is possible to say now, that he wrote about something in our times. It is also possible to interpret what he said in some other way. If Nostradamus was a prophet, he did not communicate clearly to us so that we could hear his warnings, and protect ourselves. A warning that we don’t understand until after the event is mostly a curiosity. READ: Nostradamus ‘There will be a twin year’ prediction: Did Nostradamus predict coronavirus?: Express And then there is Bill Gates. He is a wealthy man who seems to be concerned about the welfare of his fellow humans. With his …
A study by researchers at Stanford University suggests between 50 times and 80 times more people have had COVID-19 than previously thought. If they are right, then the death rate for COVID-19 is significantly lower suggesting it’s not nearly as dangerous as once thought.
God is working in this world, and in places we might not notice. Jesus told us, “the harvest is ready.” Some are working to bring in that harvest, instead of scanning for storm clouds.
Fame wrestler Hulk Hogan tweeted out an image of 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 calling us turn to God during this trying time: This is one of the most powerful gifts to our human race,it’s as powerful as it gets here on earth,thank you God. Only love HH pic.twitter.com/nTwY5vy2tx— Hulk Hogan (@HulkHogan) April 2, 2020 Here is the verse: 3 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 NIV
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Stanford Biophysicist Michael Levitt predicts that the COVID-19 or Coronavirus will be over sooner than most people expect. Levitt is not just any Biophysicist, in 2013, he won a Nobel Prize for his work in chemistry. The Stanford professor did not receive a word from God like Prophet Shawn Bolz did at the end of February who predicted a quick slowing down of the disease while also suggesting the pandemic was exaggerated. Instead, the Nobel Laureate analyzed the data from 78 countries that reported over 50 cases of COVID-19. And he was not looking at the total number of people being afflicted with the virus in these countries or the number of celebrities who have caught it, but rather the reports of new cases of the virus. The growth of new cases is a reflection of how fast the disease is spreading and even Italy that has been in the COVID-19 limelight for several weeks is now reporting a decline in new cases. And based on this, …
Several Christian websites are expressing concerns that Amazon’s plans to create technology allowing people to make purchases with their hand is paving the way for the Mark of the Beast warned by the Apostle John in his vision of the end times: 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. Revelation 13:16-18 ESV In this passage, John very clearly ties the Mark of the Beast on either the hand or forehead to a person’s ability to buy or sell presenting a dystopian type of world controlling what a person can and cannot do. There has been speculation for decades on what the Mark of the Beast might entail and the recent announcement by Amazon caught everyone’s attention. The Wall Street Journal alleges that Amazon has applied for patent involving a “non-contact …
Many times when we turn our cares and worries over to the Lord, I believe we must let go or drop something in our lives as well. There are many things we can be doing and saying ‘yes’ to because they are good and worthwhile plans and causes. But, I often end up dragging myself before God asking Him to take my worries and cares from me, that only I can remove by saying ‘no.’ There many good plans and activities that are often difficult to say no too and many times we feel guilty if we don’t step in and help. We must find our rhythm and set the pace for ourselves so that peace and rest emanate from us not frustration and anger. If we do things out of a sense of guilt, a constant stream of ‘yeses” will create a current of anger in us that will interrupt the flow of God’s presence in our lives. Lysa Terkeurst from Proverbs 31 Ministry talks about saying ‘yes’ to too many things and by …
Cue Black Eyed Peas I always seem to get a giddy feeling when I see competitive sports with good sportsmanship. Something about the opposing team helping their opposition up off the ground, giving acknowledgement when someone makes a good play against you, or giving a high-five after a solid punch to the face. Granted, it’s not a very common occurrence, but I absolutely love to see that type of comradery from the opposition. But then, the question begs to be asked: Why do we lack this type of behavior in the church? I don’t mean to say that it doesn’t exist, but nearly every church has seen some kind of separation through its years. I haven’t seen anything extreme, but I’ve heard of people getting worked up enough over the music or seating arrangement that they feel the need to find a new home for Sunday morning. A couple of years ago, I did see some division in my home church. While I won’t get into the specifics of what went on, one of the …
Just before Christmas I had a coffee break with a good friend. He is not a Christian, and I am. Somehow religion came into the conversation and he said something I have heard before; words like ‘Sure, there are Muslim terrorists, but there are also violent Christians who persecute us.’ I started to argue, but then I realized, he might be right about Christians. And I will let the Muslims answer for themselves. There are some very violent people in the world who claim to be Christians. About two years ago I drove to Portland Oregon for some training. I could have flown, but I like driving, and because I live in western Canada, I drove to the U.S. border in northern Idaho. I arrived in the evening and it was obvious that I wasn’t driving much further in the darkness. I was hoping for a motel room about an hour down the road but they probably thought I was visiting friends in the area. Usually border agents are friendly with me, but the two …
Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, confirmed what many are reporting that there has been an extraordinary number of Iranians coming to Christ. The agency, that monitors Iranian news, said the confirmation came in an unusual way. It reported that an Islamic cleric in the Iranian city of Qom publicly warned about the spread of Christianity in that city particularly among the youth. Qom is one of the most Islamic cities in Iran and if there are concerns about the growth of Christianity in that environment, then what is happening in the rest of the nation? Ayatollah Alavi Boroujerdi, who works at an Islamic seminary in Qom, stated, “accurate reports indicate that the youth are becoming Christians in Qom and attending house churches.” It was even reported that the son of an Islamic cleric based in Qom became a Christian. According to Mohabat News, this is not the first time an Islamic cleric in Iran warned of Christianity’s growing influence in that country. A year earlier, another Ayatollah, Makarem Shirazi based in Mashhad, said that …
English Version: How the Spirit of Jezebel captures a nation Al principio de su visión de los últimos tiempos registrados en el libro de Apocalipsis, el apóstol Juan proporciona mensajes a siete iglesias de Asia -Ephesus, Esmirna, Pérgamo, Tiatira, Sardis, Filadelfia y Laodicea. Sabemos iglesias existían en estas ciudades durante los días de Juan y en cierto modo parece que está frente a situaciones que tienen lugar cuando escribió este libro mientras desterrado en la isla de Patmos. Pero el Libro de la Revelación era una visión profética del tiempo del fin – de los acontecimientos futuros que culminarían en el regreso de Cristo. Debido a esto, muchos creen que las advertencias que Juan envió a las siete iglesias también son proféticos y revelan los ataques demoníacos las iglesias de los últimos tiempos se enfrentarán. Uno de ellos consiste en un ataque por el Espíritu de Jezabel. En el capítulo dos, Juan describe una situación que tiene lugar en la iglesia de Tiatira que implica una mujer llamada Jezabel. 20 Pero tengo esto contra ti: que …
English version: Have you been triggered lately ¿Le han disparado últimamente? El diccionario urbano define esto como “Getting lleno de odio después de ver, oír o experimentar algo que no se puede soportar.” En mi experiencia, una persona disparada no es responsable de su ira. culpa de otra persona abrió la puerta de su rabia y ahora podía pasar cualquier cosa. Recientemente, un comediante Kathy Griffin posó con una cabeza cortada falsa del presidente Donald Trump, Bill Maher usó la palabra “n” en una entrevista, y Stephen Colbert ha sido criticado por algo crudo. Kathy Griffin, al menos ha recibido graves amenazas de muerte por su delito. Relacionados : Maher, Griffin, Colbert: cómicos Anti-Trump están teniendo un muy mal momento: Washington Post Entonces, ¿cómo la cultura popular descender a la violencia cruda y amenazas de muerte? se desencadenaron personas. Son molesto, por lo general por Donald Trump, por lo que no hay límites a su conducta, y ahora el otro lado se activa y amenazas de muerte hacia ellos. Si esto parece una locura para …
Pero’s Bridge is one of the world’s stranger looking bridges. Built in 1999, it is a pedestrian drawbridge that spans St. Augustine’s beach in Bristol, England. The two outside sections are attached to land and the inner section serves as a drawbridge that raises to allow boats to pass beneath. It has two distinctive, horn-like objects on either side of the bridge. At first glance, it seems they are nothing more than abstract art added to decorate the bridge. In fact, it is art, but they also serve as important counterweights that exert force in the opposite direction allowing the inner span to raise quickly. Also called a “bascule” bridge — French for “balanced scale” — people have used this type of design for centuries because counterweights raise bridge spans quickly and with relatively little energy. Like a bascule bridge, we all need something to counter what life throws at us. As you watch the media, a person can quickly be caught up worrying about world events and our rapidly changing society. We worry about …
Actress Alexa PenaVega (nee Vega) recently shared an Instagram post on how prayer raised her 93 year-old-grandmother from the deathbed. This past week has been a struggle for my family as our beautiful abuelita (grandma) was on life support. It has been a bitter sweet experience. Here is this woman who has had such a full and beautiful life… 93 years old…12 kids… more than 50 grand kids…10 great grand children… just the most incredible little Colombian woman inside and out. This week her lungs collapsed. Her heart started failing. Her stomach stopped working and she fell into a coma. As we all prepared ourselves to say goodbye my family’s local church members came to her side and prayed over her for over five hours. When I say the power of prayer can bring forth the most amazing miracles THIS WILL FLOOR YOU. Our abuelita Yeya woke up completely healed. The Dr.’s cannot find anything wrong with her. They can’t explain it. They keep running tests to try to make sense of it all. But …
Dr. Stefanie Carnes is president of the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals (IITAP). She recently came out against those in the therapy community who do not believe people can be sex addicts. IITAP provides materials and support for those working in the addiction community. She pointed to several studies that show sex addiction is a very real problem. In particular, she cited the recent research of Ji-Woo Seok and Jin-Hun Sohn at Chungnam National University in South Korea. The two work at the university’s brain research institute. Their findings confirmed what earlier studies have shown — sex addiction is real for both men and women. In their study, Seok and Sohn found that people with a sex addiction share many similarities to those with alcohol and drug addictions. Like other addicts, those with a sex addiction spend an inordinate amount of time searching for pornography to satisfy their craving. Sex addicts have the same level of sexual desire as the normal population, but similar to other addictions have a higher degree of wanting …
A Bible verse recently caught my attention: “The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy. He will be quiet in his love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” (Zephaniah 3:17 NASV) The Hebrew word, ‘rejoice,’ means to “spin around under violent emotion.” The phrase “rejoice over you” literally means to “dance, skip, leap, and spin in joy.” So, the latter part of this verse is more accurately translated, “He will dance over you with singing.” I love the visualization that comes to my mind when I read this. God is portrayed as a mighty warrior, singing and dancing over me with shouts of joy. It describes how a warrior must have felt in the Old Testament after winning a hard-fought battle and realizing the victory was his. I can envision power, authority and strength exuding from him as he steps into a victory dance. I imagine whooping, hollering, leaping, dancing and victory shouts. We see it today, as well. It’s not much …
“The second is: ‘You must love others as much as yourself.’ No other commandments are greater than these.” (Mark 12:3) According to Matthew Henry’s commentary, loving yourself from a biblical perspective refers to loving the image of God in you and the way He created you. This is not referring to a conceited, prideful, self-worship type of love. Loving yourself and embracing your significance as a Christian is vital. We need to love and value ourselves in the same way God does. Low self-esteem, beating ourselves up emotionally and physically (body image), defining ourselves through past mistakes and failures are all signs that we are not loving ourselves in the same way God loves us. We can be bitter and unforgiving towards others. But we can also be bitter and unforgiving towards ourselves and God because of the way we perceive ourselves through our body image or the way things turned out for us in life. I am learning that it is just as important to forgive myself as it is to forgive others. Understanding …
I encourage you to listen to this video by Thiago Brado, a worship singer from Brazil. The song sung in Portuguese, entitled My Essence in English, has nearly 4.3 million views on YouTube. Thiago, 25, whose real name is Thiago Oliveira da Silva started singing at the age of 10. At 14, he attended a musical conservatory for further training after his grandmother gave him a guitar. Three years later in 2007, Thiago encountered the Holy Spirit at a Catholic Charismatic meeting in Brazil that transformed his life. He has been attending ever since. During these gatherings his attention was drawn to worship and today Thiago says: “I sing what the Lord wants me to sing.” Several years back, my wife and I met a young couple involved in the Catholic Charismatic movement in Peru. I was genuinely impressed with their faith. We spent an evening with them and our discussion eventually turned to doctrine. Ok I confess, I asked them their views on Mary, the mother of Jesus. Though they were still Catholic in …
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