All posts filed under: z143

The Cult of Environmental Activism

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Yesterday, I was working in a small city that I will call Pleasantville because it’s a nice place, with clean streets, green parks and many tall trees, and where most people are polite. It’s a center for the economy of a large region and it has a university campus. It’s also full of retired people because of the low house prices. I’m sure you get the picture. I was in a car, waiting at a red light at a busy intersection, with another person. Suddenly, on my left, I saw someone walking through the intersection, and not on the sidewalk. That person was followed many others, two or three hundred, including at least one person in a wheel chair, and several babies. This was in a city where everyone waits for a walk light, and crosses carefully at the designated crosswalk, showing respect and courtesy to the neighbors. It’s that kind of place. It was shocking to see a large crowd walk through a busy intersection, even when the light was red for them, in …

The journey from your earthly father to your Heavenly Father

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Recently, I had an appointment with a young lady. Halfway through, my daughter arrived bringing me a coffee and joined us for the last half of the appointment. I love this young gal, and she obviously felt the freedom to express her thoughts on various world views. But the conversation was starting to become intense. Something had triggered her and I wasn’t able to figure out what it was or why. In the middle of this, she abruptly stopped and said, “I would give anything to have the relationship you and your daughter have.” Then she started to talk about her own father and it was then I realized she was talking about the relationship my daughter had with her dad. My daughter joked about her dad and how he likes to tease her. My daughter loves her dad, and they have a good relationship. I had found the trigger and the explanation why the conversation had become so intense. I looked at her and asked what the relationship with her father was like. She …

Documentary tells of the explosive growth of the house church movement in Iran

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According to a documentary released in August, the explosive growth of Christianity in Iran is a result of a rapidly expanding house church movement with most being led by women. The documentary entitled Sheep Among Wolves was produced by Frontier Alliance International (FAI) and looked at the growth of Christianity in Iran perhaps one of the most repressive regimes in the world. And we know Christianity is growing because of the repeated public statements made by Iranian officials and religious leaders in recent years warning of Christianity’s growth. In their video, FAI explained what was behind the unusual growth. In its trailer, the documentary noted: “The Iranian awakening is a rapidly-reproducing discipleship movement that owns no property or buildings, has no central leadership and is predominantly led by women.” In the video they were forced to disguise the Iranian believers because of fear of arrest. One Iranian Christian said “What if I told you the mosques are empty inside Iran.” He went on to say that the political and the elites are the ones who …

Christian singer Francesca Battistelli healed while pregnant

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Francesca Battistelli, 34, a Grammy winning Christian singer recently shared a story of how God miraculously healed her of an ovarian cyst in the middle of her pregnancy. Francesca grew up in a musical family with both her mom and dad involved in theatrical singing in New York. Though, she expected to head in the same direction, Francesca veered off into a successful musical career, winning a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song in 2016 with her song “Holy Spirit.” Recently, the mother of four shared a testimony on Instagram of God’s miraculous healing. She was ten weeks pregnant and woke up in “excruciating pain.” When the pain intensified over the next couple of hours, on the advice of her midwife, Francesca went to the hospital emergency. However, by the time she arrived, the pain had started to subside. Francesca knew from previous tests that she had a cyst on one of her ovaries. But the hospital tests revealed that this cyst was now 10 cm in size, about the size of a large …

Study suggests that women who bottle up anger have a higher risk of a stroke

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According to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, feeling resentful or bottling up your anger may result in an increased risk of stroke for women. Strokes occur when plaque build up in arteries results in a reduction of blood flow to the brain as the arteries narrow. An additional contributor is Atherosclerosis that occurs when chunks of plaque break away increasing the potential of a blockage. According to the Daily Mail, that reported on the study, strokes are the third highest cause of death in America and fourth highest in England Women are also more vulnerable to strokes than men and struggle with recovery when strokes do occur. In their study, the researchers analyzed 304 non-smoking women between the ages of 40 and 60. They asked them a series of questions that included if they tended to put other people’s needs first over their own and if they were likely to express their true feelings about a situation. The researchers then did ultra sounds on the women’s arteries and discovered that women who did not …

What About me, God?

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There are times in which it is hard to believe. Times in which it is hard to have faith. We pray and pray and we hope and hope for a miracle that just never seems to come. What do you do when that happens? Why does that happen? How come other people get healed, get a job, find true love, or seem to get whatever else they want? Well there are really only two places to look at when we pray. There’s God. And there’s you. I don’t know how many times people point the finger at some poor schmuck like me and tell me that it’s my fault God doesn’t answer my prayers. That maybe I have some unconfessed sin in my life, or that I don’t have enough faith to get what I asked for. Then there’s the other side of the table. Some people even tell me there’s no God or that He doesn’t care or love me. Perhaps He is not interested in my petty little things. Maybe I shouldn’t even …

Sinead O’Connor and Islam; Convert or Revert?

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You probably know the name Sinead O’Connor, especially if you listened to popular music about twenty years ago. She is one of the most popular entertainers from Ireland, a country that produced U2, and Enya, and if you remember, the Irish Rovers.  For a small country, Ireland has a huge influence on our popular music. Sinead O’Connor is probably best known for her song “Nothing Compares to You” but she has produced a large volume of music, and she is still active with her musical career. Sinead O’Connor was also famous for her troubled personal life. She searched for meaning in her life, and recently, apparently in 2018, she converted to the religion of Islam. Now she speaks openly and proudly about her new faith, and she wears a conservative hijab, in Ireland. She also denies that her Islamic faith is new to her. According to Sinead O’Connor, she didn’t convert to Islam, she reverted. She discovered that she was always a Muslim, when she read the Koran, the Muslim holy book. In her own …

Denzel Washington Credit: GabboT/Wikipedia/Creative Commons

La profecía de una anciana sobre el actor Denzel Washington dijo que el hablaría con millones

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English: An old woman’s prophecy over actor Denzel Washington said he would speak to millions Denzel Washington, de 62 años, es un popular actor estadounidense, jugando papeles importantes en películas como Recordando a los Titanes , Día de entrenamiento y uno de mis favoritos – El libro de Eli . Ha ganado dos Oscars y tres Globos de Oro. En una entrevista con la revista Parade , Denzel habló de sus fuertes raíces espirituales, incluyendo a su padre quien fué predicador pentecostal durante casi cinco décadas. Denzel añadió que lee la Biblia todos los días y la ha leído completamente tres veces. Dios tiene un llamado y un propósito para Denzel y el habla  de una palabra profética que le dio una mujer mayor a la que muchos consideraban profeta de su iglesia. Ella le dijo a Denzel que un día el iba a hablar a millones de personas. Denzel tenía 21 años y acababa de ser suspendido de la universidad. Estaba sentado en el salón de belleza de su madre, cuando la anciana se acercó …

Lost dog, lost sheep, lost people

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A few nights ago my daughter parked her car in a bay next to the park where she plays soccer. She opened the door and a small gray dog jumped into her vehicle. She noticed that its two front paws had blood all over them, and they were still bleeding.  She felt torn because her game was about to start and her team needed her that night. She picked up the dog and asked a lady in a yard nearby if she had seen the dog before. The woman replied that she had seen it running around the bay before. So my daughter placed the dog back on the street in hopes that the owner would find it. Since our dog Sugar had just passed two weeks ago, I wondered if this was a sign from God that this dog was to be ours, as it didn’t have a collar. First thing in the morning armed with a blanket I drove to the park to find this dog, rescue it, take it to a clinic …