All posts filed under: z22

Nurses on a hospital ward at Christmas during the 1930s. Photo: theirhistory/Flickr/Creative Commons

Medical study: Want to live longer, go to church

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A study of 75,534 middle-aged nurses published in JAMA Internal Medicine discovered that church attendance played a key role in nurses living longer. The study surveyed the lifestyles of this group of nurses between 1992 and 2012. During the ten-year period, 13,537 of the nurses died including 4,479 due to cancer and 2,721 due to cardiovascular problems. After accounting for lifestyle choices that could lead to early death such as smoking (which can lead to increased cancer risk and heart problems), the researchers discovered if a nurse attended church over once per week they were 33% less likely to die than their non church attending counterparts. They also discovered that even if nurses attended church less often, they were less likely to die than those who didn’t. Weekly church attendance resulted in a 26% reduction in death and irregular attendance (less than once a week) resulted in a 13% reduction. The study only analyzed the impact of protestant and Catholic church attendance and did not study any benefits associated with attending services at non-Christian religions. …

Photo of graffiti: David Perry/Flickr/Creative Commons

Are you vulnerable to satanic attack?

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Several years back my wife and I went to Sunday lunch with the pastor of the church we were attending at the time. The restaurant was bustling with an after-church crowd. Then we saw a couple sitting on the other side of the restaurant along its large plate-glass window. I don’t think they saw us, but I watched the pastor’s eyes immediately fix on them. They had attended his church several months earlier and had left offended. Though gone they were now accusing the pastor of all sorts of things, that simply weren’t true. These accusations had made their way back to the pastor and here they were sitting probably 70 feet away and it was obvious their presence was distracting him as I watched him repeatedly glance over. I had no idea what was going on in his mind. The couple had finished their meal and I watched as the waitress walked over to their table and dropped off the bill. As soon as that happened, the pastor pushed back his chair and stood …

Report: America’s first Muslim Miss USA has converted to Christianity

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When Rima Fakih, 30, was crowned Miss USA in 2010, it was generally believed she was the first Muslim woman to ever win the title. Shortly after winning, Fakih acknowledged her Muslim faith stating: “I’d like to say I’m American first, and I am an Arab-American, I am Lebanese-American, and I am Muslim-American.” She was born in Lebanon and raised in a Shia Muslim family, that admittedly had been luke-warm to their Muslim faith and would often observe both Muslim and Christian holidays. The family immigrated to New York in 1993 and continued to observe both Muslim and Christian holidays including even attending church on Easter. But in 2003, her family moved to Dearborn, Michigan and became involved with the large Islamic community in that city. When Fakih started attending the University of Michigan, her father urged her to reconnect with her Muslim roots through the Islamic group at the University. It was here that she began to learn of her Muslim faith including Ramadan — that involves a month of fasting and prayer in …

To go up in the Kingdom of God, you must first go down. Photo: Daniel Hoherd/Flickr/Creative Commons

Going low to go high

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[by Patricia Fraser] Earlier this year, I felt a strong urge to go on an extended fast with an emphasis on God’s love for me and for His people.  It was broken up in to two 16-day fasts. The first involved a liquid fast and the second 16 days a discipline fast where I stayed away from such things as the Internet, TV and computer. My first 16 days of the liquid fast was relatively easy and delightful with much journaling of deeper understanding of various scriptures and God’s love. On the second day, I received this word: “It has always been My will to have righteous judges to govern My people, not kings.  I am raising up many to take their place in My Kingdom to speak truth, decide matters and deliver My verdict in righteousness. “Those who have given themselves to my training and discipline in various situations and have yielded and submitted to My ways are now equipped to speak for Me.  This is not a position with a title, but a function …

Miracle on a football field? Photo: ishutterthethought/Flickr/Creative Commons

Miracle on a football field?

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Some have gone so far to claim he faked his death even accusing him of taking a pill before hand so the symptoms would seem real. On May 5, 2015, Zack Clements, 17, was participating in football training at his Christian school, Victory Life Academy, in Brownwood, Texas when he collapsed to the ground. Nobody, knew what had happened. While  others prayed, people immediately started performing CPR. When the ambulance showed up, Zack, who had just had a heart attack, was rushed to a hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. When he arrived, It took hospital emergency personnel 20 minutes to get his heart restarted. Medical staff prepared Zack’s parents, Bill and Teresa, to brace themselves for the worst. In an interview with People.com, the attending cardiologist at Children’s Medical Center, Dr. Lisa Roten, was concerned if Zack did survive there would be irreversible brain damage. Roten told People: “For 20 minutes, he was legally dead. We were worried he may have suffered irreversible brain damage.” Once the hospital team stabilized Zack’s heart, they put him …

Photo: DrOjOhn/Flickr/Creative Commons

The Big Money in Hallelujah

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“Let me hear a hallelujah. Can I get an amen?” Those are popular words with some people right now. I’m no music critic, but I keep hearing a country song on the radio “My Church” with those words. The song is a huge hit and it has a powerful lesson. When I first noticed this song on the radio, I thought I was hearing a gospel song, and I liked it, without knowing the words. Who listens to lyrics on the radio? I liked it enough to learn more, and it really is a song about not going to church. A young woman,  Maren Morris, finds freedom from her sins and spiritual revival by driving her old car on back roads, and listening to country songs on the radio. Back road therapy is a big thing in country music. So it’s a feel-good popular song that is slightly offensive to Christians. That makes it like most songs on the radio. In seventies talk, the powerful lesson is in the vibes and the ripoff, which is …

What we think of ourselves, affects who we are.

Be nice to yourself

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My mind can be my best friend or worst enemy depending on what I choose to believe about myself. In other words, my body responds to messages I send it via my thoughts. Many times, while trying on clothes in a store, I have stood in front of the mirror and criticized myself for being fat. There is, undeniably, a mind-body connection and statements like “I am fat” affect our mental, emotional and physical well-being. I have shut myself down many times because of my negative thinking and the demeaning language that followed. Waking up and feeling gloomy because the sun isn’t shining often sets the mood and tone of my day and this in turn determines how productive it will be as well. The Bible tells us that our thoughts dictate who we become. The mind of a man reflects who he really is, not just his actions or words . “Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23) Guarding the heart really means the inner core of …

The Baal arches scheduled to be set up in London's Trafalgar Square have been cancelled. Photo: Trafalgar Square by Hector Rodriguez/Flickr/Creative Commons

Baal arches scheduled for New York City and London, England — CANCELLED

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[UPDATED SEPTEMBER 20, 2016:] It is now being reported that the Baal arch originally planned for New York City and then cancelled is on again. According to Breaking Israel News (BIN) a replica of the 1,800 year old Victory Arch that stood in front of a Baal Temple in Plamyra, Sryia went up in New York City’s Hall Park on September 19th. Roman Emperor Servius constructed the original arch in the third century and installed it in front of an ancient Baal Temple. The arch was destroyed in 2015 by the radical Islamic group ISIS. An organization called the Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) announced plans in March this year to create a 15-meter tall 3-D replica of the Arch with plans to install one in both New York City and London, England. Though the New York City installation was cancelled some believe due to public pressure IDA installed the arch in London’s Trafalgar Square on April 19th. ……………………………………………….. I had reported earlier on several media reports stating that an organization called the Institute of …

Justin Bieber in concert. Photo: Il Fatto Quotidiano/Flickr/Creative Commons

The ‘pop stars’ will cry out?

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As Jesus road into Jerusalem on a donkey on His final trip into the fabled city, thousands of Jews gathered to watch Christ’s entrance and began crying out ‘Hosanna’ (Luke 19:28-40). But there were pharisees in the crowd, and shocked by this display of affection they yelled out to Jesus to tell His disciples to shut up (v 39). There will always be those who will try to shut believers down. They will try to intimidate and cause Christians to keep quiet. Sometimes it may even work. Turning to the pharisees in the crowd that day, Jesus replied: “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” (Luke 9:40 NASV) Though I know God is quite capable of making rocks cry out Christ’s name, I suspect what Jesus was really saying is that if Christians are silenced, God will have the Gospel proclaimed in unusual, unexpected and even shocking ways. Today many are trying to quiet Christians. Atheists are using the courts to force Christians to take down crosses. They are trying …

Do everything to the glory of God. Photo: Welder/Sorenslim/Flickr/Creative Commons

Secular or Sacred?

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If I were to ask average believers what percent of their day would fall under the heading of secular activities vs. sacred, would the answer be 50/50, or 60/40, or even 80/20? If you were a full time pastor, we might expect your sacred time would be higher that if you were, say, a welder. Christian musicians sometimes comment that on Sundays they play sacred music, but on Friday and Saturday they play secular. Although we all understand what they mean, I believe that this division is arbitrary and non-biblical. This topic was brought to my attention while I was reading a book called Know The Truth by Bruce Milne. The author was discussing the modern friction between the natural and the supernatural. I was surprised to learn that the Hebrew vocabulary and thinking from the Old Testament has no equivalent for our word “nature” or “natural”. God is responsible for all; the “natural” world was created by the spiritual. The Old Testament followers saw rain from clouds and water from a rock as both …