All posts filed under: z431

Surfer credits God in helping fight off shark attack

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Mike Morita, 58, was out surfing early Easter Sunday morning on Kewalos Beach, Hawaii before he and his wife attended a service at their church. He was paddling out on his surfboard when suddenly he felt intense pain and pressure on his right leg, The Blaze reports. Morita quickly realized it was a shark and started praying. He also felt in that instance that God wanted him to fight. “God wanted me to fight, so I started beefing,” Morita said. After being pulled off the surfboard, Morita wrapped his arms around the shark and was trying to dig his hands into the shark’s eyes, but instead, his hands landed at the shark’s gills. When Morita started pulling at the gills, the shark released him. The water was filled with blood as other surfers showed up to help. They were able to create a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. At the hospital, doctors were forced to amputate Morita’s foot. Despite the loss of his leg, Morita said his faith in God is unchanged. “I would be …

Are You Enabling? Or Maybe Gas Lighting?

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Enabling? Gas Lighting? What do those words mean? We also have related words like “woke” which is emotional and not thoughtful and rational reactions, and “narcissism.” which is focusing the attention and benefits on ourselves. And here are two more words: “Bud Lite.” You probably know about the arguments, a corporation made a controversial decision about sponsorship. At this time, the company has lost about five billion dollars in value. That’s a billion with a “B.” So, let’s try something impossible. Let’s try to understand without joining the emotional argument. The whole world is taking sides, but let’s try to be clinical. This argument is a symptom of something much larger. If we are honest, modern expressions like enabling and gaslighting describe us, and the way we talk to friends and relatives. I am a Christian, and I know, a lot of organized religion includes manipulation … We should just do what we are told, and we don’t need to think about it. I know a younger man who is interested in politics, and he …

Significant increase in attacks on American churches in first three months of 2023, study finds

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According to a report by the Family Research Council (FRC), there was a significant increase in attacks against churches between January and March 2023, Breitbart reports. The FRC has been tracking attacks against churches for the past six years. Though it has been noticing a steady increase, the number of attacks in the first three months of this year was significantly higher than seen in previous years. FRC writes: “…In the first quarter of 2023, 69 incidents have already occurred. If this rate continues, 2023 will have the highest number of incidents of the six years FRC has tracked, continuing the upward trend. Most of the 2023 incidents occurred in January (43); 14 occurred in February, and 12 occurred in March.” In its report, the FRC added that the number of attacks on churches reported in its study is probably much higher because it only provides data on the actual number of reported cases. READ: Report: First Quarter of 2023 Sees ‘Significant Increase’ In Acts of Hostility Against Churches

When is the last time you read your Bible?

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This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Joshua 1:8 ESV) According to a survey conducted by the American Bible Society (ABS), Americans who regularly read and engage with the Bible have more hope than those who don’t, Christian Headlines reports. Wikipedia defines hope as “an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large … Among its opposites are dejection, hopelessness, and despair.” In its survey, ABS asked respondents a series of questions related to the Persevering Hope Scale, where people are asked to rank the possibility of something happening on a scale of one to five, with one meaning ‘not at all’ and five ‘very likely’. The overall average score for an …

Citing crime, San Francisco supermarket closes after only being open for a year

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After only being open for a year, Whole Foods has announced it will be temporarily closing down its supermarket in downtown San Francisco, Breitbart reports. The store cited rampant crime and concerns about the safety of its employees as the reason for the closure. The San Francisco Standard provides more details: One of the largest supermarkets in Downtown San Francisco—the Whole Foods Market at Eighth and Market streets—intends to shut down at the close of business Monday just a little more than a year after the store opened, company officials told The Standard. […] A City Hall source told The Standard the company cited deteriorating street conditions around drug use and crime near the grocery store as a reason for its closure. [… ] The beleaguered grocery store on Market Street slashed its operating hours due to “high theft” and hostile visitors in October of last year, according to one of the store’s managers. And in November, the store enforced new bathroom rules after syringes and pipes were found in the restroom. With the situation …

99 | The Test

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FOLLOW OUR PODCAST ON (search opentheword): PODCAST NOTES: Hi, my name is Wayne Johnston, and today on this podcast, I want to talk about the BIG Test. Anyone who has ever had to do a final exam in high school, college, university or tech school, knows how much fun they can be. Sick to your stomach. Headaches. Tired from cramming and OD’ing on Red Bull or coffee. But what if you were told you didn’t have to take your big final exam, and they just decided you were good enough that they were going to give you your diploma without it. Now I know personally of people who would say, ‘Wow’, I dodged a bullet and say thank you, and they would never look back. Me, maybe you, would always second guess yourself, and wonder if you really made it, if you are really well bona fide. Testing by God, may not be fun either, but it is never to destroy us, it is to prove us, even to ourselves, that we are well bona …

A stunning majority of Americans believe Gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection are true

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According to a recent survey conducted by Lifeway, a significant majority of Americans believe the Biblical accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection are accurate, Faithwire reports. The survey, entitled “2022 State of Theology” found that 66% of Americans believe the Gospel accounts of Christ’s resurrection are accurate and only 23% believe they weren’t. Eleven percent stated they weren’t sure. Faithwire added that the percentage of Americans holding this view of the Gospel accounts has remained the same since 2018. It was also noted that even in what people would describe as the most secular parts of America such as the Northeast, a significant majority (60%) believed the Gospel accounts were accurate. READ: Stunning Proportion of Americans Believe ‘Biblical Accounts of the Physical Resurrection of Jesus Are Completely Accurate’

So, They’re Burning Bibles Again?

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Burning books is an old idea. There is one story in the Bible where people burned books “a number of those who had practised magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.” (Acts 19:19) It’s always good to know the whole story. In the Roman Empire city of Ephesus, some new Christians had books with magic incantations. They had probably recited magic words, from their books, for spiritual and magic ceremonies. When they became followers of Jesus, they decided the books were not correct for them. They had a new way to live. So they burned their own, expensive, books of magic. This was probably not something we would call hate speech. They were removing an influence from their own lives, and they were not destroying other people’s books. Recently, a speaker named Ian Haworth was invited to speak at the State University of New York, in Albany. Some angry demonstrators tried …

Slain in the Spirit

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One of the more controversial manifestations associated with the Charismatic movement is what is referred to as being slain in the Spirit. This occurs when people are so overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit that they are no longer able to stand and collapse uncontrollably to the ground It usually takes place in a group setting and is often accompanied by prayer or laying on of hands. Though I have never personally experienced it myself, I have been in several services where I witnessed it happenings. Others who have experienced it, said they felt an electrical flow entering their body forcing them to fall to the ground, Part of the controversy surrounding being slain in the Spirit is that we have no actual teaching on the subject in the Bible and only a few recorded instances of it taking place. Perhaps the most notable took place in the Garden of Gethsemane when the Chief priests along with somewhere between 300 and 600 Roman soldiers showed up to arrest Christ. When Christ asked why they were there, …

One of the largest volcanos in the Western Hemisphere showing signs of activity

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Scientists are warning that one of the largest volcanos in the Western Hemisphere, Nevado del Ruiz, located just west of Bogotá, Columbia is showing signs of activity, the NY Post reports. A large swarm of earthquake activity (11,600 on March 30) at the site has prompted Colombia’s Geological Survey to issue the second-highest, orange warning, about potential volcanic activity at the site. This has resulted in a call to evacuate 57,000 people living within the shadow of the volcano. The last time Nevado del Ruiz erupted was on Nov 13, 1985, killing an estimated 23,000 people in the town of Armero in a matter of a couple of hours. At the time, people were unaware of what was happening on the mountain as it was obscured by dark storm clouds. Most were killed by the massive mud and lava flows, referred to as lahars, that covered the town located near the base of the volcano. READ: Deadliest volcano in Western Hemisphere shows signs of increased activity Speaking about the coming Day of the Lord, the …

72% of those arrested for violent crime in NYC and released without bail, go on to commit more crimes, study finds

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New York City recently instituted bail reform that would allow those accused of violent crimes to be released with no bail, sometimes on the same day. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice conducted a study, to find out if the change impacted a suspects’ chances of being re-arrested, Breitbart reports. The study found that 72% of those who had been released after bail reform, meaning they did not have to pay bail, were rearrested for a violent crime. Meanwhile, prior to bail reform, only 62% were rearrested for a violent crime. The study concluded that there was a 50% increase in felony re-arrests after the city introduced its no-bail policy and a 36% increase in rearrests for violent crime. Breitbart adds: Overall, the study found that 47 percent of New York City suspects previously charged with felonies were rearrested for crimes —  including more than 31 percent of whom were rearrested for felonies, more than 17 percent rearrested for violent crimes, and almost four percent rearrested for firearm charges. In all three categories, felonies, …