Tuesday 28 February 2017

5 Ways Christians Should Judge Others

It happened when I posted something to social media lamenting author Jen Hatmaker's disastrous decision to affirm gay unions. It happened again when I criticized a Saturday Night Live writer for attacking Barron Trump, the 10-year-old son of the president. Truth is, it happens anytime I make a judgment about anything or anyone.

"Christians are not to pass judgments, only state the truths," one person commented.

"Christ taught us to LOVE EVERYONE. Judgments are for our father in heaven, not us," said another.

And ironically, someone even stated, "You obviously are not a Christian because Jesus told us not to judge."

In some ways, these statements reflect the ethic of our culture. Judging is wrong — except when it's not. (Apparently, it's wrong to judge someone's sexual behavior, for example, but perfectly legitimate to judge someone for wearing fur or emitting too much carbon.) Yet, we judge all the time. (How could anyone hire a babysitter without judging?)

Our Sleep Deprivation Epidemic Is a Spiritual Problem

Because our bodies matter to God — and not just in a moral sense — our rest matters to God, too. So much so, He built it into the rhythms of the universe.

Do you proclaim with the psalmist: "Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, Lord, among the nations" (Psalm 57:8)?

Do you climb out of bed each morning and sing with joy about God's unfailing love (Psalm 59:16)?

If not, (and for the record, I rarely do), maybe it's because we are among the one in three Americans who don't get enough sleep. Seriously.

Friday 24 February 2017

New fertility awareness app promoted as replacement for the pill


A husband-and-wife team of nuclear physicists has launched a sophisticated media campaign to promote a “birth control app” that predicts a woman’s fertility cycle using her internal temperature.

Drs. Elina Berglund and Raoul Scherwitzl report that their Natural Cycles application can “detect and predict ovulation with precision comparable to that of the contraceptive pill.”

Iraqi Christians erect large cross in area liberated from ISIS


After years of darkness, hope has returned to Telekuf-Tesqopa. Located just 17 miles from Mosul, the village is rebuilding after being liberated from ISIS.

As a visible sign of the rebuilding, a giant cross was erected on a hill, marking the victory of the Christian faith against the darkness of the jihadists.

New Planets Have Been Discovered That Could Support Alien Life. Here Are 10 Questions For Christians

With the news that seven earth-type planets that could be able to sustain organic life have been discovered around the dwarf star Trappist-1, it seems increasingly possible that humans are not alone in the universe.

So where does this leave traditional Christian beliefs?

Here are 10 questions for Christians to ponder about intelligent life on planets other than earth.

1. Can an alien go to heaven? Revelation speaks of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, meaning that heaven transcends boundaries of time and space. If aliens do exist, then they can certainly go to heaven, as heaven has no geographical limits that restrict it to one place alone. Of course this means aliens could also go to the other place...

Sunday 19 February 2017

Why Apostle Suleiman Joined a Cult


Preachers come in all shapes and sizes. There are big, sociable preachers. There are short, slim, soft-spoken preachers. And there are creative preachers who are so dynamic they bring listeners back to the center while proclaiming the unchanging gospel.

Apostle Johnson Suleiman falls in the latter category, being a preacher who regularly demonstrates how God has penetrated his own heart with the truths he presents. His interpretation not only has been defended in the sermon, but it has been digested.

The true life story of Apostle Johnson Suleiman is the actual motivational piece that should interest you. Although a seer, Suleiman has waded many storms that would make swiftly flip through the pages on his biography. His writing career must have roots in his journalistic stint at TELL Magazine where he practiced investigative journalism. He moved on to PM News and later, DBN. Before his books arrived on book shelves, he was lost in the track of cultism as a youngster.

Friday 17 February 2017

Catholic doctor fired for refusing to administer birth control. Court rules against her


Last week, a Norwegian court ruled against Katarzyna Jachimowicz, a Polish Catholic doctor fired for her unwillingness to insert intrauterine devices (IUDs).

The determined doctor decided in 2016 to fight for freedom based on conscience protections and tolerance for family doctors. However, on February 9, a district judge explained that the government has no desire to protect conscience in this case any further than absolutely necessary according to the European Convention on Human Rights. It simply prioritized the interest of women in accordance with “traditional Norwegian values.” The court found the discrimination against Catholic minorities in Norway irrelevant.

Christians Sentenced To 80 Lashes Of The Whip – For Taking Holy Communion


Three Christian converts in Iran are appealing against a sentence of 80 lashes each – for the crime of receiving Holy Communion.

Yaser Mosibzadeh, Saheb Fadayee and Mohammad Reza Omidi were arrested last May.

All three men, along with their pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, were charged with acting against national security but the three lay Christians were also charged with consuming alcoholic communion wine. Last September they were sentenced to receive 80 lashes each and are now appealing against this, Open Doors reports.

Tuesday 14 February 2017

French court deems extramarital hookups site a legitimate business


A French court has sided with a website that promotes adultery after Christians voiced their concerns about its message of marital infidelity.

Gleeden, named by combining "joy" with the sin of Eve, is touted as the world's "premier extramarital dating website" with more than a million members in 159 countries. Taste adultery and try a discreet relationship with your lover" is the message of an ad next to a picture of a bitten apple.

Christian Man Dies After Being Forced To Spend Night In Cold Pond For Refusing To Deny Christ


A Christian man in India has died after he and his wife were forced to spend the night in a cold pond for refusing to deny Christ.

Bartu Urawn, 50, from Jharkhand state, survived the night, but has now died from illness which came on afterwards.

Hillsong To Open Its First Church In Israel, Pastor Brian Houston Announces On Instagram


The fast-growing and hugely popular Hillsong evangelical church is to open up in Israel.

Hillsong, which runs regular tours to the Holy Land, is to launch a new church in Tel Aviv.

The move was announced by Brian Houston, global senior pastor of Hillsong Church and president of Hillsong Music.

He wrote on Instagram: 'Let me to be the first to tell you this is happening. Hillsong church is going to add a room to our church family in ISRAEL. From Jerusalem to the ends of the earth and from the ends of the earth back to Israel. #prayforhillsongisrael #TelAviv.'

Sunday 12 February 2017

Trump Considers Issuing 'Brand New' Travel Ban In Surprise Move


US President Donald Trump is considering issuing a new executive order banning citizens of certain countriestravelling to the United States after his initial attempt to clamp down on immigration and refugees snarled to a halt amid political and judicial chaos.

Trump announced the possibility of a 'brand new order' that could be issued as soon as Monday or Tuesday, in a surprise talk with reporters aboard Air Force One late on Friday, as he and the Japanese premier headed to his estate in Florida for the weekend.

A Message To All Single Men For This Valentine's Season

Every man wants to love that one woman the Lord gives to him. Sure, not all men and women do marry as some are content with living a life of single blessedness. But all men who long to marry and eventually marry the woman they dream of and pray for find joy in being able to give love and receive love.

Are you in love? I hope you are – with the right person.

The Wrong One

Missionary Shares The Amazing Transformation Of An Abandoned Nigerian Boy


It's truly amazing what kindness and compassion can do. In a span of just one year, a malnourished boy who was abandoned by his own parents has recovered his health and has already started to attend school in Nigeria.

A Danish humanitarian missionary named Anja Ringgren Loven, co-founder of the African Children's Aid Education and Development Foundation, came to the two-year-old boy's aid just over a year ago, according to Faith Wire. His parents reportedly left him to die on a roadside in Nigeria allegedly because they thought he was a witch.

Christian groups divided over 'safe zones' for Syrian refugees


After President Donald Trump pushed for the creation of safe zones for refugees in the Middle East, advocates and humanitarian aid groups are divided over whether the policy will work.

“We think it’s within the United States’ national security interests to support the creation of safe zones to at least stop the exodus of people leaving Syria and move that conflict more toward a resolution which is favorable to Christians,” Phillippe Nassif, executive director of the group In Defense of Christians, told CNA of Trump’s proposal.

Monday 6 February 2017

Appeals Court Rejects Trump's Challenge; Refugee Order Still Blocked


A U.S. appeals court denied on Sunday a request from the Department of Justice to restore President Donald Trump's order temporarily banning refugees.

U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle had ruled Friday that the order would be halted across the nation with immediate effect, and said that "the immigration laws of the United States should be enforced vigorously and uniformly." The Justice Department appealed late Saturday, with Trump saying, "For the safety of the country, we'll win."

When Selfies Kill

We used to be "the me generation." Now perhaps we're the selfie generation — the generation that exalts me, my selfie, and I. One article on Botox treatment called ours the "selfie culture."

But what happens when selfies — photographs taken by you of yourself — can actually endanger you or others or even animals? For a few years now I have been saving stories about people getting hurt or killed because of their selfies.

Lightning killed a man who was using a selfie stick ... in a lightning storm. Then there was the man who endured serious damage to his hand because he tried to take a selfie with a snake, and the snake bit him.

Cynics talk about the "Darwin Awards." These unofficial awards (never really handed out) go in theory to those unfortunate souls who die because of their own stupidity, and the cynics are glad that the dead are no longer in the gene pool. That is obviously a sub-Christian view of people.