Monthly Archives: July 2015

July 31, 2015 Truth2Freedom Daily News/Commentary Collection

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Jul. 31, 2015

BLOOMBERG

President Obama said opponents of the nuclear accord with Iran are “putting the squeeze on Congress” as the administration works to keep supporters in line.

Wages and salaries in the U.S. rose in the second quarter at the slowest pace on record, dashing projections that an improving labor market would boost pay.

Beijing was chosen Friday to host the 2022 Winter Games despite one big hurdle to its candidacy: little natural snow.

The destructive force of a collapse in world coal prices has been underlined by the sale of a mine valued at $624 million three years ago for just a dollar.

The Jeep Cherokee brought to a halt by hackers last week exposed wireless networks as the weakest link in high-tech vehicles, underscoring the need to find fast over-the-air fixes to block malicious intrusions.

The State Department is set to post online its next batch of e-mails that Hillary Clinton sent and received on a personal account while she was secretary of state.

Five Democrats, 17 Republicans in Presidential race.

Facebook Inc.’s plan for connecting rural areas to the Internet involves using balloons to lift drones to an altitude of 90,000 feet, where they will fly for up to three months and transmit information using lasers.

AP Top Stories

The American dentist who killed Cecil the lion was a “foreign poacher” who paid for an illegal hunt and he should be extradited to Zimbabwe to face justice, environment minister Oppah Muchinguri said on Friday.

Malaysian authorities confirmed Friday that plane wreckage washed up on an Indian Ocean island was from a Boeing 777, meaning the part is almost certainly from missing flight MH370. The debris, part of a plane wing, could provide the first tangible clue towards unlocking the mystery surrounding the Malaysia Airlines plane, which disappeared in March last year with 239 people on board.

At least 100 jihadist fighters have been killed in an operation against Boko Haram Islamists holed up on the islands of Lake Chad, the Chadian army said in a statement Friday.

A senior Iranian official is accusing the U.S. of violating the nuclear deal with his country through comments indicating that the accord would make any attack on Tehran’s atomic program more efficient because it would result in greater insight about potential targets.

MSNBC said Thursday that it is canceling three of its afternoon programs, part of a network-wide shift to a straight news focus during the daytime hours.

Gunmen fired more than 100 shots to kill a police commander Thursday in the capital of Mexico’s troubled southern state of Guerrero, while three other people died in another shootout.

Possible smoke in the cabin forced 146 passengers on AA flight to exit using emergency slides and on Spirit, a landing gear tire caught fire after landing in Orlando.

Two incidents on separate airplanes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport led to evacuations on Thursday, with three people suffering minor injuries on one flight, airport officials said.

A teenage girl suffocated her just-born baby boy before putting his body in a shopping bag, then going on a trip to a Victoria’s Secret store the next day.

In the 17 days since Sandra Bland was found dead from an apparent suicide in her jail cell, four black women have died in police custody in the United States.

Astronomers said Thursday they had found a planetary system with three super-Earths orbiting a bright, dwarf star — one of them likely a volcanic world of molten rock. The four-planet system had been hiding out in the M-shaped, northern hemisphere constellation Cassiopeia, “just” 21 light years from Earth, a team reported.

The newest ocean liner from Costa Cruises will be able to host the population of a small town and, when complete, will nab the title of largest guest capacity ship, capable 6,600 passengers.

More than 7.4 million borrowers were still “seriously” underwater on their mortgages at the end of June, according to RealtyTrac.

BBC

A vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus has led to 100% protection and could transform the way Ebola is tackled, preliminary results suggest.

The government in El Salvador has provided military and police escorts for bus drivers forced to go on strike by powerful criminal gangs.

HIV can be flushed out of its hiding places in the body using a cancer drug, researchers show. The cornerstone of treatment, anti-retroviral therapy, kills the virus in the bloodstream but leaves “HIV reservoirs” untouched.

Hundreds of students in Taiwan have stormed the education ministry, protesting against proposed changes to the curriculum. The students want revisions to Taiwan’s textbooks, which they say promote a pro-China view, to be retracted.

France has agreed to pay compensation to Russia for cancelling the sale of two warships.

Israeli police have arrested a man after six people were wounded in a stabbing at the Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem.

WND

A secret NSA map obtained exclusively by NBC News shows the Chinese government’s massive cyber assault on all sectors of the U.S economy, including major firms like Google and Lockheed Martin, as well as the U.S. government and military.

Christians in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province have launched a cross making and wearing campaign amid a year-long “clean-up movement” by the local government to remove exterior church crosses.


Trump Is Hillary’s Best Friend – His Record of Support for Liberal Causes Has Eluded Media Scrutiny
Hillary Clinton has long had good reason to like Donald Trump. The real estate mogul-turned-reality TV star-turned-Republican presidential candidate was a major donor to her campaigns for the Senate. He also gave $100,000 to the thinly-disguised political slush fund that is the Clinton Family Foundation, bestowing on himself the unique status as both a potential Hillary opponent and an enabler of the Clinton Cash scandals.

‘Third World War would be last for humanity’ – Duma speaker
“World War III would be the last for the humanity. And strengthening of Russia’s defense potential, including the budgetary decisions passed by the State Duma is done only for one purpose, which is to prevent the war,” Naryshkin stated in a major interview with Izvestia daily, published on Thursday in connection with the anniversary of Russia’s joining WWI on Serbia’s side.

Op-Ed: The Middle East They Wanted
Like so much that has been done by the Obama administration, including the diplomatic recognition of Cuba, the agreement demonstrates how safe it is to be America’s enemy. The administration’s policies toward Israel and Ukraine demonstrate how risky it is to be America’s ally.

Hamas Calls for All Arabs to Attack ‘All Soldiers, Settlers’
Hamas leader in Judea-Samaria calls ‘all soldiers, settlers legitimate targets’ after arson and before attacks – all amid ceasefire talks.

CO-ROTATING INTERACTION REGION
NOAA forecasters estimate a 60% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on July 31st when a co-rotating interaction region (CIR) is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field.

5.0-magnitude earthquake hits Pakistan
An earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale hit parts of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Friday afternoon, the MET office said. The earthquake jolted Jacobabad and Sukkur districts and its adjoining areas, said the report.

California Drought Could Wipe Cities Off Map If Their Water Runs Out
The epicenter of California’s drought crisis is in the Central Valley, where there are growing fears the drought could wipe entire towns off of the map. Wells are going dry, jobs are harder to come by and families are already moving, either to different states or even Mexico in search of work. “It’s dire, it’s dire here, it’s dire straits,” said Antonio Alvarez.

4.4-magnitude earthquake felt across Dead Sea
The tremor, which measured 4.4 on the Richter scale, struck at 5:39 a.m, according to the Israel Geophysical Institute, which monitors seismic activity. There were no reports of damage or injuries in Israel or Jordan. The epicenter was in the southern area of the Dead Sea, several kilometers inside the part of the sea controlled by Jordan.

Earthquake detected in east Mediterranean, frightens locals in south Turkey
A 5.2 magnitude earthquake hit the east Mediterranean at 01:00 am local time (10:00 pm GMT) on July 30th, terrifying locals in Turkey’s southern provinces.

Cecil The Lion Stirs More Outrage Than Abortion Mogul Cecile The Lyin’
Society has a funny way of deciding when to express outrage. Millions of innocent humans (aka pregnancy tissue) are slaughtered, and their fully intact body parts are sold. Crickets. A single lion, which was unknown to most of us, gets hunted for sport. International drama.

Planned Parenthood Received Millions of Dollars After Lobbying Clinton’s State Department
Planned Parenthood lobbied the Department of State many times during Hillary Clinton’s tenure there and received tens of millions of dollars from foreign policy agencies over the past few years, according to a new report. As secretary of state, Clinton attacked the Mexico City Policy, which bans federal funding of abortion overseas.

Swarms of Locusts Trigger State of Emergency in Southern Russia
Thousands of locusts swarming the Russian village Achikulak in Stavropol krai are destroying crops, according to local reports . The Ministry of Agriculture of Stravropol Territory reported that swarms of migratory locusts in the south of Russia began on July 20 and have since spread to cover an area of about 90,000 hectares, leading officials to declare a state of emergency in three regions.

‘Abortion pill’ legalised in Canada
Canadian health authorities have approved the drug RU-486, commonly known as the abortion pill. The pill, a combination of misoprostol and mifepristone, had been pending approval by Health Canada since 2012. It has been in use in the United States since 2000 and in France since 1988.

Chad reintroduces death penalty for acts of terror
MPs in Chad have voted to reinstate the death penalty for acts of terrorism six months after it was abolished. The unanimous vote by 146 of the 189 members of parliament present followed recent attacks by Boko Haram Islamist militants from neighbouring Nigeria. Officials in the mainly Muslim nation have already banned the full Islamic veil in response to suicide bombings.

Hamas: ‘Every Israeli is now a legitimate target’ following Duma terror attack
Hamas said Friday that every Israeli is now a legitimate target following the deadly terror attack in the village of Duma in which a Palestinian toddler was killed, Israel Radio reported. In an official message to the public, Hamas also called for a “day of rage” to protest the deadly terror attack and “in order to protect al-Aksa mosque.”

New Report Confirms Findings of Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi
Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi (CCB) member Clare Lopez, believes that in 2011 Hillary Clinton’s State Department was orchestrating its own gun running operation to the Libyan rebels—and that arms dealer Marc Turi has been set up to take the fall for these “illicit arms deals.”

Zionist Chief: Obama Has ‘Shocking Sympathy to Radical Islam’
President Barack Obama has “a painful, unpleasant, shocking sympathy to radical Islam,” Morton Klein, president of Zionist Organization of America and former economist for Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, tells Newsmax TV.

Al-Qaida kills 6 captured Yemeni rebels north of Aden
Al-Qaida fighters have publicly shot to death six Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, in a town north of Aden, Yemeni security officials and witnesses said Thursday. The witnesses, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said al-Qaida made the captured Houthi fighters, who were in their early 20s, kneel and kiss their hands before shooting them Wednesday afternoon in Dar Saad.

Greece’s Tsipras prevails over rebels at party meeting
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has defeated a bid by dissenters in his left-wing Syriza party to push for an end to bailout talks and an exit from the euro currency.

India ‘to overtake China’s population by 2022’ – UN
A new UN study of global population trends predicts that India will overtake China to become the world’s most populous nation by 2022. The report also says that Nigeria will replace the US as the world’s third most populous country by around 2050.

Religious assailant attacks Jerusalem Gay Pride parade, wounding six
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man stabbed and wounded six participants, two of them seriously, in the annual Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem on Thursday, with police saying the suspect was jailed for a similar attack 10 years ago.

Afghan Taliban name a new leader, but peace talks delayed
The Taliban have chosen late supreme leader Mullah Omar’s longtime deputy to replace him, two militant commanders said on Thursday, as Pakistan announced that peace talks between the insurgents and the Afghan government had been postponed.

70,000 Liberian births unrecorded in Ebola crisis: UNICEF
More than 70,000 Liberian babies were born without being registered as the deadly Ebola epidemic ravaged the impoverished west African nation, leaving them without healthcare and vulnerable to trafficking, UNICEF said Friday.


Headlines – 7/31/2015

Putin to Netanyahu: Iran deal will improve security in the Middle East

Iran says it will ban US experts from UN nuclear inspections

White House Says IAEA Will Release Report on ‘Past Military Dimensions’ of Iran Nuclear Program

GOP Rep. Rohrabacher proposes bill authorizing Obama to detain Iranian officials

Obama urges supporters to lobby for Iran deal

Iran: Obama Admin Lying About Nuclear Deal for ‘Domestic Consumption’

McCain: ‘Absolutely astounding’ that US hasn’t seen Iran side deal

Top French Official Contradicts Kerry on Iran Deal

Netanyahu: John Kerry ‘Has No Reason to Come Here’

Israel readies Iron Dome on Lebanon border as Hezbollah anticipates arms from Iran

Israel slams Amnesty report accusing IDF of war crimes

‘Abbas significantly contributing to stability’ in West Bank, senior security source says

Joint List says Israel’s force-feeding law ‘authorizes torture of Palestinian prisoners’

Palestinian baby dies in fire ‘started by Israeli settlers’

Netanyahu on Duma attack: Israel deals harshly with terror, no matter the perpetrator

IDF head Eisenkot holds emergency security meeting following Duma terror attack

Hamas: ‘Every Israeli is now a legitimate target’ following Duma terror attack

Erekat calls on international community to protect Palestinians from Israelis after toddler killed

Arabs Destroy Holocaust Survivor Site in Land Grab Attempt

Survivors appeal to Pope to intercede with Germany over Holocaust reparations

Foreign Ministry calls Sunni Arab states ‘Israel’s allies’

Iraqi MP: ‘Iraq should establish ties with Israel, we share interests’

Islamic State Threatens to Behead Statue of Liberty, Extend Its Territory to New York City

Cheating evil: Chechen women con ISIS by posing as wannabe terror brides

Al-Qaida kills 6 captured Yemeni rebels north of Aden

Blast kills at least 5 in Nigeria market – police, rescue worker

Zionist Chief: Obama Has ‘Shocking Sympathy to Radical Islam’

China, Russia to hold military drills in Sea of Japan

UK terror suspect allegedly tried to buy enough ricin to kill 1400

Alaska Airlines test program replaces boarding passes with fingerprints

CISA: the dirty deal between Google and the NSA that no one is talking about

Facebook wants to offer Internet service to remote areas by drone

Feds: 664,607 illegals granted amnesty, some linked to terrorism, gangs

Puerto Rico nears default as debt restructuring beckons

IMF will refuse to join Greek bailout until debt relief demands are met

Prepare for gold prices to plunge…as low as $350

‘Blue Moon’ To Grace Skies Friday In Rare Phenomenon

5.3 magnitude earthquake hits near the Kermadec Islands region

5.2 magnitude earthquake hits near Raoul Island, New Zealand

5.2 magnitude earthquake hits near Kerman, Iran

4.3 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Israel, No Injuries, Damage Reported

Papua New Guinea’s Manam volcano erupts, sending ash 65,000 feet into air

Colima volcano in Mexico erupts to 15,000ft

Karymsky volcano on Kamchatka, Russia erupts to 15,000ft

Raung volcano in Indonesia erupts to 14,000ft

Suwanosejima volcano in Japan erupts to 10,000ft

Piton De La Fournaise volcano in the Indian Ocean erupts to 10,000ft

Deadly monsoon landslides spotlight Nepal’s post-quake challenges

Tropical Storm Guillermo quickly intensifies east of Hawaii

Tropical Storm Soudelor tracking toward Marianas

Heavy Flooding Swamps City in Russia

At least 26 dead in flash floods in western India

Iran city hits suffocating heat index of 154 degrees, near world record

Record-Challenging Heat Wave Bakes Seattle and Portland, Oregon

Astonishing drought unveils lost towns that have sat submerged under Lake Mead for decades

Northern California wildfire forces hundreds to flee

Drones impede air battle against California wildfires. ‘If you fly we can’t,’ pleads firefighter

Jeb: Humans contribute to climate change

Sierra Leone faces Ebola setback; 500 under quarantine

70,000 Liberian births unrecorded in Ebola crisis: UNICEF

4th Video Catches Planned Parenthood VP Discussing How to Break the Law to Sell Aborted Babies

Planned Parenthood Abortionist Talks ‘Intact Specimens’ in 4th Undercover Video: Look, ‘It’s a Baby… It’s Another Boy’

Call it ‘research,’ not ‘business,’ Planned Parenthood doc says in latest sting video

Planned Parenthood president: These extremist videos are nothing short of an attack on women

Indiana Clears Planned Parenthood of Wrongdoing After Videos

Planned Parenthood Received Millions of Dollars After Lobbying Clinton’s State Department

Planned Parenthood backlash could fuel new shutdown standoff in DC

Abortion opponents plan nationwide Planned Parenthood protest

Man stabs six people at Jerusalem gay pride parade; suspect carried out similar attack in 2005

Jerusalem stabber’s letter week before attack: ‘Stopping gay pride march is a test from God’

Hours before stabbing: Lehava accuses homosexuals of harming Jewish nation

Netanyahu: Justice will be dealt to Jerusalem gay pride parade attacker

Rivlin on gay pride parade attack: A lack of tolerance will lead us to disaster

Erdan: Stabbing attack at Jerusalem gay pride is ‘hate crime that cannot be forgiven’

Education Minister Bennett announces extra funds for LGBT youth

‘Exorcism: Live!’ to air on TV in October

Pope Warns of ‘Genocide’ As Persecution Of Christians Rises Worldwide

Less than a fifth of Americans believe the US is a Christian nation

Mississippi school district fined $7500 for opening assembly with prayer

‘What lion?’ Zimbabweans ask, amid global Cecil circus

‘Another boy!’ Planned Parenthood staff sifts through aborted ‘baby parts’ in new tape

Todd Bentley’s School of Revival?

Driscolls Comeback Continues – Sheds Tears in Softball Interview with Brian Houston

Priest performs exorcism from a helicopter to banish evil from Italian town

‘Exorcism’ at public park caught on camera

Exorcism to Air on Live TV

Orthodox Jew stabs six people at Jerusalem gay pride march

Palestinian infant killed in apparent Jewish arson attack

‘Shadow council’ speaker pushes Church acceptance of contraception, gay sex


Daily Digest

July 31, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.” —James Monroe, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Obama ‘Recovery’ Even Worse Than Thought

The status quo remains unchanged. Newly released figures from the Commerce Department show that in the second quarter — encompassing the months of April, May and June — the U.S. economy grew by just 2.3%, while first quarter growth was adjusted to 0.6%. No matter how you spin it, this isn’t progress. In fact, GDP so far in 2015 trails 2014, a year that continued the trend of underperformance. But there was another interesting aspect to the report that is being largely ignored. “The second-quarter report is the first to include new methodology meant to make GDP more accurate,” explains MarketWatch. “Over the past several years GDP has slightly underestimated growth in the first quarter and sharply overestimated growth in the third quarter, leading to big swings that confused Wall Street and Washington.” After taking into account the new methodology, the results are even less stellar: “Under the new approach, the government has found that the U.S. economy grew somewhat slower from 2012 to 2014: An average of 2% a year instead of 2.3%. That means the slowest recovery since the end of World War II is even weaker than previously believed.” The Obama “Recovery” was never as robust as this administration has consistently claimed, as further underscored by new government figures. Maybe that’s why so many Millennials are living at home.

By Popular Demand: Worthwhile Revisions to AP History Exam

Finally, some good news for a change. The College Board, the nonprofit organization that administers AP exams to high school students, has announced yet another revision to its history framework. But this time it’s for the better. Previously, the College Board painted American history in far too negative a light, emphasizing our nation’s sins while ignoring or minimizing its uniqueness and greatness. Some Founders, such as Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson and Constitution writer James Madison, were mentioned; that’s it — mentioned. But they were taught as examples of Western class, gender and racial evil. And while teachers could choose to teach the Constitution as it’s written, they would disadvantage their students by doing so because the real Constitution wasn’t on the test. After numerous scholars objected in an open letter, however, the College Board worked to make revisions. Neglected Founders are back, and there’s even a new section on the concept of “American exceptionalism.” A College Board official insisted they meant no harm, and that American exceptionalism was previously omitted because they assumed they didn’t need to spell it out. We don’t buy it, and the changes don’t go nearly far enough, but perhaps the episode proves that strong, principled voices on the Right can make a difference.

Lessons From the 50th of Medicare and Medicaid

Massive unfunded debt is not what the progressive politicians who created Medicare and Medicaid 50 years ago this week told the country their programs would bring. The “Great Society” was supposed to banish poverty from the land while providing care for the elderly and disabled. Today, over a third of the U.S. population is on Medicare and Medicaid, and federal spending has a tendency to be sucked into the programs’ gaping maws. Today, more than quarter of every dollar the federal government spends goes to the two programs. They are also the biggest expense for state governments. But for all that spending, the programs’ trust fund is on track to run out of money in 15 years. Meanwhile, the Baby Boomer generation is signing up in droves, and $60 billion is lost every year to waste and fraud. This is not what the programs’ architects wanted Americans to think would happen. Fifty years ago, they estimated the programs would cost $12 billion in 1990, but it actually cost the government $90 billion. Another government program, now five years old, also promised to trim health care costs through more government intrusion and regulation. Just wait until ObamaCare turns 10, much less 50.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

Big Win: Court Says Public Sector Employees Have Right to Work, Too

By Michael Swartz

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Breaking the union bonds

When Michigan shocked the nation and passed its right-to-work law three years ago, there was no question that Big Labor wouldn’t take it lying down. The tentacles of Big Labor run deep in the state, not only in the obvious automotive-related businesses but also in the state employees organized under the United Auto Workers (UAW) banner. It was on behalf of those workers, who fall under the auspices of the state’s Civil Service Commission, that the UAW filed suit to maintain its hold on the agency fees it has routinely extracted from these workers.

But the move backfired. The Michigan Supreme Court upheld the 2012 right-to-work law even for public-sector employees. The 4-3 decision fell mainly along party lines — five of the seven members of the court are Republicans, and the two Democrats were among the dissenting trio.

The court found, “Although the [Civil Service] Commission had authority over civil service employees’ rates of compensation, conditions of employment, and grievance procedures under [the state Constitution], the Commission’s power to regulate the conditions of employment through public collective bargaining agreements did not encompass the specific authority to tax or appropriate, which generally rested exclusively with the Legislature unless the Constitution affirmatively provided that power to another constitutional body.”

About 36,000 workers are affected by the decision, along with millions of dollars that will stay in the workers’ wallets rather than fattening the coffers of Big Labor. If the trend from other states adopting similar right-to-work provisions holds true, as many as 20,000 of those workers could walk away from the union.

It could also set a precedent for a class-action suit. Patrick Wright, the vice president of legal affairs for Michigan’s Mackinac Center, stated, “The majority correctly noted that state employees unions have illegally been receiving agency fees from state employees for decades.” He added, “Agency fees for state employees have been illegal since the adoption of the 1963 Constitution.” Yet for nearly 50 years the UAW and other unions were basically unchallenged.

In most states, this likely would have been a slam-dunk for worker freedom, but we’re talking about Michigan here. The close decision against the UAW was a bit surprising, and given the cash involved it’s certain the unions will be loaded for bear once the judges who ruled against them come up again on the ballot. (Nor are they likely to give any quarter to the Republican who ruled in their favor.)

Michigan isn’t the only state facing problems with unions. Underfunded pensions are crushing many states. Some experts estimate the liabilities to be somewhere between $1 trillion and $4 trillion.

And despite the legal slap to organized labor in Michigan, their New Jersey counterparts are trying to get their pension shortfalls addressed by Garden State jurists. Facing a budget crunch last year, Gov. Chris Christie backed away from a promise to fully fund the state’s pension fund, and the public sector unions are demanding over $3 billion to fix it. This despite the plain language of the state constitution that prohibits taking on debts of more than 1% of the state’s budget.

The ruse is simple, though. As a Public Employees Retirement System spokesperson said, “We want a judgment answered so we are to the front of the line getting our money before anyone else gets it, because it is our money.” And that’s the way it is to Big Labor. Just ask a former GM or Chrysler bondholder or non-union pensioner how their place in the creditor line worked out for them.

But we’ll take a win where we can get one, and the story out of Michigan is a good step in the right direction.

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

For more, visit Right Opinion.

TOP HEADLINES

OPINION IN BRIEF

Michael Barone: “Republican voters have been seething with discontent toward their party’s officeholders and have not become enchanted with any one of 15 more or less conventional politicians who are running. Democratic voters support their officeholders with lockstep loyalty and seem untroubled by the serious flaws of their party’s clear frontrunner. This asymmetry helps explain some otherwise puzzling things. One is why polls have continued for several years to show the Republican Party being disliked more than the Democratic Party, even as both parties get roughly the same number of votes. The reason is that while virtually no Democrats express negative feelings about their party, many Republicans do. Those negative feelings don’t, however, prevent Republicans from voting, however grudgingly, for their party’s old-timers in general elections. … The asymmetry between the parties’ voters reflects their different media environments. Talk radio, conservative websites and Fox News bristle with criticism of Republican officeholders and complaints about their squishiness. That helps sustain a critical frame of mind and a sense, particularly outside metropolitan centers, that ordinary people’s concerns are being ignored by a manipulative establishment. In contrast, Democrats, who fancy themselves as critical thinkers, are comfortable consumers of ‘mainstream’ media in which their ‘smelly little orthodoxies’ (George Orwell’s term) are rarely challenged. So supposedly docile Republicans increasingly behave like an unruly mob while supposedly freethinking Democrats keep acting like a regimented army. Curious.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” —Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Upright: “Ladies, open your eyes and hearts. Watch the [Planned Parenthood] videos for yourselves. Get the facts. Unmask the lies. The cackling profiteers of Planned Parenthood don’t care about your breasts. They’re too busy putting price tags on the baby hearts, livers, lungs and limbs swirling around in bloody pie plates, stacked in their ‘research’ labs, subsidized with your tax dollars and sold to the highest bidders. For ‘preventative care,’ of course.” —Michelle Malkin

The BIG Lie: “[T]here’s reason to think that this is merely the tried and true tactic that we have seen from extremists on the Right: To edit this video and selectively release it so that it grossly distorts the position of the person who is actually speaking on the video. Planned Parenthood has indicated that’s what has occurred here.” —Planned Parenthood Obama spokesman Josh Earnest

Braying Jenny: “I am impatient and I sometimes come across as impatient, which is not always attractive, and [I] get really frustrated with people who don’t understand what I think it’s going to take to make our country great tomorrow just like we were yesterday.” —Hillary Clinton on her greatest weakness, which, evidently, is Americans opposed to her being president

Non Compos Mentis: “I’m confident because of the nature of the [Iran] agreement. This is a diplomatic masterpiece.” —Nancy Pelosi

Late-night humor: “A recent study shows that standing at work for long periods of time is bad for you, after earlier research indicated that sitting for too long at work is bad for you. So really the only thing we know is, work is bad for you.” —Jimmy Fallon

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.

“The Patriot Post (http://patriotpost.us/subscribe/ )”



July 30, 2015
CLIFF KINCAID — Time magazine is out with a colorful and glossy “Inside the New Cuba” special edition, featuring smiling Cuban kids wearing Communist garb on the cover. Page 64 has a photo showing “Cuban fans” holding up “their national flag” at a baseball game. It turns out that the really happy Cubans are those who have been defecting from the island “paradise,” as Time magazine calls the prison camp country… (more)

July 30, 2015
LEO HOHMANN — Secretary of State John Kerry testified on Capitol Hill Wednesday that the U.S. government will not be revealing to the American people the contents of “secret side deals” made with Iran on its nuclear enrichment program…. (more)


July 30, 2015
NEWSMAX — Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz has doubled-down on his biting criticism of a nuclear pact with Iran, reiterating his charge that if the deal is enacted, it will give Iran a $50 billion signing bonus that Tehran will use to fund terrorism…. (more)

July 30, 2015
GREG COROMBOS — Congressional Republicans are headed toward summer recess in turmoil, and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says it’s because Republican leaders are acting like big-spending liberals and conservatives have had enough of it…. (more)

July 30, 2015
WASHINGTON TIMES — House Speaker John A. Boehner shrugged off an attempted conservative coup Wednesday, calling it “no big deal,” but the rebellion threatens to drown out Republicans’ message during Congress’ upcoming summer vacation and could stymy GOP plans for a big finish for 2015…. (more)

July 30, 2015
JOSEPH FARAH — Could the aborted baby parts tapes actually be the undoing of Planned Parenthood, one of the very institutional foundations of the modern “progressive” movement? Could they actually inflict real damage to other “progressive” movements, institutions, parties and politicians?… (more)

July 29, 2015
WASHINGTON FREE BEACON — President Obama told the African Union Tuesday that he felt he had been a “pretty good” president and if he were allowed to run for a third term, he’d probably be victorious. Obama made the remarks while criticizing leaders on the continent who wouldn’t step aside at the conclusion of their terms…. (more)


July 29, 2015
WASHINGTON TIMES — Tea party champion Rep. Mark Meadows filed a motion Tuesday to oust House Speaker John A. Boehner from his leadership post, escalating the feud between a faction of conservative lawmakers and the Republican leadership…. (more)


July 29, 2015
NATIONAL REVIEW — Two encouraging signs from CNN this morning… First, check out these poll numbers on the Iran deal: “Most say they would like to see Congress reject it. Overall, 52 percent say Congress should reject the deal, 44 percent say it should be approved.”… (more)

July 29, 2015
NEWSMAX — A decision by the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay leaders was met with indignation by the largest U.S. Protestant group on Tuesday along with criticism from a leading gay rights group that the move did not go far enough…. (more)


July 29, 2015
WASHINGTON TIMES — A third undercover video sparked new outrage Tuesday by following the money behind the fetal-organ supply chain, starting with Planned Parenthood, and prompting GOP presidential candidates to raise the pressure on the group’s federal and corporate funding…. (more)


July 29, 2015
BOB UNRUH — Commissioners in Rowan County, North Carolina, have gone to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to preserve their tradition of opening meetings with prayer, citing a U.S. Supreme Court decision in a similar case that affirmed the practice…. (more)

July 29, 2015
BILL FEDERER — “Americans combine…Christianity and…liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other” – – Tocqueville Alexis de Tocqueville was born July 29, 1805…. (more)

July 29, 2015
WASHINGTON TIMES — The IRS sent one of its intrusive scrutiny letters to a nonprofit group in order to throw up a smokescreen and prevent the group from complaining to Congress about poor treatment, according to one of Lois G. Lerner’s apparently lost emails, which were recovered by auditors and released by an interest group Tuesday…. (more)

July 29, 2015
NEWSMAX — Last summer, Dr. William Thompson, a senior epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control, admitted that he had helped the CDC hide data from a study which linked the MMR vaccine to autism. Holistic doctor David Brownstein tells Newsmax Health the CDC is still not owning up to Dr. Thompson’s charges that they found data that links the vaccine to a spike in autism. “The CDC is still not coming clean,” Dr. Brownstein says. “They want to keep it quiet, but it’s time the cover-up ended.”… (more)


July 28, 2015
WASHINGTON TIMES — Leaders of Boy Scouts of America voted – – and ratified – – a proposal to change its adult membership policy to admit gay and lesbian adults as leaders, employees and volunteers…. (more)

July 28, 2015
WEEKLY STANDARD — Asked directly by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer whether she would vote to support President Obama’s Iran deal, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz demurred, saying: “I am in the middle of really reviewing it and looking at all of the moving parts to the Iran deal… (more)

July 28, 2015
BREITBART — The Iran deal will provide Iran with a cash windfall as sanctions are eased and assets are unfrozen. The total amount is estimated to be as high as $150 billion. If so, the Iran deal would give more cash to Iran than the $124.3 billion U.S. has given in total aid to Israel since 1948…. (more)

July 28, 2015
NEWSMAX — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Monday refused to back down from his comments comparing the Iran nuclear deal to the Holocaust, even as some of his former co-workers at Fox News Channel chided him over it…. (more)


July 28, 2015
WASHINGTON TIMES — The Obama administration is pushing to ban Social Security beneficiaries from owning guns if they lack the mental capacity to manage their own disability payments – – a move the NRA is calling the “largest gun grab in American history.”… (more)


July 28, 2015
NEWSMAX — Donald Trump’s poll numbers are continuing to climb “because the people of this country are understandably fed up” with Republican leaders who don’t stand up for conservative principles, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said Monday…. (more)


July 28, 2015
NEWSMAX — House Speaker John Boehner has failed to advance conservative policies and allowed President Barack Obama to drive the agenda and, therefore, must be driven from his position of power, Citizens United President David Bossie writes in an op-ed on Breitbart.com…. (more)

July 28, 2015
GARTH KANT — Just days after publicly calling the majority leader a liar on the Senate floor, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has upped the stakes in his war on GOP brass by accusing Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., of spearheading the effort to keep taxpayer funds going to Planned Parenthood…. (more)


July 28, 2015
BOB UNRUH — Even as public horror over the abortion industry surges in reaction to videos revealing Planned Parenthood executives negotiating the prices of the body parts of unborn babies, another development is emerging that could impact abortion in a much more fundamental way…. (more)

 


Liberals Silent As It’s Shown The #1 Killer Of Blacks In America Is Planned Parenthood

Margaret Sanger’s “Negro Project” is alive and well, with over 76% of all Planned Parenthood facilities located in the poorest, inner-city neighborhoods where there is a large black population.

“Colored people are like human weeds and are to be exterminated.”  – Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood

“The most obvious practitioner of racism in the United States today is Planned Parenthood, an organization founded by the eugenicist Margaret Sanger and recently documented as ready to accept money to eliminate black babies” – Dr. Alveda King

On average, 1,876 black babies are aborted in abortion mills across America every day, with the majority of those abortions being performed by Planned Parenthood. It has been estimated that since 1973 black women have had about 16 million abortions. Current black population in the US is about 36 million, so the missing 16 million black babies means that without abortion, the black population would be 36% larger than what it is today.

planned-parenthood-targets-black-babies-margaret-sanger-kkk

Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in America. 78% of their clinics are in minority communities. Blacks make up 12% of the population, but 35% of the abortions in America. Are we being targeted? Isn’t that genocide?

Did you know that the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was a devout racist who created the Negro Project designed to sterilize unknowing black women and others she deemed as undesirables of society? The founder of Planned Parenthood said, “Colored people are like human weeds and are to be exterminated.” Is her vision being fulfilled today? Sure looks like it is.

Margaret Sanger creates “The Negro Project”

In 1926, Sanger spoke at a meeting hosted by the women’s auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan in Silver Lake, New Jersey. Following the invitation, Sanger describes her elation after receiving multiple speaking requests from white supremacy groups. She writes of the experience on page 366 of her book, An Autobiography:

“I accepted an invitation to talk to the women’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan … I saw through the door dim figures parading with banners and illuminated crosses … I was escorted to the platform, was introduced, and began to speak … In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered.”

Like Adolf Hitler, Sanger believed strongly in a master race of humans, a white master race of genetically-superior humans to rule the planet. And the means by which this would accomplish is called Eugenics, the science of “weeding out” the inferior to  make room for the superior. Eugenics is just a fancy word for genocide. About this, Sanger said this:

“By all means, there should be no children when either mother or father suffers from such diseases as tuberculosis, gonorrhea, syphilis, cancer, epilepsy, insanity, drunkenness and mental disorders. In the case of the mother, heart disease, kidney trouble and pelvic deformities are also a serious bar to childbearing No more children should be born when the parents, though healthy themselves, find that their children are physically or mentally defective.” (“Woman and the New Race,” 1920, Chapter 7).

The Negro Project was initiated in 1939 by Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. It was a collaborative effort between the American Birth Control League and Sanger’s Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau. Her goal was to greatly reduce the growing population of black babies through birth control, sterilization and abortion. In her book, “The Pivot Of Civilization“, Sanger wrote that blacks were “…human weeds, reckless breeders, spawning… human beings who never should have been born.”

Sanger realized her need to cover her bases lest people got wise to what her true intentions were, and wrote this in 1939:

“It seems to me from my experience…that while the colored Negroes have great respect for white doctors they can get closer to their own members and more or less lay their cards on the table which means their ignorance, superstitions and doubts. We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” Letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, December 10, 1939 (read the whole letter here)

We invite you to Google for yourself the incredible and shocking true history of the racist organization known as Planned Parenthood. Margaret Sanger’s “Negro Project” is alive and well, with over 76% of all Planned Parenthood facilities located in the poorest, inner-city neighborhoods where there is a large black population. Everything reported in this article is verifiable truth, but it is only a meager percentage of the truth about the sinister roots of the racist, baby-killing organization known as Planned Parenthood.

‘Exorcism’ at public park caught on camera

Posted: 31 Jul 2015 05:46 AM PDT

Witnesses say three people performed an exorcism at a public park in Texas on Thursday morning. “They start getting louder and louder,” witness Sherri Jackson said. “She was on the ground and they were standing over her with hands on her and screaming ‘Satan, I demand that you depart,’ and it went on and on.

 

KMOV.com
It was very bizarre.” Jackson says she normally starts her day at the park, called Memorial Gardens, with a perusal of the Bible and a quick prayer, but this day was just a little different.“No Bible was read, no prayer, because it got a little too crazy,” she said. Eyewitnesses who were at the park during the incident say the three were originally sitting on a bench, but they eventually moved to the ground in front of a pond. “Jesus can heal anybody but it’s just not something you expect to see at the duck pond, but I’m glad to know everybody’s OK,” Jackson said. MORE

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Secret NSA map shows China cyber attacks on U.S. targets

Posted: 31 Jul 2015 05:41 AM PDT

A secret NSA map obtained exclusively by NBC News shows the Chinese government’s massive cyber assault on all sectors of the U.S economy, including major firms like Google and Lockheed Martin, as well as the U.S. government and military. The map uses red dots to mark more than 600 corporate, private or government “Victims of Chinese Cyber Espionage” that were attacked over a five-year period, with clusters in America’s industrial centers. The entire Northeast Corridor from Washington to Boston is blanketed in red, as is California’s Silicon Valley, with other concentrations in Dallas, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, L.A. and Detroit.

The highest number of attacks was in California, which had almost 50.Each dot represents a successful Chinese attempt to steal corporate and military secrets and data about America’s critical infrastructure, particularly the electrical power and telecommunications and internet backbone. And the prizes that China pilfered during its “intrusions” included everything from specifications for hybrid cars to formulas for pharmaceutical products to details about U.S. military and civilian air traffic control systems, according to intelligence sources. MORE

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Iran city hits suffocating heat index of 154 degrees, near world record

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 08:43 PM PDT

Wherever you live or happen to travel to, never complain about the heat and humidity again. In the city of Bandar Mahshahr (population of about 110,000 as of 2010), the air felt like a searing 154 degrees (67.8 Celsius) today, factoring in the humidity. Its actual air temperature was 109 degrees (42.8 Celsius) with an astonishing dew point temperature of 90 (32.2 Celsius).

(If you use NOAA’s calculator, that actually computes to a heat index of 159 degrees). Bandar Mahshahr sits adjacent to the Persian Gulf in southwest Iran where water temperatures are in the 90s. Such high temperatures lead to some of the most oppressive humidity levels in the world when winds blow off the water. MORE

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Israel’s Dead Sea Is Disappearing At A Shockingly Fast Rate

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 05:35 PM PDT

THE SURFACE AND SHORES OF THE DEAD SEA ARE 1,388 FT BELOW SEA LEVEL, MAKING IT LITERALLY THE LOWEST POINT ON EARTH

“All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.” Genesis 14:3 

Roads, caravans and power lines are being swallowed up by giant sinkholes appearing at a rapid rate because the Dead Sea is shrinking from Israeli shores in a man-made phenomenon. Hundreds of sinkholes, some the size of a basketball court and some two storeys deep, are wreaking havoc by devouring land where the shoreline once stood.

A neglected grove of date palms line a section of a two-lane desert road – a main north-south artery that cuts through Israel and the Palestinian West Bank – that was shut down six months ago when a gaping hole opened up beneath the asphalt. Workers had stopped tending the date grove, fearing the earth might swallow them up. Once a rarity, hundreds of new sinkholes are appearing every year, and the rate is expected to rise.

Officials have not come up with a figure for the extent of the damage, but power lines have been downed and caravans and bungalows swallowed. On at least one occasion, hikers were injured falling into one of the pits. MORE

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UN: Gov’t Must Control Private Schools Because of “Human Rights”

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 04:25 PM PDT

The United Nations wants its member states, mostly dictatorships and repressive regimes, to clamp down hard on educational freedom under the guise of “human rights.” Concerned that students in private schools around the world are not receiving sufficient doses of globalist indoctrination prescribed by various global agreements, the dictator-dominated UN “Human Rights Council” passed aresolution this month calling on governments worldwide to “monitor” and “regulate” non-government education. Governments and dictators should also impose “standards” on private schools, the UN bureaucrats and government representatives said in the deeply controversial document.

Incredibly, the resolution even speaks of “protecting education from commercialization.” What it really means, of course, is protecting government-run monopoly “education” from competition by superior providers. After all, why would parents spend money on a private school if the tax-funded “education” provided by government was just as good or better? Obviously they would not. So what the UN pseudo-human rights bureaucracy is really saying is governments must prevent parents from choosing better alternatives. Of course, following the prescriptions outlined by Karl Marx, some members of the UN body actually ban any forms of non-government-run education already. MORE

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University of New Hampshire: Using the Word “American” is Offensive

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 01:28 PM PDT

Using the words “American,” “obese,” “normal,” “mothering,” “fathering,” “homosexual,” “illegal alien,” and “senior citizens,” is offensive and should be discouraged, according to a “Bias-Free Language Guide” posted on the University of New Hampshire website. The guide, first uncovered by Campus Reform, “is meant to invite inclusive excellence in [the] campus community.” The word “American” is “problematic” according to the guide because it “assumes the U.S. is the only country inside [the continents of North and South America].” Calling people “illegal aliens” is also politically incorrect, with the preferred term for undocumented immigrants being “person seeking asylum,” or “refugee,” while the word “foreigner” is discouraged and replaced with “international people.” More banned words and phrases include;

– “Caucasian (replaced with “European-American individuals”);

– “Mothering” and “fathering” (replaced with “parenting” and “nurturing” so as to “avoid gendering a non-gendered activity”);

– “Homosexual” (replaced with “gay,” “lesbian,” “same gender loving”);

– “Obese” or “overweight” (replaced with “people of size”);

– Saying a person is “poor” (replaced with “person who lacks advantages that others have”);

– Saying the word “healthy” because it’s offensive to disabled people, who can’t be called disabled, they must be called a “person who is wheelchair mobile”). MORE

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Iran to build 4 reactors within a decade

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 01:23 PM PDT

Iran intends to construct at least four new nuclear plants in the country within a decade, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said on Tuesday.Ali Akbar Salehi briefed the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee on the details of the nuclear deal reached with the P5+1 on July 14, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

According to committee spokesman Nozar Shafi’i, Salehi said that Iran needed to find new sources of natural uranium and has already surveyed 60 percent of the country to that end, Iran’s Arabic al-Alam news service reported on Wednesday.Salehi also praised the agreement signed with the superpowers for enabling Iran to develop its “peaceful” technological capabilities in ways that were previously impossible. MORE

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Iran says will ban US experts from UN nuclear inspections

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 01:18 PM PDT

Iran will not allow American or Canadian inspectors working for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to visit its nuclear facilities, an official said in remarks broadcast by state TV on Thursday. Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran will only allow inspectors from countries that have diplomatic relations with it. The previously undisclosed remarks were made during a Sunday meeting with parliamentarians.

“American and Canadian inspectors cannot be sent to Iran,” said Araghchi. “It is mentioned in the deal that inspectors should be from countries that have diplomatic relations with Islamic republic of Iran.” He also said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency will not have access to “sensitive and military documents.” Iran and world powers reached a historical deal earlier this month aimed at curbing Tehran’s disputed nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. Western nations have long suspected Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons alongside its civilian atomic program, allegations denied by Tehran, which insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful. MORE

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Russia and China are building hypersonic missiles and it’s ‘complicating’ things for the US

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 01:07 PM PDT

China and Russia are developing maneuvering high-speed strike vehicles that pose new threats to the United States, U.S. Strategic Command leaders said Wednesday. Adm. Cecil D. Haney, Strategic Command’s (Stratcom) senior leader, said during remarks at a nuclear deterrence conference that despite arms control efforts, hypersonic weapons are among several threatening strategic trends emerging in the world.

China has conducted four flight tests of a 7,000 mile-per-hour maneuvering strike vehicle, and Russia is developing high-speed weapons and reportedly tested a hypersonic weapon in February. “Nation states continue to develop and modernize their nuclear weapon capabilities,” Haney said. “Nuclear and non-nuclear nations are prepared to employ cyber, counter-space, and asymmetric capabilities as options for achieving their objectives during crisis and conflict, and new technologies such as hypersonic glide vehicles are being developed, complicating our sensing and defensive approaches.” MORE

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Plagues of Locusts Darken Skies, Threaten Crops in Southern Russia

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 12:56 PM PDT

Plagues of locusts are swarming large areas of southern Russia, threatening thousands of acres of crops and in some places darkening the skies. A video shot by a local man in Achikulak, a village in the Stavropol region, shows thousands of the bugs swarming towards a church. Other videos, screened by local TV channels, showed clouds of locusts flying overhead. “It was very frightening,” Lubov Timus, a local woman who lives in Achikulak, told ABC News. “Some were as big as your finger! They came like a clouds.”

The waves of locusts began around July 20, according to Stavropol’s regional agricultural ministry. Vasilii Yegorov, a deputy agricultural minister, told ABC News that locusts appear in the region every year but normally they are able to exterminate them before they hatch. This year though, Yegorov said, locusts had migrated from neighboring Russian regions, meaning authorities were unable to halt them easily, threatening what is one of Russia’s major farming areas. MORE

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The Sanctuary Scandal

 
Donald Trump’s unorthodox campaign has performed a public service by shining the national spotlight on the problem of “sanctuary cities” which shelter illegal aliens from deportation. The tragedy of Kate Steinle, who died in the arms of her father after being shot by an illegal alien, is that her death was preventable, yet officials have defiantly defended their sanctuary policies. It wasn’t only the City and County of San Francisco that released the seven-times-convicted, five-times-deported Mexican who killed Kate Steinle; Obama’s ICE let him go, too. ICE has released many thousands of…
 

Christian Headlines Daily – Friday, July 31, 2015

http://www.christianheadlines.com/

Top Headlines

Did Gov. Bobby Jindal Censor Westboro Baptist’s Free Speech?

Wheaton College Ends Student Health Coverage over Birth Control Objections

Pentecostal Snake Handler Dies after Being Bitten in Church

Police Complicit in Attack on Christians in West Delhi, India

Oklahoma Supreme Court Says Ten Commandment Monument Must Go

Christian Mother of 3 Kidnapped, Forced into ‘Islamic Marriage’

Candace Cameron Bure Shares How She Stayed Sane in Hollywood

Court Bans Pro-Life Group from Releasing More Planned Parenthood Videos

Chris Brown Hears God Speak, Says He’s Tired of Satan Ruining His Life

No Proof Bob Jones University Violated Sex Crime Reporting Laws

Opinion

Let Cecil the Lion’s Death Shine Light on Zimbabwe’s Human Rights Abuses

Are Gay Rights Now Civil Rights?

17 Books to Read for the Rest of the Summer

Jon Stewart Secretly Visited White House Twice

What is Planned Parenthood Hiding?


Only Two Religions!

I don’t know if you know this but there are only two religions in the entire world.

You might say I’m nuts.  There are hundreds if not thousands!

wearing masksBut there is one religion that likes to put on hundreds if not thousands of different masks on, and so ultimately there are only two: the religion of Human Achievement and the religion of Divine Accomplishment.

You see Islam, Mormonism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Judaism and every single religion that you have ever heard of, ultimately teaches some form of a works-based salvation. They say that you have to be a little more good than bad in order to make it to heaven. These religions encourage you to hand God a resume when you face Him one day. The resume will be filled with all your accomplishments. It will list everything you’ve done for other people, every penny you’ve given to charity and every good deed you’ve done. God will look over this resume and say, “Good job! You’ve made it into heaven”.

The problem is that if you were to enter into heaven because of a resume based on your accomplishments God would get no glory; you would be the one who gets all the praise. In fact, Ephesians 2:9 would say that salvation is not of works lest you patting-self-on-back-1should boast! Genesis chapter one shows us that God created the entire universe including you. Everything He created is designed to bring Him glory. The problem is that sin has entered the world, and from birth we all have replaced exalting God with exalting ourselves. Everything we do from birth is geared towards bringing us glory and bringing praise to ourselves. We all have a throne in our hearts that God should be sitting and reigning on, but instead we are born with ourselves sitting on it. We are so used to it we don’t even notice it to the point where we all think that our resumes are good enough to get us into heaven.

my mom thinks im coolOf course we are going to think that we are good people! Of course my mom is going to tell me I’m a good person! But what does your Creator think? He says in Romans 3:23 that we all have sinned and fall short of His glory. He also says in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. So if we stand before God and start listing accomplishments or hand Him a resume we might as well slap Jesus in the face because God is going to look at the resume and say, “I killed my only Son because you were not good enough to get to me!”

And that’s where the only other religion comes in.

The religion of Divine Accomplishment. God saw your situation, and decided that since man was so sinful and could not save himself, that He would come Himself and take the form of a man. He humbled himself, spent nine months in a womb he created, grew up with every temptation you and I face every day, but without sinning. He then died on the cross for our sins, and then rose from the dead and defeated death. He made it possible for human beings to stand before God one day and not hand Him a resume and condemn themselves further, but rather, tell God that they deserve His wrath but have placed their faith and trust in the work that Jesus did on their behalf on the cross and through His resurrection.

You see we need someone to be a substitute for us because no matter how hard we try, we can never bridge the gap between God and us. And the substitute can’t be merely a human.  It must be God Himself.

Do you see the difference between Christianity and every other religion?

Source


The Greatest Story Ever Told

Greatest StoryGod’s goal in all of His creative and redemptive work is to bring glory to Himself (Isa 43:7; cf. Eph 1:6, 12, 14).

Read more


What is The Gospel?


“My Last Day” — the Jesus Anime

9 powerful minutes of animation that begins with a thief behind bars watching the scourging of Jesus, and it ends with the thief dying next to Jesus, and waking to see Him in a beautiful place.

The dying thief: What was so great about his faith?

There are many acts of extraordinary faith in the Bible. The one that has impressed me the most concerns the dying thief on the cross. We could take the approach that he had nothing to lose, so he decided to cast his lot with Jesus. But this makes absolutely no sense of the text and the context.
In this conversion we have a specific fulfillment of Christ’s first words on the cross. No sooner had Christ spoken the words, “Father, forgive them,” had the Father answered that prayer by turning a once-reviling criminal into a Christ-glorifying saint. While the soon-to-be converted criminal was not directly responsible for Christ’s death, he nevertheless joined with those who were and was thus indirectly addressed when Christ asked for God to forgive “them.”
Christ, the sinless one, was numbered with or counted among the transgressors (Isa. 53:12; Luke 22:37), all of whom have a bigger problem than the day-to-day sins they commit. They hate Christ, the God-man. Anyone who has a master other than the Lord Jesus hates him (Lk. 16:13; Gal. 4:8). That these two criminals loathed him is clearly manifested during the crucifixion: “And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way” (Matt. 27:44).
When the criminal who was converted was doing his worst against Christ, Christ was doing his best for this criminal.
The conversion of the one criminal was most extraordinary and testifies to the power of Christ’s prayer and the grace of God. Why?
This criminal’s faith did not come at a time such as when Christ turned water into wine; or performed miracles, such as walking on water, opening the eyes of a blind man, or raising Lazarus from the dead. No! The criminal believed on the Messiah while he was hanging as one cursed upon a tree. The criminal trusted in and boldly defended the one whose disciples had abandoned him. Jesus was at his lowest when this criminal asked to be remembered in Christ’s kingdom.
When he was on the cross, did anyone publicly cry out, as John the Baptist did, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29)? But this is essentially what the dying thief did. Little wonder, then, that Christ should promise him a place in his kingdom: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:43).
The criminal acknowledged he was guilty; he acknowledged that Christ was not (“this man has done nothing wrong”); he feared God; but, and here is the key: the criminal did not merely want to be in a better place. He wanted to be with Christ in a better place: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk. 23:42). The criminal believed “against all hope”.
Heaven is a better place because that is where Christ is. Everyone wants to go to heaven, but not everyone wants to go to Christ’s heaven. Not so with this criminal: he saw, with his eyes, Christ at his worst; but with the eyes of faith, he believed that Christ would soon be at his best, and so put his faith in a dying king.
Christ is always – always! – willing to save even the most miserable of sinners. A recognition of guilt (Lk. 23:40) and a confidence in him and not ourselves (Lk. 23:42) will always lead to the most assuring truth a sinner can receive: the Savior welcomes such into his paradise!
“One is saved, and we may not despair; the other is lost, and we may not presume.” Spurgeon
Source


Our Time is Short

Read: Recommitting Your Life To God and Jesus Christ – Restoration and Forgiveness With God and Jesus Christ (Updated Version)


Ready to start your new life with God?

Who do you think that I am?

With that brief question Jesus Christ confronted His followers with the most important issue they would ever face. He had spent much time with them and made some bold claims about His identity and authority. Now the time had come for them either to believe or deny His teachings.

Who do you say Jesus is? Your response to Him will determine not only your values and lifestyle, but your eternal destiny as well.

Consider what the Bible says about Him: Read more


Look to Jesus
Have you ever felt a little lost and wished there was a quick-start guide to your relationship with God? This is it!

30 Day Next Steps
John Beckett, a leading Christian businessman, has written a series to read over 30 days for new believers.

New Believers Guide
The New Believer’s Guide is a series of articles designed to show you how to walk in the new life Christ has given you— a life of faith and freedom.

Jesus Booklet
Jesus is the Savior of the world. Discover who Jesus is today in this series.

About Christianity
Know Jesus Christ and your life will be transformed


Truth2Freedom Blog Disclaimer

This post was originally posted on:

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(Alternative News, Apologetics, Current Events, Commentary, Opinion, Theology, Discernment Blog, Devotionals, Christian Internet Evangelism & Missions Activist).

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July 31, 2015 Truth2Freedom Daily Christian Blog/Article Collection

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Cecil the Lion

But in the grand scheme of wickedness, the death of a lion – even a lion called Cecil — barely registers on the most sensitive Richter scale.  The pathetic tears of a Kimmel and the predictable verbal violence of the hashtag wielding rent-a-mobs of the internet merely witness to the complete lack of any real moral compass and proportion in modern society.  It no doubt makes them all feel good and righteous to stand up for a lion.

Read more


It’s Not Dixie’s Fault

These crude regional stereotypes ignore the deep roots such social ills have in our shared national history and culture. If, somehow, the South became its own country, the Northeast would still be a hub of racially segregated housing and schooling, the West would still be a bastion of prejudicial laws that put immigrants and black residents behind bars at higher rates than their white neighbors and the Midwest would still be full of urban neighborhoods devastated by unemployment, poverty and crime. How our social problems manifest regionally is a matter of degree, not kind — they infect every region of the country.

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How Reading Can Transform Your Health

Grothaus’s life was in a rut…until he read War and Peace. Its 1500 pages took him two months to conquer and immediately became his favorite book because of how it changed him. “It’s  almost impossible to explain why,” he says “but after reading it I felt more confident in myself, less uncertain about my future…As weird as it sounds, reading War and Peace put me back in control of my life—and that’s why it’s my favorite book.”

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Now is the Time For Outrage

For my more progressive fellow pastors, now is not the time for missional quietude over abortion. Now is the time for outrage. Now is the time for public disgust. Slavery would never have been abolished through missional conversations. Public outrage was necessary to bring the whole sinful enterprise crashing down. The same public outrage must be brought to bear on abortion. If it will help, perhaps you can imagine that Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, is a fan of Dukes of Hazzard and refuses to drink fair trade coffee.

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Are We Called to Preach the Gospel or Preach the Word?

We, too, live in a time when certain churches and certain movements are strongly emphasizing being Gospel-centered and emphasizing that pastors need to clearly preach the Gospel every Sunday. Now, I am fully in favor of being Gospel-centered, and I hope and pray that I do preach the Gospel every Lord’s Day morning. But that’s not the same thing as having every sermon be a “Gospel sermon” or a completely evangelistic sermon or basically the same sermon in different packaging.

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The Brave New World of Childhood Indoctrination

Although Jennings often frames her style as “helping them understand a different point of view exists,” “setting up conversations,” and “modelling non-judgmental thinking,” she authoritatively interjects into her students’ conversations establishing what is right and wrong. She does this despite her “work to help children understand that just because someone thinks something different from you, it’s not a reason to be mean or dominate the conversation, but a chance to expand on what you know.” Perhaps she should take a turn listening to the wisdom of four-year-olds.

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Wheaton College Refuses to Bow to Caesar’s Demands

It is indeed regrettable that some students will be without health insurance coverage. And some students and alumni are already blaming the school. But the loss of the health insurance is the fault of the Obama administration, not the administration at Wheaton. The college has repeatedly asked for a compromise that would not require them to violate their religious beliefs—and the federal government has repeatedly refused to concede to such a reasonable request.

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More Horror from the Planned Parenthood Death Cult

With the fourth undercover video now out on Planned Parenthood and it despicable trade in baby parts, and ten American state investigations and three federal congressional investigations underway, this whole appalling episode is certainly heating up.

All up there are supposed to be twelve such videos that will be released. Given that I have now penned four articles on the first four videos, I will likely have another eight articles at least to come. And why not? This is the story of the decade.

But you wouldn’t know it by the mainstream media coverage – or lack thereof. They are avoiding the most explosive and morally significant story in years. Because the MSM is overwhelmingly secular left and pro-abortion, all we get from them is crickets chirping.

As one alternative media site writes:

America’s anchors have spoken: the shooting of one lion vastly outweighs the trafficking of baby parts by a taxpayer-funded abortion giant. In other words, the broadcast news shows spent more time in one day on Cecil the Lion than they did on the Planned Parenthood videos in two weeks.
The three broadcast networks, ABC, NBC and CBS censored the third video released Tuesday by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) exposing Planned Parenthood’s practice of harvesting aborted baby parts — censored it at Planned Parenthood’s urging. But the news shows did find more than 14 minutes for a more important story: the “outrage” over the shooting of Cecil, a famed African lion, by an American dentist.

It seem that the only way we will get some coverage here is if PP kills baby lions and harvests and sells their parts for profit. If the MSM refuses to cover the far more important story, then I will keep on speaking out about this. And the fourth video is another real doozey.

One write-up puts it this way:

Workers in a lab are seen sorting through body parts on a dish: a heart, stomach, kidney, and legs.
And then a medical assistant suddenly announces: “It’s another boy!”
This is just a little of the macabre and heart-wrenching footage in the newest undercover video showing alleged harvesting and sale of body parts from aborted babies by Planned Parenthood, released Thursday morning.
Workers in a lab are seen sorting through body parts on a dish: a heart, stomach, kidney, and legs.
And then a medical assistant suddenly announces: “It’s another boy!”
This is just a little of the macabre and heart-wrenching footage in the newest undercover video showing alleged harvesting and sale of body parts from aborted babies by Planned Parenthood, released Thursday morning.
The newest video also shows a Planned Parenthood medical director negotiating a fetal body parts deal while agreeing to prices for harvested parts, and suggesting ways to avoid legal consequences.
“For anyone with a conscience, the video’s entire fetal organ scene is wrenching — to the gut as well as the heart. It hearkens us back to the days of Joseph Mengele or Kermit Gosnell, who both coldly killed and dissected children without remorse,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, in a press release.
The video takes the viewer into Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, where Vice President and Medical Director Dr. Savita Ginde discusses with actors posing as representatives from a human biologics company a potential partnership to harvest fetal organs.

Mollie Hemingway discusses “8 Shocking Moments From 4th Planned Parenthood Video”. Let me offer just a few of them:

1) While Planned Parenthood’s public relations campaign resorts to euphemisms about “fetal tissue,” Planned Parenthood officials such as Ginde speak more clearly about the organs they harvest from aborted children. Here Ginde talks about organs, including “the whole brain” coming out as abortive waste.
2) Right after Ginde talks about women delivering their children before abortion procedures, she adds, “um, but that’s not what we go for. We try for that not to happen.”

She offers a portion of the video with each of her points – well worth watching (see link below). As I keep saying, this is a story that keeps on giving. If the first four videos alone are not enough to forever close the doors of this death cult, then we are no better than Germany in the 30s and 40s.

A note to Christians (and lion lovers)

One of the more incredible things to emerge from all this is the fact that many people claiming to be Christians who never say anything about the mass murder of millions of human babies are now going ballistic – and very public – about the killing of one lion. I discuss the Cecil story here: http://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/07/30/laws-lions-and-lunacy/

I have already had to debate some of these folks. Once again emotional kneejerk reactions seem to characterise their stances. If they had actually read my piece they would have seen that I certainly did not defend the lion-killer’s actions. My aim there was simply to point out the gross hypocrisy and double standards being employed.

The simple truth is, anyone who claims to be a Christian must recognise differing values in life. Jesus himself made this perfectly clear in Matthew 10:29-31: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

So yes we are to be good stewards of planet earth and care for all life, but not all life is equal – human life is simply of greater value according to God. So that will of necessity be my stance as well. But let me offer a few more remarks about these two stories. One wit put it this way:

If I were advising Walter Palmer, I would encourage him to say that, as a dentist, he provides vital oral healthcare to hundreds of men, women, and children in his community, and that lion killing amounts to less than 3% of what he does. Then he could accuse all those who’re attacking him of taking oral healthcare away from people.
Hey, it’s good enough for ‪#‎PlannedParenthood‬. ‪#‎CecilTheLion‬.

R.C. Sproul Jr. had this to say: “This just in – Planned Parenthood Regains Public Favor By Refusing to Sell Parts of Cecil the Lion. ‘We have standards’.” And Matt Walsh discussed these two events in some detail. He says this:

The fact remains that many in our society are descending like a pack of frenzied hyenas upon a man who shot a lion, yet feel no anger when confronted with the murder of children. And abortion isn’t the only evil accepted or celebrated by progressivism. We are living in a culture of death where cruelty and brutality reign supreme. The reaction to this “scandal” only further reveals and illuminates that cruelty. We think nothing of trying to destroy a man, ruin his life, and wish for his painful demise, without knowing anything else about him. We are so numb, so indifferent, that we will rip a stranger to pieces, cannibalize him publicly, tear him down until there is nothing left, and then sleep like babies at night.
Yet, the lion. Kill the children if you want. Destroy the dentist just for fun. Demean and degrade anyone who acts or thinks differently, if for no other reason than there’s not much else to do. But a dead lion — now there’s a victim we should mourn….
No society can ever be explicitly nihilist. As in, no society can outwardly live by the philosophy that everything is meaningless and nothing matters. Individuals can try it, but like Nietzsche they’ll end up in a mental institution, babbling to themselves while eating their own excrement. Societies, though, have to at least pretend they believe in doing the right thing. A society must convince itself it hates evil and loves goodness. Even the Nazis rationalized that they were serving the greater good of mankind.
So when our culture decides to sit back and tolerate, or even revere and commend, perverse evils like abortion, pornography, the breakdown of the family, the persecution of Christians, etc., it begins to accumulate a kind of Outrage Reservoir. Deep down, we must feel like we oppose evil. We can’t laud the most insidious atrocities of our time, and then look in the mirror and face ourselves honestly. The righteous anger that should be poured out in response to these true horrors is bottled and contained, clogging up our souls like constipated bowels.
We search desperately for an acceptable target for our surplus of withheld scorn, and when we locate it, we unload like we just chugged a gallon of laxative. Suddenly, some guy who killed a lion in Zimbabwe receives all of the compiled disdain that should have been discharged on the abortionists and the pornographers and the persecutors. Our pent up rage and anger mixes with guilt and self-loathing, and together it creates this concentrated bile that drowns and destroys whatever tragic chump they throw before us to be devoured. It’s nothing personal against him, really. Walter Palmer is a sacrificial lamb. A punching bag, strung up and dangled in front of progressive America as a way for them to release their moral frustrations. He’s an object. A receptacle for their misdirected vengeance. It’s like self-flagellation, only minus the self. And next week they’ll be flagellating some other patsy, and nobody will even remember or care about poor old Walter Palmer.
A year from now, someone will do a follow up story about that villainous dentist from long ago, and we’ll all think, “Oh yeah, whatever happened to that guy?” Then we’ll see that he lost his business, his family, and his dignity, and now lives as a sad shell of a forgotten man. “Serves him right for doing whatever he did,” we’ll say proudly, as we get back to feasting upon the newest Scoundrel Du Jour. It’s a never ending pattern, played out over and over again by a progressive culture filled with craven wimps, always compensating for their moral failings by tearing down false Satans, too afraid to do battle with the real one.

Exactly so. When the death of a lion get us far more upset than the mass slaughter of human babies then you know we have lost our moral centre and are close to finished as a civilisation. I expect pagans to think and emote in this fashion, but when believers do…?

https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/networks-covered-cecil-the-lion-more-in-1-day-than-abortion-videos-in-2-wee?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c9d3dbb39e-LifeSiteNews_com_Intl_Headlines_06_19_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0caba610ac-c9d3dbb39e-326193646
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/its-another-boy-4th-video-shows-planned-parenthood-director-negotiating-fet?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c9d3dbb39e-LifeSiteNews_com_Intl_Headlines_06_19_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0caba610ac-c9d3dbb39e-326193646
http://thefederalist.com/2015/07/30/8-shocking-moments-from-4th-planned-parenthood-video/
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/sometimes-its-just-easier-to-care-about-dead-lions-than-dead-people/


Heidelberg 103: The Christian Sabbath (3)

103. What does God require in the fourth Commandment? In the first place, God wills that the ministry of the Gospel and schools be maintained, and that I, especially on the day of rest, diligently attend church, to learn the Word of God, to use the Holy Sacraments, to call publicly upon the Lord, and […]

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The Left’s War on Science: From ‘Unborn Youth’ to ‘Fetus’


Dear Planned Parenthood Supporter, You Are the Dentist!

 
In 2 Samuel 11, it seemed like everyone was sending someone somewhere. David does some sending (2 Sam 11:3, 6); Joab sends Uriah (2 Sam 11:6) and later a messenger (2 Sam 11:18); even Bathsheba sends people (2 Sam 11:5). But throughout all of this sending in chapter 11, there is someone eerily missing: God. We’re left wondering, “Will God get involved and do some sending of His own?” In chapter 12, we get our answer. God takes over this mess of a situation. He gives David enough time to feel the weight of his sin, and then sends His prophet Nathan to confront David (2 Sam 12:1). He does so by…
 


‘To The Door Of The Oven’ – Hal Lindsey

Was Huckabee out of line when he used the word “oven”? Iran wants to build the most powerful oven in the world. It’s as real as the searing furnace Nebuchadnezzar threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into — and a thousand times hotter. A small number of nuclear bombs could turn a country the size of Israel into an oven, and then a wasteland in a matter of minutes.

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Todd Bentley’s School of Revival?

Beware of false prophets . . .

Welcome to the (as I call it) School of the Unholy, where once again Todd Bentley will present his bells-and-whistles strange fire. In the video he speaks of his experience that was like “a glory liquid honey cloud.”

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Why Millennials Are Turned Off by All This End-Time Talk

If all millennials hear about the future of the church is gloom and doom that’s decaying because of society, how can we expected to join the cause? Just like a flower will not grow if you yell and stomp on it, saying, “Look at all these thorns, you won’t be able to survive these attacks,” you can’t tell this generation of believers that we won’t survive what’s to come.

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9 Reasons People Leave the Church

Once possessing a “favored place at the community table” along with other community leaders, with portfolio and reputation to boot, the church in North America is now hemorrhaging members at an alarming rate.

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Rob Bell returns: His thoughts on creation, modern “Kingdom of God”

Former Mars Hill pastor Rob Bell, who now has his own TV show on the Oprah channel, brought his “Everything is Spiritual” tour to Grand Rapids. During his one man show, Bell offered his convoluted version of the creation story, which of course has nothing to do with what the Bible teaches on creation. No […]

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Todd Bentley’s School of Revival?

John Lanagan of My Word Like Fire reports that false prophet Todd Bentley is up to his old tricks:

Welcome to the (as I call it) School of the Unholy, where once again Todd Bentley will present his bells-and-whistles strange fire. In the video he speaks of his experience that was like “a glory liquid honey cloud.”

http://mywordlikefire.com/2015/07/30/todd-bentleys-school-of-revival/


Rob Bell returns: His thoughts on creation, modern “kingdom of God”

 

Former Mars Hill pastor Rob Bell, who now has his own TV show on the Oprah channel, brought his “Everything is Spiritual” tour to Grand Rapids. During his one man show, Bell offered his convoluted version of the creation story, which of course has nothing to do with what the Bible teaches on creation. No surprise there, as long ago Bell rejected the inerrancy of Scripture and embraced the view of Christianity taught by Emergent Church apostates. During the show, Bell passed on this “truth” to his audience: “You are just a pile of dust and yet you can hope and dream and feel compassion and love. You are crammed full of something called spirit. You are an exotic cocktail of dust, soul, bone and spirit.”

MLive has the report:

“In the beginning,” Rob Bell said, “was a point.” That point of energy went bang and, over some 13 billion years of “ongoing creation,” particles bonded to become more complex atoms, which bonded to become more complex molecules, which bonded to become more complex cells, which bonded to become human beings.

Now, the spiritual inertia of the universe tugs at humankind to sustain that pattern of evolution, Bell said Wednesday, July 29, at The Intersection in downtown Grand Rapids.

“What, my brothers and sisters, is pulling the whole thing forward into greater complexity and depth and unity and inclusion?” Bell asked. “The thing (Jesus) kept talking about was the ‘kingdom of God.’ This is what he was talking about.”

The founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church who moved to California three years ago, Bell came back to Grand Rapids to reprise an “Everything is Spiritual” speaking tour that he first did a decade ago. Talking about atoms rather than the biblical Adam, Bell gave a fast-paced, often comical sketch of the history of the universe, with frequent interjections of pop-culture references to music, movies and dancing Super Bowl sharks.

Dismissing secular and churchy viewpoints, Bell said humanity is hard-wired over billions of years of evolution to progress toward greater equality and unity.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2015/07/what_rob_bell_says_jesus_meant.html/


Nazi Mengele Was An Abortionist

According to the documents released today [February 2, 1992—ed.], Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz death camp doctor known as the “Angel of Death” for his experiments on inmates, practiced medicine in Buenos Aires for several years in the 1950’s. He “had a reputation as a specialist in abortions,” which were illegal. When one young woman died […]

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College Administrators Are Not Kings

One of America’s worst problems today is that people in official positions (university presidents, police officers, and others) think they are above the law and never accountable when they act illegally. The decision in Barnes puts college officials on notice that qualified immunity is not going to shield them against lawsuits if they trample upon […]

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Planned Parenthood on Trial

Like many in the Christian community, I’ve found the recent string of undercover videos revealing the butchering and subsequent selling of aborted babies at Planned Parenthood facilities… troubling, to say the least. As if abortion itself was not enough of an atrocity, now so-called “doctors” are in the business of chopping up the just-murdered babies’ bodies and selling their parts for money. The fact that it’s done in the name of “science” is somehow supposed to excuse it all. On social media, the defenders of Planned Parenthood can only talk about how the practice is “legal,” since the pay they received was only for “reimbursements.”  That’s a highly questionable claim in itself.

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But what the videos reveal is not just disturbing to those of us that are considered “conservative.” Camille Paglia is a self-described “dissident feminist.” She said in a recent interview, “Now I am a former member of Planned Parenthood and a strong supporter of unconstrained reproductive rights.” Translation: she supports abortion on-demand. She continued, “But I was horrified and disgusted by those videos and immediately felt there were serious breaches of medical ethics in the conduct of Planned Parenthood officials.” Now, I’d like to know exactly to what ethics she’s referring, as I have no doubt my ethics differ from hers. But still, at least there is some sense that she sees wrongdoing on the part of Planned Parenthood.

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3 Things Christians Should Consider in Light of Radical Islam


3 Things You Can Learn From New Believers


Should You Choose to Accept This “Mission”?


Are You Broken and Shook Up?


4 Tips for Dealing with Procrastination


Two Bentley Items: Todd Bentley’s School of Revival and Bentley to speak in Sacramento, CA Aug.5-8

Item #1: “Todd Bentley’s School of Revival?” By John Lanagan My Word Like Fire Ministries Welcome to the (as I call it) School of the Unholy, where once again Todd Bentley will present his bells-and-whistles strange fire. In the video he speaks of his experience that was like “a glory liquid honey cloud.” . . . […]

07/31/15 The Walls of Our Sin

READING: Isaiah 59-63

TEXTS AND APPLICATION: Many believers struggle with prayer, perhaps because they’ve often prayed prayers that remained unanswered. Isaiah 59 gives us one clearly stated reason for God’s unwillingness to answer our prayers: our sin.

Isa. 59:1-2  Indeed, the Lord’s hand is not too short to save, and His ear is not too deaf to hear. But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that He does not listen.

Don’t miss what Isaiah says. The problem is not that God cannot save or hear. Instead, our sin has built a barrier in our relationship with God.

Read the verse again: “your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that He does not listen.” Those words remind us that our sin matters.  When we live in unrepentant sin, God chooses to hide His face from us and does not listen to our prayers.

I think about so many believers and churches in the world that seek God’s answers to prayer, but they do so without first addressing sin issues in their own lives. They fail to see that the apparent “wall” in front of God that seems to keep Him from answering our prayers is actually the wall of our sin. God does not listen to our prayers because we do not listen to Him.

What sins in your life render your prayers useless right now?

If you want God to hear and respond to your prayers, tear down the wall of your sin. He stands ready to hear your prayers of confession and repentance — and He then will stand more ready to hear the rest of your prayers.

PRAYER: Ask God to reveal to you and me any sin that hinders our prayers today. Let Him weaken our love for our sin and then dislodge it from our heart. May our lips resound with words of repentance this day.


Bible, Bricks and How God Uses Symbols Throughout the Scripture

The post Bible, Bricks and How God Uses Symbols Throughout the Scripture appeared first on ChurchLeaders.com.


Community without Judgment(alism)

Screen Shot 2015-06-03 at 6.59.49 PMChurch refugees — those active former church folks — are sometimes called the Dones. They are done with church but not with their faith, not with Christianity, not with God, and not with Jesus. They are Done with church (as they have experienced it).

Why? The number one reason traced and mapped by Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope (Church Refugees) is that the place where they found and wanted and needed community became a place of judgment rather than affirmation and love. The Dones left because they want community without judgmentalism. (Read on.)


From Slow of Heart to Burning Hearts

Seasons of spiritual dryness can be alarming, exhausting, even downright awful and heart-wrenching. I’ve had days, months even, when coming to the Word and spending time with the Father has felt like work, and I’ve struggled to feel his presence and love for me. I’ve wondered, God, where have you gone? I feels like you’ve hidden your face.

The seeming silence of God and the lack of obvious, joy-filled, abundant fruit springing forth from reading the Word are trials that most every believer experiences in their lifetime. It feels embarrassing to admit because we as humans like “having it all together”…or, at least, we like putting on the facade that we do.

But these seasons of dryness are worth talking about because we not only glean encouragement from hearing similar stories from other people, we are pushed to remember what is true of God, his gospel, and his holy Word.

You Are Not Alone

In two very significant ways, those of us enduring dry spiritual seasons are not alone.

Firstly, many brothers and sisters of the faith have gone before us in this regard. And many are enduring the dryness alongside us right now.

Be comforted by David’s struggles in the Psalms:

Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1)

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? (Psalm 13:1-2)

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. (Psalm 22:1-2)

Also consider Job, who felt God had deserted him and left him for dead; Joseph, who spent years in a jail cell, probably wondering when God’s purposes for him, as once revealed in his dreams, would come to pass; and the disciples, whose faces were sad and whose hopes were dashed after Jesus was crucified.

Believer, you are not alone in your discouragement! We are accompanied by a long list of Christians who yearned for the assurance that God was indeed present with them, especially during seasons of dryness and doubt. There is comfort in knowing that there is nothing new under the sun; just as God has been faithful to his Church throughout biblical history, so he will show his faithfulness to us. That is a promise.

Secondly, and more importantly, we are not alone because the very presence of Jesus is with us. How do we know that this is true? Where do we find assurance? At the cross. There, God turned his face away from his own Son, rejected him, and poured his judgment upon him — the judgment rightly deserved by you and me. Jesus experienced full and utter abandonment by God on the cross so that believers in Christ would never have to experience his wrath.

Jesus died a lonely death so that we would never have to be alone.

But Jesus did not stop there. Not only did he sacrifice his own blood for the forgiveness of our sins, transferring his perfect righteousness to our record, he then sent his promised Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts, confirming to us that we are indeed beloved, accepted children of the Most High God. The good deposit of our inheritance in heaven, the Spirit is our Counselor, Comforter, and Helper, who ministers to us the gospel-reality that we are never truly alone.

Burning Hearts

Knowing that we are not alone is well and good…but what do we do when we feel alone, when our Bible reading seems stale and our prayers lackluster? How do we practically put aside what we feel for what we know to be true?

We can learn from an account in Luke 24. Two of the disciples were traveling on the Road to Emmaus three days after Jesus had been crucified and laid in the tomb. Jesus appears to them, but they do not recognize him. He asks them about their conversation, and they sorrowfully recount the events of the crucifixion, how their hopes had been dashed when Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, died on the cross. Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb, and because the men could not see him anymore, their faith had faltered.

So Jesus calls them “foolish ones” who are “slow of heart,” and he helps to open their eyes to see him clearly once again. He does the same for us in three specific ways when we are struggling to trust that he is with us in dry and lonely seasons.

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Does the Origin of the Universe Point to A Creator God? (Cold-Case Christianity Broadcast #39)

In this episode of the Cold-Case Christianity Broadcast, J. Warner Wallace talks about his new book, God’s Crime Scene, as he examines the first important piece of evidence in the universe: the origin of all space, time and matter from nothing. Does Big Bang Cosmology (the Standard Cosmological Model) point most reasonably to a Creator God? (For more information, visit http://www.ColdCaseChristianity.com)

Here is the audio podcast (the Cold-Case Christianity Weekly Podcast is located on iTunes or our RSS Feed):

https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/3706957/height/50/width/580/theme/standard/direction/no/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/


Redefining the First Freedom

As you’ll hear on today’s classic BreakPoint commentary, when it came to religious freedom, Chuck Colson was ahead of his time. Listen Now | Download

UNITY AT ANY COST?

By Roger Oakland While Christian unity is a very important biblical principle, we must ask ourselves: “How diverse can Christian unity become before it becomes too diverse? How far should a Bible-believing Christian go in the process of forgiving others? Is it possible to go too far?” An article in the Focus on Religion section […]

Dear Planned Parenthood Supporter, You Are the Dentist!

In 2 Samuel 11, it seemed like everyone was sending someone somewhere. David does some sending (2 Sam 11:3, 6); Joab sends Uriah (2 Sam 11:6) and later a messenger (2 Sam 11:18); even Bathsheba sends people (2 Sam 11:5). But throughout all of this sending in chapter 11, there is someone eerily missing: God. We’re left wondering, “Will God get involved and do some sending of His own?”

In chapter 12, we get our answer. God takes over this mess of a situation. He gives David enough time to feel the weight of his sin, and then sends His prophet Nathan to confront David (2 Sam 12:1). He does so by telling a story of a rich man who takes a poor man’s ewe lamb pet, and cooks it for his visiting friend. And although everyone would agree that it was an absolutely evil thing to do, David’s reaction is over the top, He screams “As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die” (2 Sam 12:5).

David recognized that it was a wicked thing for a man with plentiful herds to kill the only companion a poor man had so they could enjoy a meal. The problem, though, is that David had no business calling anyone out on their sin at the moment, since he had just murdered many innocent people! He committed adultery (2 Sam 11:4), impregnated Uriah’s wife (2 Sam 11:5), took Bathsheba as his own (2 Sam 11:27), and then killed Uriah and other soldiers (2 Sam 11:17) just to cover up his evil. After killing a human being, David is nevertheless incensed that the rich man would kill a lamb.

In the next verse, Nathan utters two words that will sink David’s heart forever: “Attah Ha-ish!” “You are the man!”

And if that doesn’t sound bizarrely similar to the events of this past week, I don’t know what does.

Cecil the Lion was killed by a dentist (apparently it’s important to keep repeating his profession; I guess dentists are evil). Cecil, a celebrity in his country, was loved to the point that scientists were tracking his every move. You could say that Cecil was loved as much as the lamb in Nathan’s story was loved by its owner. And we all should agree that killing a lion, for no apparent reason other than stroking one’s ego, is not God’s design. But the timing of the outrage over this demonstrates the utter hypocrisy of our society. When millions of Americans are calling for the dentist’s extradition, his imprisonment, and even his murder (!), one can’t help but to point to the Planned Parenthood scandal and scream, “Hypocrites!”

 

I think it’s time to shout like Nathan.

“America, you are the man!” “This dentist ain’t got nothin’ on you!”

Hypocrisy is on full display when people sit by and watch Planned parenthood abuse young women, dismember babies, sell the limbs for cash, and not feel any emotion, but get choked up over the death of a lion. The irony that people are mourning the death of Cecil the Lion, all the while ignoring or happily supporting the merciless murder of human beings carried out by Cecile Richardscecilerichards37
and her henchmen at Planned Parenthood, is just too much to handle. Some would say the similar names are a “coincidence” I say God is displaying our depravity, right before our eyes, which would be undeniable if our minds weren’t darkened in understanding (Eph 4:18; cf. Rom 1:28). The abortion industry has so seared our collective conscience that we lose our minds over the mistreatment of a large cat, but don’t bat an eye at the merciless slaughter of millions of helpless human beings. Annually. Planned Parenthood, and all those who support it, have proven that they have lost any grip on reality.

The fact of the matter is that people everywhere need to repent and give their life to Jesus. And my prayer is that this clear, undeniable hypocrisy would prick the consciences of many — that they would come to their senses, repent of their wickedness, and turn to Jesus in faith for forgiveness and righteousness. Because of the Gospel of Christ, there is still hope in the wake of Planned Parenthood.

In 2 Samuel 12, the severity of David’s sin and hypocrisy pierced him to the heart. But there was hope. He went home and penned Psalm 51, a beautiful song of confession, repentance, and pleading with God for forgiveness and restoration. And God answered David’s prayer. Pray with me that many would read Psalm 51 and find the same forgiveness and restoration that David found, through Jesus alone.


What Should We Do When They Stray?

Of all the painful experiences that I have had to face through nearly a decade in ministry–the death of a mother, couples enduring the heartbreak of miscarriage, strife, abuse, divorce, scandal, etc.–having to walk with a godly father and mother through the dark shadows of having a child rebel is among the most difficult. There are many difficult and painful experiences that ministers face, but the spiritual rebellion of a child of a believer weighs heavily on the heart of any true minister of the Gospel. Perhaps it weighs heavy on my heart because I was one such rebellious child brought up in a Christian home. Though I was nurtured in an extremely spiritually and theologically strong Christians home, I ran from it–and to the spiritual darkness and sin of this world–as far and as fast as I could.

Not long after I was converted, news of my conversion spread through the church that I began attended in Greenville, SC. People would frequently approach me to ask if I would reach out to their son or their daughter–children who were living prodigal lifestyles akin to that which I had lived. The first year of my conversion exposed me to the prevalent nature of such rebellion among children who had grown up in Christian homes. I started to realize a few things as I labored to bring the Gospel to young adults who were strung out on pharmaceuticals, cocaine, acid, crack, meth, MDMA, etc. First, I realized how true my Calvinistic beliefs really were (i.e. unless the Lord–in His sovereign mercy and grace–redeems, all is hopeless); and, second, I realized that most of the parents were at a loss to know how to pursue their rebellious covenant child. The only example that I had was that which was etched in my mind by the actions of my father and mother. Today, whenever I am counseling the parents of a rebellious child, there are five things that I always remind Christian parents with rebellious children:

Read more


The Daily Discovery (July 31, 2015)

Pray for Your Children – “As I was putting two of our sons to sleep, I was praying with our three-year-old on his little toddler bed. He hasn’t yet learned to close his eyes while we pray, and I can feel his intense gaze looking up at me when I pray over him each night.  As I bowed my head, a hollering little voice came from the crib on the other side of the room: “PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!” My other son was so impatient and worried that I would forget him. I could hardly stumble through my prayer with his older brother.”

Couldn’t God Have Used Evolution? – “During the Scopes Trial in 1925, ACLU attorney Clarence Darrow placed William Jennings Bryan (seen as the man representing Christianity) on the stand and questioned him about his faith. In his questioning, Darrow pitted Bryan’s faith in the Bible against his belief in modern scientific thinking. Darrow questioned Bryan about the meaning of the word day in Genesis. Bryan’s answer rejected the clear teaching of Scripture, which indicates that the days of Genesis 1 are six actual days of approximately 24 hours. Bryan accepted modern evolutionary thinking instead when he said, “I think it would be just as easy for the kind of God we believe in to make the earth in six days as in six years or in six million years or in 600 million years. I do not think it important whether we believe one or the other.”1 This is not the first time a Christian has rejected the intended meaning of God’s Word, and it certainly will not be the last.”

The Wild Brothers—A Challenging Family “Reality Program” – “In a day and age when the culture by and large has turned away from God’s Word and openly ridicules those who choose to stand firmly on God’s Word, it’s hard to raise our children to love the Lord and honor, obey, and trust His Word. But it’s so important that we teach the next generation to stand on the authority of God’s Word from the very beginning, and to think biblically. That’s why we provide you with powerful resources that will help you as a parent to accomplish the task of training up your child in the way he or she should go (Proverbs 22:6).”

Be Clear, But Don’t Dumb Down the Bible – “Is the average person today living in a post-Christian world really capable of understanding the theology of the Bible? Should a pastor avoid doctrinal themes and terms in favor of preaching messages that are less intellectually demanding and more relevant to his listeners?”

The Nation, The Church, and the Immigrants – “No one denies that US immigration policy is a mess. One poll found that 63 percent of Republicans want to deport the estimated 11 million illegals in the United States. Sniffing a popular cause, Congress has jumped aboard with legislation focused on identifying, arresting, and punishing violent criminals among illegal aliens.”


SERMON:

Tim Conway – The Battle With Sin: Pride


VIDEOS:

Do You Desire God?

Jesus and the Journey to Joy


“If you alter or obscure the Biblical portrait of God in order to attract converts, you don’t get converts to God, you get converts to an illusion. This is not evangelism but deception.” – John Piper

The post The Daily Discovery (July 31, 2015) appeared first on Entreating Favor.


This Week in Calvinism – July 31, 2015

  • Calvin and (Herschel) Hobbs.
  • Ian Hamilton describes how he first learned of God’s sovereignty in salvation.
  • Tim Challies invites you to join him in reading a modern classic: Knowing God, by J. I. Packer.
  • In the most recent edition of The Dividing Line, James White responds to Dr. Michael Cox’s article (linked to last week) “Is Calvinism Spiritual Racism?”
  • Free ebook by J. C. Ryle from Monergism.

A La Carte (July 31)

New from GLH Publishing is one of my all-time favorite Puritan works: Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices by Thomas Brooks. It’s at just $0.99. Also consider Truth in a Culture of Doubt by Andreas Kostenberger ($2.99); The Essential Bible Companion by John Walton ($5.99); Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal by Michael Kelley ($0.99).

Exceptionally Ordinary – We need to be reminded of this often. “The assumption is that God will be really pleased if we do something massive (on a human scale) for him. Really? Do you really think God needs you or I to do anything in order to accomplish what he wills?”

The Children of StrangersThe New Yorker has a long, interesting, and sad article about a couple that adopted twenty children.

10 Quick, Important Developments On The Planned Parenthood Scandal – And still the major news outlets are quiet about it.

Our Wilberforce Moment – The comparison to Wilberforce is a strong one. Josh Howerton says that this is our culture’s Wilberforce moment, and I am inclined to agree.

When Success Outgrows Character – This is a very helpful article from Eric Geiger. “When skills surpass the process of sanctification, the trajectory is downward though everything looks great on the outside.” (I have previously written about this here.)

We’ve Got Spirit, Yes We Do – “My fear is that we can fall down that slippery slope that an awesome worship experience equals the Holy Spirit.”

New York City Transit – Did you know that much of the technology driving the New York City subway system is nearly 100 years old? Here’s a look at the past, present, and future.


Check out

Blogs

Don’t Waste Death | Desiring God: Phillip Holmes

Recommended Resources on Assurance for Tenderhearted Souls | Credo: Timothy Reymond

10 Disciplines I’d Recommend Everyone Start in their Twenties | Ron Edmondson

Introducing the New Source of Free Logos Training | Logos

8 Shocking Moments from the 4th Planned Parenthood Video | The Federalist

10 Updates on Planned Parenthood and How to Contact Congress | TGC: Justin Taylor

Kindle Books

Running for My Life: One Lost Boy’s Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games. I’m halfway through this and loving it. On sale today for $1.99.

The American Home Front: 1941-1942 by Alistair Cooke $1.99. Classic insight into wartime America.

 Truth Matters: Confident Faith in a Confusing World by Andreas Kostenberger $0.99.

Recommended New Book

Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel by Russell Moore.

Video

Best Advice for Dating Couples


When Our Sufferings Feel Like Too Much

At Pastor Scotty Smith’s Heavenward blog, he offers biblical counsel When Our Sufferings Feel Like Too Much: Praying through Psalm 13.

The True Saint Abhors All Sin

Tim Challies writes:

‘Sometimes I just need to be reminded about the seriousness of sin. And sometimes I just need to be reminded off the slipperiness of sin. Those reminders came this week through Charles Spurgeon and a sermon he preached on June 29, 1890.”

Read Tim’s convicting quote from Spurgeon in The True Saint Abhors All Sin.

Should We Pray for God to Punish Our Enemies?

Johnathon Bowers at Desiring God addresses the question, Should We Pray for God to Punish Our Enemies? 

When Christian Kids Reveal They Aren’t

Julie Ganschow candidly addresses the painful reality that many Christian parents face—prodigal children. Read Julie’s biblical counsel for parents in When Christian Kids Reveal They Aren’t.

Trinitarian Sanctification

Pastor Paul Tautges writes:

“All three members of the divine Godhead are involved in the work of rescuing sinners like you and me and gradually fashioning us into the image of Jesus. The Father called us in Christ; the Son redeemed and keeps us; and the Spirit transforms us into His image as we grow in submission to His written Word.”

Read the rest of Paul’s reflections in Trinitarian Sanctification.


This ‘n’ That

  • Michelle Lesley shares some reasons why discerning women might be leaving your church.
  • Rosaria Butterfield on the SCOTUS decision.
  • Have you yanked your son out of the boy scouts yet (I hope)?
  • Funny how this happens when you handle poisonous snakes.
  • Here’s your weekly dose of adorable (boop!).
  • Answering that age-old question: What do you do after you’ve been slain in the spirit?
  • Kenneth Copeland helps you figure out why your prayers aren’t getting answered. Seriously? Do people really believe his garbage?
  • Looks like this issue of Credo Magazine has some interesting articles.
  • The Washington Post wonders about hipster Christianity.
  • The theonomists didn’t like MacArthur’s ‘We Will Not Bow’ sermon…so Lyndon Unger wrote this.
  • Speaking of that sermon, I linked to the audio last week, but thought it was worth posting the video here for your convenience. I had the opportunity to hear this preached live, and I hope that if you haven’t listened to it already, you will:

W4YW: Protect Your Marriage, Internet Rage, & Proper Textiquette

Wisdom For Your Weekend: your weekly installment of things we’ve been reading (and watching) around the web.

Video of the Week

The Power of Morning & Evening Routines, The Art of Manliness. Yes, the audience for this video is, unsurprisingly, men. But we promise, this is relevant even if you aren’t concerned with increasing your “manliness.” And if the word “routine” inspires feelings of dread in your heart, you might need this video. The right routines can make the world—or, at least, your world—go round.

Articles of the Week

Seven Gospel-Centered Principles for Protecting Your Marriage, Jim Newheiser. Most advice about “protecting” marriage these days tends to run in one of two directions: (1) hand-wringing about same-sex marriage in our society or (2) hard-and-fast principles about when and where you can interact with friends of the opposite sex. Newheiser gives us a bit more meat, some proactive steps to enriching your marriage – whether you’ve been marriage for 30 days or 30 years, whether your marriage is characterized by bliss or by pain.

Ten Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Southern Baptists, Russell Moore. Few religious monikers evoke the awkward uneasiness that “Southern Baptist” does. The name conjures up images of polyester suits and big tent revivals (at best) or racist prejudice and bigotry (at worst). So what should the non-Southern Baptist folks know about the real Southern Baptists? Moore offers a handy compilation.

Five Rules of Textiquette for Teenagers, Barry York. There’s nothing like a fresh portmanteau to brighten your day! (Port-man-what? Click here.) Texting etiquette, or “textiquette,” is a fuzzy subject for most folks. For parents who didn’t grow up with cell phones, it can be difficult to know what rules, if any, are appropriate. York offers five rules that reign in his household.

What’s So Bad about Internet Rage? Sharon Hodde Miller. According to a 2013 study, the emotion most likely to spread through social media is anger. That sounds about right. So why is it that we are so quick to respond to internet-rage with more sinful rage? And, more importantly, what does this say about the way sin spreads? Sharon offers a refreshing perspective and some critical ways for us to ensure that the infection of sin stops at our door (or keyboard).


Articles, Resources, and More . . . Oh My! (07/31/15)

Kids and Technology

This video by Nature Valley uses three generations to compare what kids did for fun. The message of Nature Valley is that we should get back to nature, but the message for Christians is that we need to be vigilant over how much technology we use.

How to Conquer the Grumbles

Michael Herrington: “Don’t grumble about anything? Even traffic? Even the long line at the DMV? Even the weather? Even politicians? Even that annoying church member? Yes, even those things.”

Praying the Bible

You’ll want to take this five-day challenge!

What’s Wrong with Designer Genes?

This article from Desiring God may be more scientific than we’re used to reading, but stick with it. Toward the bottom, the authors give clear implications for Christians as we stand for the dignity of life.

Slaying the Abortion Giant

This is an important article from Joe Rigney about how we can respond to the continued revelations of what goes on behind Planned Parenthood’s doors.


WEEKLY LINKS:

The Atheist Who Didn’t Exist
My Favorite Apologetics Apps
The Gospels Agree About A Lot
Six Errors Jesus Mythicists Repeatedly Make
On Bart Ehrman and the authorship of the gospels
Follow up to Part II of Ehrman-McGrew radio debate
On Biblical Ethics: An Interview with Paul Copan
How to be a Christian Ambassador in Troubled Times
Two Things Nearly Everyone Believes About the Universe
Debate: Does God Exist? John Lennox vs. Michael Shermer
Is Kepler-452b an Earth-like planet? Does it support life?
Christianity Promotes Rational (and Evidential) Exploration
What are the historical arguments for the empty tomb story?
Does the Cumulative Case for Design Point to a Divine Designer?
Stand to Reason | The Importance of Studying Apologetics Regularly
Of course you’re smart enough to learn how to defend your faith
How do atheists try to accommodate the Big Bang in their worldview?
What historical evidence is there to support the post-mortem appearances of Jesus?
Why We Know Our Universe, And Everything In It, Had A Beginning (Free Bible Insert)
God’s Crime Scene: Evidence for a Divinely Created Universe – NEW by J Warner Wallace


Our Wilberforce moment

Josh Howerton:

In the last three weeks, videos of Planned Parenthood officials (the organization that performs over 40% of our nation’s abortions) harvesting and selling the body parts of dismembered infant corpses have surfaced to national outrage. See them HERE, HEREHERE, and HERE. Rumors are there are 8 more to come. In a nation that has been legally pro-abortion for ~40 years, why are these videos now causing such outrage? Because the reality of what abortion obviously is (the killing of a human infant) is being non-ignorably thrust into our faces. This is our William Wilberforce moment: the stories have been viscerally told and people may choose to look away, but nobody can ever say again that they did not know. A few quick, bulleted reflections from watching the events of the last three weeks…

10 Updates on Planned Parenthood; A New Video; and How to Contact Congress

American friends, please be sure to use the info at the end of this post.

Fish and Snakes and Fathers and Sons

Michael Kelley:

That freedom is sometimes frustrating as a parent, especially one who has wasted as much money on stupid things as I have over the course of my life. Periodically throughout the year, one of the kids will see something they absolutely have to have. So begins the conversation about value in which I try (unsuccessfully most of the time) to convince them that what they have their heart set on isn’t actually worth it. It’s not as good as they think it’s going to be, and in the end, they’ll wind up not just frustrated, but frustrated and broke.

How Reading Can Transform Your Health

David Murray discusses a few key things he learned reading How Changing Your Reading Habits Can Transform Your Health, Michael Grothaus.

Your Bible Is a Mine, Not a Museum

Jon Bloom:

The Bible is as fascinating as the best museum. There is a lot glean from it at face value. But it is enriching as a mine. Begin to dig, poke around, and examine, and it yields wonderful things that you didn’t notice at first.

Seven Signs Success Has Outgrown Your Character

Eric Geiger:

When a leader’s competence outpaces a leader’s character, implosion is imminent. When skills surpass the process of sanctification, the trajectory is downward though everything looks great on the outside. It is often easier to see the speck in someone else’s eye than the plank in our own, so here are seven signs your success is outpacing your character.



Only Two Religions!

I don’t know if you know this but there are only two religions in the entire world.

You might say I’m nuts.  There are hundreds if not thousands!

wearing masksBut there is one religion that likes to put on hundreds if not thousands of different masks on, and so ultimately there are only two: the religion of Human Achievement and the religion of Divine Accomplishment.

You see Islam, Mormonism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Judaism and every single religion that you have ever heard of, ultimately teaches some form of a works-based salvation. They say that you have to be a little more good than bad in order to make it to heaven. These religions encourage you to hand God a resume when you face Him one day. The resume will be filled with all your accomplishments. It will list everything you’ve done for other people, every penny you’ve given to charity and every good deed you’ve done. God will look over this resume and say, “Good job! You’ve made it into heaven”.

The problem is that if you were to enter into heaven because of a resume based on your accomplishments God would get no glory; you would be the one who gets all the praise. In fact, Ephesians 2:9 would say that salvation is not of works lest you patting-self-on-back-1should boast! Genesis chapter one shows us that God created the entire universe including you. Everything He created is designed to bring Him glory. The problem is that sin has entered the world, and from birth we all have replaced exalting God with exalting ourselves. Everything we do from birth is geared towards bringing us glory and bringing praise to ourselves. We all have a throne in our hearts that God should be sitting and reigning on, but instead we are born with ourselves sitting on it. We are so used to it we don’t even notice it to the point where we all think that our resumes are good enough to get us into heaven.

my mom thinks im coolOf course we are going to think that we are good people! Of course my mom is going to tell me I’m a good person! But what does your Creator think? He says in Romans 3:23 that we all have sinned and fall short of His glory. He also says in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. So if we stand before God and start listing accomplishments or hand Him a resume we might as well slap Jesus in the face because God is going to look at the resume and say, “I killed my only Son because you were not good enough to get to me!”

And that’s where the only other religion comes in.

The religion of Divine Accomplishment. God saw your situation, and decided that since man was so sinful and could not save himself, that He would come Himself and take the form of a man. He humbled himself, spent nine months in a womb he created, grew up with every temptation you and I face every day, but without sinning. He then died on the cross for our sins, and then rose from the dead and defeated death. He made it possible for human beings to stand before God one day and not hand Him a resume and condemn themselves further, but rather, tell God that they deserve His wrath but have placed their faith and trust in the work that Jesus did on their behalf on the cross and through His resurrection.

You see we need someone to be a substitute for us because no matter how hard we try, we can never bridge the gap between God and us. And the substitute can’t be merely a human.  It must be God Himself.

Do you see the difference between Christianity and every other religion?

Source


The Greatest Story Ever Told

Greatest StoryGod’s goal in all of His creative and redemptive work is to bring glory to Himself (Isa 43:7; cf. Eph 1:6, 12, 14).

Read more


What is The Gospel?


“My Last Day” — the Jesus Anime

9 powerful minutes of animation that begins with a thief behind bars watching the scourging of Jesus, and it ends with the thief dying next to Jesus, and waking to see Him in a beautiful place.

The dying thief: What was so great about his faith?

There are many acts of extraordinary faith in the Bible. The one that has impressed me the most concerns the dying thief on the cross. We could take the approach that he had nothing to lose, so he decided to cast his lot with Jesus. But this makes absolutely no sense of the text and the context.
In this conversion we have a specific fulfillment of Christ’s first words on the cross. No sooner had Christ spoken the words, “Father, forgive them,” had the Father answered that prayer by turning a once-reviling criminal into a Christ-glorifying saint. While the soon-to-be converted criminal was not directly responsible for Christ’s death, he nevertheless joined with those who were and was thus indirectly addressed when Christ asked for God to forgive “them.”
Christ, the sinless one, was numbered with or counted among the transgressors (Isa. 53:12; Luke 22:37), all of whom have a bigger problem than the day-to-day sins they commit. They hate Christ, the God-man. Anyone who has a master other than the Lord Jesus hates him (Lk. 16:13; Gal. 4:8). That these two criminals loathed him is clearly manifested during the crucifixion: “And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way” (Matt. 27:44).
When the criminal who was converted was doing his worst against Christ, Christ was doing his best for this criminal.
The conversion of the one criminal was most extraordinary and testifies to the power of Christ’s prayer and the grace of God. Why?
This criminal’s faith did not come at a time such as when Christ turned water into wine; or performed miracles, such as walking on water, opening the eyes of a blind man, or raising Lazarus from the dead. No! The criminal believed on the Messiah while he was hanging as one cursed upon a tree. The criminal trusted in and boldly defended the one whose disciples had abandoned him. Jesus was at his lowest when this criminal asked to be remembered in Christ’s kingdom.
When he was on the cross, did anyone publicly cry out, as John the Baptist did, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29)? But this is essentially what the dying thief did. Little wonder, then, that Christ should promise him a place in his kingdom: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:43).
The criminal acknowledged he was guilty; he acknowledged that Christ was not (“this man has done nothing wrong”); he feared God; but, and here is the key: the criminal did not merely want to be in a better place. He wanted to be with Christ in a better place: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk. 23:42). The criminal believed “against all hope”.
Heaven is a better place because that is where Christ is. Everyone wants to go to heaven, but not everyone wants to go to Christ’s heaven. Not so with this criminal: he saw, with his eyes, Christ at his worst; but with the eyes of faith, he believed that Christ would soon be at his best, and so put his faith in a dying king.
Christ is always – always! – willing to save even the most miserable of sinners. A recognition of guilt (Lk. 23:40) and a confidence in him and not ourselves (Lk. 23:42) will always lead to the most assuring truth a sinner can receive: the Savior welcomes such into his paradise!
“One is saved, and we may not despair; the other is lost, and we may not presume.” Spurgeon
Source


Our Time is Short

Read: Recommitting Your Life To God and Jesus Christ – Restoration and Forgiveness With God and Jesus Christ (Updated Version)


Ready to start your new life with God?

Who do you think that I am?

With that brief question Jesus Christ confronted His followers with the most important issue they would ever face. He had spent much time with them and made some bold claims about His identity and authority. Now the time had come for them either to believe or deny His teachings.

Who do you say Jesus is? Your response to Him will determine not only your values and lifestyle, but your eternal destiny as well.

Consider what the Bible says about Him: Read more


Look to Jesus
Have you ever felt a little lost and wished there was a quick-start guide to your relationship with God? This is it!

30 Day Next Steps
John Beckett, a leading Christian businessman, has written a series to read over 30 days for new believers.

New Believers Guide
The New Believer’s Guide is a series of articles designed to show you how to walk in the new life Christ has given you— a life of faith and freedom.

Jesus Booklet
Jesus is the Savior of the world. Discover who Jesus is today in this series.

About Christianity
Know Jesus Christ and your life will be transformed


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(Alternative News, Apologetics, Current Events, Commentary, Opinion, Theology, Discernment Blog, Devotionals, Christian Internet Evangelism & Missions Activist).

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GTY Blog: Cultivating Contentment

Ecclesiastes 5:10; Luke 12:15-34; Hebrews 13:5; 1 Timothy 6:17

Code: B150731

By John MacArthur

The whole advertising industry thrives by tapping into the pervasive discontentment—a discontentment they also helped create—of western culture. It’s almost impossible to go for a drive without having our senses assaulted by billboards reminding us of the material things we lack. Even those who are content with their lot in life struggle to emerge unscathed from the barrage.

For the Christian, personal contentment—being satisfied with what God has given us—is a vital aspect of personal holiness and integrity. In that vein, the author of Hebrews gives us this simple exhortation: “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have” (Hebrews 13:5). Contentment is fundamental to integrity because a man who is content is far less vulnerable to the worldly enticements and distractions that Satan throws at him.

But our contentment can be undermined and assaulted by the sin of covetousness. It is one of the chief ways discontentment manifests itself. Covetousness is an attitude, a longing to acquire things. It means we set nearly all our attention and thought on gaining more money or having new possessions, whether we ever obtain them or not.

An encounter early in the career of wealthy oil executive John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) illustrates this attitude. A friend reportedly asked the young Rockefeller how much money he wanted. “A million dollars,” he answered. After Rockefeller earned his first million dollars, his friend asked him how much more money he wanted. “Another million dollars,” Rockefeller replied.

Rockefeller’s desires further illustrate a law of diminishing returns with regard to covetousness: The more we get the more we want, and the more we want the less satisfied we are. The Preacher (probably Solomon, one who would understand this principle very well) wrote, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).

According to Scripture, loving money is one of the most common ways we display covetousness. Money can be used to purchase almost anything we desire, and thus it is synonymous with lusting after material riches. Obviously, we should seek to be free from any craving for material wealth. Such a desire indicates we are trusting in riches rather than in the living God.

Paul told Timothy how he was to deal with this matter, and his command is especially applicable to Christians living in affluent Western cultures: “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17).

The Lord Jesus, in perhaps His most sobering parable, gives us a strong warning about the serious pitfalls related to covetousness and materialism:

“Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:15–21)

The love of money and material possessions is evidenced in a variety of ways. For some people, it remains just an attitude—they never actually acquire anything. But others do acquire wealth, and for them the thrill is in adding to what they have. They love to increase their bank accounts, build up their stock and investment portfolios, or become involved in new business ventures.

Some people love money just for its own sake and find satisfaction simply in hoarding what they have. Still others are conspicuous consumers who love to buy newer, more expensive things—nicer clothes, fancier gadgets, more luxurious cars, bigger vacation homes—so they can flaunt their wealth. No matter how the love of materialism shows itself, it displeases God. We are all tempted—some of us more times than others—to compromise our testimonies and forget our integrity for the sake of material gain. But God wants us to be content.

Keys to Contentment

Scripture contains a number of practical guidelines by which we can enjoy the attitude of contentment. First, we must realize God’s goodness and believe that as our Father, He will take care of us. The apostle Paul reminds us that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Second, we must grasp and treasure the truth that God is omniscient. He knows our needs long before we ask Him to supply them. Jesus told the disciples, “Your Father knows that you need these things” (Luke 12:30).

The third vital ingredient for genuine contentment is that we consider what we deserve. We often have an inflated, self-important view of what we desire, and even more of what we need. But in reality, by the Lord’s sovereign design, the smallest good thing we have is far more than we deserve. Like Jacob, we are “unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown” (Genesis 32:10).

Fourth, God’s Word exhorts us to recognize His sovereign supremacy. We will not be completely content until we see that His plan is not the same for all His children. What the Father lovingly gives to one believer, He just as lovingly withholds from another (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:4–11). Hannah, Samuel’s mother, spoke wisely and to the point concerning material blessings: “The Lord makes poor and rich” (1 Samuel 2:7). We might not be comfortable with the first part of that statement, but God knows that being rich is not necessarily the best plan for us. It could even be spiritually harmful for us (as it was for the rich man in Luke 12). The Lord provides us with just what we need and nothing less.

Finally, we must keep on reminding ourselves that worldly wealth and possessions are not the true riches. Our real treasure is in heaven. So Paul calls on us to set our minds “on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2). Ultimately, therefore, genuine contentment results from our communion with God the Father and with His Son. Material riches fade into insignificance when we draw near to Christ and are overwhelmed by the spiritual riches we have in Him.

(Adapted from The Power of Integrity.)


Available online at: http://www.gty.org/resources/Blog/B150731
COPYRIGHT ©2015 Grace to You

Does sex before marriage have any effect on your future relationships?

WINTERY KNIGHT

Is it OK to tell women they are wrong? Do young people understand the long-term impact of premarital sex?

I’ve posted before about how premarital sex affects the stability of marriages by making divorce more likely. But there has been more research published since. Let’s take a look.

Here a good study on relationship tempo and relationship quality.

Abstract:

Rapid sexual involvement may have adverse long-term implications for relationship quality. This study examined the tempo of sexual intimacy and subsequent relationship quality in a sample of married and cohabiting men and women. Data come from the Marital and Relationship Survey, which provides information on nearly 600 low- to moderate-income couples living with minor children. Over one third of respondents became sexually involved within the first month of the relationship. Bivariate results suggested that delaying sexual involvement was associated with higher relationship quality across several dimensions. The multivariate results indicated that the speed of entry into sexual relationships was negatively associated with…

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Daily Devotionals: (31st July) Christ and His Unending Zeal

thinkGOSPEL blog

Reading: “For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” Psalm 69:9

These words of the psalmist find their ultimate fulfilment in Christ.

Following the changing of the water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, Christ and His disciples made their way to the temple. When they arrived there for the Passover they discovered men selling animals and changing money. Without a moment’s hesitation the Saviour made a scourge of small cords and drove the traders away from the temple, exclaiming that they had made His Father’s house a house of merchandise. It was an explosive intervention by the Saviour. As the disciples watched their Lord deal with the money changers they remembered the words of the psalmist, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.”

It is without question that Christ has…

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Planned Parenthood executive admits abortion victim is a baby in fourth video

WINTERY KNIGHT

Planned Parenthood's Dr. Savita Yeshawant Ginde says: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Savita Yeshawant Ginde says: “it’s a baby”

WARNING: The following video contains mature subject matter. Viewer discretion is advised.

The fourth Planned Parenthood sting video is out, and it’s the most serious one yet.

Anika Smith writes about it at The Stream:

For the second time in a week, the Center for Medical Progress has a new video up featuring undercover footage inside Planned Parenthood.

[…]The setup is a meeting with Dr. Ginde, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains’ Vice President and Medical Director. Her Planned Parenthood affiliate does over 10,000 abortions a year and has a contract to supply fetal body parts to Colorado State University.

[…]The smoking gun in this video is this statement by Ginde:

Sometimes, if we get, if someone delivers before we get to see them for a procedure, then we are intact.

“Delivers before” means these children are potentially born-alive infants. According…

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Uncommon Grace, Uncommon Love

Unfathomable Grace

There has been a grace common to all. God created a world fantastically suitable for those created in his image. Even though all men and women, created in his image, chose to rebel against him and play the part of the spiritual whore, the Creator providentially governed his universe for rebellious man’s sustenance and delight. Despite the fact that all men and women, created in his image, continually chose to worship idols and other created things, God continually showed long-suffering patience and favor towards them while his church commanded them to repent and offered them the free Gospel of grace. Yes, God has not given men that which they have earned and deserved. In a very real way God has always loved the lost. God has always loved his enemies. In every generation, God has continually blessed his rebels with time, talents, and treats they have not deserved and have in turn squandered in his face.

Yet, in…

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Anger, Consumerism, and Big Government

The Reformed Reader Blog

I’m very much enjoying Chuck Colson’s My Final Word, which is a collection of his previously unpublished short articles.  While I don’t agree with everything Colson wrote, much of it is wise, timely, and helpful.  For instance, in one short article from around ten years ago he noted a puzzling fact: even though the United States and Britain both were doing quite well economically, their leaders were detested by so many of their citizens.  Why is this?  Why are so many people so angry? Colson wondered.  Here’s his two part answer, which I’ve edited for length:

1) The more people have, the angrier they get.  Witness the fact that America is regarded as one of the most unhappy nations on earth, according to recent studies.  We take more tranquilizers than any other people, and yet we have an extremely high standard of living.  The happiest people, according to…

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This is our Holocaust

airō

oven

I am having difficulty processing how anyone outraged by the Planned Parenthood videos, whether Christian or non-Christian,is still talking about the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortions after 20 weeks gestation. Folks, the babies you’ve seen butchered on the videos are 11-12 weeks. Supporting this bill of compromise would still allow for these babies to be slaughtered.

We need to reject such bills, and demand that all abortion be abolished because all abortions, whether chemical or medical, are the murder of babies. Real. Human. Babies.

I stand in awe at the patience, longsuffering, and slowness to anger God has demonstrated toward this nation. How He has not already consumed this land in the fury of His wrath is beyond my comprehension…but I do stand in fearful awe.

This really is the time Americans need to be taking to the streets in protest until Roe V…

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“Are you God’s wife?”

Regeneration, Repentance and Reformation

portrait-of-a-girl-john-william-waterhouse

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you,
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these….”

–Matthew 25:40

There is an old story of a beautiful lady who once visited New York city,

and there she saw on the sidewalk a ragged, cold, and hungry little girl gazing wistfully at some of the cakes in a shop window. She stopped, and, taking the little one by the hand, led her into the store. Though she was aware that bread might be better for the cold child than cake, yet, desiring to gratify the shivering and forlorn one, she bought and gave her the cake she wanted. She then took her to another place, where she procured her a shawl and other articles of comfort. The grateful little creature looked the lady full in the face, and with artless simplicity…

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Do not love the world nor what makes up the world

Possessing the Treasure

by Mike Ratliff

15 Μὴ ἀγαπᾶτε τὸν κόσμον μηδὲ τὰ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ. ἐάν τις ἀγαπᾷ τὸν κόσμον, οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ πατρὸς ἐν αὐτῷ· (1 John 2:15 NA28)

15 Do not love the world nor what makes up the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; (1 John 2:15 translated from the NA28 Greek text)

There is a certain type of love that God hates. We find that in John 15:18-20)

18 Εἰ ὁ κόσμος ὑμᾶς μισεῖ, γινώσκετε ὅτι ἐμὲ πρῶτον ὑμῶν μεμίσηκεν. 19 εἰ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου ἦτε, ὁ κόσμος ἂν τὸ ἴδιον ἐφίλει· ὅτι δὲ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου οὐκ ἐστέ, ἀλλʼ ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάμην ὑμᾶς ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου, διὰ τοῦτο μισεῖ ὑμᾶς ὁ κόσμος. 20 μνημονεύετε τοῦ λόγου οὗ ἐγὼ εἶπον ὑμῖν· οὐκ ἔστιν δοῦλος μείζων τοῦ κυρίου αὐτοῦ. *εἰ ἐμὲ ἐδίωξαν, καὶ ὑμᾶς διώξουσιν· εἰ τὸν λόγον μου ἐτήρησαν…

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July 30, 2015 Truth2Freedom Daily News/Commentary Collection

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Jul. 30, 2015

BLOOMBERG

Republican lawmakers have opened a new avenue of attack on the Iran nuclear accord by criticizing what they call “secret side deals” governing the inspection process that will be withheld from Congress. Confidential agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities, emerged as a key point of contention with Republicans at a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

New York and New Jersey agree that a new tunnel is crucial to avoid damaging the economy of the nation’s largest city and its prosperous western suburbs.

Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week after reaching a four-decade low, consistent with a stronger labor market. Jobless claims increased by 12,000 to 267,000 in the period ended July 25.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it’s preparing for a “prolonged downturn” by cutting 6,500 jobs this year and plans to reduce capital investment by $7 billion over the next two years.

If oil hits $40, Russia is in trouble. Already faced with recession and sanctions, a further drop in crude might force the country’s central bank into an emergency rate hike – after four cuts already this year.

Bill Gross said the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in September, because the central bank increasingly realizes that loose monetary policy isn’t helping the global economy. “The Fed begins to recognize that zero percent interest rates increasingly have negative, as well as positive consequences,” Gross wrote. “Low interest rates are not the cure — they are part of the problem.”

AP Top Stories

A sea-crusted wing part washed up on an island in the western Indian Ocean may be the first trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 since it vanished nearly a year and a half ago, and a tragic but finally solid clue to one of aviation’s most perplexing and expensive mysteries.

Eight people from the same family, including two minors, were kidnapped by masked gunmen and their decapitated bodies were found days later in northern Mexico, authorities said.

Boko Haram Islamists slit the throats of 10 fishermen in villages near Baga on the shores of the Lake Chad in northeastern Nigeria, a leading fisherman and a resident said Thursday.

A small goat was nearly decapitated and another goat died from a “heinous” knife attack on the animals in a fenced and locked site where they had been placed to graze on weeds in northern Idaho, a police spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

A deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that killed two people and sickened 31 is under investigation in the South Bronx section of New York City, health officials said on Wednesday.

The population of the world’s seabirds has plummeted 70 percent in the past 60 years, a Canadian-Australian research team has found. The drop is equivalent to the disappearance of around 230 million seabirds since 1950, according to a statement from the University of British Columbia, where some of the researchers are based.

A Florida gun store that proclaimed itself a Muslim-free zone was sued on Wednesday in federal court by the state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on the grounds that the restriction is discriminatory.

BBC

President Obama has signed an executive order calling for the US to build the world’s fastest computer by 2025. The supercomputer would be 20 times quicker than the current leading machine, which is in China.

In the US, poverty, deprivation and exploitation draw thousands of its own children down into a dark underworld that offers few ways out. It is a world few Americans are aware of. But tens of thousands of American children are thought to be sexually exploited every year. It’s believed that every night hundreds are sold for sex.

Russia has said it will not tolerate “interference” by foreign organizations after it put a US pro-democracy foundation on a blacklist.

The Taliban have appointed a successor to Mullah Omar, who led the movement for some 20 years. The death of Mullah Omar – reported by the Afghan government on Wednesday – was confirmed by the Taliban on Thursday,

A truck in central Mexico has ploughed into a religious procession, killing at least 16 pilgrims and injuring about 30.

Several bills will come before the Australian parliament when it resumes next month proposing same-sex marriage be legalized.

The Israeli parliament has passed a law allowing the force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike.

WND

Donations to the Clinton Foundation by Swiss bank UBS increased tenfold after Hillary Clinton intervened to settle a dispute with the IRS early in her tenure as secretary of state, according to a published report.

The “Wall Street wing” of the Republican Party is working with Democrats and LGBT rights activists to pass sweeping legislation that would make it a federal crime to discriminate against homosexuals and transgenders in housing, education and the job market.

A new audit from the Health and Human Services inspector general’s office shows the $2.4 billion taxpayers loaned the federal government to implement an Obamacare overhaul demanded by President Obama did not bring the promised results, and in fact, could prove to be a total waste.

The temporary injunction from Los Angeles Superior Court was granted at the request of StemExpress, which has been identified as a company that procures “tissue” – essentially body parts of aborted infants, from Planned Parenthood, which is the focus of the undercover video series.


Top News – 7/30/2015

The Persecution Of Christians Is Intensifying As Anti-Christian Hatred Sweeps The Entire World
There is very little that the entire world seems to agree upon, but there is one very frightening trend that is now taking hold literally all over the globe. A passionate hatred of Christianity is sweeping across the planet, and very few global leaders have been willing to step forward and speak out against this rising persecution of Christians.

A whole new world: Astonishing drought unveils lost Wild West town that has been submerged under Nevada’s Lake Mead since 1935
It has been submerged in water for more than 80 years. But now, following this summer’s record drought, Lake Mead has almost completely dried up, revealing entire towns that disappeared decades ago. And tourists are flooding in.

Federal judge threatens to hold IRS chief in contempt
A federal judge threatened to hold IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in contempt Wednesday after the IRS failed to produce, as ordered, newly recovered emails of former IRS official Lois Lerner. “If there is further noncompliance, I will haul into court the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service to show cause why that person should not be personally held in contempt of court. I can’t make that any clearer,”

Growing unrest: volcanoes rumble and are shaken by earthquakes from Mexico to the Philippines
– Mexico’s National Disaster Prevention Centre said in its daily report that the volcano registered a total of 80 low intensity exhalations and six explosions yesterday, releasing plumes of smoke between 1.5 and two kilometers high.

Iraqi MP: ‘Iraq should establish ties with Israel, we share interests’
Asked about who created the Islamic State, al-Alusi rebuffed wide-spread conspiracy theories linking the extremist groups to non-Arab, non-Islamic actors. “It is our creation, not a Western or European or Crusader or Jewish or Israeli creation. It is a creation of the Arabs and Muslims, because we have failed to protect our society and have allowed these extremist views –to exist.”

Earthquake Hits Israel, No Injuries, Damage Reported
A 4.3-magnitude earthquake occurred early Thursday in Israel. The quake was centered on an area near the Dead Sea, and several people reported feeling its effects in southern Israel. Residents of the north also said they felt vibrations, and investigators are checking whether there were indeed two quakes around the same time.

CISA: the dirty deal between Google and the NSA that no one is talking about
One of the things that civil liberties activists like to lament about is that the general public seems to care more about Google and Facebook using their personal data to target advertising than the government using it to target drone strikes. The reality is that both types of abuse are dangerous, and they work hand in hand.

Alien swarm? 10 UFO-like objects filmed flying over Japan
A video shot in Japan’s port city of Osaka has been making the rounds online, displaying a swarm of white spherical objects of unknown origin flying across the sky. The low-quality footage has triggered speculation over extra-terrestrial life and UFOs.

Out of Shadows: New tech allows face recognition in utter darkness
German researchers have developed a new technology that can identify a person in poor lighting or even in absolute darkness thus potentially solving one of the main issues of the modern face recognition systems. …Saquib Sarfraz and Rainer Stiefelhagen…created a system that analyzes mid- or far-infrared images and matches them with the ordinary photos thus allowing the people’s faces to be recognized.

Sex trafficking: Lifelong struggle of exploited children
In the US, poverty, deprivation and exploitation draws thousands of its own children down into a dark underworld that offers few ways out. It is a world few Americans are aware of. But tens of thousands of American children are thought to be sexually exploited every year. It’s believed that every night hundreds are sold for sex.

Russia warns US as NGO blacklisted as ‘undesirable’
Russia has said it will not tolerate “interference” by foreign organisations after it put a US pro-democracy foundation on a blacklist. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), funded by the US Congress, is the first organisation to be labelled “undesirable” under a new Russian law. Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned that “we will never tolerate mentoring and open interference in our affairs by foreign structures”.

Iraqi MP: ‘Iraq should establish ties with Israel, we share interests’
…Iraqi MP and leader of the Ummah Party, Mithal al-Alusi, called on Iraq to establish ties with Israel and expressed hope to see an Iraqi embassy in Israel at some point in the near future. …[he] referred to diplomatic relations with Israel as “our [Iraqi] interest,” and added that he does not want Baghdad’s interests to be solely to “Abu Mazen,” the name by which Mahmoud Abbas is commonly referred to in the Arab World.

Foreign Ministry calls Sunni Arab states ‘Israel’s allies’
The Director General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Dore Gold, called the Middle East’s Sunni Arab nations “Israel’s allies.” …“What we have is a regime on a roll that is trying to conquer the Middle East,” Gold said of Iran, “and it’s not Israel talking, that is our Sunni Arab neighbors — and you know what? I’ll use another expression – that is our Sunni Arab allies talking.”

Alan Greenspan: This is ‘extremely dangerous’
While markets hone in on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy hints, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan sees a bigger economic irritant—government spending. On Wednesday, Greenspan decried a rise in entitlement costs, which he contended have pressured the U.S. economy.

Equality Obama-style: profiteering of neighborhoods, fetal organs
Every aspect of the Obama administration’s policy of creating equality in America has established the opposite goal. Better characterization of the policy would be that of ‘re-creating,’ as true equality was built into the founding documents at this nation’s outset. There is a dissembling penchant of this president to makeover the world according to his invalid, biased perspective.

Terror Arrest in Lackawanna (New York)
Arafat Nagi was arraigned Wednesday morning on charges that he attempted to support a designated terrorist organization. “Nagi attempted to join this terrorist organization, and specifically pledged allegiance to it and it’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” said US Attorney Bill Hochul.

Canadian Islam Converts Plotted to Kill Jewish Children
A Canadian courtroom was the scene for another revelation about the twisted mindset that animates Islamists. Amanda Korody, found guilty for her part in orchestrating a terrorist bomb plot, wanted to infiltrate a synagogue where she could kill “small Jews” so these children would be spared eternal damnation in hell.

Can Trump Win?
The GOP base is finally coming out of its economic superiority stupor and focusing on the only issue that has broad appeal to Americans: Law and order. Whether looking out at America’s collapsing boundaries of global influence or within at the pending domestic suicide of our cultural, judicial and economic hegemony, chaos is brewing in a cauldron of lawlessness.


Top Headlines – 7/30/2015

Second reported IAF strike: Damascus says Israel strikes pro-Syrian Palestinian militia

Report: IAF strike in Syria targeted Hezbollah members and fighters under Lebanese terrorist Kuntar

With more than 250,000 dead in Syria, UN proposes working groups for peace

Iraqi politician calls for peace with Israel, blasts Iran and Islamic State

PA, EU: Israel’s authorization of 300 new settler homes harms harmful to peace

US says ‘deeply concerned’ about Israeli building in West Bank, East Jerusalem

Gaza: ‘Israeli war crimes’ followed soldier’s capture – Amnesty

Increase in UK anti-Semitism this year ‘due to better reporting’

Berlin hosts Europe’s Jewish Olympics in ‘Hitler’s stadium’

NSA Yossi Cohen: Israel has yet to receive all Iran nuclear deal annexes

Kerry: We Can’t Reveal Contents of Secret Side Deals to American People

Joking of nuclear war, celebrities endorse Iran deal

Iraq calls Turkish assault on Kurdish militants ‘a dangerous escalation’

China says to fight terror, people smuggling with Turkey

Top Sunni Muslim cleric al-Qaradawi does about-face, opposes suicide bombings

Ivory Coast delegation visits Israel to discuss ‘universal surge of terrorism’

Afghan intelligence agency says Taliban’s leader is dead

Car bomb explodes in Yemen’s capital, three dead

U.S. approves possible sale of $5.4 billion in PAC-3 missiles to Saudi Arabia

This new nuclear-armed US bomb may be the most dangerous weapon in America’s arsenal

U.S. says Europeans could help more in South China Sea dispute

South Korea Warns of Possible Provocations by Pyongyang

Special Report: Ukraine struggles to control maverick battalions

Putin: It’s strange when we have to deal with the US in order to discuss issues with Europe

Russia vetoes bid to set up tribunal for downed flight MH17

Authorities study plane debris found off Madagascar for links to missing MH370

Fed says economy improving; September rate hike in view

U.S. can stay under debt ceiling through at least late Oct: Treasury chief

Alan Greenspan: Government spending is ‘extremely dangerous’

Federal judge threatens to hold IRS chief in contempt

Puerto Rico should be allowed to file bankruptcy, U.S. Treasury Secretary says

Report: Illegal Aliens Outnumber Unemployed Americans

NY State Senator Working On Legislation For Metal Detectors At Theaters, Stadiums And Malls

Group sues Fla. gun shop that declared ‘Muslim Free Zone’

Venezuelans being thrown in jail for tweets that criticize the government

Reported two-month gap in Clinton emails coincides with escalating Libya violence

Will the Internet listen to your private conversations?

Out of Shadows: New tech allows face recognition in utter darkness

UFO Update – Lights in Japan – Lanterns, Weather Balloons, Birds, UFOs?

Meteor shower created by bizarre comet, Unlike anything else in our solar system

Earth Will Only Have 12 Hours To Prepare For Massive Solar Storm

5.7 magnitude earthquake hits near Rainbow Beach, Australia

5.4 magnitude earthquake hits near Lata, Solomon Islands

5.3 magnitude earthquake hits near Nikolski, Alaska

5.1 magnitude earthquake hits near Mercin, Turkey

4.8 magnitude earthquake hits near Port Hardy, Canada

Sheveluch volcano on Kamchatka, Russia erupts to 17,000ft

Karymsky volcano on Kamchatka, Russia erupts to 15,000ft

Raung volcano in Indonesia erupts to 14,000ft

Suwanosejima volcano in Japan erupts to 10,000ft

Meteorologists eye rare early season tropical cyclone in the South Pacific

Tropical cyclone could approach Hawaii by Saturday

NASA Sees New Tropical Storm Hugging Bangladesh Coast

3-hour Canadian tornado likely one of world’s longest

California Drought Could Wipe Cities Off Map If Their Water Runs Out

Iraqi Government Declares 4-day Holiday Over Heat Wave

Climate change ‘urgent and growing threat’ to national security: Pentagon

Pentagon Spent $22,000 to Write 14-Page Report on Climate Change

Defense Department Pays $29 Per Gallon for ‘Alternative Fuel’

Swarms of Locusts Trigger State of Emergency in Southern Russia

Katie Hopkins: Euthanasia Vans Would Solve Overcrowding, Celeb Says

Hillary Clinton Calls Planned Parenthood Videos ‘Disturbing’

Nine More Undercover Videos Ready To Drop On Planned Parenthood

Restraining order issued against anti-abortion group’s video

Planned Parenthood taps crisis communications firm

Why Planned Parenthood Can’t Donate Tissue Harvested From Babies

Rand: I Think We Have 58 Votes to Defund Planned Parenthood

House Leaves for Recess With No Vote to Defund Planned Parenthood

Satanic Cult Pledges Funds to Support Abortion Rights

World Explodes over Dead Lion, Ignores Planned Parenthood

Lion’s death draws more outrage than black deaths, activists decry

Minnesota dentist who killed Zimbabwe’s Cecil the lion draws threats, protests

Sweden far-right plans gay parade in mainly Muslim area

Transgender murder in California leaves community fearful and angry

Israeli Drag Queens Show Off in New Flight Safety Video

Mormons hint they may bolt Boy Scouts

North Korean Rep. Denies Christian Persecution, Claims American Evangelicals ‘Take Advantage of Drug Addicts and Homeless People’

Chinese Catholics and Protestants Unite in ‘Carry Crosses Everywhere’ Campaign to Protest Massive Government Crackdown on Churches

Priest performs exorcism from a helicopter to banish evil from Italian town where several churches have been robbed and defiled

Atlantic Journalist Thinks Religious Believers Belong in Straitjackets
David French, National Review

The Unknown Newton: A Symposium
New Atlantis

Rubio: Outrage Over Lion, but not Abortion?
Tom LoBianco, CNN

UNH President Offended by Bias-Free Language Guide
Holly Ramer, Associated Press


Daily Digest

July 30, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition.” —Thomas Jefferson, Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, 1791

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Illegal Immigrant With No ID Murders in Ohio

Barack Obama has said again and again that his immigration policies only deport the illegal immigrants who are the worst of the worst. But in prioritizing certain deportations, a Mexican who had no driver’s license, green card or birth certificate allegedly murdered a 60-year-old woman, attempted to rape a 14-year-old girl, and wounded another person. Juan Emmanuel Razo was only taken into custody July 27 after a shootout with Ohio law enforcement. But here’s the kicker: Immigration officials questioned Razo July 7 and decided to let him go; he had committed no crime at that point. This incident did not occur because of some local policy creating a sanctuary city — the policy that led to the murder of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco. But Razo’s case is still anecdotal evidence that a tough immigration enforcement strategy might have stopped this violence. (No one said Donald Trump didn’t have a point.) Now that Razo’s charged with a string of violent crimes, justice demands a reckoning — and sloughing him off to where he came from is not an option. The municipal judge, Judge Michael Cicconetti, said at the arraignment, “I can’t set a bond high enough. How in the hell do I even know it’s him?” Indeed, how could ICE verify that Razo — if that’s his real name — didn’t commit a violent crime before?

The Planned Parenthood Videos Just Keep Coming

The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) has a fourth video out this morning, and their press release gives this description: “New undercover footage shows Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains’ Vice President and Medical Director, Dr. Savita Ginde, negotiating a fetal body parts deal, agreeing multiple times to illicit pricing per body part harvested, and suggesting ways to avoid legal consequences.” Ginde, who was also a featured part of the third video, says, “We’d have to do a little bit of training with the providers or something to make sure that they don’t crush” a baby’s organs during second trimester abortions. She reveals that “sometimes … someone delivers before we get to see them for a procedure.” Which means potentially born-alive infants. Ginde also suggests, “Putting [this harvesting] under ‘research’ gives us a little bit of an overhang over the whole thing.” In other words, they can avoid legal trouble. She goes on to describe talking to attorney Kevin Paul, who she says has “got it figured … because we talked to him in the beginning, you know, we were like, ‘We don’t want to get called on,’ you know, ‘selling fetal parts across states.’” Finally, the CMP press release says, “As the buyers and Planned Parenthood workers identify body parts from last fetus in the path lab, a Planned Parenthood medical assistant announces: ‘Another boy!'” Yes, another murdered and dismembered boy.

It’s no wonder that Planned Parenthood is working to silence coverage in the Leftmedia, which is all too happy to oblige. People know this is so offensive they’d rather get worked up about a poached lion in Africa than dismembered children for sale.

Cincinnati Cop Caught Killing on Camera

University of Cincinnati police officer Raymond Tensing, 25, faces 15 years to life in prison for the murder of Samuel Dubose on July 19. His body camera caught the entire traffic stop on film. When Tensing ordered Dubose out of the car, Dubose instead started the car and began pulling away. Tensing yelled “Stop!” and drew his gun, firing a single round into the back of Dubose’s head. Tensing later claimed he was being dragged by the car and he feared for his life. But Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters said, “He wasn’t dealing with someone who was wanted for murder. He was dealing with someone who didn’t have a front license plate. This was, in the vernacular, a pretty chicken-crap stop. … I’m treating him like a murderer.”

There are undoubtedly cops who make terrible errors in judgment and abuse their power. Tensing appears to fall in this category, and we’re glad he was wearing a body camera to prove it. That practice should become more common. The one caution we’d add is that even this video doesn’t tell the whole story. Dubose had a lengthy record, though nothing violent, and he was not acting aggressively in this case. More important, every time a white officer kills a black man, leftists attempt to paint the entire law enforcement community with the same racist brush. Finally, on any given day in the U.S., there are 40 murders committed, frequently black on black. Who can name one?

Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column

Read The Trump Card — Ace of Anger Affirmation, a reality check on Donald’s populist rhetoric.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS

A Lesson in Picking Winnable Fights

By Allyne Caan

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Intraparty disagreements are hardly unusual in Congress, but when bickering moves from behind closed doors to the House floor, news is made. And Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) captured headlines this week by filing a motion to “vacate” the speaker’s chair — occupied, of course, by John Boehner.

In the motion, Meadows says Boehner has attempted to “consolidate power and centralize decision-making, bypassing the majority of the 435 members of Congress and the people they represent.” In an interview with radio host Mark Levin, Meadows added that he hopes his “colleagues will see that there’s something inherently wrong with the leadership that we have and it’s time for a change.”

It’s no secret Boehner doesn’t claim the title of conservative darling. This past January, House Republicans staged the largest defection from a sitting speaker in at least a century, with 25 members, including Meadows, voting for someone other than Boehner. And last month, 34 Republicans bucked Boehner by opposing the rule to bring Barack Obama’s trade bill to the floor. In retaliation, three of those members were kicked off the House whip team, and Meadows was given the option of resigning his subcommittee chairmanship or being demoted.

While dozens were willing to break from Boehner in these votes, far fewer are willing to seek his ouster. Indeed, Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Ted Yoho (R-FL) are two of just a handful publicly to come out in support of Meadows, with Jones claiming that “too many times, [Boehner] has used that position to intimidate and coerce.”

Be that as it may, it’s for good reason that the ouster effort has received so little support, as it’s quite likely this conservative trio is hurting the cause more than helping it by working to remove Boehner right now. It’s one thing to seek meaningful and substantive change armed with a plan of action and a roadmap for moving forward; it’s another to come out with guns-a-blazin’ and no strategy for moving forward following a loss, let alone a win (which, incidentally, isn’t going to happen here).

Now, lest you stop reading, fearing a forthcoming endorsement of Boehner’s leadership or a call for conservatives not to rock the political boat, don’t worry, neither is going to happen. But rocking the boat so you get thrown off while the establishment remains standing does not make a strategic — or effective — approach. If anything, it stages a dog-and-pony show for the media with ticket proceeds benefitting the Left.

Meanwhile, although conservatives’ hopes that House business would shift their way following the 2010 and 2014 election waves haven’t fully materialized, the fact that more and more Republicans are willing to stand their ground against the establishment is a good sign and a clear indicator that the conservative voice in Congress is growing stronger. And Meadows’ effort is one of those signs.

By all means, House conservatives should continue to buck leadership when leadership compromises conservative values, marginalizes the concerns of their grassroots base or succumbs to the Left’s propaganda machine. The leadership is certainly guilty of those things. And by all means, House conservatives should continue to seek a conservative speaker when the opportunity next arises.

Strategy, however, means knowing which shots to take and which to hold — not because they’re not clear shots but because, in the long run, they don’t contribute to taking new ground. Conservatives are justifiably angry at the unwillingness of the leadership to stand strong on principle, but the rush to die on every hill is self-defeating.

At the end of the day, Speaker Boehner will emerge from Meadows’ effort unscathed, while the Leftmedia will have been handed a story packaged complete with a bow. In the fight for true change, conservatives can do better.

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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

For more, visit Right Opinion.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Victor Davis Hanson: “For better or worse, illegal immigration is tied to race and ethnicity. No doubt, ignorant racism drives some to oppose illegal immigration. But by the same token, the advocates of open borders, many of them with strong ties to Mexico, would not be so energized about the issue if hundreds of thousands of Europeans or Africans were entering the U.S. illegally each year. There is too often a surreal disconnect about the perception of the U.S. in the immigration debate. Millions, we sometimes forget, are fleeing from the authoritarianism, racism, corruption and class oppression of Mexico. They have voted with their feet to reject that model and to choose a completely different — and often antithetical — economic, social, cultural and political paradigm in the United States. Somehow that bothersome fact is lost in the habitual criticism of a hospitable and magnanimous America. Then there is the matter of law. America went to war over the Confederate states’ nullification of federal laws. A century and a half later, do we really want hundreds of sanctuary cities, each declaring irrelevant certain federal laws that they find bothersome? For every left-wing city that declares immigration statutes inoperative, a right-wing counterpart might do the same with the Endangered Species Act, gun registration laws, affirmative action or gay marriage. The result would be chaos and anarchy, not compassion.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Here, I think, lies our real dilemma. Probably we cannot, certainly we shall not, retrace our steps. We are tamed animals (some with kind, some with cruel, masters) and should probably starve if we got out of our cage. That is one horn of the dilemma. But in an increasingly planned society, how much of what I value can survive? That is the other horn.” —C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

Upright: “If you criticize a huge government program that hands out checks with virtually no strings attached, opponents say you must hate the poor. On the contrary: If you care about your fellow man, you know that turning him into a passive welfare recipient robs him of his dignity and often dooms his children to a soul-deadening cycle of poverty. Making sure that welfare is a true hand-up and not a hand-out is, in fact, the true compassionate stance. The problem is that many conservatives fail to frame the issues this way.” —Ed Feulner

Dezinformatsia: “In fact, [the Republican] party now might even reject Nixon and Reagan.” —Larry King

Village idiots: “I have seen pictures from [the Planned Parenthood videos] and obviously find them disturbing. Planned Parenthood is answering questions and will continue to answer questions. … [T]his raises not questions about Planned Parenthood so much as it raises questions about the whole process, that is, not just involving Planned Parenthood, but many institutions in our country. And if there’s going to be any kind of congressional inquiry, it should look at everything and not just one [organization].” —Hillary Clinton

Non compose mentis: “I think they have a policy of opposition to us and of great enmity, but I have no specific knowledge of a plan by Iran to actually destroy us.” —John Kerry

And last… “John Kerry said Iran won’t use any of their $150 billion in newly-unfrozen assets to fund terrorists, because ‘they’re not allowed to do that.’ Great. It’s foreign policy by ‘gun-free zone’ sign.” —Fred Thompson

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Managing Editor Nate Jackson

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Debt Slaves: 7 Out Of 10 Americans Believe That Debt ‘Is A Necessity In Their Lives’

Debt Slave Debt Slavery Debt Bondage Debt Chains - Public DomainCould you live without debt?  Most Americans say that they cannot.  According to a brand new Pew survey, approximately 7 out of every 10 Americans believe that “debt is a necessity in their lives”, and approximately 8 out of every 10 Americans actually have debt right now.  Most of us like to think that “someday” we will get out of the hole and quit being debt slaves, but very few of us ever actually accomplish this.  That is because the entire system is designed to trap us in debt before we even get out into the “real world” and keep us in debt until we die.  Sadly, most Americans don’t even realize what is being done to them. (Read More…)


The South American Financial Crisis Of 2015

South America - Public DomainMost nations in South America are either already experiencing an economic recession or are right on the verge of one.  In general, South American economies are very heavily dependent on exports, and right now they are being absolutely shredded by the twin blades of a commodity price collapse and a skyrocketing U.S. dollar.  During the boom times in South America, governments and businesses loaded up on tremendous amounts of debt.  Since much of that debt was denominated in U.S. dollars, South American borrowers are now finding that it takes much more of their own local currencies to service and pay back those debts.  At the same time, there is much less demand for commodities being produced by South American nations in the international marketplace.  As a result, South America is heading into a full-blown financial crisis which will cause years of pain for the entire continent. (Read More….)


Is Obama taking Hillary out?

Mr. Obama needs a successor whom he can control to ensure that the “fundamental transformation of the nation” continues. He cannot control either of the Clintons. In a revealing “tell” this week, he said, “In 18 months, I’m turning over the keys. I want to make sure I’m turning over the keys to somebody who is serious about the serious problems that the country faces and the world faces.”

View Article


Obama Cronyism + Your Personal Data = Trouble – Malkin

The most far-reaching scandal in Washington that no one wants to talk about

It’s the most far-reaching scandal in Washington that no one wants to talk about: Tens of millions of federal employees had their personal information hacked as a result of Obama administration incompetence and political favoritism.

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Wake Up! Obama WANTS Iran to Nuke Israel

For the thousandth time: I am sick to death of Republican leaders refusing to acknowledge this criminal administration’s malicious intent, serial sabotage, and treasonous agenda. The longer Republicans mischaracterize the Obama administration’s actions as bungling, incompetent, inept, lacking leadership, weak, or out-of-touch, the more it appears that they are in collusion with the organized crime syndicate currently occupying the White House.

Barack Hussein Obama intends to make use of Iran in waging a proxy war against the nation of Israel which, as an Islamist (or at least an Islamist sympathizer), Obama loathes. Iran of course will be more than happy to serve in that role, once they have established a viable nuclear arsenal.

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Networks Covered Cecil the Lion More in 1 Day Than Abortion Videos in 2 Weeks

According to the Media Research Center, in just one day, the various broadcast networks’ news programs have already given the death of Cecil the Lion more coverage than two weeks of videos that appear to show Planned Parenthood senior officials ghoulishly trafficking illegally in dead baby parts:

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Obama, Kerry Opening the Door for Most Harm of Jewish People in History – Ben Stein

Wednesday on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show,” actor, author and former White House speechwriter Ben Stein said President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have “opened the door to more harm of Jewish people in the history of the world” with the Iran nuclear deal, which he called a “disgrace to humanity.”

Calling a potential nuclear attack by Iran on Israel a “second Holocaust in an afternoon,” Stein said,

View Article & short video


What’s left of our national character?

In this piece Lee Duigon, contributing editor with the Chalcedon Foundation, laments over what he refers to as the Satanization of  America. “It’s time we had great big statues of the Devil in all our major cities,” says Duigon.  “We might as well be honest about who we are, or who we’re turning into.” We keep piling […]

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Call it “research,” not “business,” Planned Parenthood doc says in latest sting video

Fox News has released another sting video along with this quote from Dr. Savita Ginde: “A lot of times, especially with the second [trimester fetuses], we won’t even put water, because it’s so big you can put your hand in there and pick out the parts.” Here’s the report:

A Colorado Planned Parenthood doctor stresses calling the harvesting of fetal tissue “research” and not “business” — and casually pokes around in a petri dish of aborted remains as a colleague exclaims, “Another boy!” — in the latest video released Thursday by an activist group whose hidden camera stings have imperiled the embattled nonprofit’s taxpayer funding.

The video’s release by the Center for Medical Progress comes a day after CMP was issued a restraining order preventing it from issuing any new footage of a group that worked with Planned Parenthood, StemExpress. But Thursday’s material focuses almost entirely on a woman identified as Dr. Savita Ginde, the vice president and medical director of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/30/call-it-research-not-business-planned-parenthood-doc-says-in-latest-sting-video/


Court Blocks Release of Undercover Video of Company That Buys Baby Parts from Planned Parenthood

According to Christian News Network:

A California court has blocked the release of undercover investigative videos featuring one of the companies that allegedly purchases the organs of aborted babies from Planned Parenthood.

The Los Angeles Superior Court issued a temporary restraining order on Tuesday banning the Center for Medical Progress from releasing undercover video footage of representatives of StemExpress, a “a multi-million dollar company that supplies human blood, tissue products, primary cells and other clinical specimens to bio-medical researchers.”

http://christiannews.net/2015/07/30/court-blocks-release-of-undercover-video-of-company-that-buys-baby-parts-from-planned-parenthood/


California Drought Could Wipe Cities Off Map If Their Water Runs Out

Because of the drought crisis in California, some people have lost everything. It’s far worse than most of us realize. According to a CBS Sacramento‘s report, one woman does dishes with bottled water. “In the days before help arrived, she didn’t use soap. She gave the leftover dishwater to her kids. Living in poverty with no running water, she may have to leave.” Wells and lakes are drying up, so families are packing up for Oregon, Illinois, Georgia — even Mexico to find work!

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2015/07/28/california-drought-could-wipe-cities-off-map-if-their-water-runs-out/


Even Iran Now Says That Obama And Kerry Are Lying About Iranian Nuclear Deal

Iran: Obama Admin Lying About Nuclear Deal for ‘Domestic Consumption’

“The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” Jeremiah 5:21 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: It is a curious feeling to be watching America energizing Iran and providing them with all the money, resources and time they need to become a nuclear military power. Barack Obama and John Kerry lie through their teeth daily to the American people about the Iranian Nuclear Deal, and like sheep to the slaughter we do nothing about it. 

Senior Iranian officials are accusing the Obama administration of lying about the details of the recent nuclear accord in order to soothe fears among U.S. lawmakers and Americans about the implications of the deal, which will release billions of dollars to the Islamic Republic while temporarily freezing its nuclear program, according to reports from Iran’s state-controlled media.

As Secretary of State John Kerry and other senior Obama administration figures launch a full-court press to convince Congress to approve the  deal, Iranian leaders are dismissing the rhetoric as “aimed at domestic consumption.”

iran-says-obama-kerry-lying-about-iranian-nuclear-deal-israel-must-strike

Kerry and other top administration officials have been defending the deal on Capitol Hill in recent days, claiming that it will rein in the Islamic Republic’s contested nuclear program and fix its nuclear “breakout” period, the time required for it to obtain the amount of highly enriched uranium necessary for a nuclear weapon, at one year.

Critics have noted that the deal provides Iran with billions of dollars in sanctions relief that could be spent on terrorism and lifts bans on Iran’s export of weapons and construction of ballistic missiles.

When addressing claims this week by the administration that the deal shuts down Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure, Iranian officials scoffed and said that the Obama administration is misleading the public in order to sell the deal.

Sen. Marco Rubio to John Kerry: “Deal says that If Israel strikes Iran, US has to go against Israel”

Hamid Baeidinejad, an official in the Iranian foreign ministry and one of the country’s nuclear negotiators, scoffed on Wednesday at the Obama administration’s comments, saying that they were meant to placate an American domestic audience.

“The remarks by the western officials are ambiguous comments which are merely uttered for domestic use and therefore we should say that there is no ambiguity in this (nuclear) agreement,” the Fars news agency quoted Baeidinejad saying in an interview with state-controlled radio.

This is why Barack Obama cannot be trusted on the Iranian Nuclear Deal:

Baeidinejad said that the Obama administration is misleading Americans about the deal in order to “calm opponents in the Congress and Zionist lobbies to soothe the internal conditions prevailing over debates on the nuclear agreement in that country,” Fars, which is also run by the Iranian state, reported.

As Congress spends 60 days reviewing the deal, which it may reject, the Iranian parliament is undertaking the same task. During a meeting on Wednesday with Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran urged world powers to keep its commitments under the deal.

These includes lifting sanctions on the nearly $100 billion dollar financial empire of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and agreeing to bar American inspectors from all Iranian nuclear sites. source


Congress Talks Defunding As More Baby Parts Videos Force Planned Parenthood To Hire PR Firm

Planned Parenthood has hired a Washington D.C. based crisis management firm to deal with the fallout.

WASHINGTON — David Daleiden, founder of the Center For Medical Progress (CMP), told conservative talk radio host Sean Hannity Tuesday there are nine more sting-operation videos that reveal Planned Parenthood’s operations.

baby-parts-for-sale-planned-parenthood-obama-defund

“We have close to 300 hours total of undercover video that was gathered during a 30 month long in depth investigative journalism study of how Planned Parenthood sells the body parts of the babies they abort,” Daleiden said, noting that each highlight video released will have the full footage posted on their website without any edits.

CMP has already released three videos showing Planned Parenthood officials, personnel, and doctors discussing the harvesting of aborted baby parts. Congress proposed legislation Wednesday to defund Planned Parenthood’s abortion activity and moving the money to community health centers and hospitals instead.

Planned Parenthood Uses Partial-Birth Abortions to Sell Baby Parts:

When asked by Hannity about criticism on whether local recording laws could harm CMP, Daleiden responded, “Every taping we did during this project was done in full compliance with the local recording laws. The video specifically from the pathology lab at the Planned Parenthood clinic that was included today, that was done in Denver, Colorado, which is a one party consent state, which is completely applicable.”

Daleiden added, “The California law is about confidential communications not those that can be overheard by anyone walking by, such as a situation in a crowded restaurant like the situations in the two previous tapes.” source


This Is What Happens One Hour After You Drink A Can Of Coke-Cola

Graphic Showing What Happens To Person’s Body After Drinking Can Of Coca-Cola Goes Viral

1. In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.

2. 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment.)

what-happens-one-hour-after-you-drink-can-of-coke-health-wellness-news

3. 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.

4. 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.

5. 60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.

6. 60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.

7. 60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

A recent Gallup Poll finds that 48 percent of Americans drink soda on a daily basis. source


Major U.S. companies go nuts for ‘gay’ rights

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 07:34 AM PDT

The “Wall Street wing” of the Republican Party is working with Democrats and LGBT rights activists to pass sweeping legislation that would make it a federal crime to discriminate against homosexuals and transgenders in housing, education and the job market. WND reported in earlier this month that the LGBT movement would not be content with the Supreme Court’s June 26 decision legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states. The real goal of the activists, with the generous help of corporate backers, is to parlay the court’s ruling into a wide-ranging civil-rights agenda that weaves its way into almost every nook and cranny of American life – schools, the workplace, even the church.

And it will be corporate America that plays the role of difference-maker in getting U.S. politicians to implement the plan. The bill introduced last week in both houses of Congress is called the Equality Act. Forty senators, led by Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., introduced “historic, comprehensive federal legislation to ban discrimination against LGBT Americans,” Merkley reported on his website. The legislation was filed simultaneously in the House by 158 lawmakers led by Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I. MORE

 

 

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California Drought Could Wipe Cities Off Map If Their Water Runs Out

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 07:19 AM PDT

The epicenter of California’s drought crisis is in the Central Valley, where there are growing fears the drought could wipe entire towns off of the map. Wells are going dry, jobs are harder to come by and families are already moving, either to different states or even Mexico in search of work.

Before visiting Tulare County, a place where wells have gone dry and some people are living in third-world conditions, we went to a place deep in the Mojave Desert that offers a dire warning of what can happen when the water runs out. MORE

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Growing unrest: volcanoes rumble and are shaken by earthquakes from Mexico to the Philippines

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 07:14 AM PDT

Mexico’s National Disaster Prevention Centre said in its daily report that the volcano registered a total of 80 low intensity exhalations and six explosions yesterday, releasing plumes of smoke between 1.5 and two kilometers high. Authorities are urging people not to get close to the volcano and particularly to its crater. Popocatepetl is the second tallest volcano in Mexico and is in the centre of the country.

Quake near Alaska’s Redoubt Volcano: A 6.3-magnitude earthquake has struck in Alaska, some 42 miles southwest of the active Redoubt Volcano, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has said. Notably, the earthquake also struck near Mt. Katmai, the site of the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. The epicenter was 9 miles south of Mt. Iliamna, another volcano in the area, the Alaska Dispatch News reported. According to the USGS, the quake hit about 141 miles southwest of Anchorage. The agency is forecasting “very light damage.” The earthquake was originally reported as having a magnitude of 6.2, but was later revised up slightly. USGS reported two minor tremors prior to the 6.3 magnitude one. Although the quake did not strike far from the Redoubt Volcano, there’s nothing to suggest activity has been triggered by the quake. There have been four confirmed eruptions at the volcano since the 20th century began, in 1902, 1966, 1989 and 2009. MORE

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House Passes Major Upgrade For Obama’s Security

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 07:06 AM PDT

The House voted Monday to beef up White House security, including more weapons and defenses for the building and training for the Secret Service. The measure would be a helping hand after a series of scandals have left the agency responsible for protecting the president with its tail between its legs. The Secret Service Improvements Act of 2015 will provide extra training for agents, upgrade the White House’s security, and increase transparency.

The Secret Service has had a series of failures: multiple White House fence jumpers, including one who made it all the way into the building, and allegations that two agents drove a car into a White House barricade after drinking at a party. MORE

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In Congress, Kerry unsure if Iran wishes to destroy US

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 07:01 AM PDT

US Secretary of State John Kerry told a Republican lawmaker on Tuesday he did not know whether Iran sought to destroy the United States. The exchange, during Kerry’s latest testimony to Congress on the July 14 nuclear accord between world powers and Iran, appeared to catch Kerry off-guard. “Is it the policy of the ayatollah, if you can answer for him, that Iran wants to destroy the United States?”

Texas Republican Lloyd “Ted” Poe asked Kerry during the latter’s Tuesday appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Is that still their policy, as far as you know?” Kerry responded: “I don’t believe they’ve said that. I think they’ve said ‘Death to America,’ in their chants, but I have not seen this specific.” “Well, I kind of take that to mean that they want us dead,” Poe replied. “That would seem like that would be their policy. He said that. You don’t think that’s their policy? I’m not mincing words. Do you think it’s their policy to destroy us?” MORE

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Something Catastrophic Is Coming: Should We Tune Out?

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 06:57 AM PDT

“I fear the day when technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” —Albert Einstein In my study I have a giant poster of one of my heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. One of his famous quotes is the following: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Today, I believe many people are being silenced having reached a breaking point. Because of distraction with electronic gadgets, a reluctance to stay engaged on unpopular issues, plus experiencing what seems like an avalanche of negative developments in our culture, many people are disconnecting or distancing themselves from news. They’re feeling disillusioned, discouraged and depressed.

I personally battle these very things. At times what’s happening in our nation seems overwhelming. Imagine if you’re ready to enroll at college in California and cultural confusion has brought us to the point where a student now checks a box answering the question, “What are you? 1. Male 2. Female 3. Transmale 4. Transwoman 5. Gender queer 6. Different identity.” Unbelievable! MORE

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Oklahoma Supreme Court Denies Appeal of Order to Remove Ten Commandments Monument

Posted: 29 Jul 2015 06:57 PM PDT

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has declined to accept an appeal of its order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state capitol grounds after it declared the presence of the display unconstitutional last month. “We carefully consider the arguments of the commission and find no merit warranting a grant of rehearing,” Chief Justice John Reif wrote on behalf of the nine justices, which ruled 7-2 not to accept the appeal.

As previously reported, the Oklahoma Supreme Court likewise ruled 7-2 last month that the monument must be removed because it violates Article 2, Section 5, of the Oklahoma Constitution, which states that property cannot be used to promote a “church denomination or system of religion.” “No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion, or for the use, benefit, or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary, or sectarian institution as such,” the section reads. MORE

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KERRY BOMBSHELL: U.N. in ‘secret deal’ with Iran

Posted: 29 Jul 2015 06:44 PM PDT

Secretary of State John Kerry testified on Capitol Hill Wednesday that the U.S. government will not be revealing to the American people the contents of “secret side deals” made with Iran on its nuclear enrichment program. The International Atomic Energy Agency, a unit of the United Nations, has negotiated two side deals with Iran involving critical data collection processes. Astonishingly, Kerry himself said Wednesday that he has not read the agreements but has been “briefed” on their contents.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wanted to know why these deals can’t be made public. “Why can’t we confirm or deny the content of these agreements in public?” Cotton asked in a Senate hearing. “Why is this classified? It’s not a sensitive U.S. government document. The Ayatollahs know what they agreed to.” “Because we respect the process of the IAEA and we don’t have their authorization to reveal what is a confidential agreement between them and another country,” said Kerry. Cotton said, “So the ayatollahs will know what they agreed to but not the American people?” MORE

 

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Fingers are Now Beginning to Point At Israel and Not Iran!

Posted: 29 Jul 2015 06:35 PM PDT

Claims that the Iran deal will spark a nuclear arms race in the region ignore the fact that Israel has led the race for the last 65 years. – The debate about the P5+1 agreement with Iran on its nuclear program has already produced a storm of angry rhetoric and a tsunami of opinion pieces. But one issue is notably absent from the debate: the fact that Israel has a nuclear weapons arsenal and sophisticated delivery systems that are decades ahead of anything Iran could develop in the foreseeable future. Iran should be constrained by a global regime from getting the bomb, but the notion that Israel is a weak powerless state like Czechoslovakia in 1938 is ludicrous.

The American intelligence community first detected the development of the Israeli nuclear weapons program through U-2 overhead imagery at the end of the 1950s. President John F. Kennedy pressed Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion very hard not to proceed with a weapons program, arguing it would precipitate a regional nuclear arms race. Under pressure from Kennedy, Israel agreed to American inspections of its French-supplied Dimona reactor, but then systematically blocked any serious inspection process. MORE

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Iran Deal Worth More Than All U.S. Aid To Israel Since 1948

Posted: 29 Jul 2015 10:25 AM PDT

The Iran deal will provide Iran with a cash windfall as sanctions are eased and assets are unfrozen. The total amount is estimated to be as high as $150 billion. If so, the Iran deal would give more cash to Iran than the $124.3 billion U.S. has given in total aid to Israel since 1948. The exact amount that Iran would gain through the unfreezing of its foreign assets is a matter of some dispute. The Israeli ambassador has put the number at $150 billion; the Obama administration puts the number at $50 billion, since some of Iran’s assets “have already been obligated, including for projects with China,” the New York Times reports.

Others say the number is higher; Foreign Policy estimated the number at “north of $120 billion,” with an additional $20 billion per year in oil revenues, making the deal worth $420 billion over 15 years. If “north of $120 billion” is the best estimate, that would equal or surpass the total amount of U.S. aid to Israel since the country has been in existence, which the Congressional Research Service calculated to be $124.3 billion (in nominal terms) as of 2015. Even at the Obama administration’s low estimate, the cash freed to Iran by the deal would surpass total U.S. aid to Israel for the past 15 years, at minimum (roughly $3 billion per year). MORE

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Christian Headlines Daily – Thursday, July 30, 2015

http://www.christianheadlines.com/

Top Headlines

Police Complicit in Attack on Christians in West Delhi, India

Oklahoma Supreme Court Says Ten Commandment Monument Must Go

Antarctica Loses Only Catholic Priest

Georgia School District Forced to Pay Atheist Group $22,500 for Coach-Led Prayers

Christian Man Fired for Calling Homosexuality ‘Immoral’ Files Suit against Ford

Chris Brown Hears God Speak, Says He’s Tired of Satan Ruining His Life

No Proof Bob Jones University Violated Sex Crime Reporting Laws

US State Department Grants Iraqi Christian Woman Visa after Public Uproar

Third Planned Parenthood Video Shows VP Selling Aborted Organs

Mark Driscoll Confirms Move to Phoenix, Sparks Speculation of Church Plant

Opinion

Jon Stewart Secretly Visited White House Twice

What is Planned Parenthood Hiding?

What Satanic Statue in Detroit Says about Us

How Relativism is Destroying the Christian Worldview

Is Russia Preparing for War in Space?


Only Two Religions!

I don’t know if you know this but there are only two religions in the entire world.

You might say I’m nuts.  There are hundreds if not thousands!

wearing masksBut there is one religion that likes to put on hundreds if not thousands of different masks on, and so ultimately there are only two: the religion of Human Achievement and the religion of Divine Accomplishment.

You see Islam, Mormonism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Judaism and every single religion that you have ever heard of, ultimately teaches some form of a works-based salvation. They say that you have to be a little more good than bad in order to make it to heaven. These religions encourage you to hand God a resume when you face Him one day. The resume will be filled with all your accomplishments. It will list everything you’ve done for other people, every penny you’ve given to charity and every good deed you’ve done. God will look over this resume and say, “Good job! You’ve made it into heaven”.

The problem is that if you were to enter into heaven because of a resume based on your accomplishments God would get no glory; you would be the one who gets all the praise. In fact, Ephesians 2:9 would say that salvation is not of works lest you patting-self-on-back-1should boast! Genesis chapter one shows us that God created the entire universe including you. Everything He created is designed to bring Him glory. The problem is that sin has entered the world, and from birth we all have replaced exalting God with exalting ourselves. Everything we do from birth is geared towards bringing us glory and bringing praise to ourselves. We all have a throne in our hearts that God should be sitting and reigning on, but instead we are born with ourselves sitting on it. We are so used to it we don’t even notice it to the point where we all think that our resumes are good enough to get us into heaven.

my mom thinks im coolOf course we are going to think that we are good people! Of course my mom is going to tell me I’m a good person! But what does your Creator think? He says in Romans 3:23 that we all have sinned and fall short of His glory. He also says in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. So if we stand before God and start listing accomplishments or hand Him a resume we might as well slap Jesus in the face because God is going to look at the resume and say, “I killed my only Son because you were not good enough to get to me!”

And that’s where the only other religion comes in.

The religion of Divine Accomplishment. God saw your situation, and decided that since man was so sinful and could not save himself, that He would come Himself and take the form of a man. He humbled himself, spent nine months in a womb he created, grew up with every temptation you and I face every day, but without sinning. He then died on the cross for our sins, and then rose from the dead and defeated death. He made it possible for human beings to stand before God one day and not hand Him a resume and condemn themselves further, but rather, tell God that they deserve His wrath but have placed their faith and trust in the work that Jesus did on their behalf on the cross and through His resurrection.

You see we need someone to be a substitute for us because no matter how hard we try, we can never bridge the gap between God and us. And the substitute can’t be merely a human.  It must be God Himself.

Do you see the difference between Christianity and every other religion?

Source


The Greatest Story Ever Told

Greatest StoryGod’s goal in all of His creative and redemptive work is to bring glory to Himself (Isa 43:7; cf. Eph 1:6, 12, 14).

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What is The Gospel?


“My Last Day” — the Jesus Anime

9 powerful minutes of animation that begins with a thief behind bars watching the scourging of Jesus, and it ends with the thief dying next to Jesus, and waking to see Him in a beautiful place.

The dying thief: What was so great about his faith?

There are many acts of extraordinary faith in the Bible. The one that has impressed me the most concerns the dying thief on the cross. We could take the approach that he had nothing to lose, so he decided to cast his lot with Jesus. But this makes absolutely no sense of the text and the context.
In this conversion we have a specific fulfillment of Christ’s first words on the cross. No sooner had Christ spoken the words, “Father, forgive them,” had the Father answered that prayer by turning a once-reviling criminal into a Christ-glorifying saint. While the soon-to-be converted criminal was not directly responsible for Christ’s death, he nevertheless joined with those who were and was thus indirectly addressed when Christ asked for God to forgive “them.”
Christ, the sinless one, was numbered with or counted among the transgressors (Isa. 53:12; Luke 22:37), all of whom have a bigger problem than the day-to-day sins they commit. They hate Christ, the God-man. Anyone who has a master other than the Lord Jesus hates him (Lk. 16:13; Gal. 4:8). That these two criminals loathed him is clearly manifested during the crucifixion: “And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way” (Matt. 27:44).
When the criminal who was converted was doing his worst against Christ, Christ was doing his best for this criminal.
The conversion of the one criminal was most extraordinary and testifies to the power of Christ’s prayer and the grace of God. Why?
This criminal’s faith did not come at a time such as when Christ turned water into wine; or performed miracles, such as walking on water, opening the eyes of a blind man, or raising Lazarus from the dead. No! The criminal believed on the Messiah while he was hanging as one cursed upon a tree. The criminal trusted in and boldly defended the one whose disciples had abandoned him. Jesus was at his lowest when this criminal asked to be remembered in Christ’s kingdom.
When he was on the cross, did anyone publicly cry out, as John the Baptist did, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29)? But this is essentially what the dying thief did. Little wonder, then, that Christ should promise him a place in his kingdom: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:43).
The criminal acknowledged he was guilty; he acknowledged that Christ was not (“this man has done nothing wrong”); he feared God; but, and here is the key: the criminal did not merely want to be in a better place. He wanted to be with Christ in a better place: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk. 23:42). The criminal believed “against all hope”.
Heaven is a better place because that is where Christ is. Everyone wants to go to heaven, but not everyone wants to go to Christ’s heaven. Not so with this criminal: he saw, with his eyes, Christ at his worst; but with the eyes of faith, he believed that Christ would soon be at his best, and so put his faith in a dying king.
Christ is always – always! – willing to save even the most miserable of sinners. A recognition of guilt (Lk. 23:40) and a confidence in him and not ourselves (Lk. 23:42) will always lead to the most assuring truth a sinner can receive: the Savior welcomes such into his paradise!
“One is saved, and we may not despair; the other is lost, and we may not presume.” Spurgeon
Source


Our Time is Short

Read: Recommitting Your Life To God and Jesus Christ – Restoration and Forgiveness With God and Jesus Christ (Updated Version)


Ready to start your new life with God?

Who do you think that I am?

With that brief question Jesus Christ confronted His followers with the most important issue they would ever face. He had spent much time with them and made some bold claims about His identity and authority. Now the time had come for them either to believe or deny His teachings.

Who do you say Jesus is? Your response to Him will determine not only your values and lifestyle, but your eternal destiny as well.

Consider what the Bible says about Him: Read more


Look to Jesus
Have you ever felt a little lost and wished there was a quick-start guide to your relationship with God? This is it!

30 Day Next Steps
John Beckett, a leading Christian businessman, has written a series to read over 30 days for new believers.

New Believers Guide
The New Believer’s Guide is a series of articles designed to show you how to walk in the new life Christ has given you— a life of faith and freedom.

Jesus Booklet
Jesus is the Savior of the world. Discover who Jesus is today in this series.

About Christianity
Know Jesus Christ and your life will be transformed


Truth2Freedom Blog Disclaimer

This post was originally posted on:

https://truth4freedom.wordpress.com

(Alternative News, Apologetics, Current Events, Commentary, Opinion, Theology, Discernment Blog, Devotionals, Christian Internet Evangelism & Missions Activist).

“A simple layman armed with Scripture is to be believed above a pope or a council without it…” – Martin Luther

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July 30, 2015 Truth2Freedom Daily Christian Blog/Article Collection

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SCOTUS: Too Much and Too Little

The root of the tragedy of the SCOTUS decision is that sexual orientation as a category of personhood is both too much and too little all at once, too weighty for the soul to bear and not capacious enough to portray God’s power to redeem, transform, lay down his life, and live again in and through His people. We are a Galatians 2:20 people, having been crucified with Christ so that we no longer live, but Christ alone lives in us. We died. We stand only in the risen Christ. This is as true and universal for those among us who struggle with same sex desire as it is for those who struggle with other sinful distortions of the fall, other indwelling sin patterns. 

Read More


5 Warning Signs for the Church in a “Facebook Culture”

“Surfacey” interactions/artificial relationships.  …. people might feel more connected, but they can really be more distant, at least from who they really are. In contrast, true Christian fellowship requires that we engage with people as we really are, so that we can honestly face our sin and grow together in Christ.

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The Future of Evangelicalism: Stronger, Smaller, and Stranger

Nominal Christians have long been the church’s “warm market.” They don’t have major obstacles to faith and are the most likely people to become committed believers. Yes, their exodus will purify the church. But, to continue with the marketing terms, when people are rushing to shed your label, it means you have a branding problem. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see this negative public perception lead to greater attrition.

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The Calvary Option?

Despised and mocked by all around him, he plods towards death, faithfully doing that to which he has been called.  But the Calvary Option is surely too grand a name for just doing my job. So I suggest we call it simply ‘the traditional pastoral work in an ordinary congregation option.’ Inelegantly phrased, I know, but it does seem to capture the essence of the matter rather nicely.

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Belief in a Historical Adam: A Call to Courage

Paul ascribes a real transgression to one real man just as he ascribes a real act of righteousness to one real Savior, Jesus (Rom 5:18). Adam is no a mytho-poetic literary construct. If he is then his trespass was not that of a real man and our need for the real obedience of the one man, Jesus, is really unnecessary. Even more, Christ’s resurrection would need no basis in historic fact. A real victory is not needed for an unreal fall.  Our theological beliefs are grounded in historical events. If those events did not happen, our faith is false.

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The 4 Most Embarrassing Things Cecile Richards Said In Defense Of Planned Parenthood

However, her main talking point — that the footage was edited — is completely refuted by the full release of the footage in question. Her subsequent talking point of straight up character assassination has no substantiating evidence. She may have been caught in a rather obvious false statement about how many clinics are engaged in fetal organ harvesting. And, finally, just because Planned Parenthood is structured as a non-profit does not mean their organ harvesting programs are legal or ethical.

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Liberating Christians from Their Cultural Captivity

At the same time, evangelicals must prepare to minister to the wounded, the refugees of the sexual revolution whose relationships have been wrecked by false promises of freedom and autonomy. When people are persuaded that they are free to “come and go” as they please, relationships will grow fragile and fragmented. Those around us will increasingly suffer insecurity and loneliness. The new polarization can be an opportunity for Christian communities to become safe havens where people witness the beauty of relationships reflecting God’s own commitment and faithfulness.

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Christians Shouldn’t Be Culture’s Morality Police

If more Christians were eating meals with non-believers, or with believers they didn’t always agree with, the Internet might look nothing like it does. We often replace face-to-face conversations with insensitive, irresponsible use of social media. The toughest discussions are the ones that require slowing down, pulling up a chair and pouring a drink together, because the words we type or affirm from a distance would so rarely come through our lips sitting inches away from another person, looking directly into their eyes.

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Would the Discovery of Alien Life Undermine Christian Theology?

by Pastor Brian Chilton

On Thursday, July 23rd, 2015, NASA announced a major discovery. NASA announced that scientists had discovered another Earth-sized planet “orbiting a sun-like star brings us closer than ever to finding a twin of our own watery world” (Brennan 2015). Astronomers have named the planet Kepler-452b. What is especially interesting about the planet is that it is in the so-called “Goldilocks Zone” which is an area from the sun that is just right to allow water on the planet.  Too far away from the host star and any potential water would freeze. Too close to the star and any potential water would burn out.  NASA said nothing about alien life except that Kepler-452b receives “about 90 percent of the energy we get from the sun. That’s a point in favor of life, if the planet’s atmosphere is something like ours” (Brennan 2015).

From the previous point, many sensationalist websites proclaimed that alien life had been found. But a further reading of NASA’s statement indicates that such an announcement is premature since “The planet’s true size and density remain unknown, however, which means it could still turn out to be a gas planet, hostile to like as we know it. And powerful magnetic fluxes also could mean periodic drop-offs in the amount of energy reaching the planet, by as much as 40 percent. These drop-offs could last for months” (Brennan 2015). In addition, the planet is around 500 light years away which would take us around 2,932,848,000,000,000 (2 quadrillion, 932 trillion, 848 billion) years to arrive at Kepler-452b. While life on Kepler-452b is highly unlikely, many have posed the question, “What if alien life is discovered in the universe? Would it affect or destroy Christian theology that holds that human life is made imagio dei (in the image of God)?” While it is highly unlikely that one would discover alien life in the universe, it is not impossible. Such a topic is, at least at the time of this writing, a theological exercise. But if alien life were to be discovered, obviously it would affect everyone—much as Columbus’ discovery of the New World sent shock waves to Europe. However, I do not think that the discovery of alien life would destroy Christianity or religion in general, for the following reasons…

The Poached Egg ApologeticsFOLLOW THE LINK BELOW TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>>

Would the Discovery of Alien Life Undermine Christian Theology? | Pastor Brian Chilton


Watch Biblical Prophecy Unfold

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Our Proximity to the Tribulation

We have the necessary technology for “every eye to see Him,” (Revelation 1:7). Equally, we have the technology now for the whole world to witness the preaching of the Two Witnesses and for the whole world to see the Beast confront them and kill them, and then leave them lying in the streets, whilst the whole world looks on in celebration.

View Article


 

23 Guidelines to Protect Your Purity

by Guest Blogger | 7/30/15

From the LYWB.com team: As we’ve tackled porn this week, we hope you’ve seen what to avoid in the battle for purity. But purity isn’t just about a list of don’ts. That’s why we wanted to pass along this great list of things you can do to protect your purity from Randy Alcorn. You can check out his original post here.

First of all, remember that if you plant purity today, you will reap a rich harvest, free from shame and guilt. And, by the grace of God, you’ll look back on your life not with regret, but with joyful gratitude. Sexual purity is ALWAYS in your best interest. Be smart, not stupid, and you’ll enjoy the best God has for you!

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality” (1 Thess. 4:3).

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“Research” Is Just A Cover

Putting it under ‘research’ gives us a little bit of an overhang over the whole thing. If you have someone in a really anti state who’s going to be doing this for you, they’re probably going to get caught.   —Savita Ginde, MD, Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains VP Medical Director.

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Browse Worthy: Is the Tide Turning on Planned Parenthood?

When the first of the videos exposing Planned Parenthood came out, I stated that the mainstream media was not giving this issue much notice.  I now gladly recant of that opinion.  As the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) continues to unveil other videos, each one more telling of the awful practices of the abortion industry than the previous one, the major networks are now having to cover it.

We need to use this opportunity to continue to press the wickedness of murdering the unborn deeper into the consciences of our fellow citizens.  Doing so will not be easy, for too many care more for an accidentally killed lion than a wrongly butchered baby.  Yet we need to be informed by watching videos such as these below, praying for God to awaken consciences, and being prepared to speak to others.  As we do, let us remember to do so humbly as Rosaria Butterfield reminds us in this post.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The second CMP video showing a Planned Parenthood executive discussing pricing:

Fox News report on the third video:

The third CMP video showing workers inside a Planned Parenthood clinic negotiating prices:

Brit Hume’s commentary on Fox News was piercing:

I conclude with George Stephanopoulos’ interview of Planned Parenthood’s President Cecile Richards. Though it is on ABC News and acknowledges the videos, it shows what we are still up against.  Notice how Richards uses repeated, chilling lies as she seeks to cast Planned Parenthood as a compassionate, non-profiting company (Note: She reportedly makes over $500K per year). The doublespeak continues.


Can We Define “Christian”?

First, for our international audience, please bear with us as we try to solve problems we are experiencing in our online streaming.  You can always catch our podcasts posted later today. More than 80% of the citizens of our nation call themselves “Christians”.   But many of them profess beliefs directly contradicted by the Word […]

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Laws, Lions and Lunacy

Simply opening the day’s newspapers, or tuning into the electronic news media outlets, can often reveal rather jarring juxtapositions. Today some of the talking points are lions, the ongoing expose of Planned Parenthood’s, and various reactions to both.

The big one is the story about the lion shot illegally in Africa. Everyone seems to be talking about this one. For those not aware of the story, it goes like this:

Cecil the lion – the most famous creature in one of Zimbabwe’s national parks – was killed by an American hunter who has boasted about shooting a menagerie of animals with his bow and arrow, The Telegraph can reveal.
Walter James Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota, is believed to have paid £35,000 to shoot and kill the much-loved lion with a bow and arrow. The animal was shot on July 1 in Hwange National Park. Two independent sources have confirmed the hunter’s identity to the paper, which has also seen a copy of the relevant hunting permit.

lionAnd the most recent media reports about this now mention that he has made a public apology for his actions:

Walter Palmer, the US dentist and big game hunter who killed Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe, has written a letter to his patients apologising for the disruption to their treatment while the international furore continues….
In the letter, addressed to his “valued patients”, Palmer once again stated that he thought the hunt was legal and that the proper hunting permits had been obtained.

Plenty of people are very concerned about all this. And I certainly am not begrudging the fact that they feel outraged, but I am questioning why it is that once again an animal death generates so much concern and public attention, while the slaughter of innocent babies does not even raise an eyebrow.

As my good friend Kathleen Linger has put it, “People are upset because the lion was supposed to be protected in a safe haven, but what about the unborn babies who are also supposed to be protected in the safe haven of their mothers’ wombs? Just as this lion was lured out of its safe haven, so the abortionists rip the babies out of their safe havens.”

And it is strange, but big-name folks like Ernest Hemmingway or James Joyce were famous for hunting lions in Africa and adorning the walls or floors of their homes with their skins. And of course how many millions of carnivores depend upon others to do the killing for them every day of the year?

Already zillions of hours of media time have been devoted to this story, yet the mainstream media is barely even talking about something far worse: the gruesome killing of babies and the harvesting and selling of their body parts. Why no media coverage about this? Why no international outrage about this?

While a few brave and responsible media outlets like Fox News have covered the PP story, most are not. This story is surely of far greater moral weight, and cuts deep into the very basic values of any civilised society. Yet it is mostly met with silence.

That tells me a lot about the moral meltdown that is so characteristic of the West. Any society that can remain silent about the wholesale destruction of millions of babies, and not even bat an eyelash over a menu of body parts for sale is a society that no longer can claim to be part of the civilised world.

Another news item which is utterly shocking concerns a recent judicial decision. A judged has weighed into the PP mess and said it has to stop. The killing of babies and selling of parts? Um no, the video exposes of this. Yes you heard me right. As one report states:

The California Superior Court has issued a narrow temporary restraining order preventing the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), a pro-life group, from releasing further undercover video footage taken of three top-level staff of StemExpress.
CMP is the organization behind the series of three videos released over the past three weeks exposing the alleged harvesting and sale of body parts from aborted babies by Planned Parenthood – body parts that are then purchased by StemExpress.
CMP has alleged that the fees paid by StemExpress to Planned Parenthood violate federal law prohibiting the sale and trafficking of human tissue.
While Planned Parenthood has claimed that the fees paid to them by StemExpress merely cover their costs, and fall within the bounds of the law, the video footage released so far has appeared to show Planned Parenthood employees seeking profit as part of the transaction.
In the most recent video, released Tuesday, a Planned Parenthood affiliate vice president was caught on video describing how the abortion organization can maximize profit. “I think a per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it,” Dr. Savita Sinde said of the aborted baby.
The Associated Press, which broke the news about the court order, reports that the undercover videos of the Stem Express staff were filmed at a restaurant in May.
It is unclear just how significant an impact the court order will have on the release of subsequent videos in the series. David Daleiden, the lead researcher with CMP, has said that at least nine more videos are slated for release.
The restraining order reportedly only pertains to the footage of the Stem Express employees, meaning that any other footage, including that featuring Planned Parenthood employees, can still be released as planned.
In an exclusive comment to LifeSiteNews after the release of the court order, Daleiden said that, at the end of the day, what happened in the courtroom may actually be a victory for the pro-life group.
“The ruling is very narrow, concerning only one specific meeting, and it is temporary and contingent pending further litigation,” he said. “The judge actually threw out completely the part of StemExpress’ case where they were asking to suppress the documents on their baby parts sales.”
“It was a much better day for us than it was for them and Planned Parenthood.”

As Kathleen also pointed out, why does this sound familiar? Surely courts in Germany in the 30s and 40s would also have blocked any attempts by concerned citizens to expose the nasty secrets of the Nazi killing machine. Hitler and his colleagues literally got away with murder in part by covering up what they were doing and silencing the critics.

So on it goes. We have fighting in the courts as to which is worse: the evil trade of PP, or the exposure of their dastardly deeds by concerned organisations. Incredible. But most of the media is utterly fixated on some poor lion. Again, don’t get me wrong: I am no fan of any unnecessary animal cruelty or killing.

But some folks are calling for the dentist to be hanged! Really. Sorry, but when these same folks start calling for the money-making mass murderers at PP to be hanged, then I might start to take them more seriously. Otherwise their selective moral outrage does not impress me one lousy bit.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/11767119/Cecil-the-lions-killer-revealed-as-American-dentist.html
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/cecil-the-lion-dentist-walter-palmer-writes-apology-letter-to-patients-20150730-ginhav.html#ixzz3hLP1E3kc
https://www.lifesitenews.com/static/breaking-court-blocks-pro-life-group-from-releasing-new-undercover-videos4.html?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=051858afec-LifeSiteNews_com_Intl_Headlines_06_19_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0caba610ac-051858afec-326193646


Dear Senator McConnell, defund Planned Parenthood now. @McConnellPress

The fourth video exposing Planned Parenthood has just been released. It is hard to believe that the revelations could get any worse, but they do. In this video, you will witness Planned Parenthood doctors picking through the mangled remains of a human baby trying to find parts to sell. You will also hear Planned Parenthood doctors say “It’s a baby” and “Another boy!” They know what they are doing. We know what they are doing. This is the face of evil, and it has to stop.

If you haven’t done so already, it is time for you to act. You need to send an email or a letter to your representatives in Congress. Here are instructions for finding and contacting your Senators. Here are instructions for finding and contacting your Representative.

For those who live in Kentucky like me, you can contact Senator Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul here and here. For those who live in Louisville, you can contact Representative John Yarmuth here. Below is the letter that I sent to each of them. Feel free to copy and paste this into your own letter. Whatever you do, contact them now. It’s time. It’s past time.

—————

Dear Senator McConnell,

I am appalled at the recent revelations of barbarism taking place at Planned Parenthood every day. As a nation, we are better than this. This daily destruction of human life should not even be legal, much less subsidized by the federal government.

So I am asking you to do everything within your power to defund Planned Parenthood. I’m also asking you to support any legislation that would protect human life at its earliest stages.

Thank you for receiving this letter and for serving Kentucky.

Sincerely,
Denny Burk


Shocking Gender Indoctrination in California

Stand Up For The Truth reports:

Do not be surprised, but young children are being taught that they can choose to be a boy or a girl — or both. Boys, for example, should be comfortable wearing girls’ clothes and nail polish, etc. And there aren’t just two genders, there can be a range. And, of course, the school does not allow parents to opt their kids out.
Redwood Heights Elementary School in Oakland, CA has hired a “gender coach” from “Gender Spectrum,” a radical gender group, to go into the classrooms. As Fox News observed, Gender Spectrum’s mission is to “create more gender-sensitive environments for kids.”

As the San Jose Mercury News reported

On Monday morning, children in Cynthia Bagby’s kindergarten class discussed whether there were, in fact, “girl colors” and “boy colors.” Some giggled when Joel Baum, the trainer from Gender Spectrum, read “My Princess Boy,” a nonfiction children’s book by Cheryl Kilodavis about her son who liked to wear dresses and a tiara.
Not surprisingly, in these tough economic times the program is being paid for by the California Teachers Association (CTA).

http://standupforthetruth.com/2015/07/shocking-gender-indoctrination-in-california-video/


First-Ever Televised Exorcism This Halloween Celebrates 66th Anniversary Of ‘The Exorcist’

Destination America is taking the reality television genre to a place it’s never been before, by airing an exorcism live on TV, with “Exorcism: Live!” in October.

“And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.” Revelation 9:6 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Over the past few years, America has become obsessed with dark things, even Pope Francis can’t stop talking about performing exorcisms. Just  last weekend, an 8 foot high statue of Baphomet was unveiled and hundreds bowed down to worship it. The Age of Grace is nearly at an end now, and what is waiting in the wings is truly frightening. But if you know Jesus as your Saviour, you can miss the coming time of Great Tribulation.

Exorcism: Live!” will air in October, just in time for Halloween, and to commemorate the 66th anniversary of “The Exorcist.” The event will follow the Tennessee Wraith Chasers, as well as the psychic medium Chip Coffey as they search through the Exorcist House, using state of the art technology to do daytime and nighttime investigations, documenting as much evidence as they can of demonic entities on live TV.

first-ever-televised-exorcism-halloween-celebrates-66th-anniversary-of-exorcist

The live event will take place at the original Exorcist House in the suburbs of St. Louis where the infamous ritual was performed on Roland Doe in 1949, and which inspired the film “The Exorcist.”

“As we step into one of the most haunted and well-known spirit destinations in America, ‘Exorcism: Live!” will show exactly what is inside this infamous, highly dangerous and possessed home.” said Marc Etkind, general manager of Destination America, in a statement. “By actually exorcising this iconic house live, Destination America will do what it does best — bringing never before seen experiences to television.”

“Exorcism: Live!” will air on Oct. 30 at 9 p.m. ET on Destination America. source


How To Pray.

HOW TO PRAY
Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Christ Fellowship Bible Church

As a shepherd, probably the most common prayer request I receive from God’s people is to pray that they would pray more and accelerate their prayer lives. How can we pray? Many people can relate to the request of the disciples: Lord, teach us to pray. This certainly isn’t exhaustive, but this brief essay will provide 5 helps to aid you in your times of meeting with God.

1. FELLOWSHIP WITH YOUR GOD.
Think of prayer as an intimate relationship with your Abba, Father. Consider that prayer is you crawling into the lap of your Father in heaven and adoring Him, thanking Him, confessing your sins to Him, and petitioning Him. His tender eye is upon you. His affections are kindled toward you. And He, like a Father, loves to fellowship with, commune with, share this time together with you, His beloved, blood-bought child.

2. PRIORITIZE PRAYER IN YOUR DAY.
You are no good till you meet with God. Resolve in your heart to meet with God before you meet with men. Warm your heart with the precious glories of Scripture before you face the onslaught of the dark world. Prioritize prayer. If you don’t, it won’t happen. At least, if you don’t plan to pray and prioritize it, you may push it aside till a more opportune time later in the day until you realize that you’re just too tired, can’t focus, and have too many distractions. So, believer, wake up early, meet with God. Awaken the dawn with your praises and seek God early! If anything has to give each day, let it be something other than your prayer time. Are you busy? Then pray more!

3. PRAY WITH YOUR BIBLE OPEN.
Prayer is talking with God. Talking to God is wonderful and essential but don’t forget that conversations best occur when there is a two-way dialogue. So, hear God speak through the written Word. Daniel prayed as he read Jeremiah’s prophecy. Let God’s people open the Bible and pray through the psalms — verse by verse — and through Paul’s prayers in the Epistles. Are your prayers rote, boring, mindless and heartless? Do you pray the same thing every day and feel tired of not having enough to pray for? Then, open your Bible and turn God’s promises into prayers. Take your Father’s written Word and turn them into prayers. A Father can’t refuse His own promises! Make a case & build the argument with God.Take His Word and His promises & turn them into prayers.This is how you pray according to the will of God so that He cannot refuse His own Words. Make the case, stand and watch, see God answer far beyond your expectations!

4. SPECIFICALLY PRESENT YOUR REQUESTS.
Rather than praying that God would ‘be with them’ and that ‘God would bless America’ and that ‘God would go with them’, perhaps consider praying more specifically, more thoughtfully, more intentionally and more biblically. Paul said that he thanked God for all the believers in Thessalonica (1 Thess 1:2). Pray for revival, pray for God’s strengthening of the weak, pray for those who evangelize, pray for God to revive your soul, pray specifically and watch God answer.

5. INTERCEDE FOR YOUR CHURCH FAMILY.
Do you not know what to pray for? Do you need revitalization in your prayer times? Then take your church’s membership role and begin praying for each person by name. Pray specifically? Do you not know how to pray for them? Then seek them, pursue them, ask them, pray for them, and follow up. Pray for your preachers and teachers. Pray for their wives and for spiritual protection. Pray for the families, for sexual purity, for the youth, for the young children, for every ministry in the church (specifically), for every missionary (by name), and for every elder (by name).  Pray for the Spirit’s power. Pray for many conversions and for holiness. Intercede and see God mightily work.

Download the pdf article.


Four Promises for Our Breakups

Four Promises for Our Breakups Relational breakups hurt. They hurt because we feel rejection from others, but they also hurt because they expose our personal flaws.When the anger subsides, we search inside to determine what about us failed to meet the expectations of a former friend or former boyfriend or former girlfriend.

So what hope does God offer to Christians in the pain of breakups?

The question came from a young man who recently asked John Piper in what will become a future episode in the Ask Pastor John podcast.

What follows is an edited transcript of Piper’s response.


Let me begin with a few examples of painful breakups.

  • You are a thirteen-year-old girl, and you get a note from your best friend at school: “I don’t want to be your friend anymore.”
  • You are dating, and you develop a sense that this could be going into something beautiful and lasting, and your girlfriend says, “I don’t think we should keep seeing each other.”
  • You are engaged, and two months before the wedding, when everything is in full swing, your fiancé says, “I just can’t do it. I can’t go forward. I don’t think this is going to work.”
  • You have tried over and over again to be a part of various groups at church or work, and nobody ever reaches out to you. Nobody ever follows up. All of your initiatives at friendship lead nowhere. And you are alone most of the time. Nobody calls. Nobody invites you to go anywhere or to do anything.

Now, in their own ways, those are each incredibly painful experiences of rejection.

Six Bad Breakup Responses

So let me mention six possible responses that are not addressing the issue. They are escapes. And so I hope and pray that people will hear these and say, There is another way forward.

Number one. We might experience thoughts of suicide. We have invested that much in this relationship, that without it, life simply doesn’t look worth living. (Piper addresses suicide in greater detail here.)

Number two. We might express our pain with anger: “What a jerk. Who needs her anyway?”

Number three. We might retreat into utter reclusiveness, become a social hermit, and never risk that kind of relationship again.

Number four. We might try to medicate our sorrow by drinking alcohol, or by overeating, or by throwing ourselves totally into our work with no attention to people at all anymore.

Number five. We might respond with self-hatred that expresses itself in anorexic extremes or cutting ourselves. I knew a young woman who was cutting her stomach every few months to get to the hospital to get stitches. I asked her, “What can you share with me — anything that would help me understand what this means?” And she said, “I enjoy the attention I get in the emergency room.” So you could go to that extreme of cutting yourself or starving yourself.

Number six. We might double down on external improvement, so that we can finally earn somebody’s admiration. So she is going to work on her figure. She is going to work on her hair. She is going to work on her wardrobe. And he is going to work out more, and he is going to take some classes. I want to be a good conversationalist, and I am going to fix my outward person, so that somebody will finally like me.

Now all of those responses leave pretty much untouched the core issue, the huge painful question mark that this breakup caused. None of those six responses addresses my core identity or my core relationship or my core joy.

My Identity

So here is where Jesus, the Lord of the universe, the Savior of the world, is absolutely essential in addressing those things. He does four things for us.

1. A God Who Created Us

God created us so that we would trust in his wisdom and sovereignty and goodness, and so that we would not throw ourselves away as defective and worthless. If we do, we are not trusting him. He made us with our basic intelligence, our basic personality, and our basic body. And if we make the judgment that we can’t be redeemed, we can’t be loved, or we can’t be useful, we are lying about him. We are not trusting him. So first, he gives us our basic significance on the earth, since he makes no mistakes in what he creates. That is number one. He created us.

2. A God Who Loves Us

God accepts us, and forgives us, and loves us, in spite of all the effects or defects that may push others away. If we will trust him, he justifies us freely. This is the great precious doctrine of justification by faith alone. We don’t first measure up and then get accepted with God. We may with others, but not with God. We are accepted because of Christ, because of Christ and his perfections, not our perfections. And we tap into that through faith alone. That is the rock bottom fact of our existence and identity. That is our core relationship, and it is a gift, and it outweighs in preciousness all other relationships.

3. A God to Satisfy Us

He satisfies us. Christ satisfies us with something infinitely greater than a good self-image; namely, himself.

The greatest happiness is not standing in front of a mirror and liking what we see.

The greatest happiness is not standing in front of the world or your girlfriend and having them or her like what they see.

The greatest happiness is not even standing in front of God and having him like what he sees. I admit, that is spectacular and I want that, and I am going to get that, Lord willing, because faith is tapped into Christ.

The supreme satisfaction of our souls is that we stand in front of God and are thrilled by the beauty of God outside of us. He is all at that moment, and he is our highest joy. The highest joys are self-forgetful joys in the presence of infinite beauty.

4. A God to Strengthen Us

Because we have a core identity created by God, and a core relationship as accepted and loved by God through Christ on the basis of Christ, and a core satisfaction because we see God as supremely beautiful on the basis of all of that, we now have the inner strength to move out into the world. We no longer need to crave other people’s acceptance, but we delight to pour ourselves out to serve other people. All our relationships, then, are not rooted in craving, but in serving, which may or may not have the spin off effect of people wanting to be with us. But that is not the point. That is spin off.

So I am not saying that life is without relational pain. Every one of those losses I described can happen to Christians. They are going to happen. And they will hurt. What I am saying is that in Christ we have all we need to live useful and joyful lives through that kind of rejection and pain.


Listen to the full ten-minute audio recording of John Piper’s answer here:


Related Resources


Hillsong: A Breeding Ground of False Converts, and Your Church Pays For It.

It is the bounden duty of every Christian to pray against Antichrist and as to what Antichrist is no sane man ought to raise a question. If it be not the Popery in the Church of Rome, there is nothing in the world that can be called by that name. . .It wounds Christ, because it robs Christ of His glory, because it puts sacramental efficacy in the place of His atonement and lifts a piece of bread into the place of the Savior and a few drops of water into the place of the Holy Spirit and puts a mere fallible man like ourselves up as the Vicar of Christ on earth. If we pray against it, because it is against Him, we shall love the persons though we hate their errors; we shall love their souls though we loathe and detest their dogmas. And so the breath of our prayers will be sweetened because we turn our faces toward Christ when we pray.

– Charles H. Spurgeon 1

By far, the greatest evil in the church are the works of darkness that creep in unaware to dilute the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, while building a false church that serves the interest of man. One of the major players in these days of iniquitous works is the world-wide organization known as Hillsong Church. Hillsong has fed much to the evangelical church in the way of wickedness through it’s many programs, especially its music production program. Hillsong’s music is played in nearly every evangelical church in the world, as well as many Roman Catholic churches. The purchase of every piece of “worshipful art” from them goes to support their works and pays homage to their apostasy.

Does your church worship service include Hillsong’s music?

Hillsong church is a breeding ground for false converts. Some of their New York campus’ flagship products include the homosexual couple, Reed Kelly and Josh Canfield, in which Canfield volunteers as a choir director 2 and Justin Bieber, who has continual run-ins with the law. 3

Hillsong Australia’s former worship pastrix, Darlene Zschech, has taken the apostate nature of Hillsong’s artisanship to the highest level.

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. – Eph 5:11

Zschech has chosen instead to bear false witness to the world, blaspheming the Holy Spirit by attributing evil deeds to Him that he did not do. 4 In a recent blog post, she wrote,

I am writing this mid-air on my way home from Singapore after an amazing time away speaking, leading worship, writing songs, being with dear friends. It has been wonderful. And, to see what the Holy Spirit is doing around the earth is completely breathtaking. Even in all the expressions that make us different as God’s colourful church, its incredible to me that when the Holy Spirit draws near, His role in our experience of following Jesus makes us so very similar.

What is she referring to? Her recent capitulation to Rome–the Vatican, at an ecumenical worship event lead by the Roman Catholic Church. Don Moen, an American “worship leader” with close ties to Zschech and Hillsong 5, who also participated in the event was quoted as saying in an article at Christianity Today,

This ecumenical event brings Protestants, Catholics, and Jews together as we pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being martyred and persecuted all over the world today 6

I find it extremely difficult to reconcile this mindset, the acceptance that contradictory beliefs can all be from the same God, as a work of the Holy Spirit. She refers to it as “different characteristics, faces, tastes and giftings.. yet a DNA running through our veins that draw us together.” In Philippians 2:2, Paul teaches us to be “of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” True Christians can only be united around the truth because God is truth.  She goes on to say,

A few months ago a very interesting email turned up in my office inviting me to sing at a beautiful event called the ‘Catholic charismatic renewal’ at St Peters Square, to actually lead songs of worship with others as the Pope called people to prayer and unity…Most invites I receive, I am unable to say yes to, but when Mark and I feel a peace about it, I go…This invite to Rome was about many different denominations coming together to pray for the world…

The Holy Spirit does not lead Christians into an ecumenical, multi-god “praise and worship” event put on by the ancient enemy of the Gospel, the Roman Catholic Church. It’s quite the opposite. The Holy Spirit leads people out of Rome, and out of apostasy (Revelation 18:4). The Holy Spirit finds what Zschech claims she was led to do by Him as totally unacceptable (Eph 5:11).

Zschech has been deceived, as many from Hillsong have, that doctrine is of no importance in the Christian life 7, and that all who name the name of Christ–Roman Catholics, homosexuals, unrepentant sinners–as long as you name Christ, we are all united in that confession. She goes on to say,

I was not there to judge, I was not there to become a Catholic, I was not there to sightsee. But I WAS there to lift up the name of Jesus.. without any hesitation or compromise.. for as I have learned over many years, that once Jesus is the centre.. anything can happen.

Right Darlene, let’s not judge, let’s just jump on the bandwagon of feel-good music, man-centered pep talks and motivational speaking, all while we judge those who truly want to hold to sound doctrine and see people come to a true saving faith in Jesus Christ. “Once Jesus is the center, anything can happen,” she says. The center of what? Your blasphemous, idolatrous event that mocks who he is, and what he has done? Jesus will not be mocked (Gal 6:7). You can rest assured that the Jesus of the Bible was not the center of that event–rather he was looking down at you, calling you to repent. You have more than compromised his name, you have outright denied him.

Nonetheless, she believes that the Holy Spirit has brought her together with the Pope, the Roman Catholic Church, to lead thousands of lost people in an ecumenical worship service, united under a false Gospel, and a false Jesus. But this isn’t surprising considering apostasy coming out of the church she was brought up in. Hillsong has focused on a works-based gospel–a social gospel, nearly identical to that of Rome 8 9. She continues,

A message was preached about the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our midst, and about the great grace of God which we are all dependent. Pope Francis asked the crowd to declare loudly,’Jesus is Lord’ three times and each time it grew in confidence and intention. Worship was lifted up which had the many thousands of people who attended all singing in free-flowing moments which to be honest, was reminiscent of a time I sang on a John Wimber crusade in New Zealand many years ago.

So the Pope asks the crowd to repeat a mantra, and their “confidence and intention” grew with each repetition? Strangely, this sounds a lot closer to Eastern Mysticism than to Christianity. Besides the fact that vain repetitions are forbidden in Scripture (Matthew 6:7), we are taught to humble ourselves before the Lord. We don’t use him as a wishing well. However, this practice is nonetheless rooted in the heretical Word of Faith movement that teaches that our words have the power to speak things into being. Proponents of this heresy, such as Kenneth Copeland, have argued that since God was able to speak things into existence, that man has been endowed with the ability to do the same, equating faith to a “creative force.” 10

She closes her blog with some very troubling statements–statements that are indicative of the lost state of her soul, as well as many others. She says:

It all comes down to a seeking heart. And a God, who is seeking us, is NOT defined or intimidated by denomination, liturgy, age or preferences… the TRUTH of our hearts toward Him is what He is after. Not controlled or manufactured, outside in expressions of lives trying to present a Holy life. Jesus, only Jesus is the answer. He takes us as He finds us. He works with us every day, from the inside out, patient and kind in His love for us and His ultimate work in our lives, leading us daily in our life’s purpose.

She’s right that Jesus is the only answer, but which Jesus? The Jesus of the Roman Catholic Church is not the same Jesus of the Bible. The Roman Catholic Jesus is a Jesus who is summoned by a priest, and dwells within the body of a wafer during his repeated sacrifice on the altar of the Satanic temple daily.

So yes, I did meet Pope Francis. And yes, I did witness something truly miraculous…Change is happening all over the planet. There is a hunger for the truth of being a Christ follower, and so Christ followers need to be found EVERYWHERE.. that we will be a witness BY OUR LOVE.

Change is certainly happening all over the planet, but it’s not for the truth. The Bible teaches there will be a great falling away, a rebellion against God in the last days (2 Thes 2:3), and we see it happening right in front of our eyes. The apostate church of Rome is leading the way, andZschech, and Hillsong are right behind them. 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 says that people like Zschech are “false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” Zschech, is following a false path, and teaching a false Gospel. Her ends will correspond to her deeds.

Finally, she has this to say,

C’mon church. Isaiah 60 says to ARISE SHINE Thy light has come that even as the earth grows darker, Christ’s light in us shines brighter. Let’s not be dulled down by a lack of understanding, or a judgmental attitude. I had to continually remind myself that I was there to announce and declare the Kingdom of God and not to fault find but to be aware and awake to something very precious. And so on we go, hearts and hands ready for all God is calling us into.

Folks, this lady is totally, and completely lost. She has absolutely no idea who Jesus Christ is, what he has done, or why he has done it. Yet, her music is played in solid churches and listened to by faithful people all around the world. Why do our churches continue to promote and support the rank heresy that comes out of Hillsong Church? Is it because we don’t any better? Arguably, most evangelical churches are on the same page as Zschech, but some would openly reject this false doctrine, and preach it back to the pits of Hell where it belongs, yet they are completely blind to the fact that they are supporting it, and feeding it, by purchasing the rights to this music to lead their faithful congregations in worship of the one true God. Can we not see the absolute hypocrisy here? Why?

For an explanation of the true Gospel, see here.


How to Move Forward

Would you like to know how to move forward and stop living in the past? Who doesn’t? Today’s guest blogger is Julie Ganschow, a biblical counselor and director of Reigning Grace Counseling Center in Kansas City, Mo, who shares how to move past the past and go forward. Read the original post here. Reprinted with permission.

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Some women really, really struggle with ceasing to live in the past. Partly because their traumatic past wants to cling on into the present, and partly because there are things in the past that while they no longer participate in the behavior, they have not truly forsaken it.

Why People Get Stuck in the Past

Let me explain by way of example. Imagine a person who was a drunk and enjoyed being a drunk has sobered up. They have not had a drink for about a year but the thoughts of all that fun they had while drinking and partying are with them daily. They may have distanced themselves from the participation in drunkenness but they have not truly forsaken it.

He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion. Proverbs 28:13 (NASB)
The word forsake is a powerful word in the Bible. It means that you utterly abandon it and have nothing whatsoever to do with it–nothing. This is where I see most people get stuck. Like the drunk in the above example, they may have confessed the sin, but they keep doing it over and over in their thoughts. They play around mentally with it going over it repeatedly, mentally committing that sin or activity over and over. Honestly, part of them enjoys that sin. This is a great hindrance to moving on because the person really has not forsaken the sin. In time the person will repeat the sin.
Like a dog that returns to its vomit Is a fool who repeats his folly. Proverbs 26:11 (NASB)
The failure to radically amputate not only the sinful behaviors of the past but also the thoughts and desires that accompany the memories is why many remain consumed with the past.

The Problem: Idols of the Heart

A part of the process of growth and change is to stop the behavior and learn and practice new and godly behavior, but more importantly to renew the mind with thoughts that are true, honest, and of good report (Philippians 4:8). This means learning the critical place of the heart and understanding that the problem is not the “problem.” It is not simply the drinking, the shopping, the overspending, the semi-pornographic television or whatever action we are talking about. The problem is the heart, the idols of the heart and how powerful the desires are and what a critical place they have in your growth, or lack of it.

Another reason for wallowing in the past is when you equate being forgiven with having forgotten.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (NASB)
This verse tells us that our sins are completely forgiven by God. That is a true statement. When God forgives He forgives completely. Some people get stuck because while they understand they are completely forgiven they don’t forget. They mistakenly thing that forgiveness equals forgetting.
… For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will already know me,” says the LORD. “And I will forgive their wickedness and will never again remember their sins. Jeremiah 31:34 (NLT)

AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE. Hebrews 10:17 (NASB)

Notice what these verses say. The phrase “I will remember no more” is important to understand. What it means is God will choose not to recall our sins and iniquities for the purpose of punishment. It does not mean God forgets. God chooses not to dwell on our past sins. We have the same choice because we have been indwelt with God’s Spirit.

You can choose not to dwell on the things of your past and get stuck in misery.

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.  2 Corinthians 10:5 (NASB)

Choose Your Thoughts

This is not going to come automatically, you must deliberately choose to take every thought captive according to the commands of the Lord. You must choose to obey.

Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life. Proverbs 4:23 (NASB)

And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 (NASB)

Your thoughts will be taken captive and changed as you choose to obey Philippians 4:4-6 and Romans 12:1-2.

For as he thinks within himself, so he is. Proverbs 23:7 (NASB)
What you are thinking about becomes who you are according to this verse. One who constantly meditates on yesterday’s sins and failures is programming herself to believe they are still true of her today! If your parents told you that you were a failure and a horrible child and you believed them, then you became what you believed you were.
If you think you are an alcoholic and you believe the disease model, then you also believe there is no hope that you can ever be anything but a “recovering” alcoholic. There is no victory in that, no hope and no freedom.

Believing God Is the Way Forward

1 Corinthians 6 lists a bunch of nasty things that defined who and what many of us were before we were redeemed: fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers. But note what Paul says about us:
Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11 (NASB)
So, has the Word of God convinced you? Are you ready to accept the fact that you are free of the confessed sin and weight of your sinful past? I hope so! Believe in what the Lord says and go forward in faith and in truth.

BCC Resources for YOU!

DOWNLOAD: Snag this free download on how to grow in Christ and have victory.
COUNSELING: Are you sick of being stuck in the past? Do you want to move forward? If you answer “yes” to either question, then make an appointment with one of our certified biblical counselors! We have four offices in greater Chicago AND we counsel by Skype in the U.S. and all over the world. Contact us to find out more.

The post How to Move Forward appeared first on Biblical Counseling Center.


Sometimes It’s Just Easier To Care About Dead Lions Than Dead People

http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/sometimes-its-just-easier-to-care-about-dead-lions-than-dead-people/

07/30/15 Rituals or Relationship?

READING: Isaiah 49-53

TEXTS AND APPLICATION: I suppose I need to be honest here. Sometimes believers, beginning with me, go through the motions of Christianity more than truly live Christianity. Such was the situation for the Hebrews in Isaiah 58. God told Isaiah to announce their sin like a trumpet blaring (Isaiah 58:1) — apparently because they needed a loud wake up call. Listen to His words to them:

1.  They do the right things and say the right words. 
Isaiah 58:2  “They seek Me day after day and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not abandon the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.”

2. But, their religious rituals — particularly, fasting, were only that: religious rituals. The people were inauthentic in their faith, assuming they could manipulate God by going through their motions. 

Isaiah 58:3-4  “Why have we fasted, but You have not seen? We have denied ourselves, but You haven’t noticed!” “Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast, and oppress all your workers. You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today, hoping to make your voice heard on high.”

In essence, the people thought their religion was a means to an end: if they followed the right rituals, God would be obligated to do their bidding. What they failed to realize is that God cannot be manipulated. He will not be used by a people who talk religious lingo and do religious stuff, but who then live in such a way that they oppress others and cause dissension. The God of the Bible expects our faith to be genuine, evident, and life-transforming. A true relationship with Him recognizes that rituals are not enough.

These texts remind me that one way to evaluate my walk with God is to ask, “Do I get frustrated with God when I’ve been doing what I’m supposed to be doing, but still He does not respond to me?” If so, it might be that I’m depending more on rituals than on a relationship. I might need a trumpet-blaring wake up call.

PRAYER: Let’s pray together today for an honest evaluation of our Christian walk. Pray that our relationship with God would be genuine and deep — so deep, in fact, that we could trust Him even when He seems not to respond to our faithful observance of our rituals.


Judging Planet Earth

judgement

Commentary by Jack Kelley

The combination of the Rapture and the Battle of Ezekiel 38 will fill the world with anguish and uncertainty as Daniel’s 70th Week begins. Where did all those people go? How did Israel so utterly destroy that massive invasion force all by itself? How did all these things happen so suddenly?  Why didn’t somebody see this coming and do something to prevent it?

continue reading


So Will His Righteousness – Your sin will eventually find you out, but so will Christ’s righteousness.

The Lost World of Adam and Eve – Steve Ham of Answers in Genesis has written a long and thorough response to John Walton’s The Lost World of Adam and Eve.

The Speechwriter – The New York Times did a review of a book I read recently and really enjoyed: The Speechwriter by Barton Swaim. It’s an inside look at working for South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.

The Spanish Inquisition – Stephen Nichols offers a brief history of the infamous Spanish Inquisition.

Why Planned Parenthood Can’t Donate Tissue Harvested From Babies – I continue to pray that this situation serves as the tipping point in culture’s view of abortion.

The Tragedy of iTunes – I don’t have as much classical music as I’d like, but I completely agree with this author that Apple’s new music service is utterly appalling. And I say that as a committed Apple fanboy.


Only Two Religions!

I don’t know if you know this but there are only two religions in the entire world.

You might say I’m nuts.  There are hundreds if not thousands!

wearing masksBut there is one religion that likes to put on hundreds if not thousands of different masks on, and so ultimately there are only two: the religion of Human Achievement and the religion of Divine Accomplishment.

You see Islam, Mormonism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Judaism and every single religion that you have ever heard of, ultimately teaches some form of a works-based salvation. They say that you have to be a little more good than bad in order to make it to heaven. These religions encourage you to hand God a resume when you face Him one day. The resume will be filled with all your accomplishments. It will list everything you’ve done for other people, every penny you’ve given to charity and every good deed you’ve done. God will look over this resume and say, “Good job! You’ve made it into heaven”.

The problem is that if you were to enter into heaven because of a resume based on your accomplishments God would get no glory; you would be the one who gets all the praise. In fact, Ephesians 2:9 would say that salvation is not of works lest you patting-self-on-back-1should boast! Genesis chapter one shows us that God created the entire universe including you. Everything He created is designed to bring Him glory. The problem is that sin has entered the world, and from birth we all have replaced exalting God with exalting ourselves. Everything we do from birth is geared towards bringing us glory and bringing praise to ourselves. We all have a throne in our hearts that God should be sitting and reigning on, but instead we are born with ourselves sitting on it. We are so used to it we don’t even notice it to the point where we all think that our resumes are good enough to get us into heaven.

my mom thinks im coolOf course we are going to think that we are good people! Of course my mom is going to tell me I’m a good person! But what does your Creator think? He says in Romans 3:23 that we all have sinned and fall short of His glory. He also says in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. So if we stand before God and start listing accomplishments or hand Him a resume we might as well slap Jesus in the face because God is going to look at the resume and say, “I killed my only Son because you were not good enough to get to me!”

And that’s where the only other religion comes in.

The religion of Divine Accomplishment. God saw your situation, and decided that since man was so sinful and could not save himself, that He would come Himself and take the form of a man. He humbled himself, spent nine months in a womb he created, grew up with every temptation you and I face every day, but without sinning. He then died on the cross for our sins, and then rose from the dead and defeated death. He made it possible for human beings to stand before God one day and not hand Him a resume and condemn themselves further, but rather, tell God that they deserve His wrath but have placed their faith and trust in the work that Jesus did on their behalf on the cross and through His resurrection.

You see we need someone to be a substitute for us because no matter how hard we try, we can never bridge the gap between God and us. And the substitute can’t be merely a human.  It must be God Himself.

Do you see the difference between Christianity and every other religion?

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The Greatest Story Ever Told

Greatest StoryGod’s goal in all of His creative and redemptive work is to bring glory to Himself (Isa 43:7; cf. Eph 1:6, 12, 14).

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What is The Gospel?


“My Last Day” — the Jesus Anime

9 powerful minutes of animation that begins with a thief behind bars watching the scourging of Jesus, and it ends with the thief dying next to Jesus, and waking to see Him in a beautiful place.

The dying thief: What was so great about his faith?

There are many acts of extraordinary faith in the Bible. The one that has impressed me the most concerns the dying thief on the cross. We could take the approach that he had nothing to lose, so he decided to cast his lot with Jesus. But this makes absolutely no sense of the text and the context.
In this conversion we have a specific fulfillment of Christ’s first words on the cross. No sooner had Christ spoken the words, “Father, forgive them,” had the Father answered that prayer by turning a once-reviling criminal into a Christ-glorifying saint. While the soon-to-be converted criminal was not directly responsible for Christ’s death, he nevertheless joined with those who were and was thus indirectly addressed when Christ asked for God to forgive “them.”
Christ, the sinless one, was numbered with or counted among the transgressors (Isa. 53:12; Luke 22:37), all of whom have a bigger problem than the day-to-day sins they commit. They hate Christ, the God-man. Anyone who has a master other than the Lord Jesus hates him (Lk. 16:13; Gal. 4:8). That these two criminals loathed him is clearly manifested during the crucifixion: “And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way” (Matt. 27:44).
When the criminal who was converted was doing his worst against Christ, Christ was doing his best for this criminal.
The conversion of the one criminal was most extraordinary and testifies to the power of Christ’s prayer and the grace of God. Why?
This criminal’s faith did not come at a time such as when Christ turned water into wine; or performed miracles, such as walking on water, opening the eyes of a blind man, or raising Lazarus from the dead. No! The criminal believed on the Messiah while he was hanging as one cursed upon a tree. The criminal trusted in and boldly defended the one whose disciples had abandoned him. Jesus was at his lowest when this criminal asked to be remembered in Christ’s kingdom.
When he was on the cross, did anyone publicly cry out, as John the Baptist did, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29)? But this is essentially what the dying thief did. Little wonder, then, that Christ should promise him a place in his kingdom: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:43).
The criminal acknowledged he was guilty; he acknowledged that Christ was not (“this man has done nothing wrong”); he feared God; but, and here is the key: the criminal did not merely want to be in a better place. He wanted to be with Christ in a better place: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk. 23:42). The criminal believed “against all hope”.
Heaven is a better place because that is where Christ is. Everyone wants to go to heaven, but not everyone wants to go to Christ’s heaven. Not so with this criminal: he saw, with his eyes, Christ at his worst; but with the eyes of faith, he believed that Christ would soon be at his best, and so put his faith in a dying king.
Christ is always – always! – willing to save even the most miserable of sinners. A recognition of guilt (Lk. 23:40) and a confidence in him and not ourselves (Lk. 23:42) will always lead to the most assuring truth a sinner can receive: the Savior welcomes such into his paradise!
“One is saved, and we may not despair; the other is lost, and we may not presume.” Spurgeon
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Our Time is Short

Read: Recommitting Your Life To God and Jesus Christ – Restoration and Forgiveness With God and Jesus Christ (Updated Version)


Ready to start your new life with God?

Who do you think that I am?

With that brief question Jesus Christ confronted His followers with the most important issue they would ever face. He had spent much time with them and made some bold claims about His identity and authority. Now the time had come for them either to believe or deny His teachings.

Who do you say Jesus is? Your response to Him will determine not only your values and lifestyle, but your eternal destiny as well.

Consider what the Bible says about Him: Read more


Look to Jesus
Have you ever felt a little lost and wished there was a quick-start guide to your relationship with God? This is it!

30 Day Next Steps
John Beckett, a leading Christian businessman, has written a series to read over 30 days for new believers.

New Believers Guide
The New Believer’s Guide is a series of articles designed to show you how to walk in the new life Christ has given you— a life of faith and freedom.

Jesus Booklet
Jesus is the Savior of the world. Discover who Jesus is today in this series.

About Christianity
Know Jesus Christ and your life will be transformed


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News media freaks out over dead lion, ignores Planned Parenthood organ harvesting

WINTERY KNIGHT

I'm Scheming Unborn Baby, and I approve of incrementalism I’m Scheming Unborn Baby, and I have more value than a stupid lion

The best site for documenting media bias is Newsbusters. Let’s see what the mainstream news media reported about instead of reporting on the third Planned Parenthood organ harvesting video.

They reported on a stupid lion:

America’s anchors have spoken: the shooting of one lion vastly outweighs the trafficking of baby parts by a taxpayer-funded abortion giant.

In other words, the broadcast news shows spent more time in one day on Cecil the Lion than they did on the Planned Parenthood videos in two weeks.

The three broadcast networks, ABC, NBC and CBS censored the third video released Tuesday by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) exposing Planned Parenthood’s practice of harvesting aborted baby parts — censored it at Planned Parenthood’s urging. But the news shows did find more than 14 minutes for a more important story: the “outrage”…

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Where did all the preachers go, and what did you do to them?

Unfathomable Grace

Sometimes, the relationship between the minister and his congregation can be quite thrilling. Through the faithful proclamation of God’s Word, converts are made, children are discipled, leaders are built, prodigals return, marriages are saved, families are improved, the consequences of sin are abated, lay-led ministries abound, local cultures are transformed, congregational size grows, buildings are built, and other churches are planted. Why does all this transpire? It is because the Holy Spirit chooses to sovereignly use the preaching ministry of one sinful but redeemed man; it is a fantastic delight to see such success from one’s preaching ministry. Then, to top it all off, how sweet and awesome it is when the faithful minister also gets paid a very good salary by his respectful and appreciative congregation. Such a relationship is wonderful for the shepherd and his flock. Many a faithful servant of Christ has enjoyed such a profitable and pleasant season of ministry. How sweet…

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Daily Devotionals: (30th July) Cared For!

thinkGOSPEL blog

Reading:1 Peter 5:7

At the time Peter’s letter was written there were very few in the world that had any real interest in the followers of Christ. The church was small. Congregations were just being established. There was great vocal and violent opposition to the gospel and the majority of people cared nothing for the believers. While that was true of the world, it was not true of Christ. 1 Peter 5:7 ends with a glorious statement: “He careth for you.” Those words refer to Christ, and what Peter is stressing is that though these Christians were being pressed down by trial and facing incredible hardships, there was One who cared for them like none other. Think of that phrase: “He careth for you.”

The description of Christ’s care. There are two words in verse 7 translated either “care” or “careth.” The first word relates to anxious care, whereas…

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