Merry Christmas from Muhammad and Devotees

Reposted from omegaletter.com
Israel - Middle East
Friday, December 30, 2016
Alf Cengia 

The Prophet Muhammad's legacy of terror has reached out from the past and wished many western Christians another merry Christmas. It's an upward trend.
This was why Gatestone Institute was able to send out an accurate early warning to Europeans for 2016.

So far, Australians may consider themselves as extremely lucky to have been spared Muhammad's wrath. One monumental Christmas attack was foiled. But there have near misses. How long before a planned attack find its target? Why plan attacks on a welcoming multi-cultural nation such as Australia? What's going on here?

For various reasons, the media and authorities are typically reticent to ascribe terror attacks to an organization (or even Islam). When someone shouts Allahu Akbar as he stabs or shoots infidels, they'd rather refer to it as a "lone wolf" incident.

However, Howard Bloom notes that even the lone wolf phenomenon can be attributed to Muhammad's legacy. After a disastrous battle, Muhammad had to ensure that his troops wouldn't leave the battlefield. So, aside from the "spoils of war", he introduced some further incentives. One was the idea that dying for the sake of Islam was a certain ticket to paradise.

And then he added sexual gratification as another incentive: "The Muslim paradise was not like the dull and boring Christian heaven where you sat at the feet of God singing his praises day after day." There would also be "large eyed" and "full breasted maidens" who would remain "eternally young." Well, you get the drift.
Bloom observes that millions of Muslims today model their lives on Muhammad's example during the years of peace:

But others model themselves on the period of the Prophet’s life in which he became addicted to the systematic use of what he called “slaughter” and “terror.”
Muhammad was a genius. His followers down through the centuries have successfully retained these teachings for profit and fun. Whether it's an organization such as ISIS or a "lone wolf" enabled by a radical preacher, the source is the same - Muhammad.

It wasn't too long ago that the world recognized the problem of Islam and wasn't afraid to say so. Jefferson didn't keep a Qur'an in his library for devotional use, as some Islamic devotees like to think. He wanted to understand the dynamics of the Barbary Pirates and how Islam fitted into all this.
Tripoli Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman provided the context for those who paid attention:

...it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise. (See also Thomas Jefferson & the Tripoli Pirates pp 12-15)

Muhammad's Modern Devotees can be found in government authorities and even some church organizations. Islamic radicals disrupted Christmas through violence. Yet European leaders employ a different strategy. They systematically remove public references to Christianity in the interest of "multiculturalism" and for fear that it might offend Muslims. For example:
A German school in Turkey just banned Christmas celebrations: the school, Istanbul Lisesi, funded by the German government, decided that Christmas traditions and carol-singing would no longer be allowed. A Woolworth's store in Germany scrapped Christmas decorations telling customers that the shop "is now Muslim".

Giulio Meotti writes that Christianophobia is the Trojan Horse of Islam. He notes that:
Everywhere in Europe, a weary, secularist absence of purpose and confused values damns Christianity in favor of Islam.

Christmas and Hanukkah are observed at roughly the same time. That may be the reason why Mr. Obama was determined not to leave Israel out the "Christmas celebrations" by abstaining from the UN resolution against Israel. Barack Obama may not be an observing Muslim, but he sure as heck acts like a devotee.

And make no mistake; the UN is fundamentally driven by Islamic sympathies. This is why they're obsessed with Israel's alleged misdemeanors while largely ignoring human rights abuses in places such as Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

President Obama's "Christmas surprise" was always expected. He was predictable before he became president. One only had to do their homework. I've used the example of the story of the scorpion and the frog in Aesop's Fable. The scorpion can't help itself - it's in his nature.

Obama is exhibiting all the finesse of an Eighties Rock Star trashing his hotel room before he leaves the premises. He quickly set his people to work against Israel - John Kerry and Samantha Power. There may be more to come before he leaves.

Despite Power's eloquent excuses to abstain from the UN vote, the peace problem has never been about "settlements." This is an overly abused Red Herring. The real issue is that Israel's existence in the region offends Islam.

John Kerry claims Israel can't be a Democratic, Jewish State; that it has to be one or the other. Yet Israel has successfully integrated diversity. People are simply offended at the idea of a Jewish State.

Samantha Power has a history of anti-Israel rhetoric. She once raised the specter of genocide in context to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and called for radical measures:

It may mean, more crucially, sacrificing, or investing I think more than sacrificing, literally billions of dollars, not in servicing Israel’s military but actually investing in the new state of Palestine; in investing billions of dollars it would probably take also to support I think what will have to be a mammoth a protection force - not of the old Srebrenica kind or of the Rwanda kind, but a meaningful military presence. Because it seems to me at this stage - and this is true of actual genocides as well and not just major human rights abuses which we’re seeing there - that is that you have to go in as if you’re serious, you have to put something on the line. (Emphasis mine)

Aside from the "human rights abuses" canard, are these words befitting an ally? Does it concern Power that Palestinian leaderships abuse their people? Does the UN worry over the abuse of Christians under Islam? Nope - they are possessed by a clamoring anti-Israel spirit.

Israel shouldn't have been taken by surprise by Obama. I've said this before and it bears repeating: it cannot place its trust in any man or group of nations. It will eventually learn this lesson in the hardest of ways.

As for Islam, when will the world understand Aesop's lesson?

This week, I providentially came across the following thoughts by Charles Spurgeon. It seems appropriate to let him speak here:
We anticipate the happy day when every knee will bow before Christ; when the gods of the heathen shall be cast to the moles and the bats; when empty religion will be exploded, and the crescent of Mohammed will topple, never again to cast harmful rays upon the nations; when kings shall worship before the Prince of Peace, and all nations shall call the Redeemer blessed.
Amen! Lord, Come Quickly!

About Alf Cengia

2016 YEAR IN REVIEW – PART 3 – TOP 10 ARTICLES BY LIKE-MINDED MINISTRIES

December 31st, 2016 | Author: Lighthouse Trails Editors

 

See also Part 1 Year in Review | See also Part 2 Year in Review

Listed in order of date posted.
1/Jesuit Pope Francis, Pastor Rick Warren And The Coming One-World Religion for Peace
By Roger Oakland Understand the Times
Hardly a day goes by without news relating to Bible prophecy and especially the advancing trend towards a global religion for the cause of peace. It seems there are few who understand this is what the Bible predicts will happen on planet earth before the return of Jesus Christ to set up His Kingdom.

2/Terror Against Israel
By Tony Pearce Light For the Last Days Ministries (UK)
Israel is in the grip of a terror offensive as Palestinians have been attacking Israelis with knives and driving their cars at them. Between September 13 and November 30, 2015, 22 Israelis were killed and 215 wounded.
The attacks began after false accusations that Israel was defiling the Al Aqsa Mosque (on the site of the former Jewish Temple in Jerusalem). Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has been telling his people that Israel was planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and “change the Arab and Islamic character and identity” of Jerusalem. He condemned Jews for “defiling the Aqsa Mosque with their filthy feet.” Radical Islamist and terrorist elements are calling on Palestinian youth to murder Jews. Statements by Fatah and Hamas have described the attacks as “heroic actions” and “the natural response to Israel”s crimes.”

3/The Rising Storm and a Clarion Call for Humility, Truth, and Repentance
By Chris Lawson Spiritual Research Network
Filmed between a 45-minute break between down-pouring rain and a storm system approaching from the horizon, this unscripted, impromptu video expresses my heart and desire to see people in the Calvary Chapel movement (and other movements) helped and healed and strengthened in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in these last days.
I have no desire to divide the Body of Christ or needlessly offend anyone who is in Calvary Chapel movement and beyond. I am simply sharing my heart and God’s truth in light of a number of observations I have seen growing for over 25 years now in the Calvary Chapel movement. Things now have become so blatant in the rising storm of ecumenical apostasy that only sincere prayer and publicly declared clarion calls for humility, truth, and repentance will make any difference at all. My prayer is that God Himself by His Spirit and His Word will raise up clarion voices around the globe in this late hour.
As a Christian missionary and as a former Calvary Chapel pastor for many years, I have been observing a growing trend of too many people remaining silent on far too many major ecumenical compromises. A host of other issues are also of concern.

4/Guideposts: Teaching Little Children to Blaspheme
By Cedric Fisher TruthKeepers
Recently, I was in a hospital waiting room and reluctantly picked up an issue of Guidepost Magazine. I very seldom read Guidepost because the long-time publisher, Norman Vincent Peale, promotes heresy and diabolical religions. He has also denied the virgin birth and the necessity of being born again.
As I perused the magazine, I landed on an article by Anna Gentile, a hospital chaplain. The article was about Guideposts and Gentile’s work with sick children.

5/Andy Stanley’s Dangerous Path – Tells SBC Leaders “Get the spotlight off the Bible.”
By Jim Fletcher
Late last month, the Southern Baptist Convention’s “Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission” (ERLC) hosted another self-serving conference in Nashville, titled “Onward” (shockingly, the same title as that of the ERLC chief’s new book; it’s about the marketing, stupid). Stanley was invited to speak. Boy, did he.
While ERLC President Russell Moore looked on grinning, Andy Stanley said the following: “I would ask preachers and pastors and student pastors in their communications to get the spotlight off the Bible and back on the resurrection.”

6/The Hijacking of the Calvary Chapel Movement into the Coming One-World Religion
By Roger Oakland Understand the Times
The commentary you are about to read has been written with much prayer and thought. I have not written it impulsively or with ill motive but rather believe God has compelled me to testify of things that have gone unspoken of and hidden in secret for too long. For the sake of the body of Christ and the furtherance of the Gospel, the secret things in darkness need to be exposed.
There are a number of low-profile Calvary Chapel pastors starting to ask questions. Chuck Smith, the founder of the movement, seemed to be biblically sound and determined to serve the Lord throughout his many years of ministry. Toward the end of his ministry, it appears there were strange bedfellows planted around him who in earlier years he would have avoided. So what happened? The purpose of this commentary will be to answer that question.
Chuck Smith attributed the growth and the strength of the Calvary Chapel movement to the Holy Spirit and not to man-designed gimmicks or human effort. He never wavered from that position until the day he died. He called Calvary Chapel “His Church.” While there were those who had some questions about strange things going on behind the scenes, the Calvary ship sailed pretty well most of the time.

7/Fed Up With False Teaching: Calvary Chapel Church Says “So Long” to the CC Association
By Amy Spreeman Berean Research
Fed up with false teaching: Calvary Chapel church says “So Long” to the CC Association – Berean Research
A Calvary Chapel pastor who warned of false teachings and apostate movements seeping into the Calvary Chapel organization has been removed from his regional leadership position, and is now removing his local congregation out of the Calvary Chapel Association altogether.Pastor Dwight Douville of Calvary Chapel Appleton Wisconsin was informed last month that he was being removed from his position as a regional leader, a position he’s held for many years. Why? He says because personal friendships have been put above doctrinal truth, muddying the waters of what Calvary Chapels are all about. And because he advocated for maintaining and staying the course while calling out wolves and yeast seeping into Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and the organization as a whole since the death of founder Chuck Smith.

8/The Spirit of Antichrist—in the Church
By Mike Oppenheimer
Let Us Reason Ministries
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). Paul warns us that at the end of the age, inside the church, there will be teachings of demons—quite a serious charge. That it will be a time that is extremely dangerous to believers who do not know the Word correctly and do not watch what they are being taught.
The Devil has tailor-made deceptions for every church in every age; he knows the people’s weaknesses and propensities to do wrong in certain areas. He will use whomever he can in whatever capacity he can to bring confusion, falsehoods, and destruction—especially if he can target a church’s pastor. Contrary to popular teaching, the Devil, who is the greatest of angelic creatures, is of the highest intelligence, has power, and is often underestimated in his scheming by those who think they can bind him.

9/New Age Leader Deepak Chopra Asks? “Will Pope Francis Become a Holy Man for the World?”

By Ray Yungen 
In an article released in January 2016 written by New Age leader Deepak Chopra titled, “Will Pope Francis Become a Holy Man for the World?,” Chopra states,

Pope Francis I is poised to be more than a very popular pontiff . . . He could rise to become a symbol of holiness beyond the Catholic Church. . . . for those of us who aren’t Catholic, there’s a universal message voiced personally by the Pope: “No one can be excluded from God’s mercy. The question, then, is how potent this mission will be.

Chopra says that “millions of non-Catholics feel a fresh wind blowing” because of the Pope’s actions and that Pope Francis has “become a spiritual exemplar.”
In the article, Chopra gives some advice to Pope Francis, that he not become another “theological” pope but rather  one with a “higher consciousness” and like the “Jesus” who was not theological but rather “enlightened.”

10/Mindfulness Meditation and Yoga Infiltration of Major School Systems
By Lois Putnam
Miami-Dade County Schools Partner with Mindful Kids Miami
Miami-Dade County Schools (Fourth Largest School District in the U.S.A.) is being transformed into a mindfulness-yoga school system through its partnership with Mindful Kids Miami, and its mindfulness lady leader–Valerie York-Zimmerman.
Yes, grades Pre-K through 12, students as well as teachers and administrators will be instructed in mindfulness meditation. Training centers have been set up all over Miami even in the sanctuary of the “most progressive church in the city”–Riviera Presbyterian Church (USA).  Recently Riviera adherents proudly held up a banner reading, “We All Are God’s Beloved Children: No Exceptions!”

Equality - Love Unveils

As a Muslim woman I’m considered inferior. My value is less than a man’s.
According to the Qur’an, men are considered above women.
“And they (women) have rights similar to those (of men) over them in kindness, and men are a degree above them” Sura 2:228 (Pickthall)

 Men are in charge of women.
“Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other…” Sura 4:34 (Pickthall)

 My testimony is worth half of a man’s.
“…And bring to witness two witnesses from among your men. And if there are not two men [available], then a man and two women from those whom you accept as witnesses – so that if one of the women errs, then the other can remind her.” Sura 2:282 (Sahih International)
 The Prophet Muhammad said as a woman my mind is deficient.
“The Prophet said, ‘Isn’t the witness of a woman equal to half of that of a man?’ The women said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is because of the deficiency of a woman’s mind.’” Sahih al-Bukhari 2658

A man gets twice as much inheritance over a woman.
“Allah instructs you concerning your children: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females.” Sura 4:11 (Sahih International)

The hadith also says the majority of those in hell are women.
“The Prophet said, “I looked at Paradise and saw that the majority of its residents were the poor; and I looked at the (Hell) Fire and saw that the majority of its residents were women.” Sahih al-Bukhari 5198
                                                   ----------------------------
 There is equality in Christianity.
Before Muhammad was even born Jesus of the New Testament elevated the status of women.

Jesus’ first miracle was in response to a request by his mother.
“…there was a wedding in Cana…And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine’. Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’ …Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the waterpots with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. …When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine…he said to him, ‘You have kept the good wine until now!’ John 2:1-11

 Jesus first revealed Himself as the Messiah to a woman.
“The woman said to Him, ‘I know that the Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When He comes, He will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’ John 4:25-26

 One of His greatest miracles was at the request of women.
“…the sisters [Mary and Martha] sent to Him, saying, ‘Lord, behold he [Lazarus] whom You love is sick.’ …Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. …So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. …Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord if You had been here, my brother would not have died. …Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.’ …He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Loose him, and let him go.’” John 11:1-44

Women were included as disciples.
“There were also women…who also followed Him and ministered to Him when He was in Galilee, and many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.” Mark 15:40-41
After His resurrection Jesus first appeared to a woman.
“…Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stopped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, ‘Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to Him, ‘Rabboni!’ (which is to say, Teacher). John 20:1-16

So how can I know the truth?  
أسئلة من الكتاب المقدس وأجوبتها Bible Answers in Arabic

 

A Better Priest

Reposted from raystedman.org

A daily devotion for December 16th

Read the Scripture: Hebrews 7:1-25

Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. Hebrews 7:11-16

One thing clearly marked the fact that the old priesthood was no longer acceptable as help for men. It was the appearance of a new priest with a different address and a different ancestry. If the old priesthood went, the Law had to go too. This new priest had a quite different address; he came from the tribe of Judah instead of the tribe of Levi. Judah was not a priestly tribe at all, but a kingly tribe. The new priest was a king. If God recognizes Christ as a priest, then the Law which was part of the old priesthood has been set aside.

Also, the new priest has a different ancestry. It was not necessary for him to trace his genealogy back to Abraham. No, as a priest he has no genealogy, he ministers in the power of an endless life. He had no beginning and no ending. Therefore the Law, which is only temporary, must go. It had an inherent weakness in that it could not supply what the flesh in its frailty lacked. Every priest, every psychiatrist, every counselor, whether he realizes it or not, is continually working with the Law. How? By seeking to relate people to reality. That is what the Law is, the revelation of reality. It is the way things are. Any knowledgeable counselor tries to help the people who come to see things as they are, but that is sometimes a very difficult help to render.

Under the old order, a man would take a sacrifice to the priest and the priest would offer it, thus for the moment at least, removing the guilt of the act. Though the problem remained, the guilt from it was removed. That is what the modern counselor does. He attempts to dispel guilt by helping his client see his problem in a different light. If he is a Christian counselor, to help him to see that God has already forgiven him in Christ and thus to remove guilt. But the basic problem essentially remains, if resolving guilt is all that is done. The psychiatrist may rearrange the problem so it does not grate so strongly upon others, but the problem remains. As C. S. Lewis puts it, No clever arrangement of bad eggs will ever make a good omelet.

Self-discovery is the end of the line as far as the human counselor can go. But what lies beyond that? If you do not go any further, eventually, despair! This is what Paul reflects in Romans 7, Oh, wretched man that I am! Who can set me free from this body of death? (Romans 7:24) That is where this word of Hebrews comes in. There is a Priest who can go further. What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, judged sin in the flesh, that the righteousness that the law demanded might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit (Romans 8:3-4). That which is worthless, weak, and useless, has been set aside and a new hope introduced which brings us near to God.

Thank you, Father, that what I could not do in myself, and what no counselor or priest could do for me, you have accomplished through your Son.

Life Application: What inherent weaknesses in the Levitical Law are met in the Priesthood of Jesus? How can we move beyond the futility of mere self-discovery to inner conflict resolution? Are we led in the triumphal procession of Jesus Christ, both Priest and King?

We hope you were blessed by this daily devotion.

From your friends at www.RayStedman.org

What Really Happened at Christmas?

 

Reposted from gracethrufaith.com

 

Monday, December 12th, 2016

• Featured
• Holidays

A Bible Study by Jack  Kelley
In the past I’ve explained why I believe Jesus probably was born sometime in September. If that’s the case then what really happened in December?  Is Christmas just the result of overlaying Christian beliefs on a formerly pagan holiday as some believe, or is there more to it?

Happy Hanukkah

To find the answer we begin with a look at the Jewish Feast of Hanukkah.   Maybe you’ve heard the story of Hanukkah, but if not here’s a brief summary.  In 165 BC, during the time of the Maccabean Revolt, the Jews recaptured their desecrated Temple from Syrian dictator Antiochus Epiphanes and undertook a rebuilding and cleansing process to make it fit for worship again. (Angry with the Jews and defiant toward God, Antiochus had captured the Temple, sacrificed a pig on the altar, and erected a statue of the Greek god Zeus in the Holy Place requiring everyone to worship it on pain of death. This outrageous act rendered the Temple unclean and became known as the Abomination of Desolation.)

Jewish tradition holds that when they prepared to cleanse the Temple to make it fit for use again, the priests could not find enough Holy Oil to keep the Temple Menorah, a large 7 branched oil lamp, lit for  the required 8 day purification ritual. They only had enough for one day.  But they went ahead in faith and God multiplied that small supply so that it lasted for the full eight days making the Temple Holy again.

Since then, this miracle has been commemorated in the Feast of Hanukkah, an eight day celebration that includes the use of a special 9 branched candlestick called a Hanukkiah, short for Hanukkah menorah. The Hanukkiah  has a single elevated branch, representing the available supply of oil, and 8 additional branches, one for each day of the purification ritual.  Each day of the celebration an additional candle is lit, always using the flame of the elevated candle, until on the final day all the candles are burning. This reminds them that the light for each day came from the single day’s supply of oil they began with.  

Hanukkah is also referred to as the Festival of Lights for this reason.
By the way this Abomination of Desolation is an act destined to be repeated and will again trigger a revolt, this time involving the whole world.  When you see a Temple in Jerusalem you will know the time is near, and when you see the Abomination of Desolation standing in the Holy Place you will know that 3 1/2 years of the most terrible time man has ever known have begun (Matt 24:15-21). Whether you see this from Earth or Heaven will be determined by whether you’ve previously accepted the Lord’s death as payment for your sins.

What Day Is This?

As you know Hanukkah takes place around Christmas so I’m going to use the proximity of the two events to make what some would call an outrageous claim. I believe there’s a theological connection between Hanukkah and Christmas that does nothing less than state God’s position on the beginning of life.

In Happy Birthday Lord Jesus I demonstrated that in all probability John the Baptist was conceived in what would have been mid to late June on our calendar and born the following March.  John’s mother and father were Elizabeth  and Zechariah. According to Luke 1:36 Mary conceived in the 6th month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. That means that our Lord was conceived in late December and born the following September.  Because the calendars are different the exact dates vary from year to year, but each year Hanukkah takes place in close proximity to Christmas.  Jesus is called “the True Light that gives light to every man” (John 1:9).  Was Jesus, “The Light of the World” conceived during the Festival of Lights?  Are we unknowingly celebrating His conception at Christmas instead of His birth?  If that’s the case do you realize what God is telling us?

When Did Christmas Begin?

The fact that Jesus is God incarnate is amply supported in Scripture.  But when did He become God and why did He choose to come into the world the way He did? Jeremiah 1:4-5, Psalm 51:5 and 139:13-16 all allude to the fact that God knew us from the moment of our conception.  He knew all the details of our lives and considered us human from that time. To merely be with us in human form Jesus could have arrived as a fully grown man but He came as an embryo because that’s the way all humans begin their life.

Christmas began at the moment of divine conception. God the Father planned it, God the Holy Spirit planted the fertile seed in Mary, and at that moment God the Son took on human form in the womb of a virgin. From that first moment of conception Jesus was very much alive, very much human, very much God.  He didn’t become the Incarnate God somewhere along the path of His life, or even when He emerged from Mary’s womb. He had been such from the moment of conception (Luke 1:35). God could not have made any stronger statement about the sanctity of pre-born life.

As a poor, unwed teen-aged girl about to be ostracized from family and society, Mary met all the modern criteria for a therapeutic abortion. But had she and Joseph sought one, it would have been just as much the murder of the Messiah as was His death on the cross 33 years later.  So the life of the Christ child really did begin at Christmas. And now you know the adult version of the Christmas story. 12-14-12

Strength at Wit's End

Reposted from RaySteadman.org

A daily devotion for December 12th

Read the Scripture: Hebrews 5:1-10

During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered... Hebrews 5:7-8

How can Jesus sympathize, how does he understand our pressures, if he has never sinned? The answer to that leads us into the dark shadows of Gethsemane. There is no other incident in the gospels that fits the description of this passage where, with prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, he cried unto him who was able to save him from death.

Here we come face to face with mystery. Here is the total unexpectedness of unimagined agony to the Lord. In his anticipation of what he would be going through and his explanations of it to the disciples, he had never once mentioned Gethsemane, and there is no prediction of this in the Old Testament. There is much that predicts what he would go through on the cross; there is not one word of what he endured in the garden.

In the midst of his bafflement, puzzlement and distress of soul, he does an unusual thing. For the first time in his ministry he appealed to his own disciples for help. He asked them to bear him up in prayer as he went further into the shadows, falling first to his knees and then to his face, crying out before the Father. There he prayed three separate times and each prayer is a questioning of the necessity of this experience. Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He was beseeching the Father to make clear to him whether this was a necessary activity, so unexpected and deep was his suffering, so suddenly had it come upon him, baffling him, confusing him, bewildering him, just as sudden experiences and catastrophes come bewilderingly to us.

To deepen the mystery of this it is implied that the Lord Jesus faced the full misery which sin produces in the heart of the sinner while he is yet alive. All the naked filth of human depravity forced itself upon him and he felt the burning, searing shame of our misdeeds as though they were his. No wonder he cried to the Father, Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, he adds, not my will, but thine, be done (Luke 22:42).

This explains the strange words, Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. He learned what it means to obey God when every cell in his body wanted to disobey. Yet, knowing this to be the will of God, he obeyed, trusting God to see him through. He learned what it feels like to hang on when failure makes us want to throw the whole thing over, when we are so defeated, so utterly despairing that we want to forget the whole thing. He knows what this is like, he went the whole way, he took the full brunt of it.

How did he win? He refused to question the Father's wisdom. He refused to blame God. He took no refuge in unbelief even though this agony came unexpectedly upon him. Instead, Jesus cast himself upon the Father's loving, tender care and looked to him to sustain him. When he did, he was brought safely through. So we read, Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. No matter how deep, how serious that need may be, he can fully meet it, though we may be at wit's end.

Father, thank you that the Garden of Gethsemane was not a mere play acting upon a stage. The Lord Jesus did not come into the world to perform a role, he fully entered into life. He went the whole way, he bore the full brunt. Help me to trust in him.

Life Application: Jesus Christ entered into the full force of two of our lives' greatest mysteries: obedience and suffering. Where on the spectrum of obedience do we pray 'nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done?'

We hope you were blessed by this daily devotion.

From your friends at www.RayStedman.org

2016 12 11 John Haller's Prophecy Update "Epicenters"

On the Light Side from Mondon Translation

By Jean-Louis Mondon.

In the Old Testament, the children of Israel had to fight against the Anakim, the Emim, the Rephaim and the Zuzim, nowadays translators such as myself have to struggle with a remnant of those powerful individuals, the “Verbatim”.

DECEPTION Pastor, “Power, Prestige, and Wealth are all Yours if you just Tell Them What They Want to Hear”

Reposted from doctorwoodhead.com

Self-portrait with Fiddling Death, by Arnold Böcklin 1872

 This is perhaps the most insidious of all the heretical deceptions to come upon biblical Christianity.  It is characterized by catering to the desires of the people. Instead of being inculcated with God’s Word and having our personal world view and behavior be patterned after God’s Word, the New Evangelicalism gives the people what they want.  One NT passage clearly predicts this reversal of worship of God to worshiping man.
Romans 1:25
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

The idea with this new wave of apostasy is to soft-sell the Bible and salvation. It is not attempting to save anybody from the fires of Hell but from an aimless and meaningless life here on earth. Our experiences and quality of life here are more important than the total service to God and the blessed assurance that He will soon come to lift us out of this sinful decaying world. Salvation is given lip service and evangelism with real confrontation is thought to be too divisive. This apostasy does not want to upset anybody. There is never any mention of Hell and the outcome of an unsaved life.  They may say that they believe strongly but, their actions differ sharply from what they say.

Usually their Bible teaching is characterized by an over emphasis on application. This of course is the middle of the road approach. They avoid doctrine as too divisive.
Paul warned us that the end times would be characterized as a departure from sound doctrine and a departure from the truth.
II Timothy 4:3-4 
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

With the divisiveness they believe that they will lose members of their congregation and therefore funds. Or they are concerned with money and man-made approaches to self-help. A total dependence on God for their resources is abandoned for “sound business” practices or “fundamental marketing techniques.”  Total reliance on God by elders through prayer and patience is exchanged for parliamentary procedure and schemes for man made self-advancement and career goals. The pastor is considered as a CEO, not the teacher of God’s Word. Mission statements and strategic plans are formulated to accommodate personal plans. The Bible is subordinated to man’s desires.

The thought of prophecy is anathema to the New Evangelical for they say it causes division. This division of course is between those non-literal Bible expositors and the literal Biblical expositors.  Some have characterized the New Evangelical as being seduced by the world spirit of this present age.
You can see it in the leaders who are popularized. Usually they have a high degree of prominence in the government or sports and their testimonies are sought after for paid speaking engagements and book endorsements.

You will never see a Sunday school teacher or poor inner city pastor held up by them as pillars of the faith. Christ went to the lowest members of society to bring the truth to the world. He did not go to the popular and prominent.

This is a spirit of disobedience and a mood of compromise. It is a rejection of many of the negative aspects of New Testament Christianity. It is an attitude of positivism. They would rather be diplomats not fighters, positive rather than militant, infiltrators rather than separatists. They would not be restricted by a separationist mentality. The New Evangelical would rather pursue dialog, intellectualism, and appeasement than Biblical Militantism. Psychology is fast becoming their guide.

The use of psychology is rapidly becoming the norm in Christian Schools and churches.
Our culture has become deeply and extensively psychological. The weakness and carnality of the church in recent decades has allowed this psychological mind-set of the world to flow into the church. This process has brought about a redefining of many foundational matters of the Christian faith. We used to correctly understand that man’s problem was sin and God’s remedy was His saving and transforming grace (Romans 5:12, 17). Now, the trouble is the disorder of codependency, and the solution is group therapy. Formerly, we understood that man tended to stray from God to follow his own self-willed path (Isaiah 53:6), and that he needed to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Christ (Luke 9:23). Now, we think that man must esteem himself, affirm himself, and actualize himself. All of this new thinking is coming from psychological theory, which is primarily a philosophy of life. We are strongly warned in the word of the Lord not to be guided by the philosophy of the world.
Colossians 2:8
“Beware lest anyone take you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ”

Beware of the leaven of the new-evangelicals.

One World Government #4:The Deception is Happening Now (Pastor Charles Lawson)

2016.12.04 John Haller Prophecy Update: "Trump|Terror|Israel"

Mid-East Prophecy Update – December 4th, 2016

The Dictator and the Dissident

Reposted from nationalreveiw.comnationalreview.com
by Lee Habeeb November 28, 2016 1:33 PM

Armando Valladares’s story says more about Fidel Castro than any obituary could. It’s a part of the Fidel Castro story Michael Moore and Sean Penn won’t tell, or don’t know. It’s a story you certainly didn’t hear from the media as they endlessly opined about Castro’s “complicated” legacy. But it reveals so much more about the dictator than they ever could. 

The year was 1959. Castro, a young revolutionary, had seized Cuba’s imagination with talk of democracy and a new vision for its people. It didn’t take long, however, for one follower to discover Castro’s true nature, and for Castro to run up against the limits of his own earthly power. Armando Valladares may not have been the first man to challenge the Cuban dictator, but he eventually became the best known. By his own account, the young Valladares was an early supporter of Castro’s revolution, taking a job in the Office of the Ministry of Communications for the Revolutionary Government, where he worked as a postal clerk. 

But all of that changed when he was asked to put a communist slogan on his desk. It comprised three simple words: “I’m with Fidel.” He refused. A young artist and poet who also happened to be a Christian, Valladares understood the meaning of the request. What he did not know, and could not know, was how far his own government would go to bend him to its will. Soon after his refusal to comply, Valladares was arrested by political police at his parents’ home. Faced with trumped up charges of terrorism — a favorite tactic of the Castro regime for silencing dissent — he was given a 30-year sentence. Valladares would spend time in different prison camps for the next 22 years. 

The first, La Cabaña, forged some of the very worst memories. “Each night, the firing squad executed scores of men in its trenches,” he told the Becket Fund, which last year honored him with its Canterbury Prize, given annually to a person who embodies an unfailing commitment to religious freedom. “We could hear each phase of the executions, and during this time, these young men — patriots — would die shouting ‘Long live Christ, the King. Down with Communism!’ And then you would hear the gunshots. Every night there were shootings. Every night. Every night. Every night.” 

Years passed, and the communists fixated on enrolling prisoners in reeducation programs. Valladares, still early in his sentence, was offered the chance at “political rehabilitation” but refused to comply. He was sent to an even more brutal prison, and the government ramped up its efforts to break his spirit. Armando Valladares may not have been the first man to challenge the Cuban dictator, but he eventually became the best known. “I spent eight years locked in a blackout cell, without sunlight or even artificial light. I never left. I was stuck in a cell, ten feet long, four feet wide, with a hole in the corner to take care of my bodily needs. No running water. Naked. Eight years,” Valladares recalled. “All of the torture, all of the violations of human rights, had one goal: break the prisoner’s resistance and make them accept political rehabilitation. That was their only objective.”

After nearly a decade, prison officials adjusted their terms. If Armando would simply sign a document renouncing his beliefs and embracing Communism, he could return to his family. The choice was simple: physical freedom or spiritual liberty. “For many people, it wasn’t practical to resist. Better to sign the paper and leave,” Valladares said. “But for me, signing that paper would have been spiritual suicide.” So how did Valladares do it? How did his faith and spirit endure during those years alone in prison? “In the beginning, I embraced God perhaps for fear of losing my life, since I was in danger of being executed,” he told the National Association of Evangelicals in 1983. But hearing those men proclaim their love for Christ just prior to their executions moved him in ways he could not have imagined: I realized then that Christ could be of help. Not merely by saving my life, but also giving my life, and my death if that was the case, an ethical sense that would dignify them. I believe that it was at that particular moment, and not before, when Christianity, besides being a religious faith, became a way of life that in my own circumstances resulted in resistance — resisting torture, resisting confinement, resisting hunger, and even resisting the constant temptation to join the political rehabilitation and indoctrination programs that would end my predicament. The battle lines were drawn for Valladares: the material life versus the spiritual life. Castro and his earthly ambitions of a utopian dictatorship versus Christ and His promise of everlasting life for those who follow Him. 

RELATED: Armando Valladares, Witness to Truth Castro fought hard, desperate to strip Valladares of his most valuable possession: his sense of morality. But once again, his faith proved up to the task. “To be Christian under those circumstances meant that I could not hate my tormentors; it meant to maintain the belief the suffering was meaningful because if man gives up his moral and religious values, or if he allows himself to be carried by a desire to hate or for revenge, his existence loses all meaning,” he explained. Valladares noted often that he was not alone in his spiritual battle with Castro. His fellow Christians showed him the way: I saw dozens of Christians suffering and dying — committed, like myself, to maintaining their dignity and their richness of spirit beyond misery and pain. I remember with emotion Gerardo Gonzalez, a Protestant preacher, who knew by heart whole Biblical passages and who would copy them by hand to share with his brothers in belief. I cannot forget this man whom all of us called “Brother in Faith.” He interposed himself before a burst of machine-gun fire to save other prisoners who were beaten in what is known now as the Massacre of Boniato Prison. Gerardo repeated, before dying, the words said by Christ on the cross: “Forgive them, Father for they know not what they do.” And all of us, when the blood had dried, struggled with our consciences to attain something so difficult yet so beautiful: the ability to forgive our enemies. Valladares’s God, too, showed him the way and the light. “There are no impossibilities for those who love and seek God,” he said. “The more ferocious the hate of my jailers, the more my heart would fill with love and a faith that gave me strength to support everything; but not with the conformist or masochistic attitude; rather, full of joy, internal peace and freedom because Christ walked with me in my cell.” 

While in prison, Valladares began to write poetry denouncing his oppressors. Without paper or pen, he wrote on cigarette papers and onion skins, using his blood as ink. His wife, whom he met in prison, smuggled the poems to the outside world and they became his first book, From My Wheelchair, released in 1977.

 “There is nothing dictators fear more than artists, especially poets,” Valladares wrote. In “Life Was Not Enough,” dedicated to Pedro Luis Boitel, whom he called “an unforgettable brother,” he expanded on the thought:

Life was not enough for you in that torture chamber 

but there were rifle butts and  boots  to spare 

buckets of urine and excrement thrown in your face.

They could not forgive you 

your  labors of light and words 

they feared your smile

the eloquence of your hands 

they feared the fertility of your ideas 

and your manner of being silent 

they feared your life, Pedro,

and they murdered you.

Today, Valladares paints rather than writing poems. His pictures are not scenes of torture and darkness, but vibrant landscapes that depict his soul — the refuge where he survived Castro’s war on his body and his conscience. But in his speech last year to the Becket Fund, he stressed that his experience had taught him the need for vigilance in defense of freedom:  

Just as there is a very short distance between the U.S. and Cuba, there is a very short distance between a democracy and a dictatorship where the government gets to decide what to do, how to think, and how to live. And sometimes your freedom is not taken away at gunpoint but instead it is done one piece of paper at a time, one seemingly meaningless rule at a time, one small silencing at a time. Never allow the government — or anyone else — to tell you what you can or cannot believe or what you can and cannot say or what your conscience tells you to have to do or not do. Castro is dead, and there will be countless biographies dedicated to burnishing his legacy. But the best way to understand his life is to appreciate the life of one Cuban dissident he changed forever. 

Armando Valladares’s story may never be required reading in Cuban schools, but it needs to be read in every American school. Call it “The Dictator and The Dissident.” It’s quite a yarn. — Lee Habeeb is the vice president of content for Salem Radio Network. He is also the host of Our American Stories. He lives in Oxford, Miss. 

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442515/fidel-castro-brutal-dictatorship-armando-valladeres-cuban-dissidents-tortured?utm_source=nr&utm_medium=facebook%3Futm_content%3Dhabeeb%3Futm_campaign%3Dtorture