Thank you

I just wanted to take a minute to thank my friends, my faithful readers and the new visitors for your visits and message of encouragement on Facebook. Although most of you are anonymous, you are the ones that help me build it and I appreciate your support in  helping when you pass it on to your friends. A special thanks to the faithful followers, I don´t know who you are but I can tell that you follow this blog because of the same city and country names coming up very regularly.

I hope and it is my sincere desire that you have benefited from the posts I have written and that it has helped in getting closer to our Lord who is the One who inspires me and who keeps me going. I can only give freely what I have freely received. I am deeply and immeasurably indebted and grateful to Him because of the demonstration of His love, grace, mercy and pardon for my sins through His self-sacrificial death on the cross and the free gift of eternal life through His resurrection from the dead.

God bless you and may all together continue to lift up the Holy Name of our Lord and Savior our God, the Father, Jesus-Christ, His Son and the Holy Spirit who reveals to us who they are and what they have done for us. Maranatha.

Jean-Louis.

As Israel strikes back, fake Gaza images dominate social media

A BBC report has found that many of the photographs used to illustrate the situation in Gaza are from years ago, and even from the conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency

Latest Update:  07.08.14, 21:10 / Israel News

A significant part of any battle nowadays is waged in the media, as each sides tries to garner public support through the exploit of images and footage used to influence popular opinion.

• Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter

A report by the BBC shows that Palestinian supporters are using fake images to illustrate the suffering in Gaza.

"Graphic images are being shared on social media to show how people have been affected by the renewed tensions between Israel and the Palestinians," the BBC reported.

"Over the past week the hashtag #GazaUnderAttack has been used hundreds of thousands of times, often to distribute pictures claiming to show the effects of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza."

The hashtag has received 375,000 retweets in eight days.

The network found that several graphic photos, that spread through social media proporting to show killed Gazans and destruction caused by IAF strikes in recent days, were actually photos taken several years ago, some of which in other war areas like Syria and Iraq.

"BBC Trending," a show that examines trends in social media, checked the veracity of widely spread photos on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #GazaUnderAttack.


Over 300,000 posts were made under that hashtag. In one case, a picture of a neighborhood being bombarded was posted with the caption "This happened today in gaza while ramadhan.Our prayers always be w you. Israel is the real terrorist! (sic)"

But a BBC investigation found that the photo was taken during an IAF strike in 2009 in Beit Lahia during Operation Cast Lead.

In another instance, a photo of blooding children was posted with the caption "This is not a matter of religion. This is a matter of humanity."

According to the BBC, the photo was taken in Aleppo in Syria and not in Gaza. Another photo in the same post was taken in Iraq in 2007.

The British broadcaster also spoke to one of the posters who shared a photo under the #GazaUnderAttack, even though the photo was taken in Syria. "I deleted one of my posts that has the image in there," she said. "It's disappointing that images get shared quite quickly. I guess that's the different between the internet and credible newspaper publisher where pictures are from a source."

A Ynet examination found that photos that are not from the IDF's current Gaza operation are still being shared on Twitter.

A search of the hashtag found a photo of two men rescuring a boy severely wounded in IAF bombings with the caption "The world is silent as Israel wipes out Gaza with airstrikes. Another kid, one of many, says goodbye." with the #GazaUnderAttack hashtag.

But a search of Google Images found the photo was taken in 2012 during Operation Pillar of Defense. The boy in the photo was killed along with his family in an Air Force attack.

Hamas has used this tactic in the past too. Tazpit's Anav Silverman reported in 2012 that during Operation Pillar of Defense, the militant organization used fake images of Gaza with false headlines, inciting a flurry of comments on Facebook against Israel.

The photos were of massacres that occurred in Syria the previous month, but were depicted as massacres of Gazan families by the IDF. Other such incidents reoccur persistently.

Ynet contributed to this report.

The mega church culture: A toxic export

Reposted from http://www.wnd.com/ 

Published: 12 hours ago

Joshua Charles 

 I’m in the home stretch of my nearly month-long trip to the Middle East, and my heart is heavy and my mind contemplative. To say that this research expedition has been life-changing would be an understatement, and it still isn’t over.
One of the greatest privileges I have had here is to meet with local Christians. The Middle Eastern church has its own issues, just like we in America do, but actually meeting and fellowshiping with them has been extremely enlightening.

The greatest question that comes to mind (at least at the moment) after these meetings is “what kind of ‘church’ is America exporting?” The church in the Middle East (speaking specifically of Jordan) is heavily influenced by the Western church, particularly the American church, far more than I realized. For instance, ministries receive millions of dollars despite the relative lack of growth. According to some local Christians we met with, those ministries spend millions, send back reports, use anything they can to show how “effective” they are, and use local Christians as, in their word, “trophies” to testify to their supposed effectiveness, and thus justifying why they should continue to receive millions more. 

According to them, ministries such as these, despite the best of intentions, have transformed the Church into a corporation, an organization, rather than the Body of Christ made up of the people of God bound together by familial ties.
Additionally, these same Christians are very concerned that these ministries bring a particularly American brand of Christianity. What does that mean? In addition to a more corporatized vision of what “church” is, they bring with them several other things (according to them): theological superficiality, an inability to speak honestly about sin (better not to bring it up) and naiveté about both the region and the culture. One of them called this the “mega church culture.”

Does any of this sound familiar?
They should, for these are, unfortunately, many of the defining characteristics of a large and growing portion of the “church” in America: a corporation based on an organizational structure that does not survive without lots of money, and at the same oftentimes lack precisely what Christians should excel at – being the FAMILY of God!
Many of these Jordanian Christians had visited the United States and preached there. They have a deep love for the United States and the American people. According to them, “Americans are the nicest people in the world.” But that does not allay their grave concerns both for the American church, as well as the vision of “church” it exports around the world.

According to one pastor who was incredibly gracious and hospitable in welcoming us into his home, a man of great wisdom and love, “In American you can’t talk about sin! What is the gospel even for if there is no sin?” This came from a man in a Muslim country, in which Christians and Muslims live relatively peacefully, but on the condition that Christians don’t share the Gospel. The question struck deep. He then followed it up with his own opinion of what the corporatized, organization-centric vision of “church” in America has done to us. The words that followed eerily reverberated with a palpable sense of undeniable truth: “In the United States, the church is very busy doing activities. LOTS of activities, people going here and there and everywhere. But where is the presence of God?”

I could not answer him, and I literally had tears well up in my eyes, because I knew what he was saying was true. Was he saying every American church? No. Was he saying every self-described American Christian? Of course not. He even emphasized that the Jordanian church had its own problems, and they were by no means perfect. But his words were true, and they reminded me of a story a mentor once told me. He used to work at a huge ministry most would instantly recognize. When he visited the corporate offices of this ministry, he saw something in the lobby that shocked him: They had come up with a formula by which they determined that by donating a certain amount of money, someone could literally “save” a particular number of people. 

 And I think that is precisely what our Jordanian brothers and sisters were trying to warn us about – we have made ministry, “church” and evangelization into a formula – something ultimately independent of God and whose success is based entirely on whether we execute the right methods, the right tools of manipulation and marketing, rather than whether God is with us or not. In the meantime, we lose perhaps the most precious aspect of daily Christian life: the sense of family with other Christians. We replace family with organizational membership. And to this, the Jordanian pastor asked us perhaps the most ominous question of all: “And what will happen when persecution comes? What will happen when your organizations come crashing down under the brunt of persecution? Will you have true Christian family to turn to?”

This sense of family has not been forgotten by our Jordanian brethren. In praying for us as we left an amazing night of fellowship, they prayed: “Dear dad, we love you so much. And we thank you for this precious gift of new family from the other side of the world now brought near to us.” Organizations change, corporations come and go, but family is forever. No wonder Jesus and all the Apostles referred to the people of God in familial terms.
Meeting with our Jordanian brethren also brought home both how many myths there are about this part of the world, but also how truly dangerous it is at the same time. There are lots of concerning things taking place, but there are also many good, loving and generous people as well. God has planted his seeds even in the darkest of places, and for this reason we still can and must hope. One young man I met, a brilliant apologist with a premier apologetics ministry, left me with this exhortation for American Christians, particularly the young: “Research. Don’t fall for the headlines. Ponder, meditate and think. It is your Christian duty to be knowledgeable and wise about the world around you. Don’t forget that.”
Amen.

Media wishing to interview Joshua Charles, please contact media@wnd.com.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/the-mega-church-culture-a-toxic-export/#fAxO8PFWHg0Hrgg8.99

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/the-mega-church-culture-a-toxic-export/#fAxO8PFWHg0Hrgg8.99

D.L. Moody on “Stony Ground Hearers”

By STLloyd July 4, 2014 D.L. Moody

Posted via  servehiminthewaiting.com 

“When a man is not deeply convicted of sin, it is a pretty sure sign that he has not truly repented. Experience has taught me that men who have very slight conviction of sin, sooner or later lapse back into their old life. For the last few years I have been a good deal more anxious for a deep and true work in professing converts than I have for great numbers. If a man professes to be converted without realizing the heinousness of his sins, he is likely to be one of those stony ground hearers who don’t amount to anything. … I believe we are making a woeful mistake in taking so many people into the Church who have never been truly convicted of sin. Sin is just as black in a man’s heart today as it ever was” 

–D.L. Moody, “Results of True Repentance,” from The Overcoming Life and Other Sermons, 1896. (From F.B.I.S. Friday Church News Notes, volume 15, Issue 27)

Message du bloc identitaire

Témoignage Nick Vujicic - Sans bras ni jambes et fou de Dieu

ISIS in the MIddle East

ISIS in the Middle East: 07/01/14 from Gary Stearman on Vimeo.

Mid-East Prophecy Update

Posted via http://servehiminthewaiting.com/

YellowStone Geysers Erupting

Jesus Calling Inspired by a Channeled New Age Book!

January 14th, 2014 | Author: Lighthouse Trails Editors

 

 

God Calling is a book of messages reputedly delivered by Jesus Christ to two women in England in the 1930s.(1) The women referred to themselves as “The Two Listeners,” and the messages they received from “Jesus” were conveyed through an occult process known as spiritual dictation. This is when a spiritual entity conveys information from the spirit world to willing people who act as “channels.”

The Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs published by Harvest House Christian Publishers describes God Calling as a channeled New Age book. It explains that channeling is a form of mediumship and that this practice is expressly forbidden in the Bible (Deuteronomy 18: 9-12).

In the Encyclopedia chapter on channeling, in a section titled “Impersonations and Denials of Christianity,” the reader is warned that God Calling is “replete with denials of biblical teaching.”(2)
Numerous examples are cited. However, in an interview with the the Christian Broadcasting Network, Sarah Young clearly states that her journey into receiving messages from “Jesus” began with her reading of God Calling:

My journey began with a book (God Calling) written in the 1930s by two women who practiced waiting in God’s Presence, writing the messages they received as they “listened.”(3) (parenthesis in original)

In her Introduction to the original 2004 copyrighted edition of Jesus Calling [still on the market today], Sarah Young writes that she was inspired to receive personal messages from “Jesus” after reading God Calling. She describes God Calling as “a treasure to me” and emphasizes that her journey began with this channeled New Age book:

During that same year [1992], I began reading God Calling, a devotional book written by two anonymous “listeners.” These women practiced waiting quietly in God’s Presence, pencils and paper in hand, recording the messages they received from Him . . . [T]his little paperback became a treasure to me. It dove-tailed remarkably well with my longing to live in Jesus’ Presence.
The following year I began to wonder if I, too, could receive messages during my times of communing with God . . . I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more. Increasingly,  I wanted to hear what God had to say to me personally on a given day. I decided to listen to God with pen in hand, writing down whatever I believed He was saying.(4) (emphasis added)

Because of Sarah Young’s endorsement, God Calling has resurfaced in Christian bookstores and is now a popular “Christian” book in its own right. It is grievous that as a longstanding Christian, Sarah Young did not discern God Calling for what it is—an occult/metaphysical book filled with false teachings and advocating a number of spiritually dangerous New Age practices like channeling and spiritual dictation. Instead, she began to channel her own messages from “Jesus”—many of them with serious New Age implications. Now Jesus Calling and God Calling—often sitting side by side in Christian bookstores and other retail outlets—are bringing meditation, channeling, spiritual dictation, and New Age terminology into the church. Both of them with messages similarly arranged as a Christian devotional.  
           

Notes:
1. Two Listeners; Edited by A.J. Russell, God Calling (Grand Rapids, MI: A Spire Book published by Jove Publications Inc., for Fleming H. Revell, 2005), p. 5.
2.  John Ankerberg & John Weldon, Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1996), pp. 80, 103-104.
3. Q&A with Sarah Young, Author Profile, The Christian Broadcasting Network (http:www.cbn.com/entertainment/books/JesusCallingQA.aspx).
4. Sarah Young, Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004), pp. Xl-Xll
To understand more about Jesus Calling and God Calling, read “Another Jesus” Calling by Warren S. Smith.

Posted in Book/Film Reviews, Book/Music Excerpts, Contemplative Practices, Contemplative Spirituality, New Age movement, Spiritual Deception, The New (False) Spirituality | Tags: "another jesus" calling, channeling, deception, emerging church, god calling, jesus calling, mysticism, New Age, sarah young, thomas nelson, Warren B. Smith

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• Jesus Calling Devotional Bible?—Putting Words in Jesus’ Mouth—And in the Bible

Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook, "It Will Not Be Long"

Reblogged from The End TimeThe end Time
"Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." (James 5:8)

Spurgeon: "The last word in the Canticle of love is, "Make haste, my beloved," and among the last words of the Apocalypse we read, "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come"; to which the heavenly Bridegroom answers, "Surely I come quickly." Love longs for the glorious appearing of the Lord and enjoys this sweet promise - "The coming of the Lord draweth nigh." This stays our minds as to the future. We look out with hope through this window."

"This sacred "window of agate" lets in a flood of light upon the present and puts us into fine condition for immediate work or suffering. Are we tired? Then the nearness of our joy whispers patience. Are we growing weary because we do not see the harvest of our seed-sowing? Again this glorious truth cries to us, "Be patient." Do our multiplied temptations cause us in the least to waver? Then the assurance that before long the Lord will be here preaches to us from this text, "Stablish your hearts." Be firm, be stable, be constant, "stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." Soon will you hear the silver trumpet which announces the coming of your King. Be not in the least afraid. Hold the fort, for He is coming; yea, He may appear this very day."

Welcome!

This Christian blog is about seeds, good and bad, and light, true and false whose main goal is encouragement, exhortation and spiritual discernment through articles, biblical studies, testimonies, stories and poetry.

My desire and primary purpose is to honor God the Creator and Father and Jesus-Christ His Son, the sustainer of the universe and the Savior of mankind, then to edify believing brothers and sisters in Christ and to disseminate  His Gospel or Good News, his message of love, mercy, pardon and redemption to a dying world.

• Seeds as beginning of life in the form of thoughts, ideas, suggestions and  words, constructive or destructive.
• Light as a guide to help travelers on their life journey.

Both are found in the person of Jesus-Christ, the Beginning and the End and everything in between, revealed, accurately portrayed and faithfully recorded and preserved through the pages of the Holy Bible from the books of Genesis to Revelation.

I started blogging in 2007. At the time, having a multilingual blog sounded like a good idea. Now I have decided that downsizing is in order. Concentrating on the ease of navigating and finding specific posts greatly reduces the reader´s frustration.
Highlighting my own writing became an almost impossible task. Browsing the statistics, the highest numbers went to my personal posts especially to the testimonies describing my own experiences with God and stories illustrating the Christian life.
So after seven years of blogging labor, I learned my lesson. Jacob the patriarch and I have this in common; I have a beautiful and wonderful wife who taught me everything I know about blogging after we met. 

If you are a faithful reader, I ask for your patience as I am going to post fewer entries in order to reorganize this blog and redirect reader traffic to my “English only” blog with the same title. Please, come and visit my new blog at: http://lightnseed.blogspot.com

If you are a first time visitor, Welcome to the Light Seed.
I appreciate your visit and I hope that you enjoy the experience as much as I do writing. I pray that you receive a blessing and share it with others.

If you have any helpful suggestions they will be considered. Please keep in mind that I believe that content and substance are more important than form and methods especially when the subject is spiritual life.
 
Jean-Louis

What Every American Needs to Know About Islam

With prophetic implications, the Kurds, known as the Medes in the Bible, seize oil-rich region of Iraq. What does it mean?

Reblogged from:Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog

In Uncategorized on June 17, 2014 at 12:39 pm
 
(Washington, D.C.) — Could recent developments in Iraq have prophetic implications? Actually, the answer may be yes — especially with regards to the Kurdish people who live in northern Iraq. Let me explain.

As we’ve been seeing in recent weeks, the Radical jihadist forces of the “Islamic State of Iraq & al-Sham” (ISIS) are on the move towards Baghdad. They are leaving a trail of bloodshed and carnage in their wake.
The objective of the ISIS leaders is to topple the Iraqi government, seize control of all of Iraq, establish a jihadist state under Sharia law, and use Iraq to begin a regional — and eventually global — Islamic caliphate, or kingdom.

Now, the Kurdish leaders have taken advantage of the chaos of this moment to seize control of the oil-rich region of Kirkuk for themselves. (see AP story below)
The oil fields of Kirkuk have been a long-standing issue of controversy in Iraq, especially since the liberation of the country in 2003. Whoever controls those fields would control enormous wealth as the oil there is more fully developed and shipped to markets around the globe.

The Kurds, generally, are Sunni Muslims, but they are not ethnically Arabs. Indeed, many Kurds have a deep hatred for the Arabs. Several decades ago, the world create a special, protected, autonomous region for the Kurds in the north region of Iraq, after Saddam Hussein repeated attacked and tried to destroy the Kurds, including with the use of chemical weapons.

Ultimately, many Kurds want to create an independent country of their own, uniting Kurds living in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Yet each of those national governments strongly oppose the creation of an independent Kurdistan.
What’s fascinating is that the modern Kurdish people were known in ancient, Biblical times as the Medes. Here is where things get interesting.

Bible prophecy indicates that in the End Times, as we get closer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, God will allow the Medes to gain power, even as the Lord allows the Arabs to gain power and rebuild the kingdom of Babylon in the heart of Iraq.
The Book of Revelation, for example, tells us that Babylon will be the epicenter of evil in the last days of history, and will eventually face the judgment of God. The Hebrew prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel tell us this, as well, indicating Babylon will be completely destroyed and when the judgment is complete, Babylon will be completely uninhabitable. Indeed, Isaiah 13:20 says of Babylon, “It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; nor will the Arab pitch his tent there, nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.”

What’s more, Bible prophecy indicates that God will raise up the Medes — that is, the Kurdish people — to be an instrument of judgment against Babylon.

• Isaiah 13:17 — “Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them [the Babylonians]….”
• Jeremiah 51:11 — “The Lord has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of the Lord….”
• Jeremiah 51:28-29 — “Consecrate the nations against her, the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their prefects, and every land of their dominion. So the land quakes and writhes, for the purposes of the Lord against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitants….”

 How exactly will these eschatological prophecies come to pass? It’s too early to say for certain.
But after studying these prophecies, traveling four times to the Iraqi Kurdistan region, meeting with senior Kurdish leaders — including Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani — and tracking developments there over the past decade or so, I think it is fair to say we may be seeing some of the prophetic battle lines developing:

• The hatred of the Kurds/Medes against the Arabs, and vice versa, is steadily growing.
• The Kurds/Medes and the Arabs are in a continued struggle to control the oil resources that will make either or both of them enormously wealthy and powerful in the End Times.
• The Kurds/Medes are, step by step, forming into their nation, and possibly their own country.
• The Kurds/Medes are developing an increasingly effective military force that is able to overpower the Iraqi Arabs at times. 

Please keep the Kurdish people in your prayers. There are a growing number of truly born again Christians living in Kurdistan, including many MBBs, Muslim Background Believers. Please pray that they would boldly preach the Gospel, and be able to make many disciples, and help the believers that grow deep in their faith in Christ, especially amidst all the chaos and carnage. 
For more on the latest geopolitical developments, here are excerpts from a recent article from the Associated Press, “HOW THE KURDS SEIZED KIRKUK.”

• “After a decades-long dispute between Arabs and Kurds over the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, it took just an hour and a half for its fate to be decided,” the Associated Press reports. “As al-Qaida-inspired militants advanced across northern Iraq and security forces melted away, Kurdish fighters who have long dominated Kirkuk ordered Iraqi troops out and seized full control of the regional oil hub and surrounding areas, according to a mid-ranking Army officer. He said he was told to surrender his weapons and leave his base.
• His account was corroborated by an Arab tribal sheik and a photographer who witnessed the looting of army bases after troops left and who related similar accounts of the takeover from relatives in the army. All three spoke to The Associated Press Friday on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution from Kurdish forces.
• “They said they would defend Kirkuk from the Islamic State,” said the Arab officer, who oversaw a warehouse in the city’s central military base. He asked that his rank not be made public.
• He insisted the Iraqi troops had not planned to retreat before the Islamic state. “We were ready to battle to death. We were completely ready,” he said at a roadside rest house just inside the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
• The Kurdish takeover of the long-disputed city came days after the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and other Sunni militants seized much of the country’s second largest city of Mosul and Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit before driving south toward Baghdad. Their lightning advance has plunged the country into its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops.
• A spokesman for Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, said they had only moved in after Iraqi troops retreated, assuming control of the “majority of the Kurdistan region” outside the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government.
• “Peshmerga forces have helped Iraqi soldiers and military leaders when they abandoned their positions,” including by helping three generals to fly back to Baghdad from the Kurdish regional capital Erbil, Lieutenant General Jabbar Yawar said in a statement on the regional government’s website….
• Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, is home to Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, who all have competing claims to the oil-rich area. Kurds have long wanted to incorporate it into their self-ruled region, but Arabs and Turkmen are opposed.
• In the 1970s and 1980s the Arab-dominated government in Baghdad drove hundreds of thousands of Kurds out of Kirkuk and surrounding regions, settling Arabs from the south in their place in an attempt to pacify a region that had seen repeated revolts.
• During the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 the highly disciplined peshmerga swept down from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region and established a strong presence in a belt of largely Kurdish towns and villages stretching south toward Baghdad.
• But the disintegration of Iraqi forces this week seems to have led the peshmerga to assume full control in areas they have long coveted, further enhancing their autonomy from Baghdad and undermining hard-fought U.S. efforts to bring about a stable, multiethnic Iraq.
• “To a great extent Kurdish forces had been de facto in control of Kirkuk for some time, but now they’re completely in control,” said F. Gregory Gause, III, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Doha Center.
• He said it was unlikely the Kurds would seek formal independence from Iraq, however, because such a move would be strongly opposed by neighboring Turkey and Iran — both of which have sizable Kurdish minorities — as well as Washington.

Mid-East Prophecy Update

Reblogged from: Serve Him in the Waiting