Just a year ago, I had a regular attendee in my Paradoxes Sunday school class1 who was 101 years old. He was mentally sharp and, for his age, physically fit. He lived alone and drove himself to class. He claimed that the secret to his longevity was a disciplined diet and daily physical and mental exercise. However, a few months ago, he caught a flu bug that within a week took his life.
Our class centenarian was an example to all of us that a disciplined lifestyle will extend our lives but also that there seems to be a limit beyond which none of us can go. Now, a recent exchange of papers in the journal Science establishes that there is indeed a hard limit to how long we humans can live—a limit that is in perfect accord with what was written in Genesis nearly 3,500 years ago.......
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:21)
Think about the far-reaching implications of that one statement. Imagine growing up in a family that embraced that one guideline. How many rules would we need if everybody just did that? Can you think of a marriage conflict that couldn’t be resolved if both parties decided to submit to each other freely out of reverence for Christ? This was Paul’s way of saying: “Put others first, just as Christ put you first.”
I call this the principle of mutual submission. I’m convinced this is the most powerful, transformational, relational dynamic on the planet. In a relationship characterized by mutual submission, both parties choose to submit themselves to the other. Mutual submission doesn’t work unless it’s mutual. It only works when both parties work it. But, like Jesus, Paul didn’t stop there.
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
New covenant participants are to submit to one another in light of what Christ has done for them. Paul doesn’t instruct believers to submit to one another out of reverence for one another. Let’s face it—most “one anothers” don’t deserve to be submitted to. Paul takes us back to the dynamic Jesus introduced in the upper room. The phrase “out of reverence for Christ” suggests we are to submit to one another out of reverence for the fact that Christ submitted himself to each of us on the cross to pay our sin debt. His sacrifice is to serve as the inspiration and standard for our submission to one another. It’s that just as thing again.
“Submit to one another” wasn’t Paul’s only one-another. He left the church with some other one-anothers. According to Paul, the primary duty of Jesus followers is to one-another one another. Here’s his list:
Submit to one another.
Forgive one another.
Encourage one another.
Restore one another.
Accept one another.
Care for one another.
Bear with one another.
Carry one another’s burdens.
If we were to ask Paul what faith expressing itself through love looks like, he might rattle off this list. This is the short list of what God through Christ has done for each of us.
ISLAMABAD — The release of a Christian woman in Pakistan who was acquitted eight years after being sentenced to death for blasphemy was apparently delayed Friday, after talks failed between the government and radical Islamists who want her publicly hanged.
Also, a lawyer representing a local cleric who had raised the initial blasphemy charges against Asia Bibi petitioned the Supreme Court on Thursday to reverse its acquittal.
The top court in a landmark decision on Wednesday overturned Bibi’s 2010 conviction of insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Since then, Islamists have blocked highways and damaged or set-fire to dozens of vehicles to pressure the government to stop her release from an undisclosed detention facility.
This undated handout photo released to AFP on November 1, 2018 via the UK charity British Pakistani Christian Association shows a portrait of Asia Bibi, who had been on death row in Pakistan since 2010.HANDOUT/AFP/Getty Images
Islamists were to hold nationwide rallies after Friday’s prayers, stoking fears violence. Pakistan shut down schools and colleges after radical cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the leader of Tehreek-e-Labbaik party, announced that “talks” between his deputies and the government about Bibi’s fate had failed.
Before dawn Friday, Rizvi told an emotionally-charged rally in the eastern city of Lahore that one of the government negotiators threatened his deputies during the talks that security forces will ruthlessly kill them if they did not disperse peacefully. He asked his supporters to continue sit-ins as authorities summoned paramilitary troops to restore order.
“We are ready to die to show our love for the prophet,” he said.
For a second day, protesters rally to condemn a Supreme Court decision that acquitted Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, who spent eight years on death row accused of blasphemy, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018.Shakil Adil/AP
Rizvi’s envoys had demanded that Bibi be barred from leaving the country but Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry rejected the demand, saying the government will not accept any dictates.
Ghulam Mustafa, a lawyer representing a provincial cleric in Punjab who had filed the initial blasphemy charges against Bibi, petitioned the Supreme Court, requesting the judges review her acquittal. The court has set not dates to take up the petition, but Bibi’s release could be further delayed by the process. Pakistan’s Supreme Court has not been known to reverse its decisions but court reviews typically take years.
Authorities say they have stepped up security near an undisclosed detention facility where Bibi is being held for her safety. On Thursday, prison officials said two inmates were arrested last month for planning to kill Bibi by strangling her. They said the men were still being questioned.
Bibi’s family had expected her release by Thursday night. Her husband, Ashiq Masih, returned from Britain with their children in mid-October and was waiting for her release so that they can fly out of Pakistan. Though the family has not disclosed the country of her destination, France and Spain have offered asylum.
Bibi’s acquittal has posed a challenge to the government of Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Imran Khan, who came to power this summer partly by pursuing the Islamist agenda.
Khan condemned the Islamists on Wednesday after cleric Afzal Qadri urged supporters to kill the three judges who acquitted Bibi, revolt against army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and overthrow Khan’s government.
Military’s spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said Friday the army was exercising restraint, to give a chance for a peaceful resolution. He asked demonstrators to refrain from violence and await the outcome of the review petition to the Supreme Court.
“Let this legal process be completed first,” he told state-run Pakistan Television.
However, over 2,000 Islamists continued blocking a key road linking the capital, Islamabad, with the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Friday, causing traffic jams. Hundreds also blocked another key motorway, linking Islamabad with other major cities.
Pakistani protesters burn a poster image of Christian woman Asia Bibi, who has spent eight-years on death row accused of blasphemy and acquitted by a Supreme Court, in Hyderabad, Pakistan, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018.Pervez Masih/AP / AP
Bibi was arrested in 2009 after she was accused of blasphemy following a quarrel with two fellow female farm workers who refused to drink from a water container used by a Christian. A few days later, a mob accused her of insulting Islam’s prophet, leading to her 2010 conviction.
Bibi’s family has always maintained her innocence and says she never insulted the prophet.
Bibi’s case has drawn international attention and also put Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws into focus again. The charge of blasphemy carried the death penalty in this majority Muslim nation and critics say it is often used to settle feuds and arguments.
A professor in Ohio has filed suit against his university on the grounds that they violated his freedom of speech and tried to force him to violate his sincerely held religious beliefs.
Nicholas Meriwether, a full professor of political philosophy at Shawnee State University, found himself with hot water with the administration when he refused to call a transgender student by the student’s preferred pronoun.
Meriwether teaches his classes using the Socratic Method, often calling on students to participate in the discussion. When he addresses students, he usually calls them “Mr., Miss, or Mrs.” and responds to questions with “sir” and “ma’am.” He says that he uses “this formal manner of addressing helps them view the academic enterprise as a serious, weighty endeavor.”
On January 9, 2018, Alena Bruening asked Meriwether a question and he responded, “Yes, sir.” Meriwether’s complaint said he responded to Bruening “in this fashion because Bruening is male.” After the class, Bruening, who identifies as a female, approached Meriwether and demanded that he use feminine pronouns and titles in the future.
Meriwether responded that he did not believe he could accommodate the request and did not believe students could dictate a professor’s speech. Bruening responded in anger, using a derogatory term to refer to Meriwether and promising to get him fired.
Meriwether is an evangelical Christian and a member of a congregation affiliated with the Presbyterian Church of America. He holds traditional, evangelical views on gender, believing that God created people male and female and that gender is determined by biology, not identity.
Acting Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Roberta Milliken, spoke with Meriwether and told him that he should refer to students by their last names only and cease using gender references when calling on students. Meriwether said this violated the serious academic environment he wanted to foster, but would make an accommodation for Bruening, who continued to attend classes, take part in discussions, and received a high grade for the course. Milliken initially agreed with this arrangement before changing her mind.
Milliken later met with Meriwether again and told him he could stop using titles and pronouns altogether or refer to students by their preferred pronouns and titles. She said he would choose one of the two options or face charges of violating the University’s non-discrimination policy.
Meriwether filed a grievance request with the union, believing the university violated his freedom of expression. When he met with a school administrator and representative from the union, the “openly laughed” at his religious beliefs and refused to follow through on his request for a grievance.
He claims another administrator, humanities department chair Jennifer Pauley, mocked him during a 2016 meeting in which they discussed how the Obama administration’s Title IX guidance on transgender students applied to someone with his convictions. Meriwether claims Pauley told him that, “adherents to the Christian religion are primarily motivated out of fear” and that “Christian doctrines regarding hell are harmful and should not be taught and that anyone who believes hell exists should not be allowed to teach these doctrines.” He further claimed that education existed to “liberate students,” but “religion oppresses students".
Continued, here.
Popular evangelist Andy Stanley recently raised the ire of some Christians on social media when he publicly said that Christians need to "unhitch" the Old Testament from their faith.
Stanley, the senior pastor of the North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, made the comments during an April 30 sermon to his congregation. The sermon was the third and final part of a lesson series titled "Aftermath: Not Difficult" that is available for public viewing on YouTube.
Stanley said that while he believes that the Old Testament is "divinely inspired," it should not be "the go-to source regarding any behavior in the church."
According to The Christian Post, Stanley had used Acts 15 in a previous sermon describing how the early church decided that Gentile converts did not need to observe Jewish law to become Christians.
"(First Century) Church leaders unhitched the church from the worldview, value system, and regulations of the Jewish scriptures," said Stanley. "Peter, James, Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish scriptures, and my friends, we must as well."
In his sermon, Stanley expressed his concern that many Christians are turning away from the faith because of certain passages in the Old Testament. He argues the early church moved past the Old Testament for the sake of newly converted Gentile believers and that the resurrection of Jesus was their focus.
"Jesus' new covenant, His covenant with the nations, His covenant with you, His covenant with us, can stand on its own two nail-scarred resurrection feet. It does not need propping up by the Jewish scriptures," Stanley told the congregation. "The Bible did not create Christianity. The resurrection of Jesus created and launched Christianity. Your whole house of Old Testament cards can come tumbling down. The question is did Jesus rise from the dead? And the eyewitnesses said he did."
Stanley said he understands his comments might be "a little disturbing" to some, but for others, it is "liberating."
"It's liberating for men and women who are drawn to the simple message that God loves you so much He sent His Son to pave the way to a relationship with you," he said.
Studies have shown that being part of the church is good for your health both physically and spiritually. A February 2018 Time magazine article cites a comprehensive study that found “regular service attendance was linked to reductions in the body’s stress responses and even in mortality.” The article went on to say, “If a long life is what you’re after, going to church may be the answer to your prayers.”
Some people claim they love Jesus, but they just don’t love Christians. Yet how can they love God, whom they can’t see, when they can’t love his people, whom they can see? If you love God, then you will love his people. In fact, 1 John 3:14 says, “If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead” (NLT). God gives us a love for the people who are a part of the church.
And frankly, not going to church is proof that something is wrong with us spiritually. We’re told in 1 John 2:19, “These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us” (NLT).
The closer we are to God, the closer we’ll want to be to his people. The further we are from God, the further we’ll want to distance ourselves from his people. If you find yourself feeling uncomfortable around Christians, then maybe there’s something wrong with you spiritually.
I think the problem is that we sometimes treat church like a movie theater. When you’re going to a movie, you know about how long the trailers will roll. Even if you get there late, you’ll still be able to see your film. Then, if you’re like me (and I have to admit that I do this), at the end of the movie I’m out of there. I don’t want to deal with traffic. When the credits are rolling, I walk out of the theater.
Is definitive scientific theory actually definitive? Not really. Contrary to the dogma of modern theory (aka: best guess), evolutionists are currently backpedalling, scrambling and/or generally doing a classic hair-pull nutter at the latest scientific discovery that explodes the assumption that mankind is a billion years old.
PhysOrg reports results indicate that “… nine out of 10 species on Earth today, including humans, came into being 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.”
That’s right. Human beings didn’t evolve out of primordial soup a billion years ago but happened upon the scene a mere 200,000 years ago. Whammo. Just there. Not slowly morphing.
“In the past,” according to PJMedia, “researchers studied DNA in the nucleus of cells, which differs markedly from one species to another. But the new study analyzed a gene sequence found in mitochondrial DNA. (Mitochondria, the powerhouses of cells, produce about 90 percent of a cell’s chemical energy.) Although mitochondrial DNA is similar across all humans and animals, it also contains tiny bits that are different enough to distinguish between species. This difference allows researchers to estimate the approximate age of a species.”
And it’s the age that’s telling. So either the majority of life began nearly 200,000 years ago, or it re-emerged after a population bust. Cataclysmic event? Creation? Whatever the explanation, 200,000 years is not a long enough period of time to account for the random mutation evolutionists have speculated upon to gird their attempt to play God, substituting science for scripture.
The following study is an interesting examination of theophanies. A
theophany is an appearance of God. God appears in the Old Testament in
different ways: as an angel of the Lord (Acts 7:30-32; Exodus 3:2; Judges 2:1), apparently in physical form (Gen. 3:8; Exodus 24:9-11), in visions and dreams (Num. 12:6-8), and in flame (Judges 13:20-21). However, there are verses that say that you can't see God: Exodus 33:20; John 1:18). If this is so, then is there a contradiction in the Bible? No, there isn't.
Study the following verses, read them in context in the Bible, and
see if you can figure out what is going on. If you can't, continue
reading; and you'll be pleasantly surprised.
These verses are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Please
note that "LORD" is equivalent to YHWH, Yahweh, and Jehovah which is the
name of God.
Plurality of God
Gen. 1:26, "Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..."
Gen. 19:24, "Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven."
Amos 4:10-11,
"‘I sent a plague among you after the manner of Egypt; I slew your
young men by the sword along with your captured horses, and I made the
stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils; yet you have not returned
to Me,' declares the LORD. ‘I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and
Gomorrah...'"
Isaiah 44:6,
"Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of
hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides
me...‘" See also, Isaiah 48:16.
The New Testament
is constantly under attack, and its reliability and accuracy are often
contested by critics. If the critics want to disregard the New
Testament, then they must also disregard other ancient writings by
Plato, Aristotle, and Homer. This is because the New Testament
documents are better-preserved and more numerous than any other ancient
writings. Because they are so numerous, they can be cross checked for accuracy . . . and they are very consistent.
There are presently 5,686 Greek manuscripts in existence today for the New Testament.1
If we were to compare the number of New Testament manuscripts to other
ancient writings, we find that the New Testament manuscripts far
outweigh the others in quantity.2
Breitbart.com reports: “A journalist has been allowed a rare
glimpse into the workings of Britain’s secretive Sharia Courts, which
can preside over business, marriage, and financial disputes in the
Muslim community under the Arbitration Act of 1996.
‘What strikes you first is the squalid nature of the women’s stories.
Their husbands have beaten and abused them, they claim; lied and
cheated, cavorted with prostitutes, become addicted to drugs. One
weeping wife even accuses her spouse of molesting her infant child,’
reports David Jones in an article for the Daily Mail.
Jones describes how, ‘after much negotiation’, he was able to
persuade a Sharia council in Birmingham to let him observe it in action
as a ‘procession of downtrodden women’ came to plead for the dissolution
of their Islamic marriages ‘in a windowless chamber in the city’s huge
Central Mosque’ — in exchange for a £300 fee.
Just how many courts of this kind are operating in Britain is
unknown, with Reading University estimating around 30 and the Civitas
think-tank estimating around 85 — but the Government has conceded they
pose a danger to Britain’s social cohesion, ‘[keeping] many Muslims
isolated, entrenched and with little social stake in wider British
citizenship and life.’
Many Muslim women find themselves forced to turn to these courts
because their husbands do not supplement their Islamic marriages with
civil marriages — which would give wives more rights in the secular
courts, and prevent husbands from taking extra spouses without breaking
the law on bigamy…”
(TELEGRAPH) — It is a phenomenon that
is on the rise throughout the world: The number of cases of demonic
possession – and demands for priests to carry out exorcisms – is,
according to multiple sources, soaring.
Medical science remains sceptical. However, a
Princeton-and-Yale-educated mainstream psychiatrist believes demonic
possession is indeed very real – and claims that the majority of
Americans agree with him.
With 25 years experience in a private psychiatric practice and as a
professor at New York Medical College and Columbia University, Dr
Richard Gallagher has a rare vantage point to observe human behavior.
And then there is the inhuman.
Gallagher
He
is also a sought-after psychiatrist for discernment, the initial step
in determining the need for exorcism. Dr Gallagher has evaluated
hundreds of cases of possible possession and, in a wide-ranging and rare
interview with the Telegraph, explains why he believes the phenomenon
is genuine.
In this lab, John Piper shows us that the righteous are not perfect.
But they are those who trust God and live obediently from that trust.
Some questions to ask as you read and study Psalm 1:4–6:
When you read the Old Testament and read about the righteous, who do you think it is talking about?
Who are the righteous in Psalm 1:4–6? How do you become one of the righteous?
Watch the lab. What are the two aspects of “righteous” in the New Testament? Are you one of the righteous?
The following is an edited transcript of the audio.
Why does God allow Satan to live?
( by John Piper)
This is one of the questions that I try to answer in Spectacular Sins. And it is not just something on top of what is already said in the book, but it is right at the heart of it.
But before I answer it, let's make sure that we agree that it is true that God could take Satan out anytime he chose. Because I think there are some who would say, "He really can't, because of some rights (or authority, independence, free will, etc.) that Satan has." But the reason I know God can take Satan out without turning me into an automaton or breaking any rules is because he is going to take him out. He is going to throw him in the lake of fire.
And the question is, "Why didn't he do it yesterday? If he had done it yesterday I wouldn't be tempted the way I am today. The Bible says, 'Lead me not into temptation.' Well, the best way not to be led into temptation is to take the Tempter away! Isn't it? Take him out! I've got sin in my life plenty enough to make me struggle. I don't need Satan on top of my sin making my life more miserable. So God, take him out! You have the right and the power to take him out. You're doing nobody wrong when you take him out. Take him out!"
A nonfiction Christian memoir that shares
the author's heart-wrenching story of watching her son go through a
cycle of drugs, gangs, several prison sentences, and more. The writer
discusses her faith, her son's search for God, and the family heartaches
through a painful journey of more than a decade. Even in the midst of
tragedy, God is faithful.
Farida Abbas Khalaf, one of thousands of Yazidi women abducted, raped
and brutalised by Islamic State group fighters, says the jihadists'
departure has not made it safe to return to Iraq.
"Everything is still the same. The same people who joined (IS) are still
in those neighbourhoods. How can we return and trust them again?"
Khalaf said in an interview with AFP this week.
"Who will guarantee that genocide will not happen again, by perpetrators
using another name?" she asked, speaking through a translator.
Khalaf was 18 when IS fighters arrived in her once peaceful village of Kocho in Iraq's northern Sinjar region on August 3, 2014.
Speaking on the sidelines of a summit for human rights defenders in
Geneva, the young woman with long black hair and sorrowful eyes said she
and her family never expected to be attacked.
"We hadn't harmed anybody, we hadn't offended anybody... We just wanted to live in peace," she said.
But the Kurdish-speaking Yazidis, who follow a non-Muslim faith, became
particular targets of hatred for the Sunni Muslim IS extremists that
seized Sinjar in 2014 and unleashed a brutal campaign against the
minority that the United Nations has called a "genocide".
When IS jihadists descended on the village, they gave the Yazidis two weeks to convert to Islam -- or risk the consequences.
Khalaf, who has written a book about her experience titled: "The Girl
Who Beat ISIS", described what happened when those two weeks were up.
- Taken to slave market -
"They gathered all of us in the village and they asked us to convert. We
refused, and they started killing the men," she told AFP.
"That one day alone they killed more than 450 men and boys."
Khalaf's father and one of her brothers were among those killed, and she was abducted.
"When we were taken, they did everything to us. They raped women and girls as young as eight," she said.
Khalaf was taken to one of IS's infamous slave markets, where Yazidi
women and girls were sold and traded as sex slaves across the jihadists'
self-proclaimed and since-crumbled "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq.
Have you ever lost anything in the ocean? You can pretty much you kiss it goodbye. You probably won’t ever see it again.
Years ago I was scuba diving, and I was cruising along at
about 15 feet below the surface. I could see the ocean floor, which was
about 30 feet below the surface. I went out a little further, and the
ocean floor dropped to 60 feet. I went to a depth of 30 feet and
ventured out even further, until the ocean floor was at about 80 feet
below the surface. Then I came to a ledge that dropped off, and I could
no longer see the bottom of the ocean. I took one look into that dark
abyss, turned around and went back the way I came. That is a long way
down. If you drop something there, you will never see it again.
The Bible says of God, “You
will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19 NKJV).
God will take our sin and throw it into the deepest part of the sea. He
will take our iniquities and cast them into the depths of the ocean. God
also promises, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and
their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews
8:12 NKJV). Isn’t that good news? God will forgive your sin. He will
forget your sin. We should not choose to remember what God has chosen to
forget. It is forgiven.
The Bible tells the story of two thieves on the cross. They were being crucified on the same day Jesus was. The word thief
the Bible uses is a much more intense word. They were not just men who
stole things. They probably were murderers and insurrectionists
revolting against Roman tyranny. That is why Rome would hang people like
that on crosses. Read more
(AP) —
JERUSALEM — The leaders of the major Christian sects in Jerusalem
closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the traditional site
of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, for several hours on Sunday to
protest an Israeli plan to tax their properties.
The Christian leaders responsible for the site issued a
joint statement bemoaning what they called a “systematic campaign of
abuse” against them, comparing it to anti-Jewish laws issued in Nazi
Germany.
The Christians are angry about the Jerusalem municipality plans to
tax their various assets around the city and a potential parliament bill
to expropriate land sold by the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic
churches. The churches, which are major landowners in the holy city, say
it violates a long standing status quo.
The Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and the Armenian Apostolic leaders
said the moves seemed like an attempt to “weaken the Christian presence
in Jerusalem.”
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a major place of worship in
Jerusalem’s Old City. Christians revere it as the site where Jesus was
crucified and where his tomb is located, and its closing is highly
unusual.
The Jerusalem municipality said it would continue to care for the
needs of Jerusalem’s Christians and maintain their full freedom of
worship. It said the church, just like other sacred sites in the city,
is exempt from municipal property taxes and that will not change.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female – for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28 NET)
