6 Reasons Pastors Should not Quit on Mondays

I've heard it countless times from pastors: "I quit my job almost every Monday." Of course, it's typically a tongue-in-cheek statement regarding the letdown many pastors feel after Sunday. But most pastors say these words with a little bit of truth. They really do feel the struggles and challenges of being pastor more on Monday than most other days.

The title of this article could be "Six Reasons Pastors Want to Quit Their Jobs on Monday," but I've chosen to take a different approach. I will give the six most common reasons I've heard for quitting, but then I'll offer rejoinders that offer encouragement on why they should not quit.

1. "I am emotionally spent after preaching on Sunday." I understand fully. But don't make hasty decisions or judgments after such an emotionally draining experience. Most people will never know what goes into sermon preparation and what it takes out of the pastor. Hang in there. God will restore your strength.

Continued, here.

From Sea to Sea, Pro-Life Canadians Unite in Provincial Marches for Life

May 14, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com)
– Thousands of pro-lifers attended provincial Marches for Life across
Canada on May 8, joining forces with the 23,000-strong crowd at the
National March for Life in Ottawa, with the aim of ending abortion in
this country.

While a few regions hold their marches on different days to accommodate
as many people to attend as possible, all have the same focus that
abortion kills children and must be stopped.

VICTORIA, British Columbia

Hundreds of pro-lifers started the day on Thursday, May 8, 2014 for the
6th annual March for Life in Victoria with prayer at two noon pro-life
Masses held at St. Andrew’s Roman Catholic Cathedral and St. Patrick’s
Roman Catholic Church. Marchers then gathered at Centennial Square and
headed down Government Street to the B.C. Legislature where they heard
inspirational speeches on this year's theme, Life: The Only Choice.

Speakers were introduced by emcee Pavel Reid, director of the Office of
Life, Marriage and Family of the Archdiocese of Vancouver, and included
Bishop John Corriveau of Nelson, pro-life advocates Carmela Marie Cruz,
Elizabeth Sutcliffe and Lara Burns, as well as high school students
Amanda Seymour and Antonio Balogh.

The day finished with the Victoria Pro-Life Gala dinner co-hosted by
National Campus Life Network and UVic’s pro-life club, Youth Protecting
Youth. The guest speaker was Lara Burns, who shared her personal
testimony, speaking about “The Joy of Choosing Life.”

A video of the Victoria March for Life is available here.

EDMONTON, Alberta

After the pro-life Mass at St. Joseph's Basilica, marchers gathered at
the Alberta Legislature where Bishop David Motiuk of the Ukrainian
Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton offered opening prayers. The Knights of
Columbus led the March from the Legislature to Sir Winston Churchill
Square for speeches on this year's theme: "But Mommy, Daddy, my heart is
beating."

Emcees were Denise Mountenay, founder and president of Canada Silent No
More, and Joanne Byfield, president of ALIES (Back Porch), who
introduced a host of speakers including Dr. Robert Hauptman of Canadian
Physicians for Life and Sharon-Rose Milan, executive director of
Campaign Life Coalition Alberta.

Marchers then returned to the legislature for closing speeches and a prayer service for the victims of abortion.

From sea to sea, pro-life Canadians unite in provincial Marches for Life | LifeSiteNews.com

Report: Abducted Girls Being Forced to Marry Islamic Captors

Scores of girls and young women kidnapped from a school in Nigeria
are being forced to marry their Islamic extremist abductors, a civic
organization reported Wednesday.


At the same time, the Boko Haram terrorist network is negotiating
over the students’ fate and is demanding an unspecified ransom for their
release, a Borno state community leader told The Associated Press.


He said the Wednesday night message from the abductors also claimed that two of the girls have died from snake bites.

Report: Abducted Girls Being Forced to Marry Islamic Captors | Christian News Network

Raped Woman Faces Flogging

Sharia police in the Indonesian province of Aceh will publicly flog a young woman for adultery after she was turned in by eight vigilantes who had already gang-raped her as punishment.

The woman, a 25-year-old widow, and her alleged partner, a married 40-year old man, were caught inside her home last Thursday by a group of eight who were intent on enforcing the sharia prohibition on sex outside marriage, local media reports say.

The eight, who included a 13-year-old boy, tied up and beat the man and repeatedly raped the woman before dousing both in raw sewage.

Continued

How Women Can Make Church a Safe Place for Men

When we dress provocatively, we dishonor God and display a lack of
regard for His holiness. We can also become a distraction for our
brothers in Christ.

I'd been traveling all weekend, and my flight from California to the East Coast got in at midnight. All I wanted to do was go home, drop my suitcases and hit the sack.

But the story my husband had waiting for me made me drop my jaw and want to hit—well, not the sack!

"She was just visiting our church service this morning," he began haltingly.

He didn't notice her at first, he said. But then came "greeting time."

"Bob, I'd like you to meet John's cousin," a friend said as he introduced her.

That's when my husband's mind began to whirl. He'd heard about her. She was the one with the perfect—well, let's just say she qualified to be a
fitting model for Victoria's Secret. You figure out what was perfect!

Through the rest of the service he was restless. Intrigued. Annoyed. He wasn't the only one; I asked. (Continued)

How Women Can Make Church a Safe Place for Men

Horrifying Scenes in Syria as Islamic extremists CRUCIFY Two for 'Fighting Against Muslims'

Islamic extremists have publicly crucified two Syrian rebels in northeastern Syria in revenge for a grenade attack on members of their group.

The jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said it had executed a total of seven prisoners who it claimed had carried out a grenade attack on one of its fighters earlier this month in the Euphrates Valley city of Raqqa.

The group, which even Al Qaeda have been keen to distance themselves from, said on Twitter: 'Ten days ago, attackers on a motorbike threw a grenade at an ISIL fighter at the Naim roundabout. A Muslim civilian had his leg blown off and a child was killed.
Horrifying scenes in Syria as Islamic extremists CRUCIFY two for 'fighting against Muslims' | Mail Online

Jerry Pattengale: How the 'Jesus' Wife' Hoax Fell Apart

In September 2012, Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King announced the discovery of a Coptic (ancient Egyptian) gospel text on a papyrus fragment that contained the phrase "Jesus said to them, 'My wife . . .' " The world took notice. The possibility that Jesus was married would prompt a radical reconsideration of the New Testament and biblical scholarship.

Yet now it appears almost certain that the Jesus-was-married story line was divorced from reality. On April 24, Christian Askeland—a Coptic specialist at Indiana Wesleyan University and my colleague at the Green
Scholars Initiative—revealed that the "Gospel of Jesus' Wife," as the fragment is known, was a match for a papyrus fragment that is clearly a forgery. (Continued)

Jerry Pattengale: How the 'Jesus' Wife' Hoax Fell Apart - WSJ.com

Canadian Aborted Babies Incinerated in Oregon Waste-to-Energy Facility to Provide Electricity

VICTORIA, British Columbia, April 23, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com)
– The British Columbia Health Ministry has admitted that the remains of
babies destroyed by abortion in B.C. facilities are ending up in a
waste-to-power facility in the United States, providing electricity for
residents of Oregon.

The province’s Health Ministry said in an email to the B.C. Catholic
that “biomedical waste” shipped to the U.S. to be incinerated includes
“human tissue, such as surgically removed cancerous tissue, amputated
limbs, and fetal tissue.”

“The ministry understands that some is transferred to Oregon. There it
is incinerated in a waste-to-energy plant,” the email stated.

The ministry said that contractors handling the province’s “biomedical
waste” follow “health and safety protocols, as well as federal,
provincial, and local regulations.”

Islamic Teaching: Non-Muslims Equal to Dogs | Raymond Ibrahim

Among those familiar with the true teachings of Islam, it is well
known that the life — or as articulated in Arabic, the “blood” — of an
infidel, that is, a non-Muslim, is not equal to the life/blood of a
Muslim.  Few know, however, that among some of  Islam’s respected hadith
collections, the blood of a non-Muslim is no better than the blood of a
dog.


(Dog-lovers should bear in mind that, in Islam, to be compared to a dog is about the worst and most degrading insult.)



 Islamic Teaching: Non-Muslims Equal to Dogs | Raymond Ibrahim

Ibrahim: Islam Unveiled

Who is ultimately responsible for the ongoing attacks on Christians and their churches throughout the Islamic world?

Focusing on one of the most obvious nations where Christians are
regularly targeted—Egypt’s Coptic Christians—one finds that the “mob” is
the most visible and obvious culprit. One Copt accused of some
transgression against Muslim sensibilities—from having relations with a Muslim woman, to ruining a Muslim man’s shirt—is often enough to prompt Muslim mobs to destroy entire Christian villages and their churches.

Days ago, for example, after her cross identified Mary Saleh George as a Christian, a pro-Muslim Brotherhood mob attacked, beat, tortured, and slaughtered her.

However, a recent Arabic op-ed titled “Find the True Killer of Mary” attempts to look beyond the mob to identify the true persecutor of Christians in Egypt. According to the op-ed:

           Those who killed the young and vulnerable Mary Saleh George, for

hanging a cross in her car, are not criminals, but rather wretches who
follow those who legalized for them murder, lynching, dismemberment, and
the stripping bare of young Christian girls—without every saying
“kill.” [Islamic cleric] Yassir Burhami and his colleagues who announce
their hate for Christians throughout satellite channels and in
mosques—claiming that hatred of Christians is synonymous with love for
God—they are the true killers who need to be tried and prosecuted… The
slayers of Mary Saleh are simply a wretched mob, with the body of a bull
but the brain of a worm. It’s not the puppets on the string who need
punishing, but rather the mastermind who moves the puppets with his
bloody fingers behind closed curtains that needs punishing.

Ibrahim: Islam Unveiled