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)
Actress Candace Cameron Bure believes deeply in the power of prayer.
The "Fuller House" star stopped by the Faithwire newsroom in New York City on Monday to discuss faith, life, her new book and plenty more, spending a fair amount of time addressing the importance of prayer in her own life.
Bure, who released the book "Staying Stylish: Cultivating a Confident Look, Style, and Attitude" this week, specifically responded to those who say "prayer isn't enough" or who mock invocations in the wake of tragedy.
"It
bothers me and I feel sad for the people who write it, because the
first thing I think is, 'Well, they've never experienced the power of
prayer. They just don't know,'" Bure said. "Prayer, for me, is always
where you start. That's the start of your solution. Then, yes, you take
action."
Bure went on to offer a detailed assessment surrounding why she believes prayer is the starting place.
"If
you don't start with [prayer] there's no power behind it, because God's
the power," she said. "God can do anything, change anything — change
hearts. It's the heart of all of us that need to be changed and that's
where God needs to get in."
Listen to Bure discuss prayer and plenty more below:
The
actress also spoke about the daily role prayer plays in her everyday
life, saying that she doesn't feel quite balanced when she doesn't take
the time to give thanks to God, appealing to "his truths and not [her]
own emotions."
WASHINGTON — North Korea is widely known as the most oppressive place
on earth for Christians. It's a place where believers practice their
faith in secret. North Koreans cannot even own a Bible or speak the name
of Jesus in public.
Possessing a Bible could get you 15 years of hard labor in a prison camp, or worse.
Vernon Brewer, President of World Help, knows that well. He spends his days equipping smugglers to bring Bibles into the hermit kingdom.
Why They Risk Death to Own a Bible
"If they get caught with a Bible, it's a death sentence. Yet they are
willing to risk their lives every day to get God's word into the hands
of a North Korea Christian, that has never even held a Bible. Let alone
owned one. That's how precious it is to them. It is really good news,"
Brewer said.
Brewer believes of the some 300,000 Christians there, about 70,000
wither away in brutal prison camps because they were caught practicing
their faith.
Brewer and his team just returned from the DMZ, where they worked to
share the word of God by smuggling Bibles across the border.
"Much of the work we do to share the gospel, it's very secret. But I can
tell you this: we are distributing Bibles because that is the greatest
need. We have a goal to distribute 100,000 Bibles as soon as possible,"
Brewer told CBN News.
On the 700 Club Tuesday, Hannity told CBN's Pat Robertson, "I've
always felt that Hollywood has a contempt for conservative values and
Christian values."
That's why the Fox News Channel headliner has teamed up with a
veteran Hollywood actor to create a new faith-based film called "Let
There Be Light."
It's the story of a world-renown atheist, a near-death experience, and an encounter with the Creator of the universe.
Hannity is the movie's executive producer, making his first foray
into filmmaking, along with Kevin Sorbo, who not only stars in the film
but also directed it.
The movie is a true family affair. Sorbo's wife, Sam co-wrote the
script and also plays his on-screen wife, while their two young sons
make their own acting debuts.
The call for repentance needed in and from the church today is actually a call for what we need most: true love. The lack of true love in the church is filling our services, ministries, and homes with two extremes—tolerance and legalism.
The deception of tolerance is that it can look so much like love. We use the Bible to define love as patient, kind, never proud, not rude, not demanding its own way, along with other attributes found in 1 Corinthians 13. However, the love of the world can also have many of these characteristics.
What separates Christian love from worldly love is that Christian love obeys God’s commands. “By this we know,” writes the apostle of love, “that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments” (1 John 5:2).
This means, if I’m patient, not rude, not jealous, and not boastful, but am cheating on my wife or if I condone sexual immorality, I am not walking in the love of God.
True love is marked by both truth and love. Truth apart from love directs us down the road of the letter of the law, that which kills—legalism. And, sadly, people react to legalism by swinging the pendulum to the other extreme, avoiding correction and scriptural warnings, which are crucial to the health and building of the church.
Let’s be candid—we view calling men and women to repentance as a lack of compassion, tenderness, kindness, and love. Yet consider this: If I see a blind man heading straight for a cliff that will cause him to fall to certain death, love demands that I call him to change course!
In our society, and with many in the church, such genuine love that calls for repentance is perceived as bigoted and hateful. This stronghold has emerged because many are only considering their life on earth, and not eternity.
When we remember that this life is less than a blink in light of eternity, we live differently. We must view life in an eternal context to comprehend true love.
This is the love the church needs now—eternal love, true love—love that will confront sin and call for repentance, yet also a love that is patient, kind, and gentle.
From the Bible study, Killing Kryptonite by John Bevere.
Messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn, the New York Times bestselling author of “The Harbinger,” has produced his most ambitious and comprehensive work yet, “The Paradigm.”
On a recent appearance on SkyWatch TV, the man known as “America’s Prophet” detailed the implications of his newest biblical discovery.
“It [the paradigm] gives the modern leaders the amount of time they
have to be on the national stage before they leave,” marveled Cahn. “I
mean, it’s specific. … God uses everything, God weaves in everything.
The paradigm is this master blueprint, from the Bible, that deals with a
nation or a civilization that is heading away from God.
“Israel is the example, ancient Israel, when they turned away from
God, what happened? ‘The Harbinger’ speaks of the signs of judgment,
this [‘The Paradigm’] speaks of everything that’s happening. So
everything we’ve experienced in our lifetime is all part of this
paradigm and it takes us up to everything that’s happening right now.
And then where do we go from here?”
One of the most consistent signs in a nation’s fall into apostasy is
the reemergence of a certain spirit – the spirit of Baal. The rabbi
detailed the highly important role of this false god during the apostasy
of ancient Israel.
“Ba’al means lord, or master, or owner,” Cahn said. Switching to the
more common pronunciation of “Baal,” Cahn explained how the pagan god
has a symbolic meaning that goes far behind his actual historical
importance.
“Baal’s importance, or his dynamic, is that when a nation has known
God, as Israel knew God, and then they turned away from God, they turned
to Baal,” he said. “Baal is the anti-God. Baal is the substitute god.
Baal is the god of apostasy, of the turning away from God.”
Cahn linked Baal with the practice of idolatry, or the way humans can create their own god.
