WHY CHURCH SHOULD BE A PART OF YOUR LIFE Exclusive: Greg Laurie addresses those who love Jesus but 'just don't love Christians'

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.

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Gasp! Is science leaning toward creation of man?

Scientific vs. scriptural spin

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.

Say what? Human beings didn’t develop randomly out of primordial ooze? Rising spectacularly against the odds to create order from chaos like nothing else? Well, no. Much like science has blown the myth that a developing child is merely a blob of cells – something our troglodytic ancestors shockingly accepted – a current study published in the journal Human Evolution is shaking the foundations of evolutionist presumptions.

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.

Read more at Here

The Plurality Study

 by Matt Slick

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.

Continued, here.

Manuscript evidence for superior New Testament reliability

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

Continued, here .

Προσπάθησαν να φιμώσουν την πατριωτική φωνή της Μπιτάκου

Inside Britain’s Sharia Courts: Battered Wives Plead with Clerics to Dissolve Abusive Marriages for Cash

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…”

Source

'Demonic possession is real and victims seeking exorcism should not be ignored': Prominent psychiatrist on the world beyond

(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 April, at a Vatican training course for exorcist priests, participants were told that demand for exorcism is booming as a result of a decline in Christian faith and the internet providing easy access to black magic, the occult and Satanism.

Read more here.

The Righteous Are Not the Perfect: Psalm 1:4–6

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:

1. When you read the Old Testament and read about the righteous, who do you think it is talking about?
2. Who are the righteous in Psalm 1:4–6? How do you become one of the righteous?
3. Watch the lab. What are the two aspects of “righteous” in the New Testament? Are you one of the righteous?

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Source: Here

Why Does God Allow Satan to Live?

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!"

And he doesn't do it. Why?

Continued

Watching Their Cardboard Home Collapse