Please watch. I’m not going to comment at this point. Come to your own conclusions after careful thought and prayerful consideration.
Natan
SHEMITAH EXPOSED: Financial Crisis Planned For September 2015
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Category Archives: Current Events
Kentucky Clerk on Biblical Marriage Stand: ‘I Have Weighed the Cost’
Kentucky Clerk on Biblical Marriage Stand: ‘I Have Weighed the Cost’
By Charles Chandler • September 2, 2015
UPDATE: Shortly after this article was published, Kim Davis was found in contempt of court by a federal judge and taken into custody.
Davis’ attorney issued a statement that said, in part:
“Kim Davis is being treated as a criminal because she cannot violate her conscience. While she may be behind bars for now, Kim Davis is a free woman. Her conscience remains unshackled.
“… And the tragedy is that there are simple ways to accommodate her convictions. Just remove her name from the marriage licenses. That’s all she has asked from the beginning. … This is not the kind of America the Founders envisioned or that most Americans want.”
Kentucky’s Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis talked to Decision magazine on Wednesday. A more comprehensive story will appear in the October edition of the magazine.
No amount of threats against her life or her job, no edicts from the U.S. Supreme Court or the governor, could sway Kim Davis to compromise God’s truth.
She is so overwhelmed by His grace, so captivated by His love, so surrendered to His will that she can’t fathom caving to the ways and pressures of this world—regardless of the consequences.
“I cannot be separated from what I believe,” she said. “I have to love the Lord with my whole heart, mind, body and soul—with every ounce of strength and might that I have in me. It’s every breath we take and every beat of our heart.”
Davis, the Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk of court, has been at the center of a national firestorm in recent months over her refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses even though she received court orders to do so.
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Her voice cracked and she wept at times during an interview this week with Decision as she discussed her willingness to face dire consequences if necessary in order to remain faithful to her Lord, which could also include being impeached from office and being arrested.
“I have weighed the cost,” she said. “It’s definitely no place that I thought I would ever find myself, and it is definitely out of my comfort zone. I’m a very private person. For this to be everywhere [in the news] is just overwhelming at times.
“But it is through God and His grace and strength that I stand, that I can have a smile on my face.”
Because of the Bible’s clear teaching that marriage is the sacred union of one man and one woman, Davis prayerfully decided that she could not permit issuance to gay and lesbian couples since the licenses would bear her name.
“Those licenses leave my office through my authority,” she said. “I cannot be party to that. I just can’t. … If the Word of God isn’t worth fighting for, I don’t know anything that is.”
Her attorney, Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, has asked the courts and Gov. Steve Beshear to change licensing procedures to accommodate Davis’ convictions and those of others with similar beliefs. Staver suggested several options, including removing the clerk’s name from all marriage licenses, making the state capitol the processing center for licenses and switching to an online application process.
Davis also tried to take pre-emptive measures to avoid the predicament immediately after taking office as clerk in January, writing state legislators in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of same-sex marriage in June.
“I urged and beseeched them to get legislation on the floor while we still had time to protect clerks who had religions objections to same-sex marriage,” she said. “I got only one response, and nothing happened.”
Some critics have suggested that Davis should resign her elected position, but she has no intention of doing so, partly because she ran for the office last year after 27 years as deputy clerk only because she sensed the Lord calling her to do so.
Her deep devotion to Christ is rooted in the love and grace she received at her conversion more than four years ago, which she said followed years of “living in a pit of sin that I had created with my very own hands.”
She was divorced three times and gave birth to twins conceived out of wedlock.
Her life changed in 2011 when she attended a Sunday evening church service in honor of her mother-in-law, who had died that morning.
“The pastor preached out of Galatians, and it really stirred my heart,” Davis said. “I repented right there on the altar, just fell on my knees and face and cried.”
Davis now prays regularly for the salvation and protection of the same-sex couples who have assailed her and says she believes there is eternal significance in remaining firm in her stance.
“For me, this is a Heaven or Hell issue because [of] someone else who maybe doesn’t know the Lord and is still searching,” she said. “This is real, and this is true.”
Though she has been under intense attack and pressure, she claims a peace and trust in God that surpasses human understanding.
“We serve a living God who is alive and on the throne,” she said. “He knows exactly where I am, and I know that His hand is upon me and upon His people. He is in full control.”
Isis Vs. Yeshua Resulting in a Miracle
Reports: ISIS Jihadist Converts to Christ after Dream
Friday, June 12, 2015
According to Youth With a Mission, a missionary in a Middle Eastern country met the former Islamic extremist through a mutual friend.
The man said he had killed a number of Christians and even admitted to enjoying it.
But that all changed when he dreamt of a man in white who brought a sobering message.
To watch a news video of this story, go to http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2015/June/Reports-ISIS-Jihadist-Converts-to-Christ-after-Dream/
Isis Vs. Christians Resulting in Miracles
Christians Captured by ISIS Terrorists Refuse to Convert – Then a Miracle Happens
In late February ISIS cut a swath of destruction across the Syrian countryside, attacking 35 Assyrian villages and taking almost 300 innocent people captive. One of those towns was a small village by the name of Tel Goran, from which 21 Assyrian Christians were captured and carried off into captivity. The ISIS fighters kept these people captive for some five days before finally releasing the lot of them, on the condition that none of them return to their village. The captives agreed.
But that isn’t the full extent of their story. In fact, the rest of the story ends up making the ordeal sound more like an act of God and less like a simple hostage situation.
The Assyrian International News Agency (or AINA) recounted the story through an interview they did with a young man named Robert who was one of the hostages from Tel Goran.
AINA: Tell us how the attack started and how you were captured.
Robert: There usually are guards in the village. On that day the guards left for Hasaka at 4 A.M. ISIS entered the village at 5 A.M. and knocked on our doors and awoke us. They rounded us up, everyone in the village, and placed us in a small room. On the other [north] side of the river there were Kurdish and Assyrian fighters, and we could hear the exchange of fire between them and ISIS.
AINA: How many of you were there?
Robert: 21. 17 men and 4 women.
AINA: What happened when you arrived at Abdul Aziz Mountain?Robert: They placed us in two small rooms. We spent the night there.
AINA: What did they say to you?
Robert: They asked us to convert to Islam.
AINA: That was the first thing they said?
Robert: Yes, that was their idea that we should convert to Islam.
AINA: Who was speaking to you?
Robert: Many bearded people spoke to us, and everyone asked us to convert to Islam.
AINA: How many?
Robert: Very many. Everyone spoke to us, whoever saw us.
AINA: What happened next?
Robert: We spent the night there. In the morning they brought cars and drove us for about 4 hours into the mountains.
AINA: How long did you stay there?
Robert: For 5 days, until we were released.
AINA: When you arrived there what did ISIS say and do?
Robert: They kept pressuring us to convert to Islam, it was their constant focus. But we were not mistreated.
image: http://cdn1.eaglerising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ISIS-army-300×184.png
AINA: When ISIS asked you to convert to Islam, what was your answer?Robert: We said we would not convert. They said you must then pay the jizya [a Christian poll tax] or leave the country. That was the option given to us. We said we would pay the jizya but we would not convert.
AINA: How much was the jizya?
Robert: They said this time they would not collect the jizya because we had not fought against them. They said that they would release us on condition that we not return to our village. They said if we returned and they captured us again they would kill us without any other option, they would behead the men and enslave the women.
AINA: Did anything else happen while you were there?
Robert: No. We were provided with all necessities — food, water, bathing facilities. They brought us everything.
AINA: What did they say on the day of your release?
Robert: They again said that we must not stay in the country, if they captured us again they would kill us.
ISIS has been raping, robbing, pillaging and murdering as they ransack the Iraqi and Syrian countryside, yet here we have a story where not only were all of the captured Christians released unharmed, they were not even maltreated during their captivity.
I don’t know (and neither do those who were held captive) the reasons why this group was treated with such care, but we can be thankful for small miracles. Yes, they’re still being forced to flee their homes for foreign soil, but at least they do so with their lives intact.
The article mentions that one reason given by ISIS for the group not receiving harsher treatment was the fact that they didn’t fight back. While this may have worked in this instance, we know from other experiences that not fighting back has not always led to better treatment from ISIS.
In fact, many of the dead who have fallen before the horror that is ISIS were innocent victims who never raised a finger to fight back.
Which is why the safe return of the villagers from Tel Goran is no doubt a miracle from God.
Read more at http://eaglerising.com/16225/christians-captured-by-isis-terrorists-refuse-to-convert-then-a-miracle-happens/#46Y1bYsGMi5J08jF.99
Ways to Help Persecuted Christians in Syria
The following article is from Open Door USA (http://www.opendoorsusa.org) — http://www.opendoorsusa.org/newsroom/tag-news-post/syrian-pastors-church-workers-carrying-out-ministry-with-gods-help/
SYRIAN PASTORS, CHURCH WORKERS CARRYING OUT MINISTRY WITH GOD’S HELP
August 31, 2015 by Janelle P in Middle East
An estimated 700,000 Christians have left Syria, but some pastors and church workers have made the decision to stay in the country torn apart by a civil war and the savage murders and kidnappings carried out by Islamic State (IS) extremists. Life is dangerous for Christians with daily shootings, regular bomb explosions and snipers in the streets. What makes Pastor Samuel* and relief worker Fathi* from Aleppo and Pastor Edward from Damascus stay?
Before the war began, cities such as Aleppo, Damascus and Homs were home to large Christian communities. Many of the Christians who are still in Aleppo are there for two main reasons: 1) they have no money to leave the city, or 2) they feel called to stay to help the remaining people or their congregations. One of them is Pastor Samuel, a pastor of a Protestant church with 250 members attending every Sunday. His wife and children have left the country; for them it was impossible to live under the constant threat of violence. The family endured great sacrifice. They have been separated from each other for a long time.
“Despite everything that has happened, we are all trying to do our best to serve the people who remain and provide God’s hope in a hopeless situation,” says Pastor Samuel. He sees many people coming to his church, mainly people who cannot go to their own churches because of the fighting. “In many situations the only thing we can do is pray. Psalm 91 comforts me and gives me strength.”
Fathi is one of the Syrian Christians who plays a key role in helping refugees through local churches supported by Open Doors.
“No, I never thought of leaving,” he said to an Open Doors worker. “Every day I see how we can help people deal with reality. Of course, on the other side, I think of my family. I am afraid for their lives, but not for my own. Over the last couple of years the Lord had protected me when I was stopped at checkpoints and when I went through certain areas of the city and country. God protected me.
“That keeps me going. I see how we can make a difference through the work we are doing. When bullets hit left and right of you, when buildings crash, and when you fear for your life, the bigger picture helps us to continue. We need to go on. I am happy to see it is a joint effort of different churches and denominations. It is not about me.”
Pastor Edward stays with his wife Ranaa in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
“We don’t want to leave,” he shares. “We are feeling even more responsible now. To be honest, we’re not really concerned about our own safety. We thank God who is helping us day by day. He is giving us a peace that surpasses understanding.”
All of the people leaving have left a large hole in the churches.
“Of course we feel it when people leave,” says Pastor Edward. “It depresses us to see people depart. Though many have left, the church is still full. Many new people are coming to church. That is very encouraging. We see the hand of God at work.”
The three are thankful for the Christians around the world who pray for Syria.
“We thank God for all those who pray for us and who support us,” expresses Pastor Samuel. “The Lord is watching us. He is our fortress, our strength and refuge. He will protect us.”
Syria is ranked #4 on Open Doors’ 2015 World Watch List (www.worldwatchlist.us) of the 50 worst persecutors of Christians.
Open Doors President/CEO David Curry told the Christian Post in a phone interview recently that refugees in northern Iraq and Syria are facing “huge food shortages,” with close to 300,000 Christians having limited means by which to pay for food. With millions of people displaced across the region, Open Doors estimates that $20 million will be needed to provide food for the refugees in the next 18 months. Curry said that one of his biggest concerns is that Christians “will be the last among the refugees to receive vitally needed help,” and called on Christians around the world to partner with Open Doors in order to remind those who are suffering that they are not forgotten.
Help feed an entire family in Syria and Iraq for a month for just $50.
*Real names are protected for security reasons
Compiled by Jerry Dykstra. For media inquiries, contact Christine Cape at 404-545-0085 or Christy Lynn Wilson at 770-401-9842.
5 Things Americans Can Do to Help Persecuted Christians in Iraq
From the Christian Post at http://www.christianpost.com/news/5-things-americans-can-do-to-help-persecuted-christians-in-iraq-125821/
BY MELISSA BARNHART, CP REPORTER
September 5, 2014 | 7:39 am
(PHOTO: REUTERS/STRINGER)
A child cries in a military helicopter after being evacuated by Iraqi forces from Amerli, north of Baghdad, Aug. 29, 2014. A home to around 180,000 people, mostly Turkmen Shi’ites, the small town of Amerli is still holding out against repeated attacks by Islamic State fighters despite the fall of all the 34 villages surrounding it.
Iraqi born pastor Jalil Dawood of the Arabic Church of Dallas, who, along with other Christian leaders will be holding a rally on Sept. 14 in support of Iraqis who are being persecuted by the Islamic State, says there are five things Americans can do today to help their brothers and sisters in Christ.
“What Americans can do today is write to their representatives and tell them the U.S. government needs to take more aggressive action toward the Islamic State, because this group is not only a threat to Iraq, it’s a threat to America, eventually. And we need to deal with them now, before it’s too late,” Dawood told The Christian Post.
“I heard the president say last week that he doesn’t have a strategy. Well, ISIS’ strategy is to kill us. Their strategy is to convert us and kill us,” he asserted.
The second thing Americans can do, he said, is to provide tangible assistance to the 250,000 refugees in Iraq through trusted nonprofit organizations that are helping Christians and other religious minorities who’ve been forced to leave their homes to flee the terrorist organization.
Pastor Stephen Broden of Fair Park Bible Fellowship, who will be a featured speaker at the Dallas rally, told CP Thursday that three of the nonprofits that have been helping Iraqi Christians are Open Doors, Samaritan’s Purse and Voice of the Martyrs.
(PHOTO: REUTERS/MUHAMMAD HAMED)
An Iraqi Christian man from Mosul, who fled from violence in their country, reads a book at the Latin Patriarchate Church in Amman, Jordan, Aug. 21, 2014. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fled their homes since the terrorist Islamic State group swept through much of the north and west of Iraq in June, threatening to break up the country.
Dawood added that when Americans write to their representatives on behalf of Iraqi Christians, they should ask that the government allow them to immigrate to the U.S. within six months, and to provide humanitarian aid through the United Nations while they’re waiting, “so they don’t suffer or [resort to] selling themselves for sex so they can survive.”
He also believes that there needs to be special criteria for Iraqi Christians who are seeking asylum, one that is separate and apart from the current quota system that is used for Iraqis who are immigrating to the U.S.
“There needs to be a special category to be accepted faster because these people are really the victims of this conflict,” he added.
Fourth, and the most important thing Americans can do, he said, is to pray.
And fifth, Dawood encourages Christians to take part in rallies and speak at their churches to bring greater awareness and attention to the plight of Iraqi Christians who are being persecuted in their homeland.
“To be honest with you, I’m surprised that churches here are not doing anything — anything that is tangible,” Dawood said.
“There was a London demonstration talking about suffering in Gaza and the people living in Gaza. They raised $11 million toward Gaza. The church is not raising anything significant [for Iraqis] and the needs are tremendous. This is our time to reach those people through Christ,” he continued.
Another way Americans can help Iraqi Christians is by contacting their local Arabic Christian church and support that community by helping to meet the needs of Iraqis who’ve immigrated to the U.S. and are transitioning to their new lives.
“Support that church,” he said, “because that church is trying to reach out for Christ’s sake to the immigrants and refugees — some of them are nominal Christians or Muslims. We need to at least tell them: ‘You are not alone. We love you; we pray for you; and we will help you tangibly, in this way.'”
“The church needs to reach out to those minorities in order to win them to Christ and be impactful, and not [leave them] to segregate into communities and ethnic groups. Get involved with the community; help the community; love the community that is around you. And serve the people and the churches that are already meeting the needs of these people,” said Dawood, who emigrated from Iraq to the U.S. in the 1980s.
While the Sept. 14 rally is being held in Dallas, Dawood is encouraging everyone who lives outside North Texas to hold simultaneous rallies in their communities; not only to show support for persecuted Christians and religious minorities in Iraq, but to pray and find tangible ways to help.
“Do something practical, not only in words but in deeds,” he advised. “We need to speak; we need to shout to the Lord, we need to shout to the nation.”
“This has to do with people of our faith. This is not an Iraqi issue, this is a global issue and it will touch us if we don’t do something about it,” Dawood emphasized.
“Like Bonhoeffer said, if we are silent in the face of evil we are agreeing with it, we are part of it; we become accomplices and are allowing it to happen. We don’t need to wait. We need to take action now and be heard before it gets too late.
A video that the Spirit of Antichrist doesn’t want you to watch