Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

We're Getting Closer Than Ever to Paying With Our Fingerprints
Mar 2nd, 2013
Daily NewsBusiness Insider
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

If you’ve ever wanted to pay for groceries with the touch of a finger, look no further than the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Two locations – a coffee shop and convenience store – on the school’s campus recently began testing fingerprint purchasing technology that allows students to buy goods with their fingerprint. The technology is called Biocryptology, and not only does it identify a person’s unique fingerprint, but detects levels of hemoglobin, or the oxygen in red blood cells, to make sure the person has a pulse. Thus, criminals looking to fool the system with severed fingers will be unsuccessful (yes, the developers thought of that).

Fifty students and four faculty members have enrolled by providing their bank information, name, birth date, address, student ID, and of course, scanned fingerprints.

The Sixth Commandment
Mar 2nd, 2013
CommentaryIan C. Kurylyk
Categories: Exhortation

“Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13).

It is important to understand that the commandments are only brief statements of very broad principles of righteousness. Jesus expounded this sixth commandment in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). He showed that there are many kinds of self-centered hateful actions that violate that command. He was correcting the deficient view of righteousness that would clear a man of breaking the sixth commandment as long as he never actually plunged the murder’s knife into his victim.

Solomon recognized the tongue as an instrument of murder. “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly” (Proverbs 26:22). Malicious gossip breaks the command, thou shalt not kill. He goes on to show that the root crime is “hatred” (Proverbs 26:24-28).

Hate of course is in conflict with the fundamental requirement of God’s law for us to love our neighbour as ourselves. The Apostle Paul said, “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10). Killing stands at the head of a long list of evildoing toward others which are all rooted in hatred.

Hatred is characterized by malice that desires evil upon others. Love seeks for true good, even if it is misunderstood or unappreciated. The Bible teaches us that love must be without dissimulation (hypocrisy). Love must work for the real good of another or it is a fake. “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good” (Romans 12:9). Love even necessarily involves a measure of hate in that it abhors evil. It is not a “hate crime” to stand against the things that lead to the ruination of lives.

In light of the Bible’s teaching of what is comprehended in the command not to kill, we all stand convicted of countless violations. In contrast, we have the Bible truth, “God is love” (I John 4:8b). In fact, even when man was killing God’s only begotten Son by crucifixion, God was working for man’s greatest good. Man’s part in that death revealed the sinful hate that plagues the human heart. In the same event God’s love was being made known by the price He was willing to pay for our salvation. His sacrifice even paid the penalty for the sins of the very ones who nailed Him there. God offers this love to every guilty sinner today who will receive the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.

We should note in closing that there are some aspects of killing that are not unlawful. The key to the commandment is hatred so that it has the sense that man shall do no murder. Killing animals for human consumption is clearly not unlawful for many reasons. The Bible shows God’s approval in many places of killing animals and eating meat. He could not be forbidding in one part of His Word what He approves in another. There is no element of malice in animal slaughter. There is often a measure of sadness. Animals are not made in the image of God like mankind was, so butchering beef or chickens does not touch on the issue of the sanctity of human life.

Even human lives may be taken in certain situations according to the Bible. In war our soldiers are not guilty of murder when they take the life of the enemy. God also gave lawful government the right to uphold justice by the death penalty when murder is committed. No hate is involved, simply the maintenance of justice by lawfully appointed representatives of the state. The maintenance of law and order by rulers is authorized by God. “But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (Romans 13:4b).

Syrian No - Man’s Land Bordering Israel and Jordan is Up for Grabs
Mar 2nd, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

The four Syrian mortar shells exploding on the Israeli side of the Golan Saturday, March 2, flashed a signal to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the moment is at hand to step in and decide how to dispose of the expanse of southern Syrian bordering on northern Israel. This urgency sent Defense Minister Ehud Barak flying to Washington Friday March 1, to meet new US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel next Tuesday.

At the top of their agenda for discussion this time will not be Iran but, debkafile’s military sources report, the disappearance, except for scattered military units, of Bashar Assad’s ruling presence and army from the Syrian areas abutting on Israel and Jordan. The collapse of Assad’s defense lines on these two borders generates a new strategic situation of major import.
Most Israelis, including their media, are too deeply engrossed in the ins and outs of Netanyahu’s struggle to form a coalition government to notice that a no man’s land has opened up on the Syrian Golan, the Horon province (where the Syrian uprising first erupted two years ago), and the Yarmuk River dividing Syria from Jordan.
At the same time, the Assad army is all but gone from there and the Syrian rebels are constrained from moving into the abandoned territory by three considerations:

1. They are short of the manpower for seizing and holding it;

2. Their commanders have evidently not caught onto the brilliant international, strategic opportunity waiting to drop in their laps;
3. The Druze community in their mountain fortresses overlooking the territory is poised to prevent any outsider takeover.
Israel is confronted with a choice between leaving the long-menacing areas overlooking the Sea of Galilee and its north-eastern regions to an unknown fate - or asserting control itself.
At this point, Israel’s armed forces still have three options:
a) Directly capturing dominant points in those no-man’s land areas as guarantees of a say in who eventually dominates them.
b) Military support for a Druze land grab.
c) Military collaboration with Jordan to control the fate of the abandoned lands abutting both their borders.
There is still time to pre-empt developments that would be detrimental to Israel’s security: One such development would be a deal being reached on how to dispose of the abandoned territory between the Assad government and Syrian opposition in the talks opening in Moscow Tuesday, March 5.
This deal would open the door for ensconcing on the Israeli border Muslim extremists, such as the pro-Al Qaeda factions fighting with the Syrian rebels.
Barak’s mission to Washington is to align Israel-US positions on these and other urgent topics with the new US defense secretary. debkafile’s Washington sources are skeptical about his chances of success in view of the Obama administration’s decision to pass the resolution of the Syrian question to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This leaves the initiative up to Netanyahu. He has shown exceptional skill of late in ducking clear decisions on such matters. However, indecisiveness at this moment could cost Israel dear in the future.

Palin: Feds 'Stockpiling Bullets' in Case of Riots After Default
Mar 2nd, 2013
Daily NewsBreitbart
Categories: Commentary

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin claimed the federal government is "stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest." Palin believes such calamity may result from the country defaulting on its obligations.

She claimed the threat of default exists because Washington politicians are not serious about reducing the country's debt, as evidenced by the drama over the sequester.

"If we are going to wet our proverbial pants over 0.3% in annual spending cuts when we’re running up trillion dollar annual deficits, then we’re done," Palin wrote of the sequester set to hit on Friday. "Put a fork in us. We’re finished. We’re going to default eventually and that’s why the feds are stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest."

In a Facebook note on Tuesday in which she blistered D.C. politicians for yet another "ginned-up" crisis, Palin wrote that the "real economic Armageddon looming before us is our runaway debt, not the sequester, which the President advocated for and signed into law and is now running around denouncing because he never had any genuine intention of reining in his reckless spending."

Palin said the world knows that if Washington politicians cannot even deal with a modest 0.3% per year cut in the federal budget, then the country is heading straight for default.

"If we can’t stomach modest cuts that would lower federal spending by a mere 0.3% per year out of a current federal budget of $3.6 trillion, then we might as well signal to the whole world that we have no serious intention of dealing with our debt problem," Palin continued.

Let the Headlines Speak
Mar 2nd, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Israel may lose $500 million in US aid
US President Barack Obama emerged Friday from a unsuccessful, last-minute meeting with congressional leaders declaring there was no progress on blocking what he called "dumb and arbitrary" cuts that will begin carving $85 billion of government spending by day's end. The cuts will likely affect American citizens, but also Washington's military aid to Israel.

Popular Standard Shotgun Could Be Banned Under Proposed Bill
A popular hunting shotgun could be banned under one of the bills moving through the state Capitol. A pump or semi-automatic shotgun is the gun most hunters in Colorado use. It’s a gun state Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, says could be banned under a bill that’s already passed the House and Gov. John Hickenlooper says he’ll sign.

Stray mortar shells fired from Syria land in Golan Heights
Four stray mortar shells fired from Syria landed in the Israeli Golan Heights on Saturday, the IDF confirmed. The rockets fell in an open field near the border and no injuries or damage were reported, the IDF Spokesman's Office stated. Security forces were sent to the scene, and Israel informed the UN of the incident.

Fla. sinkhole that swallowed man grows deeper
Engineers worked gingerly to find out more about a slowly growing sinkhole that swallowed a Florida man in his bedroom, believing the entire house could eventually succumb to the unstable ground.

Iraq bombings kill at least five in Diwaniya market
At least five people have been killed in a double car bombing at a market in the southern Iraqi city of Diwaniya, officials say. The cars exploded simultaneously at about 07:30 (04:30 GMT), police said. The attack in the mainly Shia city comes amid heightened tensions between Iraq's Sunni and Shia communities.

Obama signs sweeping US budget cuts into effect
S President Barack Obama has signed into effect a wave of steep spending cuts which he has warned could damage the US economy. The cuts - known as the sequester and drawn up two years ago - will take $85bn (£56bn) from the US federal budget this year. Last-ditch talks at the White House to avert the reductions before Friday's deadline broke up without agreement.

Moscow says US aid for Syria helps 'extremists'
Russia accelerated the war of words over Syria today, accusing the US of undermining recent efforts to move toward a negotiated settlement between the Bashar al-Assad regime and its opponents by "encouraging extremists" at this week's Friends of Syria meeting in Rome. The US announced at the meeting that it was stepping up material aid to rebels in a bid to "change the balance of power" in the two-year civil war that's already killed more than 70,000 people.

Turkish PM's Zionism comments "objectionable": Kerry
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday criticized a comment by Turkey's prime minister likening Zionism to crimes against humanity in a disagreement that cast a shadow over talks between the NATO allies.

Eurozone unemployment hits 11.9%
The rate of unemployment in the eurozone rose to a fresh record high in January, official figures show. The jobless rate in the 17 countries that use the euro rose to 11.9% in January from 11.8% in December, the statistics agency Eurostat said.

Chad President Deby: Al-Qaeda's Abou Zeid killed in Mali
A senior al-Qaeda militant has been killed in northern Mali, Chadian President Idriss Deby has said. He said the country's forces killed Abdelhamid Abou Zeid during clashes in the remote region. He is said to be second-in-command of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which is fighting foreign forces in Mali. The Algerian national is accused of killing two Western hostages - Briton Edwin Dyer in 2009 and Frenchman Michel Germaneau the following year.

How to Keep from Going Stale
Mar 2nd, 2013
CommentaryA. W. Tozer
Categories: Exhortation

Periods of staleness in the life are not inevitable but they are common. He is a rare Christian who has not experienced times of spiritual dullness when the relish has gone out of his heart and the enjoyment of living has diminished greatly or departed altogether.

Since there is no single cause of this condition there is no one simple remedy for it. Sometimes we are to blame, as for instance when we do a wrong act without immediately seeking forgiveness and cleansing; or when we permit worldly interests to grow up and choke the tender plants of the inner life.

When the cause is known, and particularly when it is as uncomplex as this, the remedy is the old-fashioned one of repentance. But if after careful and candid examination of the life by prayer and the Word no real evil is discovered, we gain nothing by putting the worst construction on things and lying face down in the dust. To say that we have not sinned when we have is to be false to the fact; to insist that we have sinned when we have not is to be false to ourselves. There comes a time when the most spiritual thing we can do is to accept cleansing from all sin as an accomplished fact and stop calling that unclean which God has called clean.

Sometimes our trouble is not moral but physical. As long as we are in these mortal bodies our spiritual lives will be to some degree affected by our bodies. Here we should notice that there is a difference between our mortal bodies and the 'flesh' of Pauline theology. When Paul speaks of the flesh he refers to our fallen human nature, not to our physical bodies, which are temples of the Holy Spirit. Through the power of the Spirit there is deliverance from the propensities of the flesh, but while we live there is no relief from the weaknesses and imperfections of the body.

One often-unsuspected cause of staleness is fatigue. Shakespeare said something to the effect that no man could be a philosopher when he had a toothache, and while it is possible to be a weary saint, it is scarcely possible to be weary and feel saintly; and it is our want of feeling that we are considering here. The Christian who gets tired in the work of the Lord and stays tired without relief beyond a reasonable time will go stale. The fact that he grew weary by toiling in the Lord's vineyard will not make his weariness any less real. Our Lord knew this and occasionally took His disciples aside for a rest.

Another reason some of us become jaded is monotony. To do one thing continuously will result in boredom even if what we do is pleasant: and to think about the same things without cessation will also lead to boredom even if we are thinking about the things of the kingdom. Milton suggests that God made night to alternate with day for the purpose of providing us with ‘grateful vicissitude,’ a welcome change for which we should be thankful.

Some of the purest souls have written of the dangers of continuous spiritual exercises uninterrupted by lowlier considerations. Von Hugel speaks of the ‘neural cost’ of prayer and advises that we should sometimes break off thoughts of heavenly things and go for a walk or dig in the garden. We have all known the disappointment felt when returning to a passage of Scripture that had been so fresh and fragrant the day before only to find the sweetness gone out of it. It is the Spirit's way of urging us on to new vistas. In the wilderness God kept Israel moving. One may wonder what would have happened if they had camped in one place for forty years.

The lives of the great Christians show that they differed not only from each other but from themselves at different periods of their lives. Spiritual exercises that helped them at one stage of their development later became useless and had to be changed for others.

To stay free from religious ennui we should be careful not to get into a rut, not even into a good rut. Our Lord warned against vain repetition. There is repetition that is not vain, but oft-repeated prayers become vain when they have lost their urgency. We should examine our prayers every now and again to discover how much sincerity and spontaneity they possess. We should insist on keeping them simple, candid, fresh and original. And above all we should never seek to induce holy emotions. When we feel dry it is wise either to ignore it or to tell God about it without any sense of guilt. If we are dry because of some wrong on our part the Spirit through the Word will show us the fault.

In short, we can keep from going stale by getting proper rest, by practising complete candour in prayer, by introducing variety into our lives, by heeding God's call to move onward and by exercising quiet faith always.

EMP Attack - Greatest Cyber Warfare Fear?
Mar 2nd, 2013
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Commentary;Warning

Warnings from U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that enemy nations are carrying out cyber attacks on the U.S. are on the rise.

The target? The U.S. electric infrastructure.

Even President Obama has pointed out that “our enemies are also seeking the abilities to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions and our air traffic control systems.”

But that may not be the worst of it. Those same adversaries – China, Russia, Iran and North Korea – also incorporate in their military doctrine the use of a nuclear electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, attack as "part of a strategic operation that would basically 'throw the kitchen sink' at the United States," according to Cynthia E. Ayers, who once was with the National Security Agency and currently is with the U.S. Army War College.

These countries, she said, will "hit us with everything – computer viruses, sabotage of critical communications nodes, kinetic strikes on key information systems and a nuclear EMP attack."

"The last, an EMP, is their best chance to collapse our national power grid and take us down, perhaps permanently," she said.

In recent months, U.S. banks, the Federal Reserve, oil and gas production companies, media outlets and U.S. Defense Department and National Nuclear Security Administration entities have reported what Ayers calls a "massive" number – "in the millions" – of cyber attacks daily

As a former employee of the National Security Agency, she is very familiar with cyber attacks on computers through the Internet and telecommunications systems.

North Korea, for example, recently exploded a nuclear weapon in what experts believe may have been a test of the miniaturization of a nuclear bomb that could fit on its missiles. The Hermit State recently tested successfully a three-stage missile that experts said could reach the Western part of the U.S.

The North Koreans also orbited a package during that missile test, which in the future could be a nuclear weapon that could be exploded at a high altitude above the U.S., causing an EMP blast that would virtually knock out the entire U.S. national electric grid system.

Experts agree that countries that cannot match the U.S. militarily have undertaken asymmetrical, or unconventional, warfare in an effort to defeat or seriously impair America.

Such an attack would be in the form of a kinetic engagement, much as Russia undertook when it invaded the neighboring Republic of Georgia with a combination of cyber and military assault techniques.

Ayers said that such an approach served as a "prototype" for "the ultimate cyberwar."

"In fact, Russian, Iranian, Chinese and North Korean cyberwarfare doctrine includes EMP attacks on critical infrastructure to effectively remove both cyber capabilities and communications from the battlespace of the adversary," Ayers said.

"Unfortunately, the battlespace is increasingly civilian."

Just to be clear, she said, there have been increasing warnings of a cyber and EMP threat from America's adversaries to collapse the nation's critical infrastructure.

"“It is worth repeating," said U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa. "The collapse of critical infrastructure, whether through intentional attack or from the effects of a great geomagnetic storm, would essentially remove the United States as an actor on the world stage instantaneously, and long-term."

However, Ayers pointed out, recent events such as a Cyber Security Conference last October, would have been a good forum to underscore the threats, but there apparently were "legal threats to the briefers" despite having been pre-cleared to discuss nuclear power plant vulnerabilities.

“Their warnings were ultimately withheld, not because the presenters were wrong, or even because of classification, but because of private industry fears of the consequences of such revelations made public,” Ayers asserted.

His assertion is reinforced by a Chicago Tribune story last October revealing that legal fears were muffling warnings of cyber security threats. A separate article in the Sophos publication similarly referred to how nuclear power plant cyber security warnings were silenced due to legal threats.

The notion of a "digital warhead" now is coming into vogue, with the introduction apparently by the U.S. and Israel of the Stuxnet virus aimed at industrial controllers associated with Iran’s power grid and its suspected nuclear weapons-related activities.

Ayers said the Stuxnet worm ultimately gave Iranian cyber experts a "leg up" on the possibilities for response.

She said that the Iranians could refocus this digital warhead and turn it into a weapon of mass destruction.

In turning the Stuxnet virus on the U.S., Ayers said the Iranians or any potential adversary could take down the U.S. power grid from remote locations by targeting specific automated control systems for destruction.

Such an initiative, she said, would be "only one step away from a high-altitude nuclear (EMP) attack."

She pointed out that Iran and other countries openly have discussed such a prospect with U.S. officials.

"Even if the scale of such a threat seems too grandiose, the fact that the U.S. has not to date responded kinetically to a major cyber attack may make escalation in the form of incrementally more devastating cyber efforts enticing alternatives to a smaller challenger with fewer resources," Ayers said.

Yet, President Obama has ordered new waves of cyber attacks against Iran even though the Stuxnet virus has become public knowledge.

For some, Ayers says, this alone could become a justification for an Iranian response "unless cyberwarfare is considered simply another tactic of a larger, more strategic warfare doctrine – that is, combining kinetic, strategic communication and cyber."

Contemplative Spirituality
Mar 2nd, 2013
CommentaryRay Yungen
Categories: Exhortation

All the world’s mystical traditions basically come from the same source and teach the same precepts . . . and that source is not the God of the Old and New Testaments.

Evangelical Christianity is now being invited, perhaps even catapulted into seeing God with these new eyes of contemplative prayer. And so the question must be asked, is Thomas Merton’s silence, Henri Nouwen’s space, and Richard Foster’s contemplative prayer the way in which we can know and be close to God? Or is this actually a spiritual belief system that is contrary to the true message that the Bible so absolutely defines—that there is only one way to God and that is through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice on the Cross obtained our full salvation?