Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

The preacher: servant of the Lord and the people
Aug 24th, 2014
Thought For The WeekA. W. Tozer
Categories: Commentary;Exhortation

Men who are called to be servants of God in the ministry must constantly guard against thinking of themselves as belonging to a "privileged" class.

Our so-called Christian society tends to increase this danger by granting the clergy discounts and other courtesies, and the church itself helps a bad job along by bestowing upon men of God various sonorous honorifics which are either comical or awe inspiring, depending on how you look at it.

Seeing whose name he bears, the unconscious acceptance of belonging to a privileged class is particularly incongruous for the minister. Christ came to give, to serve. to sacrifice and to die, and said to His disciples, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." The preacher is a servant of the Lord and of the people. He is in great moral peril when he forgets this.

Remember, the clergyman greets religious people almost exclusively. People are on their guard when they are with him. They tend to talk over their own heads and to be for the time the kind of person they think he wants them to be rather than the kind of persons they are in fact!

This creates a world of unreality where no one is quite himself, but the preacher has lived in it so long that he accepts it as real - and never knows the difference.

Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.....1 Corinthians 3:18,19

Report: Israel Refrained from Attack on Deif, Due to Ceasefire
Aug 24th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Hamas leader Mohammed Deif circa 1990s

Reuters

New information was revealed on Sunday in relation to the assassination attempt on Hamas's "military wing" Al-Qassam Brigades chief Mohammed Deif, in which his wife, son and daughter were killed last Tuesday.

While it was earlier reported that a phone call from Hamas politburo leader Khaled Mashaal in Qatar gave away Deif's location, Channel 10 reported on Sunday night that in fact his position was known three full days in advance of the strike.

What was the reason for the delay? According to the report, Israel was bound by a ceasefire with Hamas, the terrorist organization that has broken numerous ceasefires during Operation Protective Edge, including ceasefires they called for.

Israel's political echelon last week was presented with incriminating, irrefutable evidence that Deif had taken advantage of the ceasefire to visit his wife and children in a building in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northwest Gaza, the report claims.

They were asked to make a decision whether to give a strike on the building the go-ahead or to block the rare opportunity to assassinate the slippery arch-terrorist responsible for planning numerous lethal attacks; they chose the latter option.

When Hamas breached the ceasefire last Tuesday with a three-rocket salvo on Be'er Sheva, Israel went ahead and attacked Deif's location that night. It remains uncertain whether the strike ended his life or not, as conflicting reports have surfaced with Hamas claiming he survived.

The decision to forego the airstrike has garnered criticism from several diplomatic sources, reports Channel 10, noting that during the three days Deif was given the opportunity to disappear again.

Other sources reportedly are defending the decision, saying "who will believe us and our agreements if we breach ceasefires? We aren't a state of pirates and cannot do things that are allowed for the other side."

This proposal of asymmetrical rules of engagement echoes previous "moral" arguments that have let Deif escape in the past; he currently has been targeted in no fewer than six assassination attempts by Israel.

Amos Yadlin, formerly the head of Military Intelligence, revealed last Thursday that in the last attempt in 2006 "instead of a one ton bomb, we decided to shoot two quarter ton bombs in order to avoid hitting innocent civilians. One of them didn't explode, and Deif survived."

Indeed, many soldiers have noted how Hamas's cynical manipulation of civilians has caused Israel to limit its actions and "sabotage" the operation. MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) has blamed Israel's "misplaced pity" for Gaza residents as being responsible for the deaths of IDF soldiers.

Netanyahu to Defense Minister: Hit Every Source of Terror in Gaza
Aug 24th, 2014
Daily NewsDebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Let the Headlines Speak
Aug 24th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

California Drought Leaves Homes Without Water
Hundreds of rural San Joaquin Valley residents no longer can get drinking water from their home faucets because California's extreme drought has dried up their individual wells, government officials and community groups said. The situation has become so dire that the Tulare County Office of Emergency Services had 12-gallon-per person rations of bottled water...  

President Jimmy Carter to be keynote speaker at Muslim convention in Detroit
ISNA, the nation's largest Muslim group, will hold its 51st annual convention in Detroit's Cobo Center Friday through Sept. 1, and will feature former President Jimmy Carter as the keynote speaker. President Carter will talk on the subject of his latest book, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power, at a luncheon Aug. 30.  

Anti-Israel Protesters Defend Hitler, Police Eject Pro-Israel Man
Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters lined the streets of Westminster today in yet another show of 'solidarity' with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Breitbart London was present to document the scenes as demonstrators defended Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, wearing t-shirts with his face on them, and stated that there should be 'no two state solution' to the crisis in the Middle East.  

Gaza conflict: Mahmoud Abbas urges fresh talks in Egypt
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called on Israel and Hamas to attend fresh talks in Egypt. The Egyptian foreign ministry said it was ready to mediate and called for an immediate ceasefire. A previous Egyptian-brokered truce collapsed on Tuesday. Health officials said at least 10 Gazans were killed on Saturday, including two children.  

Muslim Man Admits to Multiple Murders in WA, NJ in Taking ‘Vengeance’ on U.S.
A Muslim man has admitted to multiple murder charges committed in two states, of which he told investigators were committed as retribution against the United States for its military operations in the Middle East. “My mission is vengeance for the lives, millions of lives [that] are lost every day,” Ali Muhamad Brown stated, according to reports.  

Iceland volcano: Strong quakes around Bardarbunga
Two new earthquakes have shaken the Bardardunga volcano in Iceland, which is already under a "red alert" aviation warning because of fears an eruption. They are the strongest earthquakes to hit the volcano since seismic activity began on Tuesday. Authorities said there had not been a major eruption but have closed the airspace in the area as a precaution.  

MINOR STORM WARNING
A CME is heading for Earth. The relatively slow-moving storm cloud left the sun on Aug. 22nd and looks like it will take 4 days to cross the sun-Earth divide.  

Ebola crisis: Sierra Leone law makes hiding patients illegal
Sierra Leone's parliament has passed a new law making it a criminal offence to shelter Ebola patients. Those caught face up to two years in prison, the justice minister said. The measure still needs to be approved by the president. Earlier, Ivory Coast closed its land borders to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus on to its territory.  

Fed in 'real debate' on rate hike in early to mid-2015
The U.S. Federal Reserve is focused on an initial interest rate hike between the first quarter and the middle of next year, with possible changes in its main policy statement as soon as next month, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said on Saturday.  

Two Biggest Earthquakes to Hit Bárðarbunga Yet
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake occurred in Bárðarbunga volcano in Vatnajökull glacier at a depth of 5 km shortly after midnight last night. The earthquake is the largest since current seismic activity began in the area one week ago. A magnitude 5 earthquake also occurred at around 5:30 am, ruv.is reports.  

Quake hits San Francisco Bay area, no immediate reports of major damage
An earthquake of 6.0 magnitude shook the San Francisco Bay Area early on Sunday, waking residents but not causing major damage, according to initial reports.  

Erez Border Crossing with Gaza closes after mortar attack seriously injures two
Projectiles continued to rain down on Israel on Sunday from Gaza with a mortar shell seriously injuring two people at the Erez Border Crossing with Israel at around 1:00 p.m. Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the two to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon... Following the attack, the Defense Ministry decided to close down the crossing. The IDF struck a launcher used by Hamas to fire on the crossing.  

Saudi Arabia to host Arab meeting on Syria, ISIS
Saudi Arabia is to host a meeting of foreign ministers from several Arab states to discuss the Syrian conflict and the rise of Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria jihadists, Egypt's foreign ministry announced Saturday. It said Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were to take part in Sunday's talks.  

Texas police chief shot dead during traffic stop
The police chief of a small south Texas town was shot dead during a traffic stop on Saturday, a county sheriff said. Michael Pimentel died of multiple gunshot wounds suffered in a confrontation with a motorist shortly before noon in Elmendorf, a rural community of about 1,500 people just southeast of San Antonio, said Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau.  

China executes eight for terrorist activities including Tiananmen attack
China has executed eight people for “terrorist attacks”, including three people it described as masterminding a suicide car crash in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 2013, state media has announced. The official Xinhua news agency said the eight were involved in several cases connected to the north-western region of Xinjiang, where Beijing says separatist militants are behind a string of attacks that have rocked China in recent months.  

Ukraine conflict: Army parade to mark independence
Ukraine is to mark its independence day with a military parade in Kiev as fighting continues in the east. The parade will feature hundreds of marching servicemen and military hardware. Critics say that it is inappropriate when Ukraine is at war.  

Libya crisis: Tensions rise as Tripoli airport changes hands
Libya's newly-elected parliament has condemned as terrorists the militia alliance which says it has captured Tripoli's international airport. It said the alliance was now a legitimate target for the armed forces. The alliance includes Islamists and fighters from the city of Misrata.  

British national contracts Ebola in Sierra Leone
A British national living in Sierra Leone has tested positive for Ebola, the first Briton to fall victim to the deadly disease that has spread across the West African region since March, the Department of Health said on Saturday.  

Pentagon struggles to defend 'militarization' of police forces
When local police responded to protesters in Ferguson, Mo., wearing camouflaged fatigues and riding atop turreted armored vehicles – pointing heavy weapons at their fellow US citizens who were angry at the shooting death of an African American teenager – many troops at the Pentagon shook their heads in a mixture of alarm and frustration.  

Rocket fired from Lebanon hits northern Israel: army
A rocket fired from Lebanese territory hit northern Israel late Saturday, the army said on the 47th day of a war against the Islamist movement Hamas in and around Gaza.  

US Geological Survey: 6.4 Earthquake in Chile
There were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage from the strong quake that occurred at 22:32 GMT (7:32 p.m. EDT), but electricity and telephone service was interrupted in some areas. Three aftershocks were registered in the area shortly thereafter.  

IS Captures Key Syrian Tabqa Air Base. Hundreds Killed in Battle
Aug 24th, 2014
Daily NewsDebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Two weeks of fierce fighting ended Sunday with an Islamist siege force breaking through into the strategic Tabqa airbase southwest of their northern stronghold of Raqqa. Hundreds of the 1,000 Syrian soldiers trapped there were killed. This is IS’s second major victory after conquering Iraq’s second city of Mosul in early July.

Churches Warned: Tidal Wave of Gay Theology Looming
Aug 24th, 2014
Daily NewsWND - Bob Unruh
Categories: Moral Decline;Contemporary Issues;The Church

Anti - Semitism
Aug 24th, 2014
Daily NewsKoenig's Eye View News Briefs
Categories: Antisemitism;The Nation Of Israel

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." ‒ Winston Churchill

Anti-Semitic incidents have increased nearly 500 percent in the United Kingdom since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to the Community Security Trust (CST), a U.K. Jewish organization. Last month, CST received more than 240 phone calls reporting acts of anti-Semitism, up from around 50 per month earlier this year.

Sainsbury's, the second largest supermarket chain in the U.K., removed all products from its Kosher section at one of its central London stores. The company later said that it did so as a precaution during an anti-Israeli demonstration close by, though some customers claim that a staff member told them: "We support Gaza."

In Birmingham, an anti-Israeli demonstration was held outside a Tesco store, the largest British supermarket chain. Protestors, waving Palestinian flags, demanded that the store stop selling Israeli goods and reportedly hurled food at police before rushing into the store, wreaking havoc.

Last month, Tesco announced that it would boycott Israeli products originating from Judea and Samaria. Ironically, the company was founded by a Jewish businessman, Jack Cohen.

The European Union is to ban poultry and dairy products from Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and Judea and Samaria, having declared them to be illegal.

Last year, the EU issued guidelines to forbid trade with any entity operating beyond the 1949 armistice lines (a.k.a. the Green Line). Although the guidelines are now starting to be enforced, the ban is not expected to have a significant economic impact — many of Israel's exports from settlers to the EU can be resold in its domestic market.

EU guidelines also ban scholarships and research grants or any sort of cooperation. If fully enforced, it could end joint projects — like Horizon 2020, which depends on Israeli green technology to clean the Mediterranean. It could also imperil the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs who are employed in Jewish-owned industries.

Back on our side of the pond, an anti-Israel protest held in downtown Chicago was described by one bystander as a scene "straight out of Istanbul or Amsterdam."

Demonstrators held signs that called for Israel's "annihilation" and compared the Jewish state to the Nazis. Flyers were also handed out that said: "The Jew: The inciter of war, the prolonger of war." The wording dates back to the 1940s, apparently taken from Nazi propaganda.

Abbas to Submit 'Surprising' Proposal to Kerry
Aug 24th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

John Kerry, Mahmoud Abbas

Flash 90

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas revealed on Sunday that he intends to submit a "surprising" diplomatic solution to the "Palestinian issue" to US Secretary of State John Kerry sometime next week.

According to Abbas, who spoke in an Egyptian television interview as cited by Haaretz, over the course of next week he will submit an "unusual" diplomatic initiative or proposal.

The PA chairman added that his "surprise" will not consist of a declaration of war against Israel; Abbas's Fatah faction's "military wing," the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, already declared "open war" on the Jewish state late last month.

Instead, Abbas said it would be a diplomatic solution that he would present during Kerry's visit to the region next week, after first presenting it to the various branches of the Palestinian Arab leadership, reportedly on Tuesday.

The US will likely not receive the proposal warmly, but it enjoys wide Arab support according to Abbas, who said he would insist on its implementation. He added that it addresses the international and internal spheres of the conflict.

It is possible that an appeal against Israel to the International Criminal Court, which Hamas recently signed up to join, might be part of the international initiative; such a move would leave the PA and Hamas open to trial as well.

Along those same lines, Abbas's plans may involve a recently proposed UN Security Council resolution which would place the PA in charge of Gaza, and return Israel to peace talks based on the 1949 Armistice lines.

Bloody politics

Abbas's statements come after he met with Egyptian leaders, including Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, while accompanied by a delegation in Cairo.

There they discussed the Egyptian truce proposal, which Abbas's PA along with Hamas and Islamic Jihad amended to include a demand for terrorist releases, along with other key changes, before Hamas breached the ceasefire and talks broke down last Tuesday.

Pressure has been rising between Abbas and his unity partner Hamas; last Thursday and Friday he met with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Qatar. Sources said Abbas is 'forcing' Mashaal to return to truce talks, citing the need to keep the Palestinian 'unity government' intact. 

The fallout, despite the April unity pact between Fatah and Hamas, comes after a gag order was lifted last Monday exposing that Hamas from its Turkey headquarters tried to stage a coup against Abbas in Judea and Samaria, only to be foiled by the IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA).

While Abbas's PA is generally touted as a "moderate" alternative to Hamas, it is worth noting that Fatah this month announced a full return to terrorism, calls that have already been acted on in several shooting attacks. Likewise, the group recently falsely claimed to have murdered 11,000 Israelis, and has called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel.

Senior PA official Jibril Rajoub, a close confidante to Abbas, said two weeks ago that the PA made a "political decision" to support Arab terrorists "slaughtering" Jews living in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.

The statements are in line with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) charter of 1968, which declares "armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine." Following the charter, the PLO and Fatah were defined internationally as terror organizations, a status which was removed during the 1993 Oslo Accords process.