Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Let the Headlines Speak
Sep 8th, 2019
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines

Benny Hinn: ‘I’m done with it’
Hinn: “… I’m sorry to say that prosperity has gone a little crazy – and I’m correcting my own theology …. And I will tell you now something that is going to shock you: I think it’s an offense to the Lord, it’s an offense to say give a thousand dollars. I think it’s an offense to the Holy Spirit to place a price on the gospel. I’m done with it. I will never again ask you to give a thousand [dollars] or whatever amount because I think the Holy Ghost is just fed up with it.” Christian apologist and author Dr. Alex McFarland calls Hinn’s decision “an amazing theological turn by one of the leaders of the Charismatic movement, televangelism and the prosperity gospel for several decades.” But McFarland says only time will tell if Hinn has actually weaned himself off the heresy. Still, it’s a bold move, he adds.

New Poll Shows Trump Topping Every Single Democratic Candidate in Favorability
A new poll shows President Donald Trump is viewed more favorably by voters than any of the top Democratic presidential candidates. In fact, Trump topped the entire Democratic field in total favorability, ….

Scammers Pull Off $240,000 Heist Using AI-Powered Deepfake Voice
The wanted poster for this crime needs a picture of a computer. Thieves in Europe have used highly sophisticated software that can mimic voices to make off with 220,000 euros (about $240,000) in what one report labels one of the first publicly reported crimes in which artificial intelligence was used to steal. The Washington Post recounted the episode in which an executive of a British energy company wired the money to an account in Hungary after being called by someone he thought was his boss. The Wall Street Journal first reported the incident.

Islamic authorities in Malaysian state denounce Shi’ites in sermon
Religious authorities in a Malaysian state denounced Shi’ite Islam on Friday and asked mosques to call in sermons on their congregations to be vigilant over the spread of the “deviant teachings” of the Shi’ite sect.

Five rockets fired at Israel, IDF attacks in Gaza.
Terrorists from Gaza fired five rockets towards southern Israel on Friday night, shortly after 11:30 p.m. The Red Color siren was sounded in the city of Sderot, in the community of Ibim and in Kibbutz Or HaNer in the Gaza envelope of southern Israel.

Pompeo: Peace plan to be presented ‘within weeks’
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that the United States will present its long-awaited Middle East peace plan within weeks. Pompeo, responding to a question at Kansas State University, dismissed speculation of a substantial new delay in the publication of the plan. “We’ve been consulting broadly throughout the region for two and a half years now and I think in the coming weeks we’ll announce our vision,” Pompeo said, according to the AFP news agency.

USCIS Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli Challenges Montgomery County Exec To Debate Over Sanctuary Order
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli challenged Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich to debate his county’s sanctuary policies for illegal aliens Friday. Cuccinelli also rejected the notion that his concern for victims of sex crimes committed by illegal aliens in Montgomery County, MD is consistent with being a “neo-Nazi sympathizer.”

Things Are About To Get A Lot Worse For Ilhan Omar
The young political career of Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar is headed downhill amid reports of infidelity, campaign finance violations, and anti-Semitism. She has been able to avoid direct questions for the most part with Congress out of session, but she will have a hard time doing that when Congress returns next week.

India’s Vikram moon lander appears to have crashed on the moon
Once again, an attempted moon landing has not gone according to plan. On 6 September, India’s Vikram lander lost contact with Earth during an attempt to land on the moon and appears to have crashed,….
Chandrayaan 2’s orbiter remains in orbit around the moon, where it was intended to relay data from the lander and rover back to Earth as well as taking data of its own. The orbiter itself is carrying eight scientific instruments, which will still be used to map the moon’s surface and study its atmosphere.

IDF shells Hamas post after drone drops IED on troops
The IDF struck a terror cell in the southern Gaza Strip after a drone dropped an IED on a military position along the border fence, the Israeli military said in a statement. While no IDF troops were injured, there was slight damage to military vehicles by the drone attack. According to Palestinian reports the cell was hit near Rafiah in the southern Strip.

‘Free Palestine’ spray-painted on Barcelona’s largest synagogue
“Free Palestine” was spray-painted on the front door of the largest synagogue in Barcelona. The vandalism took place Wednesday at the Synagogue of the Jewish Community of Barcelona, the El Nacional website reported Thursday. Police have no suspects. News of the incident at the main house of worship in the Spanish city prompted much rebuke online.

Ukraine and Russia exchange prisoners in landmark deal
A long-awaited exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine appears to have gone ahead as planned. Planes have taken off from Moscow and Kiev carrying the freed inmates, reports say. There is no official confirmation of numbers. A total of 70 prisoners were expected to be involved, including 24 Ukrainian sailors, a journalist, a film-maker and a “person of interest” over the downing of a plane which killed 298 people.

Brexit: MPs willing to go to court to enforce delay
MPs, including Tories expelled from the party, are preparing legal action in case the PM refuses to seek a delay to Brexit. A bill requiring Boris Johnson to ask for an extension to the UK’s departure date to avoid a no-deal Brexit on 31 October is set to gain royal assent. But the PM has said he would “rather be dead in a ditch” than ask for a delay.

Hurricane Dorian: Hundreds flee chaos in storm-ravaged Bahamas
Hundreds of Hurricane Dorian survivors have fled the Bahamas as thousands more anxiously await evacuation from the devastated islands. The hurricane tore through the islands earlier this week, leaving a trail of destruction and a humanitarian crisis in its wake. The official death toll rose to 43 on Friday, but is expected to increase further, officials told local media.

Exclusive: Feds Demand Apple And Google Hand Over Names Of 10,000+ Users Of A Gun Scope App
Own a rifle? Got a scope to go with it? The U.S. government might soon know who you are, where you live and how to reach you. That’s because the government wants Apple and Google to hand over names, phone numbers and other identifying data of at least 10,000 users of a single gun scope app, Forbes has discovered.

Biological age of humans reversed by years in groundbreaking study, scientists suggest
Scientists might be able to reverse process of ageing, a new study suggests. Volunteers who were given a cocktail of drugs for a year actually “aged backwards”, losing an average of 2.5 years from their biological ages, according to the new study. The research showed that the marks on their genomes that represent their “epigenetic clock”, as well as their immune systems, actually improved despite the passing of time.

Is China The New ‘Evil Empire’?
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was the enemy of the West, and President Ronald Reagan had the moral courage to identify it as the “evil empire,” which arguably sped up the fall of Soviet-led communism by a decade or more. However, communist China did not fall. Slowly and anonymously in the shadow of Russia and Iran, the Chinese have been building their might. Could China be emerging as the new evil empire today?

US Health Officials Report 3rd Vaping Death, Repeat Warning
U.S. health officials on Friday again urged people to stop vaping until they figure out why some are coming down with serious breathing illnesses. Officials said they had identified 450 possible cases, including at least three deaths, in 33 states. The count includes a newly reported death in Indiana.

Tempers Flare Over Fukushima Plan To Dump Radioactive Water In Ocean
South Korea has fired off a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to express concerns over a Japanese plan to release radioactive water into the ocean which has been collected since the 2011 nuclear disaster, according to NHK.

Saints QB Drew Brees Under Fire For Appearing In Video Promoting ‘National Bring Your Bible to School Day’ By ‘Anti-LGBTQ’ Focus On The Family
The battle lines are drawn now, people, and clearly defined. Drew Brees found himself in hot water today because he made a video promoting National Bring Your Bible To School day, in a video produced by Focus On The Family. Read the story below to get all the details, but know this. From this point forward, standing for the Bible is now considered ‘hate speech’ because the Bible is against the LGBTQ+P for Pedophile Movement. 100%.

Hurricane Dorian Clobbers the Carolinas, Virginia; Residents Stranded on Outer Banks
As Hurricane Dorian made landfall along North Carolina’s Outer Banks as a Category 1 storm Friday morning, powerful winds and storm surge had major impacts on the coastline, especially on Ocracoke Island, where serious flooding inundated buildings and stranded residents who chose to ride out the storm.

GEORGE SOROS is Lobbying Lawmakers to Take Your Guns
There is no other way to say it: politicians and the elitists are coming for your guns. If they can get them from you and convince you to turn them over willingly, they will do so with propaganda.  But don’t expect that to be the end of it.

Go For ‘Woke’: Children’s Book Publisher Promotes Bisexuality, Political Activism At School Fair
A national publisher of children’s books has refocused its marketing on a hot new trend: diversity. But it’s not tackling the subject on its own. As Scholastic gears up for back-to-school presentations with its book fairs, the publisher is teaming up with a nonprofit coalition that promotes “diverse books.”

Typhoon “Lingling” heading toward North Korea, landfall expected September 7
Typhoon “Lingling,” known as Liwayway in the Philippines, formed September 1 in the Western Pacific Ocean as the 14^th named tropical storm of the 2019 Pacific typhoon season. The storm is now closing in on the Korean Peninsula with the landfall expected in North Korea around 08:00 UTC, September 7.

9/11 & The Road To America’s Orwellian Hell
“When you consider the potential effect of a terrorist attack against the privacy of an entire population, there has to be some trade-off…”

How Unthinkable Became Unquestionable: New Study on Collapse of Moral Consensus
Sep 8th, 2019
CommentaryJOHN STONESTREET/BREAKPOINT.ORG
Categories: Moral Decline

Anyone else dizzy by how quickly some things went from being unthinkable to unquestionable? Just in the last few years? Although the most recent demands of the Sexual Revolution are more radical than ever, people seem to be embracing them more quickly than ever.

For example, when Andrew Sullivan first made the case for same-sex marriage in the New Republic back in 1989, the very notion was considered to be beyond the fringe, and it stayed that way for about two decades.

Then, suddenly, it wasn't beyond the fringe anymore. By 2012, a majority of Americans favored same-sex marriage, and three years later, it became a constitutional right. Today, opposition or even ambivalence to same-sex marriage is regarded as beyond the fringe.

And the pace of change on sexual issues has only accelerated. Transgenderism was considered beyond the fringe when same-sex marriage was legalized, and I predict the acceptance of polyamory could happen even faster.

So what explains this quick and thorough collapse of the old moral consensus?

That's what I talk about on the BreakPoint Podcast this week with sociologist Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas. Our conversation dug into a recent Public Discourse article he wrote: "How the Rise in Unreligious Americans affects Sex and Marriage: Comparative Evidence from New Survey Data."

Just after the midterm elections in November 2018, Mark Regnerus asked three groups--Catholics, Evangelical Protestants, and the non-religious--about their opinions relating to marriage, family, and sexuality. He compared their responses with those from a survey he conducted three years prior.

What Regnerus found was that the nonreligious are now even more likely to hold "progressive" views on marriage, family, and sexuality, especially when compared to self-identified Catholics and Evangelicals.

For instance, 24 percent of the non-religious agreed with the statement "marriage is outdated," compared to just 10 percent of Catholics and 2 percent of Evangelicals. 

Similarly, the non-religious were three times more likely to say that polyamorous relations were okay compared to Catholics and ten times more likely compared to Evangelicals. And, the non-religious were eight times as likely as Evangelicals to say that "sometimes extra-marital sex can be okay."

Of course, the strong relationship between one's religious observance and their view on marriage, family, and sex is no surprise. What makes Regnerus' study so revealing is how rapidly the number of those who self-identify as non-religious has increased. In 2015, they made up 15 percent of the respondents. Four years later, they made up twenty percent, a one-third increase in only four years.

The non-religious are often called the "nones," and it's important to remember that relatively few of them are atheists or agnostics. Many believe in things like astrology and witchcraft and many consider themselves quite spiritual. 

But they reject authoritative religious traditions and institutions, and increasingly embrace progressive views on social issues.

But the even more "ominous" trend from this study is that even though there exists a significant disparity in views between the religious and non-religious, the religious are displaying trends of increasing liberalization too. "Catholics... have witnessed liberalization in attitudes," Mark says, though "Evangelical numbers display a more modest uptick." 

Regnerus concludes that Christians seem to be growing more complicit in the Sexual Revolution, or at least more quiet about their misgivings, year by year.

GOD'S INHERITANCE IN THE SAINTS. (Ephesians 1:18)
Sep 8th, 2019
Morning MeditationF. B. Meyer
Categories: Meditation;Inspirational;Book Study

What an extraordinary combination! It is a mystery that God should find his inheritance and portion in the love of men and women like ourselves. But that he should find the riches of glory in them!--this passes thought. It may, however, be explained by a piece of farming that I learnt recently. The other day, when travelling in Scotland, I was introduced to some farmers whose soil was naturally of the poorest description; and yet, in answer to my inquiries, I found that they were able to raise crops of considerable weight and value. This seemed to me very extraordinary. Out of nothing, nothing comes, is the usual rule. But they unravelled the mystery by telling me that they put in, in enriching manure, all that they took out in the days of golden harvest.

Is not this the secret of any grace or wealth there is in Christian lives? Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thee, O Christ of God, be the glory! Whatever Thou dost get out of us, Thou must first put in. And all the crops of golden grain, all the fruits of Christian grace, are Thine from us, because Thou hast by thy blood and tears, by the sunshine of thy love, and the rain of thy grace, enriched natures which in themselves were arid as the desert and barren as the sand. Augustine therefore said truly, "Give what Thou commandest, and then command what Thou wilt."

But we must see to it that we keep nothing back. There must be no reserve put on any part of our being. Spirit, soul, and body must be freely yielded to the great Husbandman. We, who are God's tillage, must make no bargain with his ploughshare, and withhold no acre from the operations of his Spirit.

This is the curse of Christian living. Here is the reason why God is so little to us. We are mean enough to wish to make all we can of God, and to give Him as little as possible of ourselves. We fence off a part of ourselves for God, excluding Him from all the rest. But it is a compact that will not hold. Love will only give itself to love. The shadows of secrecy or reserve on either side will blight a friendship in which all the conditions seem perfectly adjusted. And many a life that might grow rich in its heritage of God is dwindled and marred, because it sets a limitation on God's heritage of itself.

Give all thou hast to God. As He bought, so let Him possess, everything. He will occupy and keep thee. He will bring fruit out of thy rockiest nature, as the Norwegians raise crops on every scrap of soil on their mountain slopes. He will put into thee the grace that thou shalt give back to Him in fruit. He will win for Himself a great name, as He turns thy desert places into gardens, and makes thy wildernesses blossom as the rose.

Divided America: Democrat Resolution Celebrates God - Less Agenda
Sep 8th, 2019
CommentaryMICHAEL BROWN/ASKDRBROWN.ORG
Categories: Contemporary Issues

There is no question about it. There is not even a desire to hide it. The Democrat Party continues to grow spiritually darker to the point of actually proclaiming itself the party of the religiously non-affiliated. Is it any surprise?

Back in 2012, the Washington Post reported the Democrats were under fire for removing "God" from their national platform.

This was not missed by Paul Ryan, then a Republican vice-presidential candidate, who stated on Fox News, "I guess I would just put the onus and the burden on them to explain why they did all this, these purges of God."

And was it a coincidence that, the same year, the Democrats also failed to affirm Jerusalem as Israel's capital?

To put this in perspective, the Post observed that, "God is mentioned 12 times in the 2012 GOP platform. The 2008 Democratic platform made one reference to God: the 'God-given potential' of working people. The 2004 platform had numerous references to God."

How times have changed.

Democrats Have a God Problem ... and a Problem with God

Two years ago, in 2017, Selena Zito claimed in the New York Post that, "The Democratic Party has a God problem."

Remembering what happened in 2012, when it was widely reported that the Democrats booed God" (during the platform hearings), Zito argued that the Democrats have since "pushed away religious voters not simply by ignoring them but by actively repelling them with accusations of bigotry and backwardness."

And, she added, "Unless they change that, Democrats haven't got a prayer of solving their God problem."

As of today, I wouldn't be holding my breath.

The DNC has now issued a resolution stating that "religiously unaffiliated Americans overwhelmingly share the Democratic Party's values, with 70% voting for Democrats in 2018, 80% supporting same-sex marriage, and 61% saying immigrants make American society stronger."

Yes, the Democratic Party is the party of the religiously unaffiliated, and this is now seen as something to celebrate. "If you have no religious affiliation, we're the party for you!"

Cheering Abortion

Not surprisingly, this fairly substantial group, growing by the year, holds to strongly liberal social views, especially when it comes to abortion and same-sex "marriage." And this, in particular, is something praised by the Democrats. "If you support LGBT activism and stand for abortion, we're the party for you!"

As noted by a Pew Forum poll, "About three-quarters of white evangelical Protestants (77%) think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.

"By contrast, 83% of religiously unaffiliated Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do nearly two-thirds of black Protestants (64%), six-in-ten white mainline Protestants (60%) and a slim majority of Catholics (56%)."

This is a strikingly high number: 83 percent. It looks like lack of religious affiliation deeply affects one's views of the sanctity of life, beginning in the womb.

Booing Those With Traditional Values

The DNC resolution states that "the nonreligious have often been subjected to unfair bias and exclusion in American society, particularly in the areas of politics and policy-making where assumptions of religiosity have long predominated."

This, of course, is ironic, since there has been an increasing attack on religious beliefs in America in recent decades, from the courts to the universities and beyond. Are the non-religious really being "subjected to unfair bias and exclusion in American society, particularly in the areas of politics and policymaking?"

The resolution also states that "those most loudly claiming that morals, values, and patriotism must be defined by their particular religious views have used those religious views, with misplaced claims of 'religious liberty,' to justify public policy that has threatened the civil rights and liberties of many Americans, including but not limited to the LGBT community, women, and ethnic and religious/nonreligious minorities."

So, in contrast with conservative evangelicals, who are branded as religious hypocrites and who are abusing their religious power, it is the religiously non-affiliated who hold to ethical values and truly care about all Americans.

Of course, it is good strategy for the Democrats to make such an explicit appeal to this substantial voting bloc. And it appears that the values of the religiously non-affiliated are much closer to the those of the DNC than the RNC. And, without question, there is some hypocrisy among those of us on the conservative evangelical side, which the DNC wants to highlight. (No group has a monopoly on hypocrisy. It affects all groups on all sides.)

But it is still quite enlightening to see how lack of religious affiliation (which does not theoretically mean lack of faith but simply lack of affiliation) does impact one's worldview, as it appears that lack of religious affiliation means lack of connection to biblical mores.

Obama Faith Adviser Calls the DNC Resolution "Stupid"

Still, not everyone on the Democrat side thinks that the DNC's resolution was wise. According to Michael Wear, who previously served as a faith adviser to President Obama, the DNC's resolution is "stupid on a fundamental level that transcends electoral politics."

Given that the resolution will be used as further evidence that the Democrat Party is the God-less party, Wear could well be right.

What is undeniable, though, is this. The militantly pro-abortion, pro-LGBT activism party is the party of those without religious affiliation.

This makes perfect sense.