Iranian Pastor to be Executed

Please pray for this man and the thousands of persecuted Christians throughout the world.

(CNSNews.com) – An Iranian pastor who refuses to renounce his Christian faith could be hanged as soon as Wednesday, after a trial court ruling this week upheld his death sentence for “apostasy.”

Religious freedom advocates are calling urgently for governments to take up the case of Youcef Nadarkhani, a 32-year-old evangelical first sentenced to death late last year. If the sentence is carried out he will be the first Iranian Christian known to have been executed for his faith in 21 years.

Nadarkhani embraced Christianity at the age of 19, and since his Supreme Court appeal last June, proceedings focused on the question of whether he was a practicing Muslim at the time.

According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), although a court subsequently determined that he was not a practicing Muslim adult when he became a Christian “the court has decided that he remains guilty of apostasy because he has Muslim ancestry.”

Back in court on Sunday and Monday this week, Nadarkhani faced renewed pressure to disavow his faith, on pain on death. CSW cited sources close the case as saying two more sessions have been scheduled, for Tuesday and Wednesday – and “if he continues to refuse, he will be executed thereafter.”

Poll shows most People Believe in the Healing Power of Prayer

Nearly half of American voters believe in the Biblical account of creation, and even more think prayer can literally help people recover from medical problems.

A Fox News poll released Wednesday found 77 percent of voters believe prayers can help someone heal from an injury or illness, while 20 percent don’t believe that. The remaining 3 percent are unsure.

Click here to view the full Fox News poll results.

Those groups most likely to believe prayer literally heals include those who regularly attend religious services (93 percent), white evangelical Christians (91 percent), blacks (89 percent), conservatives (85 percent), and those who are part of the Tea Party movement (84 percent).

Women (82 percent) are more likely than men (71 percent) to believe in the healing power of prayer.

Some 45 percent of voters accept the Biblical account of creation as the explanation for the origin of human life on Earth, while 21 percent say the theory of evolution as outlined by Darwin and other scientists is correct. Another 27 percent say both explanations are true.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/07/fox-news-poll-most-believe-prayer-heals-45-believe-in-creationism/#ixzz1XIU2NPF6

Van Der Sloot Charged with 1st degree murder

No one--and I mean no one--gets away with anything in a world ruled by an all-seeing, all-just, all-powerful God. One may look like one has escaped for a time, but justice wins out eventually.

LIMA, Peru – Peruvian prosecutors have formally charged Joran van der Sloot with first-degree murder in last year's killing of a university student the defendant met at a Lima casino. They are seeking a 30-year jail sentence.

Van der Sloot was widely known before the May 30, 2010 killing of 21-year-old Stephany Flores as the prime suspect in the unresolved 2005 disappearance in Aruba of the American teenager Natalee Holloway.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/01/formal-murder-charges-for-van-der-sloot-in-peru/#ixzz1WkvMMa5E

"Brain Dead" Woman Wakes Up!!!!

Amazing story of our Amazing and unchanging God!

from: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/11/husband-celebrates-miracle-brain-dead-wife-wakes-hospital/#ixzz1M3vZejSJ

DARWIN, Australia -- A woman who was diagnosed as being brain dead has recovered three days after her husband begged doctors to put in a breathing tube before switching off a ventilator at an Australian hospital, the Northern Territory News reported Wednesday.

Gloria Cruz, 56, underwent brain surgery after a tumor was discovered when she suffered a stroke on March 7 and was rushed to the Royal Darwin Hospital in Darwin, Northern Territory.

Doctors told her husband Tani Cruz, 51, the case was “hopeless” and she would probably die within 48 hours following the surgery.

After two weeks, a breathing tube was inserted in Mrs Cruz's mouth and the ventilator was turned off. Hospital staff were stunned when she woke from her coma three days later.

When a doctor recommended that the ventilator be removed and Gloria Cruz be allowed to die, her husband told them, "I'm a Catholic -- I believe in miracles.”

“I told him that God knows how much I love her -- that I don't want her to suffer but I don't want her to leave us,” he said.

A doctor described her recovery as "a miracle."

Mrs Cruz is now alert and getting around in a wheelchair at the hospital.

"She's well on the way to recovery,” her husband said.

Steven Tyler: "Jesus, what have I done?"

from: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/266316/post-abortion-trauma-kevin-burke?page=1

Long before he won accolades as an American Idol judge, Steven Tyler was a bona-fide rock star, with all that that implied. In 1975, when he was in his late 20s and the lead singer for the band Aerosmith, Tyler persuaded the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Julia Holcomb, to make him her legal guardian so that they could live together in Boston.

When Miss Holcomb and Tyler conceived a child, his longtime friend Ray Tabano convinced Tyler that abortion was the only solution. In the Aerosmith “autobiography,” Walk This Way (in which recollections by all the band members, and their friends and lovers, were assembled by the author Stephen Davis), Tabano says: “So they had the abortion, and it really messed Steven up because it was a boy. He . . . saw the whole thing and it [messed] him up big time.”

Tyler also reflects on his abortion experience in the autobiography. “It was a big crisis. It’s a major thing when you’re growing something with a woman, but they convinced us that it would never work out and would ruin our lives. . . . You go to the doctor and they put the needle in her belly and they squeeze the stuff in and you watch. And it comes out dead. I was pretty devastated. In my mind, I’m going, Jesus, what have I done?”

Boy returns from Heaven to tell about it

Turmoil in Middle East setting the table for Gog & Magog?

from: http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/

A number of influential rabbis say unrest in the Arab world signals the coming of the War of Gog and Magog and the soon coming of the Messiah, reported a leading Israeli news service on Wednesday.

The article is consistent with similar reports in recent years suggesting that a growing number of rabbis believe the War of Gog and Magog and the Messiah are coming soon.

Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, for example, described in the Ynet News article as “a prominent rabbi,” is reportedly “certain that God is causing the turmoil in order to put the people in their place.” Said Lefkowitz: ”God goes and humiliates (those feeling) sinful pride. At first there was this little fire here, and a state that thought that it is big and strong suddenly needed help from the entire world. Not a war, nothing special, just a small fire.”

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, described in the Ynet article as an “unconventional Lithuanian leader who is believed to have mystic powers,” recently spoke of the tumultuous events underway in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East. “People have come to me and said that it’s ‘Gog and Magog,’” he said. “We cannot know. But it’s probable that any unrest that God creates shows that the Messiah is coming, and that we must begin to prepare for it and become stronger.”

On this, I agree with Rabbi Steinman – the War of Gog and Magog is approaching, the Messiah is coming, and we must be prepared and become stronger spiritually as the Lord’s return draws near. That said, I suspect the Rabbi and I disagree on the Messiah’s identity. That’s a good discussion to engage, particularly now. The Hebrew prophets told us the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem Ephratah, would minister to the people living darkness in the region of Galilee, would teach in parables, would do miracles, would suffer and die as a guilt offering for our sins, and then would rise again and His body would not see decay in the grave. What’s more, in Daniel chapter 9 we learn that the Messiah will come, atone for our sins, and be “cut off” before the Second Temple is destroyed and Jerusalem is crushed by the Romans. That means if the Messiah didn’t come before 70 A.D., He is never going to come.

I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that our Messiah has come, and that He is coming back, possibly sooner that we realize. Today, we are seeing the type of “uprisings” and “lawlessness” that the Lord Jesus warned in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 would precede His return. What’s more, I believe we are steadily approaching what the Hebrew Prophets called the “Day of the Lord,” the tumultuous events that will lead us right into what Jeremiah called “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7), what Jesus Christ called the “Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:21), and what the Apostle John described in horrific detail in the Book of Revelation.

The Fastest Growing Religion in America: Christianity?!!

I love this article!

from: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=245201

What is the fastest-growing religion on Earth? Most news reports suggest it is Islam.

But the evidence suggests a new, or, perhaps, original form of biblically inspired evangelical Christianity is sweeping through places like China, Africa, India and Southeast Asia – making it, by far, the fastest growing faith on the planet.

In "Megashift," author Jim Rutz coins a new phrase to define this fast-growing segment of the population. He calls them "core apostolics" – or "the new saints who are at the heart of the mushrooming kingdom of God."

Rutz makes the point that Christianity is overlooked as the fastest-growing faith in the world because most surveys look at the traditional Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church while ignoring Christian believers who have no part of either.

He says there are 707 million "switched-on disciples" who fit into this new category and that this "church" is exploding in growth.

"The growing core of Christianity crosses theological lines and includes 707 million born-again people who are increasing by 8 percent a year," he says.

So fast is this group growing that, under current trends, according to Rutz, the entire world will be composed of such believers by the year 2032.

"There will be pockets of resistance and unforeseen breakthroughs," writes Rutz. "Still, at the rate we're growing now, to be comically precise, there would be more Christians than people by the autumn of 2032, about 8.2 billion."

(Story continues below)

According to the author, until 1960, Western evangelicals outnumbered non-Western evangelicals – mostly Latinos, blacks and Asians – by two to one. As of 2000, non-Western evangelicals outnumbered Westerners by four to one. That moved to seven to one this year.

"There are now more missionaries sent from non-Western nations than Western nations," he writes.

This trend, says Rutz, has been missed by Westerners because the explosive growth is elsewhere.

Hundreds of millions of these Christians are simply not associated with the institutional churches at all. They meet in homes. They meet underground. They meet in caves. They meet, he says, in secret.

And what is driving this movement? Miracles, he says.

"Megashift" attempts to document myriad healings and other powerful answers to the sincere prayers of this new category of believer, including, believe it or not, hundreds of dramatic cases of resurrections – not near-death experiences, but real resurrections of actual corpses.

"When I was a kid in Sunday school, I was really impressed that 3,000 people were saved on the Day of Pentecost," he writes. "I thought, 'Wow, that'll never happen again!'"

But, Rutz says, it now happens around the globe every 25 minutes.

"By tomorrow, there will be 175,000 more Christians than there are today," he writes.

The essence of Rutz's book is about how Western Christians can tap into what he sees as a mighty work of God on Earth.

"Very few people realize the nature of life on Earth is going through a major change," he writes. "We are seeing a megashift in the basic direction of human history. Until our time, the ancient war between good and evil was hardly better than a stalemate. Now all has changed. The Creator whose epic story flows through the pages of Scripture has begun to dissolve the strongholds of evil. This new drama is being played out every hour around the globe, accompanied sometimes by mind-bending miracles."

A Soda Celebration

from: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ti-hamiltongingerale101210&print=1

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – This time, the Texas Rangers' celebration started with Josh Hamilton.

Left out of the party when the club clinched the American League West title in late September, Hamilton on Tuesday night dashed into the visitors’ clubhouse and into a torrent of ginger ale after the Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL division series.

“The guys really doused me good,” he said later, having slipped out of the clubhouse when the ginger ale ran dry. “They gave me a lot of hugs and congratulations.”

He smiled and raised a green plastic bottle of soda. He’d pushed a pair of ski goggles to the top of his forehead.

“You know,” he said, “this stuff burns your eyes just like that other stuff does.”

Hamilton’s life and baseball career were nearly ruined by years of drug and alcohol abuse. Still fighting that fight, Hamilton led the Rangers to their first AL West title in 11 years, won the AL batting title and is a leading MVP candidate.

Yet when they laughed and sprayed each other with champagne after clinching the division in Oakland, Hamilton stayed dry and sober in the trainer’s room. His teammates brought him along this time, laying in wait, armed with Canada Dry bottles, and together they carried on for 10 minutes after their 5-1 victory at Tropicana Field.

“It meant a lot,” he said. “It just says a lot about my teammates, them understanding the sensitivity of my situation.”

Not far away, in the hallway outside the clubhouse, Hamilton’s wife, Katie, and various friends, including his pastor from North Carolina, beamed.

“I think that’s precious,” Katie said. “It’s so wonderful that they’re sensitive to him.”

Thought for the Day from a Messianic Jewish Man

from: http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/

At sundown, we begin Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. In the Scriptures, the Israelites were commanded by the Lord to fast and pray and bring their sacrifices to the Temple in Jerusalem, and then to ask for the Lord’s forgiveness for all the sins they and their nation had committed that year. Only the sacrifice of a perfect animal, done with a humble, repentant heart, and with faith in God’s mercy and grace, would bring about forgiveness of sins.
“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” (Leviticus 17:11)
“In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:22)
The problem is: What does one do to receive atonement in the modern age, without a Temple? How can one make sacrifices and receive forgiveness of sins — and thus the right to enter the holiness of heaven and live with the Lord in heaven forever and ever — without being able to sacrifice a perfect lamb at the Temple in Jerusalem, where the Lord designated all sacrifices to occur? The destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 A.D. was a huge blow to Judaism, because it deprived Jews of the place to receive atonement from God.
The good news is what the Hebrew Prophet Daniel told us in Daniel 9:24-26. He told us that:
the Messiah (or “Annointed One”) would come at a certain time in history “to atone for wickedness” and “to bring in everlasting righteousness”
the Messiah would be “cut off and will have nothing”
then Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed — as Daniel noted, foreign invaders “will come and will destroy the city and the sanctuary”
Think about that. Daniel told us something extraordinary — that a coming Messiah would bring atonement for our sins before the Temple would be destroyed. That, in retrospect, makes sense, right? Why would the Lord take away the Temple before providing a new way for atonement?

Jewish Believers in Israel growing!

from: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3939336,00.html

Some 15,000 Messianic Jews currently live in Israel, but if you saw one on the street you would almost certainly fail to recognize any difference. They honor Jewish circumcision, bar-mitzvah, and wedding ceremonies, but believe Jesus is the messiah.
The small community of Yad Hashmona, near Jerusalem, is home to a number of Messianic-Jewish families. They believe in Jesus – or Yeshua, as they call him – and in the teachings of the New Testament as well as the old. They are Jews in every sense, but for the most part keep this side of their faith to themselves. When these families gather for the Shabbat meal, however, Jesus is the guest star at their table.
Around 350,000 Messianic Jews live in the US, and one would be just as hard-pressed to recognize them there as in Israel. Some are Orthodox, and dress as the haredim do, while others are traditional and wear a yarmulke or no religious symbol at all. They are for the most part Zionists, and see IDF service as a top priority. In the army they serve as pilots, commanders, and elite unit members, but usually make sure to keep their messianic beliefs under wraps.
The fact that Jesus was Jewish is generally agreed upon, but what happened after his death is subject to rancorous theological debate. History books tend to recall the first century as a time of rebellion and prophets in Jewish antiquity, and this was also Christianity's first chapter, bringing about pre-historic inter-religious quarreling and anti-Semitism.

Leading British Atheist Becomes a Christian

from: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/July/Atheism-Aside-Peter-Hitchens-Journey-to-Faith/

LONDON - One of Britain's most famous journalists and outspoken atheists Peter Hitchens has become a Christian...

In his book, Peter said his return to Christianity was a process over many years. He writes about a moment in his journey back to faith when, as an atheist, he genuinely feared God. It was when he gazed on Rogier van der Weyden's painting "The Last Judgment," which shows the terror on the faces of those condemned to Hell.
"They've obviously just heard the last trump," Peter said. "And one of them was actually vomiting with fright."
"And it just came through that I might be judged. And I was scared. I still am," he revealed. "One of my reasons for my change is that I am scared. But then again, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

Original Way of Sharing the Gospel

Kurt Warner and His Lord

U.S. Major: "Throw out Christian Premillenialism"

This is worrisome--not unexpected--but worrisome. What he is saying is that we should no longer let the Bible form our worldview. Why do I support Israel? Because the Bible says that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed (Genesis 27). As much as I love the United States, I certainly do want to live in a cursed nation.

From: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=119315

A research paper written by a U.S. Army major for the School of Advanced Military Studies in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., calls for Americans to lose the evangelical Christian belief of pre-millennialism because of the damage it does to the nation's foreign interests.

"As a result of millennarian influences on our culture, most Americans think as absolutists," Maj. Brian L. Stuckert wrote in his 2008 course requirement at the school for military officers.

"A proclivity for clear differentiations between good, evil, right, and wrong do not always serve us well in foreign relations or security policy," he said. "Policy makers must strive to honestly confront their own cognitive filters and the prejudices associated with various international organizations and actors vis-à-vis pre-millennialism.

"We must come to more fully understand the background of our thinking about the U.N., the E.U., the World Trade Organization, Russia, China and Israel. We must ask similar questions about natural events such as earthquakes or disease."

He warns against the Christian beliefs espoused by many that the end times will involve Israel as God's chosen nation, a final 1,000-year conflict between good and evil and an ultimate victory for God.

"The inevitability of millennial peace through redemptive violence and an exceptional role for America have been and continue to be powerful themes running throughout the security and foreign policies of the U.S.," Stuckert wrote. "Official U.S. government policy expresses these themes in a number of ways from the national seal that reads Novus Ordo Seclorum – the New Order for the Ages – or the nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile known as the Peacekeeper.

"As demonstrated by American history, millennialism has predisposed us toward stark absolutes, overly simplified dichotomies and a preference for revolutionary or cataclysmic change as opposed to gradual processes," he said. "In other words, American strategists tend to rely too much on broad generalizations, often incorrectly cast in terms of 'good' and 'evil.'"

"Dirty Harry Prayers"

Written in a way only Doug Giles could do it, he makes a good point. We Christians need to get busy and get on our knees like never before.

From: http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2009/07/19/note_to_church_pray_dirty_harry_prayers_for_our_nation?page=full

...you must add to your repertoire of petitions you offer up to God Almighty what I like to call Dirty Harry prayers: radical prayers against the radically unrighteous direction our nation is headed. You heard me right. I said pray against this fetid mess.
Most good Christian folks only pray “for” stuff. For example, most believers’ entreaties are for a new car, a nice house, high test scores in school, healing for a sick loved one, or that God will never allow them to become Leif Garrett. That’s pretty much the now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep extent of most Christians’ cries to God.
The believer, however, has an insanely powerful arsenal of divinely-inspired dynamite to utilize against unrighteousness and those who propagate it. Yep, Dinky, it’s a prayer against both sin and sinner—the problem and its perpetrator. Theologians call these the imprecatory prayers, or maledictions. I call them Dirty Harry prayers, prayers to pull out and pray when things get bad. Real bad. Prayers you use when a nation’s getting mucked up by degenerate priests or politicos.
Who in the Scripture volleyed these Holy Spirit inspired invectives toward people and places? Well, guys like Moses, Joshua, David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Paul and uh . . . let’s see . . . there was someone else. Oh! I remember . . . Jesus. Yep, the Prince of Peace prayed some not-so-nice prayers against a gaggle of corrupt critters who were a hindrance to life and truth on His planet.
King David, however, at least from a recorded standpoint, was the king of incendiary intercession. This giant killer shook more Goliaths in his prayers and songs than he ever did with a rock and slingshot. Here’s a sample list of how David rolled in prayer: Psalms 5, 7, 9, 10, 17, 25, 28, 31, 35, 40, 41, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 63, 68, 69, 70, 71, 74, 79, 83, 94, 104, and 109. I bet you haven’t heard these read or prayed in church against our nation’s corruption, have you? I didn’t think so. It might be time to dust them off and offer ‘em up if you’re truly concerned about the state of our union.

Albert Pujols: a Real Hero

Presidential Quote of the Day

"I beseech thee, my sins, remove them from thy presence, as far as the east is from the west, and accept of me for the merits of thy Son, Jesus Christ, that when I come into thy temple, and compass thine altar, my prayers may come before thee as incense; and as thou wouldst hear me calling upon thee in my prayers, so give me grace to hear thee calling on me in thy word, that it may be wisdom, righteousness, reconciliation and peace to the saving of the soul in the day of the Lord Jesus. Grant that I may hear it with reverence, receive it with meekness, mingle it with faith, and that it may accomplish in me, Gracious God, the good work for which thou has sent it."

20 Year-old George Washington, later to become the 1st President of the United States of America

(Penned in his prayer journal)