Our Pope, Rick Warren?

Jesu joy of men´s desiring

Mary did you know?

Imam insulted Christians, Jews in National Cathedral

Reposted from World Net Daily
Imam insulted Christians, Jews in National Cathedral

Islam is hard-wired with a “conquering” mentality that dates back to its earliest days, says a noted author, and that mentality was on display Friday at the Washington National Cathedral.
Even in a service billed as a symbolic olive branch to Christianity, celebrated inside an iconic church, Islam’s air of supremacy could not help but leak out, says Dr. Andrew Bostom, author of several books on Islam including “The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims” in 2005 and “The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History” in 2008.

Not that anyone in the Episcopal cathedral cared to notice.
“After viewing Friday’s ostensible exercise in ‘ecumenism’ at the National Cathedral, it is impossible for me to discern whether the Christian event organizers are more ethically, or intellectually cretinous,” writes Bostom in his blog at AndrewBostom.org.
Bostom is an associate professor of medicine at Brown University Medical School and author of four exhaustive studies on Islam.

Read more at World Net Daily

Disturbing developments

Reblogged from: Serve him in the waiting

By STLloyd November 18, 2014 

Obama Met With Ferguson Activists – Said He’s Concerned They “Stay on Course”

President Obama met with Ferguson protest leaders on November 5th, the day after the midterm elections. The meeting was not on his daily schedule. He was concerned that the protesters “stay on course.”
What does that mean?
And why is the president meeting with the violent Mike Brown protesters before a verdict is reached in the court case? MORE

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S.T. Lloyd Commentary:

Generally, if I am late (in the day or week) getting online and catching up on the latest news, I may or may not run a post on certain “big stories” if they are already posted on most blogs or news sites of similar content, simply because I assume readers have seen them elsewhere by then.   It’s been a busy week for me, and seemingly, despite the midterms, sort of a quiet news week.  The most significant stories in my opinion, though, were the Muslim prayer on the House floor for opening of the congressional session, (though it is not as if that is the first time it has happened), and the Friday prayer session which took place at the National Cathedral Friday.  This is like sitting at the bedside of a loved one on “death watch”.   There are always those who remain in denial right up until the last gasp.

The other big “story” (though the only surprising thing about the story itself, is that people are surprised!) as to Obama’s carrying on as if he didn’t just receive the most resounding vote of “no confidence” that ever occurred in the history of this nation.

Really he is the epitome of the humanistic mindset.  “Your reality is what you choose to be true”.  Humanists call that “self actualization”.  Sane people call it delusion.  You can never appeal to a delusional person on the basis of logic.  I’m just not sure who is more deluded; the President, or those who voted for him that feel he has let them down.  It is kind of like the unfaithful husband who gets into an affair with a married woman, and then is surprised when the new relationship, built solely upon the shifting sands of self-centered duplicity, doesn’t hold together any better than the first.

The election can’t change anything.  America sprang from a revolution.  But the cause from which the revolution was ignited, a strong desire to freely worship God, does no longer drive this nation.  For the most part, what drives those running and ruling this nation, is anything but!  I think there are a great number of individuals that still hold dear, the founding principles, but the nation itself has been hijacked.

The same goes for “the church”!

For decades now, the professing Christian church has ceased being an “infirmary” where terminally ill are rescued from certain death, into some sort of resort-spa-self-improvement camp where people go to self-optimize.

This story from Before It’s News, and the accompanying video, epitomizes how, and to what (extreme) degree, the true Bride of Christ has been “driven underground” while what poses as the “Christian Church” has been entirely possessed by an entirely different (imposter) entity altogether. 

This is certainly not only in America.  These same “churches” have continued to send missionaries across the globe peddling this new “gospel”.  The “preachers” in this new “improved” version of church clearly disdain sound doctrine and the Jesus of the Holy Bible, and ultimately a Sovereign God.  They are not interested in seeing anyone get saved.  They are looking for people who cling to the misguided belief that they are capable of goodness and holiness in and of themselves.

It goes without saying that things are lined up for the arrival of the Antichrist on the world stage. All that is lacking is the “sudden destruction” of I Thessalonians 5:3.

My Journey Away from Contemporary Christian Music

Reblogged fromhttp://www.dancogan.com

Posted by Dan Michael Cogan

I have been what many would call a “worship leader” for close to two decades. When I first became involved in “worship ministry” in an Assemblies of God youth group we sang such songs as The Name of the Lord Is a Strong Tower, As the Deer, Lord I Lift Your Name on High, and others of the era of the 1980s and 90s. Ours was considered a stylistically progressive church since we used almost exclusively contemporary songs.

This meant that if I were to visit a “traditional” church, not only would I be unfamiliar with the hymns, I would also likely cringe when they sang them and in my heart ridicule them (the people rather than the songs) as being old-fashioned.

It was during these formative years in my experience as a worship leader that I began to introduce even more contemporary songs to our youth group. It was then that I discovered artists like Delirious, Darrel Evans, Matt Redman, and Vineyard Music with their songs Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble, Trading My Sorrows, Heart of Worship, and Hungry. 
As a young musician who desired to honor Christ, I found these songs to be particularly compelling. I felt different when we sang them. The way Nirvana gave voice to the angst of Generation X, bands like Delirious were giving voice to a generation of young Christians who didn’t feel they could relate to the songs of their parents and grandparents.

Over the years when I would occasionally hear a hymn, the language was always strikingly foreign, with Ebenezers and bulwarks, diadems and fetters. Which only served to confirm my bias that hymns were simply out-of-date. They had served their purpose. They had run their course.

The problem with my youthful logic only began to dawn on me about seven years ago. I had come to recognize that these ancient hymns accomplished something that the new songs weren’t. While contemporary worship seemed to take the listener on an exciting and emotional rollercoaster, the old hymns engaged the mind with deep and glorious truths that when sincerely pondered caused a regenerated heart to humbly bow before its King.

When I accepted my first post as a paid member of a church staff in 2007, I began the practice of singing one hymn each week. There were times where my peers would teasingly ask what an “Ebenezer” was. What I found was that when I gave them a basic definition of these seemingly obsolete words we were singing, their response was usually something akin to, “Oh? Cool. I never knew that!” I think when they asked, they half expected me to say, “I don’t know! Weird word, huh?” Instead they were being challenged to learn, not merely a new word, but how to ponder the things of God deeply when we sing His praises.

Nowadays, I still choose songs for our congregation to sing that were written recently, but they 

are becoming increasingly the minority. And the criteria for selecting them is becoming more and more thorough. Hymns have begun to take precedent in my song selection for two reasons.

First, hymns have been sung by the giants of the faith who have gone on before us over the last two millennia. 
When we sing A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, we join with Martin Luther who wrote it, and with Calvin and Spurgeon and Edwards who invariably sang and cherished it. When we sing It Is Well With My Soul we are encouraged by the faith of Horatio Spafford who wrote the hymn in the wake of the tragic death of his four daughters. And while many contemporary songs have certainly been written by wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ who have surely endured trials, the fact that we can join with generations past and be reminded that the Church is vastly larger than our local congregation, farther reaching than our town or state or country, and much, much older than the oldest saint living today is something we should not take lightly. Indeed, this should birth in us a desire to sing the songs that our Family has sung together for two-thousand years (and beyond when we discuss singing the Psalms).

Second, the content of hymns is almost always vastly more theologically rich. When I say rich, I don’t necessarily mean every hymn recounts the Gospel in it’s entirety, or that all hymns clearly teach the Five Points of Calvinism. Rather, the theology in the hymns is typically more sound or healthy than much of contemporary worship music. As I said earlier, contemporary songs engage our emotions more often, where the hymns engage our hearts by way of the mind.

By way of example, one of the top ten contemporary songs being sung in American evangelical churches right now is called One Thing Remains. While there is nothing in the song particularly bad (in fact, much of it is pretty good), it seems to me that the purpose of the song is to work the listeners into an emotional state. The chorus is:

“Your love never fails / It never gives up / Never runs out on me / Your love never fails / It never gives up / Never runs out on me / Your love never fails / It never gives up / Never runs out on me / Your love / Your love / Your love.”

With the repetition of a simple lyric like that, it isn’t a stretch to say that the composers’ goal was not to engage the listeners mind.
Whereas Augustus Toplady’s hymn Rock of Ages is doctrinally sound, it also is a very moving song of our dependance upon Christ our Rock:

“Rock of Ages cleft for me / Let me hide myself in Thee / Let the water and the blood / From Thy wounded side which flowed / Be of sin the double cure / Save from wrath and make me pure.”

So I make this plea to my fellow ministers, do not neglect these milestones from ages past. In fact, I would make the case for the abandonment of most contemporary songs. If you choose a song for congregational worship based on it’s content (say you have chosen a contemporary song because of it’s focus on the Cross), do the hard work of finding a hymn that more than likely addresses the same topic or doctrine in a much deeper way.

If on the other hand you have chosen a song because of the way it feels or the emotion it evokes, ask yourself whether you are depending upon the Holy Spirit or your own skills to engage our brothers and sisters in singing to our King.

Hezbollah Smuggling Weapons to Brazilian Criminal Gangs

Reblogged from:The Jewish Press

By: Anav Silverman, Tazpit News Agency

Published: November 17th, 2014

Chief Hezbollah terrorist Hassan Nasrallah.
Photo Credit: Ferran Queved/Flash 90
 

The prominent Brazilian newspaper, O Globo reported recently that the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group has links with Brazil’s largest criminal gang, First Capital Command (PCC).

According to the O Globo report on November 9, the Brazilian government has tried to minimize the issue of Hezbollah activity in the region. But in the past eight years, Brazilian intelligence services “have gathered a lot of evidence that traffickers linked to the Lebanese Hezbollah, the ‘Party of God,’ ventured a Brazilian association with criminals,” according to the report. 

The news report also states that Brazil’s Federal Police have indicated that Hezbollah groups are linked with criminal organizations that operate in Brazilian prisons, mainly in São Paulo. Police documents reveal that Hezbollah has been providing the Brazilian gang with weapons while also acting as intermediaries in the sale of explosives that the PCC stole from Paraguay. In exchange, the PCC offers protection in Brazil’s prisons for inmates of Lebanese origin. 

Reports of Hezbollah building a Western base in South America’s Tri-border area – the region divided by the borders of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil – have surfaced years ago. In 2007, NBC News and Telemundo uncovered details of an extensive smuggling network run by Hezbollah, through which large sums of money were funneled to terrorist leaders in the Middle East and for training camps. 

The Tri-border has been described by US officials as the most important base for Hezbollah to finance its operations outside of Lebanon itself.
Founded in 1982, Hezbollah, a radical Shiite Muslim group, is considered to be one of the most active terrorist organizations in the world with a global terror network that has killed hundreds of innocent civilians through plane hijackings, suicide bombings, assassinations, weapons smuggling and rocket fire. It is the first organization in modern history that has perpetrated a suicide bombing attack.

In 1994, a Hezbollah suicide bomber, directed by the Iranian regime, detonated a car in front of the Jewish Community Center in the commercial area of Buenos Aires, killing 85 people and wounding 300. Hezbollah is also responsible for the assassination of American academic Malcolm Kerr in 1984, the assassination of French military attaché in Lebanon, Col. Christian Gouttiere in 1986, and an international court found evidence of Hezbollah’s role in the assassination in 2005 of Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri.

Last month, Hezbollah operative, Mohammed Amdar, a Lebanese citizen, was apprehended in Peru on October 28 thanks to a tip by Israeli intelligence for suspicion of planning attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets. Officials discovered TNT, explosives and flammable substances in the Lima apartment of Amdar, who had been gathering information on Jewish institutions and places where Israelis frequently hike in Peru.

Hezbollah forces also planted two bombs on the Israeli side of the Lebanese border in the Har Dov region of the Golan Heights on October 7, wounding two IDF soldiers who were bomb-disposal experts from the Combat Engineering Corps.

Muslim imam prays to and praise his god Allah on the floor of the House Chambers

Woman proclaiming Christ ejected from Muslim prayers at National Cathedral

Reblogged from:

Robert Spencer Nov 14, 2014 at 5:42pm Muslim persecution of Christians 

 

It all sounds so high-minded: the Rev. Canon Gina Campbell says: “This needs to be a world in which all are free to believe and practice and in which we avoid bigotry, Islamaphobia, racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Christianity and to embrace our humanity and to embrace faith.”

But someone threw a rotting cabbage on their lovely sofa, as DCist laments: “And because love, respect and understanding is too much of a concept for some people to understand, a person interrupted the service. Of course.” Still, the spectacle of a woman being forcibly ejected from what is ostensibly a Christian cathedral for proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord just before Muslim prayers are about to begin is at very least evidence that we live in strange times.

I noted here the Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood links of the sponsoring groups. Besides that, there is the fact that there is an enduring obstacle to achieving a world in which we are all free to believe and practice and embrace our humanity and faith: Muslims who take to heart and act upon Qur’an verses like these:

Christians have forgotten part of the divine revelations they received: “From those, too, who call themselves Christians, We did take a covenant, but they forgot a good part of the message that was sent them: so we estranged them, with enmity and hatred between the one and the other, to the day of judgment. And soon will Allah show them what it is they have done.” — Qur’an 5:14

Jesus is not the Son of God: “O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers, and say not “Three” – Cease! (it is) better for you! – Allah is only One Allah. Far is it removed from His Transcendent Majesty that He should have a son. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And Allah is sufficient as Defender.” — Qur’an 4:171

“It is not befitting to (the majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! when He determines a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.” — Qur’an 19:35
Those who believe that Jesus is God’s Son are accursed: “The Jews call ‘Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah’s curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth! ” — Qur’an 9:30

Jesus was not crucified: “And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah’s messenger – they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain.” — Qur’an 4:157
Christians, as People of the Book, must be warred against and subjugated: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” — Qur’an 9:29

In light of all that, and the ongoing and escalating Muslim persecution of Christians worldwide, wouldn’t it have been more appropriate, so as to promote love, respect and understanding and all that, to have Christian prayers in a mosque? After all, it is Muslims who are persecuting Christians worldwide, and the National Cathedral decides to show its good will and love for Muslims by inviting Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood front groups to pray there. Why doesn’t the ADAMS Center show its good will and love for Christians by inviting Christians to pray in the mosque there?

This woman who disrupted the service was upset that a building dedicated to the worship of Christ had been given over for the use of people who believe that her proclamation of Christ is a blasphemous falsehood and that her beliefs are a perversion of the true teachings of Jesus the Muslim prophet. Before waxing indignant and self-righteous over her “bigotry” and “intolerance,” Muslims who would have no problem with a mosque that did indeed invite Christians in to offer prayers to the Son of God, and who would applaud the forcible ejection from that mosque of a Muslim who stood up and said, No, this is wrong, there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet, should demonstrate their own love, respect and understanding by actually extending a real invitation to Christians to come in.
“Of Course Someone Interrupted Muslim Prayers At The National Cathedral,” DCist, November 14, 2014 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

In a “a dramatic moment in the world and in Muslim-Christian relations,” the National Cathedral is currently hosting Jumu’ah, the Friday prayer said by Muslims. And because love, respect and understanding is too much of a concept for some people to understand, a person interrupted the service. Of course.
According to reports, a woman yelled “Jesus Christ is Lord!” before being removed from the Cathedral. A group of motorcyclists planned to protest “the Islamization of America” outside the D.C. house of worship.

Organized by South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Society of North America, Muslim Public Affairs Council and The Nation’s Mosque, certain people are pretty worked up about the service, with the Reverend Franklin Graham calling it “sad to see.”In a release about the event, Rasool, who helped organize the event with Cathedral liturgical director, the Rev. Canon Gina Campbell, said, “This needs to be a world in which all are free to believe and practice and in which we avoid bigotry, Islamaphobia, racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Christianity and to embrace our humanity and to embrace faith.”
The service can be watched here.

Read more: http://thelightseed.blogspot.com/#ixzz3JMYOr9Hp

Should Your Church Stop Having a Stand and Greet Time?

Reblogged from Serve Him in the Waiting

By STLloyd November 12, 2014

Good to know I am not the only one who finds this mandated interaction called “greet your neighbor” awkward and unnatural.   The image below seems familiar….  I call this particular formation “The Gauntlet“….. Pivot left, shake, smile, pivot right, offer a “good morning”, left again, oops, almost missed one, right again….here, take a bulletin…..   It tends to leave one a tad dizzy and breathless.  Not surprisingly,  visitors often head up to the balcony to avoid it altogether.  –S.T. Lloyd
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By Thom S. Rainer , Christian Post Contributor

You never know what will strike a nerve in the blogosphere. A blog post I wrote Saturday went viral, and the comments, discussion, and debate are still taking place at that post.
It was really a simple article. I did a Twitter poll (not scientific, I assure you) asking first-time church guests what factors made them decide not to return. I listed the top ten in order of frequency.

The surprise factor was the number one issue. Many first-time guests really don’t like the time of stand and greet one another that some churches have. According to the Twitter responses and comments on the post, many guests really don’t like it, so much so that they will not return [...]
Read more via Should Your Church Stop Having a Stand and Greet Time?.