Dr Myles Munroe, His Influence and Memory

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Dr Myles Munroe, His Influence and Memory

I am not a religious person; I want to be very clear about that. Nevertheless, I have had a full exposure to the Christian church – the Anglican church, to be specific.

My beloved, late uncle was a priest and one of my many father figures. As a child, I went to two or three different churches each week for any number of occasions.
I attended an Anglican school – primary and secondary. And, like most other Anglican school students, I went to mass at school once during the week and again at church on Sundays. My paternal relatives are devout Catholics.

But, today, I do not subscribe to Christianity or religion the way I may have done so before.
If you ever have a chance to make it beyond the confines of this island or this country, at least in spirit, you will find that there is a whole world of religion out there. Christianity is not the only religion, and it is not the oldest religion. But the way the Christian doctrine is taught in our country does not allow for the open and honest discussion of this fact.

I won’t deny that Christianity has done some good things in helping to create fine citizens with sound upbringings, teaching the “straight and narrow way”. For the most part, it seems the Christian belief system works to keep people fairly decent and out of trouble. But so do many other religions and systems of faith. Religion is a stabiliser.

I get it; people have religion because people need to believe in something, a greater purpose for being that helps them through the pains of human life. What I don’t get and can’t accept is that people will hate each other to the death for believing in different things. Even within the parameters of one religion, there is so much discord. There’s good and bad in everyone, yet people can be so hateful when they disagree, even to their own.

Life is difficult enough without fighting to be right about something that is a belief, something that no one knows for a fact is “right” or “wrong”. And my question is “why”? Why can’t we all just respect one another’s beliefs and rights to believe whatsoever we choose, without the hostility?

It’s been thousands of years since religion has been documented amongst humans, but still we’re fighting about whose is best or most right. Some are even fighting in favour of principles which have no root whatsoever in the practice of the very religion to which they subscribe.

It’s too much turmoil. I’d rather be on the outside and watch it and write about it, and so I do.
To my sight, religion is the worst thing to happen to humanity. It is the most divisive thing on the face of this earth; nothing separates people more, nothing stirs up more hatred, and nothing causes more death and destruction in too many countries of the world. As a result, I want nothing to do with claiming one faith over another.

What I do want, however, is that people should practice real love as their first religion, press pause on the religious theory and scripture and embrace each other as human beings. Real love for one another gives rise to genuine respect for one another. And from there everything else flows.

But human beings are obsessed with being the most right and the best (at worshipping), that they remove respect from the equation altogether. Even though my own beliefs will likely serve as my religion to the end of time, I recognise that others will continue to believe as they do. I just wish they would believe in themselves first, before looking to the outside for something to believe in.

Undoubtedly, out of many religions there will come good and bad things; I hope for the best from all of them.
There are many leaders of the world, of the Bahamas, who have arisen from the (Christian) church and many of them have been outstanding in reaching people with positive messages which serve to elevate and not diminish.

At varying times in my life, I have benefitted from these messages and this outreach. And I respect the messengers enough to know that they can have their faiths and I can disagree in part or whole with their religious theories, but at the end of the day how much good do they do, how many people’s lives they influence to make better, I think is most important.

I may not agree with all of Dr Myles Munroe’s beliefs or methods, but I appreciate his ability to rise above making a mockery of other religions the way many do…Read More

Source and Original Content by Tribune 242

Libyan Christian War Memorial at risk from Islamist militants

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Libyan Christian War Memorial at risk from Islamist militants

Recent territorial gains by the Libyan arm of Islamic State (IS) has caused concern that a Christian War memorial on the Libyan coast will be at risk from Islamist militants, the Times reports.

The graves of more than 3,600 British and Commonwealth soldiers who died fighting against the Germans and Italians in World War Two are marked at the Knightsbridge War Cemetery in Tobruk.

The cemetery is on the road to Derna, the eastern city where Islamist fighters took control in October. Over the last month local militants have also pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

The escalating Islamist violence has led to fears that they will attack the obviously Christian memorial, designated by a large white crucifix at one end of the graveyard.

The deteriorating stability of the region has meant that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is no longer able to maintain the memorial. Instead, the task has fallen to Mohamed Hanish, a 60-year-old Libyan.

Hanish’s father was among the many Libyans who helped to recover the bodies from the battlefield, and their family has continued to protect them. He told the Times that he wouldn’t let the militants attack the site on his watch.

“We are doing this for Libya – this is our history too. It is an honour to protect that,” Hanish said.

“I’m the only person who looks at their final resting place every day,” he added. “These men fought in a country that wasn’t even their own for humanitarian reasons and peace. I consider them heroes.”

Source and Original Content by CT

Inter Faith Prayer Vigil takes Place Ahead of UN Climate Change Summit

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Inter Faith Prayer Vigil takes Place Ahead of UN Climate Change Summit

Catholics have taken part in an interfaith candlelight march and prayer vigil on the eve of the United Nations climate summit in Lima, Peru.

The 12-day summit, which began on Monday, is seen as a crucial last step on the road to a new international treaty to curb emission of greenhouse gases, which a new UN study says could push global temperatures to dangerous levels by the end of this century.

“We don’t just want promises – we want them to be put into action,” Elias Szczytnicki, general secretary of the Latin American and Caribbean Council of Religious Leaders of the World Conference of Religions for Peace, told the marchers.

The vigil came at the end of a series of nine monthly interfaith days of fasting for the climate.

“We want to pray and to show publicly that religious communities are aware of what is happening and are committed to the idea that we must reduce emissions and we must pressure our leaders,” said Laura Vargas, former executive secretary of the Peruvian bishops’ social action commission and one of the organisers of the fasts.

“Underlying all religious traditions are two basic principles,” she said. “The first is caring for others and the second is stewardship of nature.”

Religious groups must become “green congregations” and educate the faithful about “the urgent obligation to address climate change,” said Mr Szczytnicki.

Thanking the vigil-goers for bringing “the light of hope” to the negotiations he said: “In this lies the future of the world.

Source and Original Content by Catholic Herald

Indian Christians Feared Targets of Violence Campaign

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Indian Christians Feared Targets of Violence Campaign

An arson attack on a church in the Indian state of New Delhi has raised worries that the country’s Christians could be the target of a new campaign of violence.

The interior of St. Sebastian church was destroyed by the fire on December 1 after police took 10 hours to respond to calls.

Initially officers said the blaze was caused by faulty wiring but agreed to open an investigation after cans of kerosene were found.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Mumbai, told Asia News the attack must be ‘strongly condemned’.

“I’m completely shocked and deeply saddened at this arson attack,” he said.

“While I do not want to attribute communal motives, but this act of deliberate torching of a Sacred Place of worship, is completely unacceptable and cannot be condoned.

“People are revolted and feel vulnerable, whenever the miniscule Christian community is targeted”.

When the fire was out Christians took the streets to protest and call for better protection for Christians.

Cardinal Garcias added: “I request the authorities to significantly speed up apprehending those responsible and charge them under stringent sections of the law.

“All Places of worship in India must be respected in our multi-religious society and the authorities must remain on the watch to prevent the recurrence of such traumatic incidents, which are sources of division and destabilization of the society and detrimental to national integrity and the harmony of the nation.

“This attack on the Place of worship goes against the very progress and development of the nation.”

Source and Original Content by Premier Christian Radio

Bodies of the Munroes to lie in Repose

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Bodies of the Munroes to lie in Repose

The bodies of world renowned evangelical pastor Dr Myles Munroe and his wife are to lie in repose today ahead of a memorial service tonight.

The couple died in a plane crash near Grand Bahama International Airport earlier this month.

He was with his wife Ruth when the plane they were travelling in crashed near Grand Bahama International Airport earlier this month.

It happened late on Sunday 9 November and also killed another seven people on board. It’s reported the aircraft hit a crane and exploded.

Dr Richard H Pinder, a Senior Vice President and Pastor of Bahamas Faith Ministries Fellowship Church, also died in the crash.

It’s thought they were on their way to a Global Leadership Forum, which was organised by Dr Munroe.

A memorial service for Dr Munroe and his wife will be attended by hundreds at the Thomas A. Robinson Stadium- Oaks Field Sporting Complex.

A funeral service will be held at Bahamas Faith Ministries tomorrow.

Source and Original Content by Premier Christian Radio

DID MYLES MUNROE FORSEE HIS DEATH

The unexpected demise of internationally renowned author, speaker and founder of Bahamas Faith Ministries International, the late Dr. Myles Munroe along with his wife came as an unexpected shock to the entire body of Christendom, the tragic loss had a lot of religious faithfuls in pains wondering why a good man such as him had to die.

His death which took place on the 9th of November 2014 via a plane crash might have been unexpected but legacies left behind by the great man of God tend to point otherwise. Recordings of some of his final messages and records seem to point to the fact that the deceased knew and had foreknowledge of his death anytime soon.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Vi8TFQ2H4Xk[/youtube]

The evidence for this line of reasoning point to the fact that Recorded Videos and Messages went viral immediately after his death which portrayed the Speaker illustrating extensively the concept of Death. In the video he spoke at length on how death was the common equalizer of man, how it could not be stopped and how man was to prepare for death’s eventuality.

Through this teaching it was obvious from his demeanor that he had foreseen it and already made his peace with God’s Will, the late speaker apart from the video recording also had a vision of death in which there was an illustration of the passing of the significant baton from one individual to another which signified a process of succession.

Hence, it might be an appropriate line of thought to say that the signs had been revealed to him to enable him prepare himself for his journey to the glorious home; Heaven.

May his Soul Rest in Peace

Myles Munroe : 20 April 1954 – 9 November 2014

 

Christian Woman Prayed 6 Months for Dead Husband as Corpse Rots Beyond Recognition

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Christian Woman Prayed 6 Months for Dead Husband as Corpse Rots Beyond Recognition

A Christian woman from Canada who prayed with her children for her dead husband’s resurrection for six months after he died was dealt a hard blow when she learned that he failed to rise and his body had rotted beyond recognition inside a bedroom she locked and left behind for Jesus.

According to the Hamilton Spectator, during the six months that the woman, Kaling Wald, 50, kept the body of her husband, Peter Wald, 52, locked in an upstairs bedroom of their home, she would tell curious neighbors that he was “in God’s hands now” whenever they inquired about him.

Court documents revealed that Kaling Wald’s husband died “probably around March 20” in 2013. He suffered from diabetes but refused to go to the hospital after his left foot became infected, because he believed that God would heal him. The body was only discovered after Wald and her family faced eviction for not paying the mortgage on the home, according to Reuters.

When the sheriff came to evict the family on Sept. 17, 2013, Peter Wald’s belongings had been packed and ready to go.

“That was how strong our faith was,” Wald told the Spectator.

When she unlocked the bedroom door where she had left his body for Jesus, however, it was badly decomposed and had attracted rodents. His feet were stuck out from under blankets with gauze still wrapped around the left foot. He could not be identified by photograph.

“He (the sheriff) said ‘OK that’s enough, close the door,” Wald noted.

On Monday, she pleaded guilty to failing to report her husband’s death to the police or coroner after criminal charges were withdrawn when assistant crown attorney Janet Booy decided that she meant no ill by her actions and that it was her brand of faith that had “tainted and warped her better judgment.”

This is the first known case involving the resurrection belief in Canada.

“We were trusting God … we thought, ‘OK Lord, you know better,” Kaling told the Spectator Monday.

Wald’s defense lawyer Peter Boushy told Reuters: “Just as Jesus raised Lazarus after the fourth day, so too did she believe God would resurrect her husband in due time.”

Before the resurrection failure, the family was active in Christian street ministry and outreach in Hamilton, an industrial city about 70 kilometers southwest of Toronto, according to Reuters.

Boushy said Wald now understands what the law requires and has no plans to wait for another resurrection.

“She certainly was remorseful, and definitely was teary-eyed,” he said. “Indeed, she noted that she was never actually able to cry over the passing of her husband, but this seemed to have been an emotional breakthrough after the court proceedings yesterday. I think counseling is certainly going to be beneficial for her.”

Source and Original Content by Christian Post

Man Bags Life Imprisonment for Killing Christian Teenager

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Man Bags Life Imprisonment for Killing Christian Teenager

A 22-year-old Maine man who hoped to get community service after he suffocated, burned, then dumped the body of his 14-year-old Christian girlfriend at a Brooklyn beach last year because she refused to get an abortion, received a 25 years to life prison sentence in New York City on Monday.

Court papers cited by the New York Post said the man, Christian Ferdinand, confessed in January 2013 to the gruesome killing of his underage girlfriend, Shaniesha Forbes, and had hoped to get sentenced to community service for it.

“Do you think I can get some kind of community service?” Ferdinand reportedly asked officers shortly after he confessed, according to court files. After deliberating the evidence against him on Monday, however, a Brooklyn jury took just an hour to pronounce Ferdinand guilty and that he should spend the rest of his life in prison.

Ferdinand noted in court documents that Forbes had told him she was pregnant in a text but refused to have an abortion due to her mother’s religion.

Forbes’ grandmother, Daisy Smith, told The Christian Post Tuesday that an abortion would never be supported by their family because they are staunch Pentecostals.

“We are in the church and we don’t do those things. The whole family is Christian. Her mother is Christian, everybody is,” said Smith, who was also in court for Ferdinand’s sentencing Monday.

Ferdinand, however, had no plans to become a father because of Forbes’ religion and he shot back a warning text: “My n—a, are you serious? Kill that s–t.”

After that tense exchange, court documents say Ferdinand got enraged at Forbes when she refused to stop talking about the pregnancy while they were lying down on a couch at his cousin’s home. He used a leather pillow to suffocate her.

He then stuffed her corpse in a suitcase after dousing it with Axe body spray and setting her on fire. He later dumped Forbes’ charred body in Gerritsen Bay, Brooklyn…Read More

Source and Original Content by Christian Post

Christian Mother Suprised that Disney Filtered the Word ‘God’ From Its Website

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Christian Mother Suprised that Disney Filtered the Word ‘God’ From Its Website

Even though the Disney Channel’s website, over the Thanksgiving weekend, asked children to submit a post stating what they’re thankful for, a 10-year-old girl from North Carolina was blocked from submitting her thanks to “God.”

As Lilly Anderson was surfing the Disney Channel website this past Sunday, which also happened to be her 10th birthday, she came across a question posed by the website asking her to post what she was thankful for. She felt strongly that she wanted to give thanks to God, since she believes that God is the reason why she has everything she owns.

When she typed and submitted her initial response of “God, my family, my church and my friends,” Lilly received a response back from the website’s automated moderating system stating in red letters: “Please be nice!”

When she realized that her message had not been successfully posted to the thread, she ran to get the help of her mother, Julie, who helped her try to figure out what the problem was. As Julie Anderson told Fox News’ Todd Starnes, she and her daughter rearranged the words in her response as they tried and figure out what part of the message the system did not approve of.

The mother and daughter rearranged the sentence a few times to try and get the post to go through without having to remove God from the statement. After a few attempts, her submission thanking God only resulted in more responses of “Please be nice.” The Andersons then submitted a post that did not include the word God. Without God, the post was accepted by the Disney Channel website with no issue.

“She came and got me to let me know that something wasn’t right. We started looking at it together and kind of playing with it and changing words around to see what it was that it didn’t like,” Anderson told Fox & Friends. “We found out that when we removed the word God from the post, the website would allow it.”

Fox News obtained a statement from Disney on the matter, which stated that the website is designed to filter out the word God because it’s often used along with inappropriate speech for children.

“Because so many people attempt to abuse the system and use the word ‘God’ in conjunction with profanity, in an abundance of caution, our system is forced to catch and prevent any use of the word on our websites,” the Disney statement reads.

Although Anderson says she understands the purpose behind Disney filtering out the use of the word God from its websites, she claims that it sends a terrible message about God to children.

“I’m not at all anti-Disney, but to shame a 10-year-old, to tell her to ‘please be nice’ for thanking God and sharing her faith with others is what is upsetting me as a mother,” Anderson told Starnes. “I want her to know that she doesn’t have to be silent about her faith. I want her to be strong and soldier on.”

Anderson further added on Fox and Friends that she doesn’t “want children to feel like there’s something wrong or that there’s something that they should be ashamed of in sharing their faith with their peers.”

Lilly told Fox and Friends that she initially felt “bad” because she was confused as to why the website wouldn’t let her share her faith and give thanks to God, even though God had given her so much.

“God is the reason that we have all this stuff that we have,” Lilly said.

Anderson said she and her husband have tried to prepare Lilly for the day when her faith would be disfavored.

“We’ve always told her that inevitably there would come day when she would be discriminated against for her faith, but we never thought Disney would be the source,” she said.

Source and Original Content by Christian Post

Irish Archbishop Houses City’s Homeless

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Irish Archbishop Houses City’s Homeless

The Archbishop of Dublin today offered to house some of the city’s homeless people in church property, after a homeless man was found dead yesterday metres away from Lenister House, one of the parliament buildings.

The body of 42-year-old Jonathan Corrie was found by a passer-by in a doorway on Monday morning, provoking cricticism of the increasing problem of homelessnes in the Irish capital.

More than 160 people sleep rough in Dublin each night, according to official figures, almost three times more than when Ireland’s financial crisis began five years ago.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the head of the Catholic Church in Dublin, said one of his diocesan buildings could be made suitable before Christmas to provide shelter for between 30 and 40 homeless people in the inner city.

“Archbishop Martin said he is very deeply concerned about a deeply divided Dublin where on the one hand there is rejoicing at increased spending over the Christmas period and on the other hand where the number of those homeless and hungry is actually increasing,” the Dublin diocese said in a statement.

Sophie Pigot, 25, who discovered Corrie, said in an interview with the Irish Mirror: “The fact that the guy was literally a stone’s throw from the front gate of our Dail [parliament] – it’s got out of hand. It needs to be tackled, especially at Christmas.

“This is not the politicians, this is not the gardai [police], we are all to blame.”

The Irish economy has been praised for its recovery as it is set to beat many European countries with a growth rate of about 5 percent this year. However, there has also been criticism of the unevenness of the recovery, particularly as years of relentless austerity have meant a reduction in services.

Sister Stanislaus Kennedy of homeless charity Focus Ireland, told national broadcaster RTE that it was not just a case of providing emergency accomodation, but more homes were needed.

“I think what it says to us that this man like so many others who are sleeping out are a sign of the failure of the State… of the failure of the State in the past and in the present to offer them the support they needed to live independently,” she said.

With an acute shortage of housing supply in urban areas, the Irish government laid out plans last week to build and refurbish 35,000 social housing units over the next five years. Opposition parties have said they should have reacted sooner.

Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly has responded by convening a special forum on homelessness this week, bringing together the heads of Dublin’s local authorities and voluntary bodies to see what collective action can be taken.

“We are doing something about this and we need to continue to do an awful lot more, fellow minister Jan O’Sullivan told RTE.

Source and Original Content by Christian Today

Myles Munroe and Wife to Get State Recognized Funeral

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Myles Munroe and Wife to Get State Recognized Funeral

According to the Government of The Bahamas, a state recognized funeral is a government supported funeral accorded to members of parliament, inclusive of the upper chamber (the Senate), serving permanent secretaries and other high ranking public officials or civilians.

The support from the government will come in the form of a live broadcast via radio as well as the attendance of state representatives. The funeral will be open to the public.

Harris explained that Thursday’s funeral will be preceded by a daylong schedule of activities on Wednesday, Dec. 3, when the bodies of Munroe and his wife will lie in repose at Bahamas Faith Ministries Diplomat Center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

From 10 a.m. to noon members of the Munroe family and senior government officials will pay their respects in a private ceremony while the general public will be allowed to sign a book of condolence from noon until 5 p.m.

A national memorial will start one hour later at the Thomas A. Robinson Stadium Oaks Field Sporting Complex in Nassau, Bahamas and will continue until 11 p.m.

Source and Original Content by Christian Post

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