The post Seeds of Destiny 17 August 2019 Devotional: Surrendering of Strength and the Fulfilment of Destiny appeared first on Flatimes.
Christian Family Takes Refuge in Mountains after Expulsion from Their Home in Mexico
MIAMI, August 15, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Miguel Pérez Díaz, his eight children and 87-year-old father have been living in a mountainside shack since May, when local officials expelled them from their village in Chiapas state, Mexico.
Relatives, friends and neighbors in Tajlovijho, a village in the municipality of San Andrés Larráinzar in southern Mexico, had been harassing them for leaving indigenous religious practices for Christianity, sources said.
“The first action they took against them was to cut their potable water service,” pastor Mario Choj told Morning Star News. “Then they made them leave the humble home they owned.”
Leaving the “traditionalist” blend of Roman Catholic and indigenous rituals and beliefs, the Pérez family put their faith in Christ four years ago and began a small fellowship in their home, said Pastor Choj, who leads an Assemblies of God Church called Jesús Es el Camino.
The family loaded the few belongings their neighbors allowed them to take and headed up the mountains to a village called Mitontic, where they survive by collecting the morning dew from a nylon sheet and rainwater that falls from the metal roof of the shanty they built, the pastor said. They store the water in empty soda bottles and other containers.
Despite taking refuge far from their home, they are obligated to pay Tajlovijho…
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Christian asylum seekers thank the Church of Scotland for freedom verdict
Teenage brothers Somer and Areeb Umeed Bakhsh fled from Faisalabad to Glasgow with their family in 2012, after their father received death threats from Islamic extremists and two friends were murdered in the region on account of their Christian faith.
After being repeatedly denied asylum in the UK, the Church of Scotland launched two online petitions urging the UK government not to deport the brothers to their birth country where blasphemy carries the death penalty.
As a result of the campaign, which gathered more than 94,000 signatures, the home office has now granted the Bakhsh family “limited leave to remain” in the UK until February, 2022.
Somer Umeed Bakhsh has expressed his gratitude at the government’s decision: “We have gone through a tough time and I am really happy that we now have the freedom to stay in the country we love.
“I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders because the threat of deportation was always in the back of my mind.
“Scotland is my home, I have grown up here, all my friends are here and I feel like a Scottish boy.
“I am very thankful to everyone who has supported my family and the people who signed the petitions – we could not have got to this point without you.
“But I am disappointed that we will have to apply to the Home Office for an extension in just two and a half years.”
3 Years of Taking a Knee in Protest: Colin Kaepernick Reflects
To mark the three-year anniversary of his protest against police violence in America, former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick shared a video on Instagram re-igniting conversation about racial division in America.
On Thursday, Kaepernick shared a graphic video to his Instagram account showing the free agent taking a knee during the national anthem at football games, interviews of people who have lost loved ones in police shootings, black lives matter rallies and protests and graphic videos of African Americans being shot and held down by police.
Kaepernick captioned the video, “Today marks the three year (sic) anniversary of the first time I protested systemic oppression.”
He added, “I continue to work and stand with the people in our fight for liberation, despite those who are trying to erase the movement! The movement has always lived with the people!”
The post – which at the time of this writing has been viewed nearly 1 million times – was met with both support and criticism.
Some Instagram users commented on the post in solidarity with the athlete. One person wrote, “Keep fighting bro. We with you.”
Another wrote, “I see you King. Thank you for your bravery, thank you for your voice.”
Others, however, voiced their disappointment in the former NFL player. One Instagram user wrote, “You’ve disrespected this nation and it’s (sic)…
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Priest shocked by noise of stone cross flying onto roof of his church
Father Charles Fitzgerald-Lombard from St Edmunds Roman Catholic Church in East Anglia was working on his books in the sacristy when he heard a large bang.
“It didn’t worry me terribly much at the time, it’s more in retrospect I realised how narrow it (his escape) was.
“All I was wondering was what on earth had happened, I thought a tree had fallen down but it was much more like a bang and what one would have expected from a tree falling, which I expect would have been more of a crunching noise.
“I wasn’t actually in the church, I was in the sacristy (similiar to a vestry), right next to the high altar of the church and this cross blew off the top of the main church but it landed on the sacristy roof, right over where I actually happened to be standing at the time, I was marking up the books…this was last Saturday and there was a tremendous wind storm that lasted for about three-quarters of an hour.”
When asked what his first reaction was, he said: “My first thought was that it was a bomb and then I thought well it couldn’t be a bomb – people don’t go around bombing churches very much in this country – and I was looking around and see if there was a table I could get under or something but of course, once it had fallen there was practically dead silence because there was nothing else to fall.”
Father Charles was…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Premier Christianity News.
Chinese Churches Are Forced to Cancel Children’s Summer Camps
As authorities in Mainland China continue their crackdown on Christian churches, Catholic dioceses in the north are reporting the Communist government is banning educational gatherings for kids, forcing churches to cancel summer camps.
According to the Union of Catholic Asia News, one parish was forced to cancel its camp after publicly promoting it, while another one—held in secret—went on as planned and without incident.
“It’s alright if the camp is held privately but once it goes public, it isn’t allowed,” a diocese member identified only as “John” told the news agency. “It must take place in secret.”
Ucanews.com also reported that another diocese had to move a summer class from a large parish to a smaller one in a rural village out of fear of retaliation.
Some churches are offering a childcare option to get around government scrutiny. Member John said churches are using the argument that “working parents are unable to take care of their kids during the summer vacation, so the parish is able to organize summer activities for the children instead.”
The crackdown is part of ongoing measures by the government to limit church influence, including the spiritual development of children. Last year, the government issued new religious affairs regulations, prompting some provinces to order churches to post signs banning minors from entering.
“They…
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Challenge of ‘gay cake case’ verdict is an attack on religious freedom says Christian Institute
Gareth Lee launched his initial case against Ashers bakery in 2014, after its owners Daniel and Amy McArthur refused to write ‘support gay marriage’ on a cake for the customer.
In 2018 the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the McArthur family, saying they had the right to refuse to bake a cake with a slogan they didn’t believe in.
Mr Lee is now appealing the decision before the European Court to refute the right of businesses to express religious beliefs.
He argues the owners’ opinions should be separate from a company’s.
The Christian Institute says this latest action is an attack on every person’s right to freedom of expression.
The Christian Institute’s Director Colin Hart said: “If it is wrong to compel an individual baker to say something they do not believe, it is just as wrong to compel a small family bakery. People don’t relinquish fundamental freedoms just because they set up a family company.”
The UK’s highest court judges were unanimous in finding no discrimination on the grounds of religious belief, political opinion or sexual orientation in the case against the Ashers Bakery. They also ruled that equality law does not compel people to say something they profoundly disagree with and the issue was about the message and not the messenger.
Speaking in relation to the Supreme Courts ruling, The Christian Institute’s Deputy Director Simon Calvert said: “They…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Premier Christianity News.
Planned Parenthood to Leave Title X Program Next Week, Pleads with Court to Intervene
The nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, has announced that it will withdraw from the Title X federal family planning program next Monday unless a court intervenes.
Lawyers representing the organization have pleaded with the U.S. Court of Appeals for a stay of a rule passed by the Department of Health and Human Services which banned all organizations that receive money via the federal funding program from performing abortions or referring patients for the procedure.
Title X provides birth control and contraceptives to those of low-income and has been praised by pro-lifers for not allowing federal money to be used in the termination of young lives.
“All Planned Parenthood direct grantees will be forced to withdraw from the Title X program by the close of business on Monday, Aug. 19, 2019,” Planned Parenthood’s letter reads. “Moreover, Planned Parenthood subgrantees are being similarly forced to withdraw from the program as their grantees face the same compliance deadline.”
The abortion business, which carries out over 300,000 terminations a year, insisted that the Title X restrictions on abortion amount to a “gag rule.”
Others have pointed out that Planned Parenthood’s decision is a clear-cut sign that they are more devoted to abortions than they are to a more rounded form of female healthcare.
“If abortion were…
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