Pastor John Piper was recently asked on his podcast, Ask Pastor John, about whether or not all people should lift their hands during worship.

A worship leader submitted a question to Piper’s podcast inquiring if everyone in a church congregation should lift their hands during worship, referencing Scripture like 1 Chronicles 16:23-31 and Psalm 95:1-2 which speak of bold praise. He said, “When I read verses like 1 Chronicles 16:23-31 and Psalm 95:1-2 it makes me wonder why not everyone lifts their hands when we sing together at church.” He continued asking if everyone singing joyously out loud together was enough?

Piper responded by telling a story of a chapel service he attended while he was a college professor. He said, “I was sitting beside another faculty member who, during a prayer, simply laid his hands, palms up, on his lap.” Piper said witnessing his fellow faculty member do that made him feel “almost disgust.” 

He continued, “I don’t remember what was going on in my soul at that time, but what I feel now is nothing but shame and remorse at such an arrogant and judgmental attitude.”

Five years after this incident, Piper had left teaching to become a pastor and he recalled that he, during an all-night worship and prayer session with twenty to thirty parishioners, found himself lifting his hands up in praise of God. 

He…

Too many preachers and Christians “enjoy” condemning people, Tim Keller said, and that is the exact opposite God’s attitude.

In an interview Saturday on Mike Huckabee’s TBN show about his new book, The Prodigal Prophet: Jonah and the Mystery of God’s Mercy, the esteemed theologian and former pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan explained that important lessons about relating to pagan, non-believing people can be drawn from the life of this particular Old Testament prophet.

Jonah wanted to condemn the people of Nineveh, and he did not like the people to whom God sent him, he explained.

“Jonah went to the city, and preached to the city, but didn’t love the city,” Keller said, when asked what parallel Christians can draw today, given that he ultimately did what God wanted him to do even though he did not want to and was disobedient at first.

“That wasn’t good enough for God because at the very end, He says to Jonah, How can you not love a city with 120,000 people who don’t know their right hand from their left,” he added.

A main lesson from the life of Jonah is that God says that it is not enough to preach the truth without…

Jewish and Catholic leaders agreed with a plan devised by the secretary-general of the Muslim World League for leaders from the three Abrahamic religions to travel to Jerusalem in what he called a “peace caravan.”

In an interview with Fox News, Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Alissa, said, “They should be Muslim, Christian, and Jewish, and they should visit all the holy sites. They should meet everyone and find common ground, and they should provide fertile ground to find solutions for peace.

Alissa believes the contingents should not represent any particular nation or political ideology. He said, “They will be more influential without a political agenda because they are independent.” He also added that “This visit is not from Saudi Arabia,” his homeland, but rather, “It comes from the Muslim world, the Christian world, and the Jewish world. It has no relevance to any country whatsoever.”

Leaders from all three faiths, meeting at the Conference for Cultural Rapprochement Between the United States and the Muslim World, agreed with Alissa’s vision.

The executive president of the New York Board of Rabbis, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, said the current situation in the region can no longer be ignored and that a new way must be found to bring peace. He said, “Peace can’t be reached by more fighting. Palestinians are not going anywhere, and Israelis are not…

LAHORE, Pakistan, October 8, 2018 (Morning Star News) – More than six months after doctors and hospital staff members killed a Christian at a government hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, none of the suspects has been arrested, the victim’s brother said.

 

Anil Saleem, brother of Sunil Saleem, told Morning Star News that police efforts have been lax in the Catholic family’s quest for justice for the father of four, beaten by doctors and security guards at Lahore’s Services Hospital on March 26 after objecting to a doctor’s refusal to tend to his sister as she suffered labor pains.

 

Police registered a case against 14 doctors, 20 security guards and 10 male nurses but none has been arrested, he said.

 

“Moreover, the police exonerated the main accused, Dr. Saira, in the initial investigation, even though she was the one who had instigated her colleagues and the security guards to attack us in the hospital ward,” Anil Saleem said.

 

Though police rejected a counter-case filed against the family by the hospital’s administrator, officials have been reluctant to move against the medical personnel due to threats by the Young Doctors Association (YDA) to launch protests in hospitals across the province and leave their duties as part of a boycott, he said.

 

“We think that the police were told by the provincial government not…