Libyan Police Say 400 Prisoners Escaped During Clashes in Tripoli – Urban Christian News

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Libyan Police Say 400 Prisoners Escaped During Clashes in Tripoli – Urban Christian News

Some 400 prisoners escaped from a jail in the Libyan capital, authorities said Sunday, as fighting between rival militias that has killed dozens of people forced the U.N.-backed government to declare a state of emergency in and around Tripoli.

The inmates overwhelmed guards and forced open the doors of the Ain Zara prison after riots broke out there, police said in a statement posted on Facebook. The prisoners included many supporters of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi who had been found guilty of killings during the 2011 uprising that ended his rule and plunged the country into chaos.

The fighting in Tripoli erupted last week when the Seventh Brigade, militias which hail from Tarhouna, a town about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Tripoli, attacked southern neighborhoods of the capital. The Tripoli Revolutionaries’ Brigades and the Nawasi Brigade, militias which support the U.N.-backed government, have come to the city’s defense.

At least 47 people, including civilians, have been killed, and another 130 have been wounded, the Health Ministry said.

The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Libya, Maria Ribeiro, said the fighting has forced families to flee their homes and expressed concerned for the safety of internally displaced people, refugees and migrants in Tripoli.

Yusuf Jlala, the minister of state for displaced affairs, said the fighting has displaced more than 1,800 families in the Ain Zara neighborhood since the clashes began on Aug. 27. Many are sheltering in schools or with relatives, while others have left the city, he said.

Residents described scenes of…

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Christian MP Frank Field hit with barrage of abuse for resigning

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Christian MP Frank Field hit with barrage of abuse for resigning

The MP for Birkenhead announced he would sit as an independent on Thursday after 40 years representing Labour in the Wirral seat.

Field said he has been subjected to online abuse since his decision, with one user calling him a “Tory rent boy” who should “f*** off and die”.

 

An email sent to him read: “The claim of antisemitism is obviously bogus AND YOU KNOW IT. Israel is the purest [evil] on earth and you are siding with them.”

Field told The Mail on Sunday: “Sadly, this provides a snapshot of the bile that exists beneath public life.”

Meanwhile, the Labour leader has said Field did not have to resign the Labour whip over the anti-Semitism row.

Wikimedia Commons

 

While Jeremy Corbyn said he was “sorry” Field had resigned, and condemned bullying, he insisted that there had to be “democratic debate within the party”.

Asked about Mr Field’s claims of bullying in the party, Corbyn said he did not know what the claims were.

“I invite all MPs to take part in the discussion and the debate,” he said.

“Obviously bullying and intimidation have no place whatsoever in any political party, particularly the Labour Party, but there has to be democratic debate within the party.”

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Tariff Fight Adds to China’s Economic Challenges – Urban Christian News

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Tariff Fight Adds to China’s Economic Challenges – Urban Christian News

China faces bigger economic challenges than its trade war with the U.S.

Even before tit-for-tat tariffs, growth in the world’s No. 2 economy was already forecast to cool from 6.8 percent last year to a still-robust 6.5 percent this year.

Communist leaders who are trying to engineer slower, more self-sustaining growth clamped down last year on a bank lending boom that encouraged businesses and families to borrow and

spend beyond their means. But it is a tricky balance to strike and communist leaders worry the economy is weakening too much.

Growth in retail sales, a bigger part of the Chinese economy than exports, was weaker than expect in July and close to a 14-year low. Factory output and other sectors also decelerated. Beijing responded by easing lending and boosting government spending.

“We expect the economy to get worse before it gets better,” said Nomura economists in a report.

Trump’s advisers say the slowdown gives Washington leverage in the trade battle.

“Their economy looks terrible,” said Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, at a Cabinet meeting this month.

But analysts closer to China say it is doing better than Americans might think.

“A lot of this economic slowdown is really the result of an intended policy,” said Tai Hui of J.P. Morgan Asset Management in Hong Kong. “The overall growth momentum is still relatively healthy and certainly broadly in line with the authorities’ plans.”

Here is a breakdown of China’s economic strengths and weaknesses:

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ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN

July’s downturn was more abrupt than policymakers wanted.

Growth in…

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New app tries to wipeout ‘awkward’ Christian dating

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New app tries to wipeout ‘awkward’ Christian dating

Thought to be the only free UK-based Christian-made dating app for believers, SALT is already open to pre-registrations ahead of an official launch later this month.

Founder, Paul Rider said he conceived the idea after sharing negative experiences of Christian dating services with his friends.

 

He told Premier: “I think there was a general consensus that there’s a gap between what was already on offer for Christian and what people want and expect from a dating app.”

SALT is being presented as an alternative to meeting people through church where “pressure and unrealistic expectations” can sometimes leave Christians disappointed, the app’s inventors say.

They believe Christians can struggle to meet anyone in their own church circles but SALT is intended to help them widened their search and take the awkwardness out of dating.

 

Research published earlier this year shows 63 per cent of single church-going women have not been on a date with a fellow member of their congregation in at least 24 months.

Mr Rider continued: “We thought that if we could provide something that was going to be completely free of charge, was based here in the UK and had a double opt-in – so that you can only send and receive messages from people that you’ve both chosen to match with – that could be well-received.”

Click here to listen to Premier’s Tola Mbakwe speaking with Paul Rider at SALT:

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Pastor Who Uses Cussing to Draw Millions Doesn’t Give a Da*n What You Think

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Pastor Who Uses Cussing to Draw Millions Doesn’t Give a Da*n What You Think

(Photo: Facebook)Thaddeus Matthews is pastor of Naked Truth Liberation and Empowerment Ministries in Memphis, Tenn.

A controversial Memphis pastor who has drawn millions of views with his messages online by punctuating them with profane words, says he really doesn’t “give a da*n” what traditional Christians think of his practice.

“I find no reason to try to justify that. I’m a fisher of men. I go to people on their level. And you have to get past the cussing to get the message. The cussing has drawn the attention of millions around the country. Apparently, it’s drawn yours because you’re calling me,” Pastor Thaddeus Matthews, who leads the Naked Truth Liberation and Empowerment Ministries in Memphis, Tennessee, told The Christian Post Thursday.

While some might consider his use of expletives in his messages swearing, Matthews doesn’t believe the way he uses expletives in his messages falls into that category.

“There is a difference in ‘cussing’ and ‘cursing’ as people say. The words that we use today like motherf****r, sh*t, damn, were not words that were used in biblical times.

“So I don’t have an issue with the cussing. And the people that listen to me don’t have an issue with the cussing, and I’m not trying to justify it to the traditional churchgoer,” the preacher…

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UN Court Hears Case Over Strategic Indian Ocean Islands – Urban Christian News

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UN Court Hears Case Over Strategic Indian Ocean Islands – Urban Christian News

Mauritius told U.N. judges Monday that the Indian Ocean nation was strong-armed by former colonial power Britain into giving up part of its territory as a condition for gaining independence half a century ago, in a case that could have an impact on a strategically important U.S. military base.

The claim came as judges at the International Court of Justice began hearing arguments in a U.N. General Assembly request for an advisory opinion on the legality of British sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean that include Diego Garcia, home to a major U.S. military base.

“The process of decolonization of Mauritius remains incomplete as a result of the unlawful detachment of an integral part of our territory on the eve of our independence,” Mauritius Defense Minister Anerood Jugnauth told judges.

Mauritius argues that the Chagos archipelago was part of its territory since at least the 18th century and was unlawfully taken by the U.K. in 1965, three years before the island nation gained independence. Britain insists it has sovereignty over the archipelago, which it calls the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Jugnauth said that during independence negotiations, then-British Prime Minister Harold Wilson told Mauritius’ leader, Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, that “he and his colleagues could return to Mauritius either with independence or without it and that the best solution for all might be independence and detachment (of the Chagos Islands) by agreement.”

Ramgoolam understood Wilson’s words “to be in the nature of a threat,” Jugnauth said.

The U.K. sealed a deal with…

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Pope calls for Syria negotiations to avoid a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’

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Pope calls for Syria negotiations to avoid a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’

His plea follows the deaths of at least two military personnel who were killed in explosions at a military airport on the edge of the Syrian capital on Saturday night.

A group monitoring the war confirmed the killings and said eleven people were also wounded in the incident.

 

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blasts that rocked Damascus are believed to have been caused by an Israeli strike.

Syrian pro-government media initially blamed the blasts on Israel.

But state media later quoted an unnamed Syrian military official as saying the explosions were caused by an electrical malfunction in a munition depot nearby.

AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

 

The leader of the Catholic Church appealed to the international community and “all the actors involved” to use diplomacy, dialogue and negotiations “in respect for international humanitarian law and to safeguard the lives of civilians”.

Addressing people in St Peter’s Square, Francis said: “The winds of war are still blowing and troubling news reaches us about the risks of a possible humanitarian catastrophe (in Syria’s Idlib province).”

Hundreds of thousands of civilians in the Idlib area have nowhere to flee.

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Catholic Church in Cuba opposes gay marriage

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Catholic Church in Cuba opposes gay marriage

Under the country’s proposed new constitution, marriage would be defined as between “two people” rather than between “a man and a woman.” The proposed change has been spearheaded by Mariela Castro, the daughter of former president Raul Castro.

But Santiago de Cuba Archbishop Dionisio Garcia called on Cubans not to “ignore what nature has given us” for fear of “regrettable consequences.”

 

Garcia said the acceptance of same-sex marriage was “alien” to Cuban values and claimed that the proposal stemmed from the “cultural imperialism” of powerful countries that use the effect of globalisation “to create a uniform culture that accepts and adopts its criteria (while) disqualifying those of others.”

In an online message, the Episcopal Conference called on Cubans to look for “other legal ways” to protect homosexual unions.

 

Several Evangelical churches in Cuba also campaigned against the changes by issuing leaflets which promote marriage as a union between a man and woman.

Meanwhile, Cuban LGBT activists have created their own posters promoting same-sex marriage.

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Unveiling the Prophetic Place of Success! By David Oyedepo

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Unveiling the Prophetic Place of Success! By David Oyedepo

Unveiling the Prophetic Place of Success! By David Oyedepo

Topic: Unveiling the Prophetic Place of Success!

Welcome to September! I believe we must have been baptised into higher realms of faith all through the month of August, 2018. May we live under the intoxicating effect of faith all the days of our lives! This week, we shall examine the topic: Unveiling the Prophetic Place of Success!

From scriptures, we understand that, prophetically, the end-time Church is ordained a reigning Church. For it is written: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth (Psalm 110:1-3). We also discover from scriptures that the enthronement of the saints in success will be a weapon in the hand of God in reaping the end-time harvest. It is written: Thus saith the Lord of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts: I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you (Zechariah 8:20-23). That means God is going to herald the coming of His Son Jesus by distinguishing the Church. People will come running speedily to God, because of the waves of supernatural distinctions in the body of Christ. God is going to make His people a showpiece on the earth by making them resounding successes in all spheres of life; such as industry, education, Commerce, manufacturing e.t.c. Remember, success speaks louder than words. It commands greater attention than the greatest oration any man can make. It is self inviting and attractive. Success has a compelling force around it, drawing everyone to itself, whether consciously or unconsciously. For instance, we saw how the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon and she came to see his riches and test the depth of his wisdom. Subsequently, she was very impressed with Solomon’s wisdom and prosperity that she praised God for such wisdom (1 Kings 4:32). However, when Jesus came to the earth, He said of Himself, ‘Behold a greater than Solomon is here,’ (1 Kings 10:14-23; 2 Chronicles 9:12-24; Matthew 12:42; Colossians 1:27). That means, every redeemed child of God, in this end-time, has a greater than Solomon potential and as such we can access a greater dimension of all round success. That is why God has programmed to reap the end-time harvest through the outstanding and resounding success of His people. This underscores the fact that God is a Master strategist! In warfare, strategy, not strength or resources, is the greatest asset. So, God’s end-time plan for the Church is to use the sickle of the success (of the saints) to bring home the harvest of dying souls. He will use the supernatural lifting of His people as a force of attraction for pulling the dying world to Himself. There shall be such liftings in the body of Christ, the kind that the world has never known before; and by such liftings, multitudes will be brought into the Kingdom of God without us going to them to say ‘Accept Jesus.’ This is God’s agenda for the end-time Church!

Furthermore, we are a people born in due season! Not because we are smarter than the past generations, but because in God’s agenda, He has planned that success will be the garment of the end-time saints and through it bringing many into the city of refuge. The Bible records: But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Micah 4:1-2). In addition, Isaiah 2:2-3 carries a similar prophecy: And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:2-3).

In conclusion, the success of the end-time Church shall be a compelling attraction and people shall flow into it. It will be so clear to the outside world that these men are actually on the highways of life. The highways of God are what will place the Church on the highways of success; the Church shall always know what to do to succeed. God’s Word shall blossom in the end-time, bringing supernatural ways of flourishing to the people of God, taking them to supernatural heights in life. Every sinner out there shall begin to pant and run after such words because they can see the difference. Nevertheless, you can be a partaker of this prophecy of success that God will bestow on the end-time Church by being a bonafide child of God. Are you born again? If you are not, this is an opportunity to do so. Simply say the following prayer: Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner. Forgive me my sins. Cleanse me with Your precious Blood. Today, I accept You as my Lord and personal Saviour. Thank You Jesus for saving me! Now I know I am born again!”

For further reading, please get my books: Ruling your World, Exploring the Secrets of Success, Success Strategies and Success Systems. I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland, Ota, the covenant home of Winners. We have five services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:50 a.m., 9:40 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 1:20 p.m. respectively. I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 01-4548070, 01-4548280; or E-mail: [email protected]; Face book: www.facebook.com/davidoyedepoministries/; Twitter: @DavidOyedepoMin

Please click HERE to read other inspiring MESSAGES by Bishop David Oyedepo

David O. Oyedepo is a Nigerian Christian author, architect, preacher, and the founder and presiding bishop of the mega church, Living Faith Church Worldwide, also known as Winners’ Chapel

The post Unveiling the Prophetic Place of Success! By David Oyedepo appeared first on Flatimes.

Why Labor Day isn’t a four-day weekend

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Why Labor Day isn’t a four-day weekend

Labor Day is filled with paradoxes.

Begin with the name. We honor America’s 160 million laborers by giving them a day free from labor, then we call their holiday “Labor Day.”

However, the name is unfortunately appropriate for our largest labor group: retail employees. They will have one of their longest workdays today as Americans flood into stores for Labor Day sales.

Labor Day could have led to a four-day weekend, but Congress intervened. The first Labor Day was on a Tuesday in 1882. In 1894, Congress moved the holiday to the first Monday in September. When you go back to work tomorrow, blame them.

God “will neither slumber nor sleep”

The good news is that the Lord doesn’t need a Labor Day. Scripture consistently proclaims the omnipotence of the One who “will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4).

We can respond to God’s work in the world in three ways.

We can ignore him. We can separate Sunday from Monday, the “spiritual” from “secular,” religion from the “real world.” This is what millions of people who attended church services yesterday will do tomorrow. They see no overlap between their worship and their work. Of course, they forfeit the guidance and empowering of our omniscient, omnipotent Lord.

We can oppose him. We can actively reject his word and will, choosing to be our own God (Genesis 3:5) and working against his kingdom on earth. Of course, no one, from the devil (Revelation 12:7-9) to the most depraved human (Matthew 8:28-32), can defeat the only King of the universe.

We can work as he works. We can join him as he extends his kingdom on earth, using our influence and resources as his Spirit leads and empowers us. This is the only way to redeem our work for eternity and leave a legacy that matters.

How do we join God at work?

“Something greater than ourselves”

My wife and I joined the millions who watched John McCain’s televised funeral in Washington National Cathedral on Saturday. It was one of…

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