Christian Aid welcomes new humanitarian funds for war-torn Syria

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Christian Aid welcomes new humanitarian funds for war-torn Syria

The charity said the cash was “very welcome” for “one of world’s worst humanitarian situations” but it also urged ministers to ensure neighbouring countries grappling with an influx of Syria refugees are also offered support.

Referring to the eight-year conflict in Syria, advocacy officer Máiréad Collins told Premier: “The crisis has not abated and has worsened every year.

“It’s not just inside Syria, of course, there’s also more than five million Syrians living as refugees within the region and those people also need significant support.”

 

Christian Aid fears some families arriving in bordering nations – particularly in Lebanon – are struggling to access residency permits, work and education services.

Máiréad Collins went on to say: “There needs to be the support given to those other countries to change their policies – particularly Lebanon, which has quite a hostile environment for refugees – to allow them to access residency permits more easily which would then allow them to access jobs.”

The additional funding from the UK was announced at the Brussels Conference on Syria yesterday. It takes the country’s total sum allocated for 2018 and 2019 to £750 million.

Click here to listen to Premier’s Rosie Wright speaking with Máiréad Collins:

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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Premier Christianity News.

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Is There a Secret Plan to Legalize Sex Trafficking of Minors? Feminist Activist Tells All

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Is There a Secret Plan to Legalize Sex Trafficking of Minors? Feminist Activist Tells All

(PHOTO: REUTERS/CLARO CORTES)A sex trafficking victim waits for customers.

If you would have told radical feminist and political activist Natasha Chart five years ago that she would be fired for objecting to the prostitution of minors, she wouldn’t have believed that anyone could be fired for that reason.

Yet Chart, 43, who hails from New York and is the board chair of the radical feminist group Women’s Liberation Front, was terminated in August 2015 from her political advocacy job for doing exactly that.

She explained that she opted to speak with The Christian Post “because I have been hoping that someone could be bothered to care that there is a significant and influential portion of the left-aligned and mainstream human rights activist community that both believes that ‘youth sex work’ should be made legal, and that they have the clout to get people fired from political and media jobs for making concerns about that public.”

“The progressive press won’t touch it, the regular press doesn’t seem to follow these issues, and self-publishing a story like this would likely have been pointless,” Chart said. “And I know most of the audience of a publication like The Christian Post might not sympathize with my political views, but I would rather hope that everyone reading would look beyond me, and to the institutional rot of a political edifice that was so easily taken over by a sex industry advocacy that’s alien to its founding principles.”

Chart is a former Jehovah’s Witness who doesn’t presently identify with any religious tradition and whose politics are decidedly left of center. She is…

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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – The Christian Post.

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Professor who reviled Barbara Bush will not be punished

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Professor who reviled Barbara Bush will not be punished

A California State University, Fresno, professor will not be punished for calling Barbara Bush “an amazing racist” and cheering her death.

The university’s president condemned Randa Jarrar’s statements as “insensitive, inappropriate and an embarrassment to the university.” However, he stated that she was acting as a private citizen using her personal Twitter account, so her statements didn’t violate school policies.

In other California news, a former police officer has been identified as the so-called “Golden State Killer.” He is believed to have committed twelve killings and at least fifty rapes across California from 1976 to 1986.

Closer to home, Dallas police officer Rogelio Santander died yesterday. He was one of three victims of a gunman who was caught shoplifting at a Home Depot in our area.

His tragic death reminds us that our police officers are on the front lines every day, willing to die so we can live. They deserve our intercession and encouragement today.

And the husband of the woman killed last week on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 has now spoken to reporters. When Michael Riordan learned that his wife had died, “I immediately thought of the kids and how do you tell your kids their mom was gone.”

A very hard question

When criminals rape, steal, and murder, it’s hard to believe that God is all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful. When professors use their public platform to make ungodly statements, we wonder where God is.

The first three stories in today’s Daily Article can be viewed in the context of misused human freedom. God chooses to honor the free will he gave us. If he removed the consequences of misused freedom, we would not truly be free.

And yet, sometimes he does just that.

After Herod arrested Peter, God sent an angel who liberated the apostle (Acts 12:1-10). The Lord protected the Jews from Pharaoh (Exodus 14). He saved Daniel from the lions’ den (Daniel 6) and his friends from the fiery…

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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Denison Forum.

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Khloe Kardashian 'can't wait' to read Bible stories to baby

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Khloe Kardashian 'can't wait' to read Bible stories to baby

American television personality Khloe Kardashian says she "can’t wait" to read Bible stories to her new-born daughter.

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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Premier Christianity News.

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Five Loves You Must Have to Be a Successful Pastor – Revitalize & Replant #038

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SUBSCRIBE TODAY: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio • Google Play

A love for the Word, your Savior, and your calling is foundational to ministry. But what other loves should a pastor have. Today, we discuss five of them.

Today’s Listener Question:

FROM PETE

It seems that a lot of success in revitalizing or replanting in the local church has to do with the people knowing you love them as you shepherd them. What are some specific things to communicate to the people to grow this affinity?

Episode Highlights:

  • You cannot successfully lead a church in your own strength and power.
  • Don’t have church activities to get people in your building, have them to get your people into the lives of the community.
  • Those who’ve been dealt most generously with should be the most generous.
  • Pastors, love the church you lead, not the one you wish you led.
  • Your family is your first line of ministry.

The five loves we discuss are:

  1. Love of the heritage of the church
  2. Love of the community of the church
  3. Love of the members still in the church
  4. Love of you own family as you lead the church
  5. Love of God’s work regardless of recognition

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

Revitalize & Replant is sponsored by the North American Mission Board and ChurchReplanters.com. More than 10% of churches in North America are at risk of closing and the North American Mission Board is committed to reversing this trend by decreasing the death rate of existing churches while simultaneously increasing the birth…

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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Thom Rainer.

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Tyndale House halts Bill Hybels book amid misconduct claims

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Tyndale House halts Bill Hybels book amid misconduct claims

Tyndale House Publishers said it was halting the release – due this summer – of ‘Everyone Wins When a Leader Gets Better’ while bosses “absorb the facts”.

The firm told Publishers Weekly (PW): “We will make a final decision regarding potential publication after we absorb the facts and implications related to these allegations.

 

“We take allegations of misconduct seriously, and we are deeply concerned for all involved, both those who have brought forth these allegations, as well as the Hybels family.”

Hybels has previously denied allegations of inappropriate behaviour levelled by six women within the congregation he founded at Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago 40-years-ago. Earlier this month, he announced he was resigning as senior pastor.

Last week, Willow Creek pledged to investigate the claims and to “methodically examine our church culture enhancing policies and informal practices that support healthy and valuable working relationships between men and women.”

Another publisher, InterVarsity Press, told PW it would not be reprinting Hybel’s 1987 book ‘Who You Are When No One’s Looking’.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Zondervan, which has released a number of Hybels’ titles, told PW: “Though we do not have any projects currently in the pipeline for Mr Hybels, we take these allegations seriously and we continue to sort through the information as it is…

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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Premier Christianity News.

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Korean Leaders Seek to Control Optics at Historic Summit

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Korean Leaders Seek to Control Optics at Historic Summit

Kim Jong Un will be in uncharted territory when the third-generation autocrat walks across the border and into the southern half of the Demilitarized Zone separating the rival Koreas on Friday to greet South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Cameras wielded by one of the most aggressive media contingents on the planet will fire live images of a man used to controlling every aspect of his public persona into the homes and onto the phones of millions of people around the world — though it’s not yet clear if it will be seen instantly in North Korea.

But as Kim navigates this minefield (figuratively; he’s not passing through that part of the DMZ) at the third-ever inter-Korean summit, he may have an ally of sorts in Moon.

Despite an announcement that some bits of the summit will be shown live, and the possibility of a joint news conference, Moon seems intent on keeping the North Korean leader at ease, and an aggressive local media at bay, while engineering a summit meant to move the Koreas from what seemed like the brink of war last year to the engagement that the liberal Moon has always dreamed of.

This mindset could make it hard for Moon — keen on creating a legacy-defining moment that will set up Kim’s summit with President Donald Trump in the coming weeks — to resist whatever media controls the North demands.

“The South Korean government is so anxious and invested to ensure the Kim-Trump summit happens, and isn’t a failure, that acceding to media choreography is a very small price to pay when Kim and Moon meet,” Vipin Narang, a Koreas specialist at MIT, said by email….

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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Urban Christian News

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Our Daily Bread (ODB) Devotional 26 April 2018 – The Widow’s Faith

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Our Daily Bread (ODB) Devotional 26 April 2018 – The Widow’s Faith

Topic: The Widow’s Faith [Our Daily Bread 26 Thursday April, 2018]

Read: 2 Kings 4:1–7, Bible in a Year: 2 Samuel 23–24; Luke 19:1–27

The pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Matthew 6:32

It is pitch dark when Ah-pi starts her day. Others in the village will wake up soon to make their way to the rubber plantation. Harvesting latex is one of the main sources of income for people living in Hongzhuang Village, China. To collect as much latex as possible, the trees must be tapped very early in the morning, before daybreak. Ah-pi will be among the rubber tappers, but first she will spend time communing with God.

Ah-pi’s father, husband, and only son have passed away, and she—with her daughter-in-law—is providing for an elderly mother and two young grandsons. Her story reminds me of another widow in the Bible who trusted God.

The widow’s husband had died and left her in debt (2 Kings 4:1). In her distress, she looked to God for help by turning to His servant Elisha. She believed that God cared and that He could do something about her situation. And God did. He provided miraculously for the dire needs of this widow (vv. 5–6). This same God also provided for Ah-pi—though less miraculously—through the toil of her hands, the produce from the ground, and gifts from His people.

Though life can make various demands on us, we can always draw strength from God. We can entrust our cares to Him, do all we can, and let Him amaze us with what He can do with our situation.

Prayer: Father, thank You for Your patience when I trust in my own resources and turn to You only as a last resort. Teach me to seek Your help in all I do.

We may face situations beyond our reserves, but never beyond God’s resources.

Insight:
Can you remember a time when you thought that without a miracle you might not make it?

The Old Testament story of Elijah and Elisha speaks to such fears and the need for faith. Through signs and wonders Elijah called a nation back to its God (1 Kings 18:21, 38–39). Elisha, in turn, inspired hope by miraculously purifying water, multiplying food, and raising the dead.

This is the backstory that according to the New Testament was preparing the way for Jesus. With echoes of Elisha, Jesus filled the stomachs of more than 5,000 hungry people with a little boy’s lunch (Matthew 14:15–21).

Are you troubled by overwhelming needs that keep you awake at night? How does reflecting on God’s miraculous power give you hope? Mart DeHaan

If you missed yesterday devotional, please click to read “Our Daily Bread Devotionals HERE”

This message was written By Poh Fang Chia [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]

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MFM Mountain Top Life Daily Devotional Thursday, 26 April 2018 – Abide In Me

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TOPIC: Abide In Me (Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries Thursday, 26 April 2018)

FIRE SCRIPTURE: John 15:1-10

MEMORY VERSE:
“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” – John 15:7

The MESSAGE:
We have a heavenly Father who loves and cares about our well-being. It is good we know that the plan and intention of God towards us, His children, is good and better than we can imagine for ourselves (Jeremiah 29:11). God who is our Father created us in His image and likeness to fulfil His will and desire here on earth.

According to our passage (John 15), it is clear that our Father (the husbandman) desires that we bring forth fruits unto Himself. The desire of our Father is to eat of every fruit that the life of His children produces just like the story of Jesus and the fig tree (Mark 11:12-22). Everyone of us is like the tree that the Father is waiting for, in order to partake of the fruit that comes out of our lives. But it is good to know that as much as the Father desires and is hungry, waiting patiently to eat of the fruit that proceeds out of our lives, we won’t be able to bring forth fruits worthy of Him if we are not abiding in His son, Jesus Christ (who is the vine) according to our passage. Abiding in the Son is simply allowing Jesus Christ have total control of our lives. He alone should be the staff we are resting on. We should get to the point where we say we can of ourselves do nothing except what Jesus says. This way we are certain we are abiding in Him. When we abide in Him, we can bear fruit for the husbandman, our Father (James 5:7)

It is good, as children of God, to constantly desire to bring forth fruit unto our Father by allowing the Son of God to abide in us and we live in Him, which comes through obeying the word of our Lord. Living our lives based on His commandments makes us abide in Him. God desires fruit from your life, start obeying Him today and bring forth fruit.

MOTIVATIONAL QUOTE:
We draw strength from what abides within us, and what abides within us is what we place our hearts on.

PROPHETIC WORD:
Let the power and grace to abide in the word of God rest upon your life and family today.

PRAYER POINTS:

MORNING
1. Lord Jesus, help me to retrace my steps in You wherever I have missed them, in Jesus’ name.
2. Lord Jesus, give me the strength to abide in You, in Jesus’ name.
3. Every material of hell fire abiding within my life, be destroyed, in Jesus’ name.

EVENING
4. Every besetting sin taking me back to square one in life is uprooted from my life, in Jesus’ name.
5. Fire of the Holy Ghost, sanctify my life and help me to remain in Christ, in Jesus’ name.
6. Blood of Jesus, purge my soul of mortal sin, in Jesus’ name.
7. I will forever dwell in the house of God, in the name of Jesus.

If you missed yesterday devotional, please click to read MFM Mountain Top Life Daily Devotional HERE

MOUNTAIN TOP LIFE is a daily devotional by Dr. D.K Olukoya (General Overseer, Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries, Worldwide)

Flatimes Notice Board: Until you are born again, God ever abiding presence will never be with you. You must be born again to enjoy continuous victory. Please say the displayed prayer below in faith:

Lord Jesus, come into my life. I accept You as my Lord and Personal Saviour. I believe in my heart You died and rose from the dead to save me. Thank You Lord for saving me, in Jesus name Amen.

If you just prayed the prayer of salvation online please send your testimonies and prayer request to [email protected], 07026385437 OR 08141320204.

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Joyce Meyer Daily 26 April 2018 Devotional — Enjoying the Journey

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Joyce Meyer Daily 26 April 2018 Devotional — Enjoying the Journey

Topic: Learning to Expect Good Things [Joyce Meyer’s Devotional Thursday April 26, 2018]

All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil [by anxious thoughts and forebodings], but he who has a glad heart has a continual feast [regardless of circumstances]. — Proverbs 15:15 AMPC

I believe that life should be a celebration. Far too many believers don’t even enjoy life, let alone celebrate it. Many people truly love Jesus Christ and are on their way to heaven, but very few are enjoying the trip. For many years I was one of those people…I was like Martha!

Martha was busy doing what I used to do—running around trying to make everything perfect in order to impress God and everyone else. I complicated my relationship with the Lord because I had a legalistic approach to righteousness. I only felt good about myself when I was accomplishing something. And I resented people like Martha’s sister, Mary, who enjoyed themselves. I thought they should be working like I was working.

My problem was that I was all Martha and no Mary. I loved Jesus, but I had not learned about the simple life He desired me to live. The answer, I discovered, was rooted in faith, discovering what it means to sit at the feet of Jesus, listen to His words, and trust God with all my heart and soul.

Prayer Starter: Father, I ask for Your grace to truly enjoy and celebrate life. Help me to also enjoy my relationship with You and always remember what is truly important. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

If you missed yesterday devotional, please click to read “Joyce Meyer Daily Devotional HERE’’

From Joyce Meyer’s Ministries.

The post Joyce Meyer Daily 26 April 2018 Devotional — Enjoying the Journey appeared first on Flatimes.

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