Justin Bieber Sings About Faith and Prayer in Unreleased Preview

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Justin Bieber Sings About Faith and Prayer in Unreleased Preview
Christian Post Report – Singer Justin Bieber arrives at the 2015 American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California November 22, 2015.

Justin Bieber has released his fair share of songs about love and heartbreak, and now the Canadian crooner is giving fans a preview of something that explores elements of his faith.

The 21-year-old “Purpose” singer took to Instagram to preview 45 seconds of an unreleased track in a series of posts. In his first post, the singer reflects about not giving up on things because life is too short.

“Open your mind / Wider than the ocean / Life is but a moment / And every single time you want to give up / Hold on tight to what you love and don’t let go,” Bieber sings in the first clip.

In another preview post, Bieber’s voice can be heard singing about prayer.

“And every single time you want to pray / Pray for your trouble / Take a breath / Every step / Let it wash away / Oh wash away,” he sings.

The last clip seems to be reflective of Bieber’s life struggles, his faith and lessons he has learned.

“21-years-ago / It’s never ever been the same / I know in life I never wanted to play the game,” he continues. “I’m not the same as Michael even though he hall of fame / I’m all hall of faith / put me on the wall of change. Got a couple of things I learned along the way / figured out how to mean what I say / I just got to be me.”

According to Inquistr, sources close to the singer say that the song is not an official release, but an unfinished track from one year ago. Although Bieber’s Purpose album has more to do with love, he has been vocal in interviews about his faith.

In the January 2016 issue of GQ magazine, Pastor Carl Lentz of Hillsong NYC reveals how Bieber sobbed and told him, “I want to know Jesus … baptize me.”

“I just wanna honestly live like Jesus. Not be Jesus. … I don’t want that to come across weird. He created a pretty awesome template of how to love people and how to be gracious and kind,” Bieber said in a Complex magazine interview last year. “If you believe it, He died for our sins. Sometimes when I don’t feel like doing something, but I know it’s right, I remember, I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t feel like going to the cross and dying so that we don’t have to feel what we should have to feel.”

Source : Christian Post

ISIS Destroys Oldest Christian Monastery in Iraq That United Christians Before Catholic-Orthodox Split

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ISIS Destroys Oldest Christian Monastery in Iraq That United Christians Before Catholic-Orthodox Split

Christian Post Report – Iraqi Christians volunteers, who have joined Hashid Shaabi, allied with Iraqi forces against the Islamic State, rest during training in a military camp in Baghdad, July 1, 2015. Iraqi Christians volunteers, who have joined Hashid Shaabi, allied with Iraqi forces against the Islamic State, rest during training in a military camp in Baghdad, July 1, 2015.

The Islamic State terror group has destroyed the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq, satellite photos have confirmed, reducing to rubble the 1,400 year-old St. Elijah’s Monastery that stood as a place of worship before the Catholic-Orthodox split.

The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that it obtained satellite photos from imagery firm DigitalGlobe, which revealed that the site where St. Elijah’s Monastery once stood has been reduced to a field of rubble.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi pointed out that the monastery was a special place for many, because it dated back to a time before the split between the Catholic and the Orthodox traditions.

“Unfortunately, there is this systemic destruction of precious sites, not only cultural, but also religious and spiritual. It’s very sad and dramatic,” Lombardi said.

AP noted that the monastery has been used as a place of worship for millennia, with generations of monks praying at its chapel.

IS has been carrying out a pointed campaign aimed at destroying Christian churches and all other buildings it deems heretical.

The Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Ephraim in Mosul, which the militants destroyed, later reopened as a “mosque of the mujahideen” or jihad fighters.

The 27,000-square-foot stone and mortar St. Elijah’s Monastery reportedly had 26 distinctive rooms, including a sanctuary and chapel, and stood at a hill above Mosul, resembling a fortress.

Stephen Wood, CEO of Allsource Analysis, said that the destruction must have occurred somewhere between August and September 2014.

“Bulldozers, heavy equipment, sledgehammers, possibly explosives turned those stone walls into this field of gray-white dust. They destroyed it completely,” Wood said.

Father Paul Thabit Habib, a Catholic priest from Mosul who now lives in Irbil, warned that Christian history is “being barbarically levelled” at the hands of IS.

“We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, eliminating and finishing our existence in this land,” Habib said.

BBC News Iraq correspondent Ahmed Maher pointed out that without the satellite images, the fate of the monastery might have never been known.

“This is because journalists and archaeologists cannot go to IS-controlled areas for security reasons. But more importantly, IS did not release any video on its propaganda outlets showing the demolition of this particular ancient site,” he wrote.

“The jihadists have released footage showing themselves destroying shrines, churches and antiquities with sledgehammers and dynamite. More than 100 churches and monasteries have been razed to the ground in Mosul and the predominantly Christian villages surrounding it, like Bashiqa and Qaraqosh, since they took control of the area in 2014.”

The monastery was originally built in 590, and has suffered several tragedies throughout the years. In 1743, close to 150 monks were massacred by a Persian general after they refused to convert to Islam, while in 2003, one of its walls was smashed in by a tank turret during the war with the U.S.

Source : Christian Post

Pastor Steven Furtick Says God Told Him to Preach Against Prejudice

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Pastor Steven Furtick Says God Told Him to Preach Against Prejudice
Christian Post Report – Lead Pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, Steven Furtick called prejudice a poisonous snake and challenged his congregation to keep the scourge in check by not passing it down to children.

“I wanna give you a little challenge today from my personal experience called ‘It’s in your hands,'” Furtick said in a video clip posted on his Facebook page on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday.

“God told me to just bring you a simple message today and ask you ‘what are you passing on?’ I believe that the essence of the Gospel is acceptance,” he said before reading Scripture from Matthew 7:9-12.

“Jesus said ‘which of you if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!’

“Then here’s a verse that a lot of people know, it’s easier to quote than it is to live, (Matthew 7:12). So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets,'” he said, ending the reading.

He then began his exhortation on prejudice.

“As fathers, we give gifts to our children and one of the greatest gifts, blessings or curses and burdens that we give to our children is our perspective. Yet, as fathers, when we pass on prejudice to our children we’re handing them snakes all the time. We’re handing them stones all the time that they might grow up and throw at somebody who’s different than them because of the ignorance that we perpetuate through our perspective and our prejudice that wasn’t checked in our hearts, and it’s gotta stop somewhere!” he declared to cheers from his congregation.

“You know what? What does not heal gets handed down. ‘Cause I have no use for your religion and neither does God and neither does the world, if you can claim to love God that you can’t even see, and hate your brother or sister who you see every day. To me that’s a useless stone and a dangerous snake, and a poisonous venom and a toxic religion that you could love God and hate them,” he continued.

“He didn’t say ‘don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you. He said until you are proactive about doing for others what you wish someone would do for you. Until you do it. You don’t have it. Not real love.

“And I came today not to offer any grand solution or to be some kind of racial unifier in my own right, but just to ask a question that I think is my part to ask you: ‘What’s in your heart?’ Because whatever change we need to see beyond this room starts in our hearts,” he said.

Posted by Steven Furtick on Monday, January 18, 2016

Contact: [email protected]; follow me on Twitter @leoblair

Source : Christian Post

ISIS Publishes Obituary for ‘Honorable Brother,’ ‘Jihadi John’

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ISIS Publishes Obituary for ‘Honorable Brother,’ ‘Jihadi John’
Christian Post Report – Dabiq’s obituary for Mohammed Emwazi, who is also known as “Jihadi John” that was published on Jan. 19, 2016

The Islamic State terrorist group has finally confirmed the death of its most famous executioner, “Jihadi John,” as the organization included an obituary for him in the latest edition of its English-language propaganda magazine after he was believed to have been killed two months ago.

After United States officials strongly believed that an airstrike in November had slain Mohammed Emwazi, the black-masked British militant who became notorious in 2014 for beheading American and British citizens in publicized propaganda videos that stunned the world, IS finally announced Tuesday the death of the one the world called “Jihadi John.”

Jihadi John(Photo: Reuters/SITE Intel Group/Handout)A masked, black-clad militant, who has been identified by The Washington Post newspaper as a Briton named Mohammed Emwazi, brandishes a knife in this still image from a 2014 video obtained from SITE Intel Group, February 26, 2015.

In its most recent issue of the online magazine Dabiq, the militant organization published an obituary for Emwazi, who was referred to as Abū Muhārib Al-Muhājir, that explained that he died on Nov. 12, 2015, after “the car he was in was targeted in a strike by an unmanned drone in the city of Raqqa.” It added that Emwazi’s car was destroyed and he was killed “instantly.”

The obituary offered kind words about Emwazi, stating that he was an ambitious and enthusiastic jihadi who “grew to be loved and respected by many.”

The obituary also detailed how Emwazi, who was born in Kuwait and moved to the U.K. when he was 6, grew to despise England.

“Abū Muhārib Al-Muhājir, the mujāhid who made headlines around the world as ‘Jihadi John,’ was originally from the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula, while his mother originated from Yemen,” the obituary reads. “At a young age, the honorable brother traveled with his family to London. This would become a place he grew to hate along withs kāfir people, whose customs were far-removed from the praiseworthy values he was much accustomed to.”

“It was through the mercy and blessings of Allah that Abū Muhārib attained the gift of a sound ‘aqīdah and correct manhaj despite residing in one of the centers of kufr and despite the increased presence of deviants calling to the gates of Jahannam,” the obituary added.

According to the magazine, Emwazi, who previously attended the University of Westminster, was questioned by investigators and authorities when he tried to leave the U.K. for Kuwait. The obituary brags about how Emwazi was able to escape the U.K. to join IS in Syria “right under the nose of the much overrated MI5 British intelligence agency” even though he was refused permission to travel in 2013.

“Depending upon Allah alone for success, with his companion embarked on a long and strenuous journey that totalled approximately two months and involved trekking the mountain ranges of Europe and its marshy farmlands, sneaking across borders and being detained by the authorities of various nations on at least two occasions,” the obituary explained, according to the Daily Mail. “It’s Emwazi’s sincerity, ambition and enthusiasm to work and tire himself for Allah’s sake that granted him prominence, as he grew to be loved and respected by many.”

Emwazi’s prominence came when IS released a number of execution videos online that showed a masked Emwazi beheading five western journalists and aid workers with a blunt knife, including Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig and British citizens Alan Henning and David Haines.

Despite Emwazi’s brutal mistreatment of IS prisoners, the article also praised Emwazi for his “kindness and generosity” because he gave away one of his sex slaves to an unmarried injured jihadi.

Former IS captives say that Emwazi was included in a group of four British jihadis who were known as “the Beatles.” One former IS hostage named Daniel Rye Ottosen from Denmark explained in October that “the Beatles” were the most brutal of all the IS captors.

Ottosen explained that “Jihadi John” even made him dance the tango with him and also threatened to cut off his nose with side-cutting pliers.

Last August, Emwazi appeared in a video where he promised to return to the U.K. and behead non-believers.

Follow Samuel Smith on Twitter: @IamSamSmith

Source : Christian Post

Univ. of Virginia Kicks Off 40 Days of Prayer, Fasting Ahead of 200th Nat’l Collegiate Day of Prayer

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Univ. of Virginia Kicks Off 40 Days of Prayer, Fasting Ahead of 200th Nat’l Collegiate Day of Prayer

Christian Post Report – Messengers at the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting worship together in between small group and corporate prayer time during the June 16 evening session dedicated to prayer at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

Students at the University of Virginia kicked off their 40 days of prayer and fasting on Sunday, leading up to the national Collegiate Day of Prayer next month.

At the university, located in Charlottesville, the community’s Operation Esther Circle prayer group will partner with university students and the college’s Student Prayer Collective to hold weekly prayer meetings in the 40 days leading up to the event on Feb. 25.

Debra Yarde, Operation Esther Prayer Circle leader, told NBC 29 News that the 40 days of prayer and fasting serve as good preparation to the Collegiate Day of Prayer.

“In colleges around the United States our future leaders are there, our future politicians are there. So, we want to make sure prayer is in the forefront of their life,” Yarde told the local media station.

The Luke 18 Project, a campus prayer movement organizing the 40 day prayer and fasting event, states on its website that the idea to hold the 40 day event comes from the biblical story of Jesus going into the wilderness for 40 days to fast and pray.

“As Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days to fast and pray before He ‘returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,’ what could happen if the college students of America gave themselves to 40 days to fast and pray for another Jesus movement in our nation?” the Luke 18 Project questions on its official website.

2016 marks the 200th year that colleges across the nation have participated in the national Collegiate Day of Prayer, where students are encouraged to unite and pray for the fate of their nation.

As of Monday, 105 colleges in the U.S. are set to participate in the Collegiate Day of Prayer.

The purpose of the Collegiate Day of Prayer is explained on its official website, which calls on the importance of instilling prayer and faith in younger generations of Americans for the sake of the country.

“As the students go, so goes our nation! If we win the spiritual battles across our nation but neglect our college campuses, all our progress will be undone in a generation,” the Collegiate Day of Prayer states.

“Therefore, students today need our support and earnest prayers. However, college students don’t just need more prayer, they need our UNITED prayer. Without a greater degree of genuine, unified prayer, our hopes and dreams for this generation may never be realized.

“According to Matthew 18:18-20, the greater the number united in faith and prayer, the easier the battle for this generation can be won. Just as a team of horses can move a heavy load faster and easier together, so our greatest barriers can be better overcome through united prayer,” the Collegiate Day of Prayer organizers add.

Source : Christian Post

Fighting Back for Religious Freedom!

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Fighting Back for Religious Freedom!
Christian Post Report – Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, spoke at the Free to Believe broadcast event on Saturday, on National Religious Freedom Day, urging the Church in America to do three things in the face of the threat to religious freedom: seek the Lord, reach the lost and engage the culture.

“The secularization of America has done so much to disrupt American Christianity,” Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in Arkansas, said at the event in Washington, D.C., on practical ways to advance faith, family and freedom in local communities. “Initially, it tried to make us become extinct … unsuccessfully. And then it attempted to neutralize us … and to some degree, a little successful. And now, the attention has turned toward silencing the church.”

Floyd added, “That’s one thing we cannot let happen.”

 

Source : Christian Post

Saeed Abedini Is Free at Last

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Saeed Abedini Is Free at Last
Christian Post Report – The American Center for Law and Justice, the law group that raised awareness and started petitions signed by millions calling for the freedom of Pastor Saeed Abedini, says it’s grateful that he’s finally been released, and urged the focus to move on to the many other persecuted Christians around the world.

“From our involvement in Pastor Saeed’s case more than three years ago, our goal was two-fold: keep Pastor Saeed alive in one of the world’s most dangerous prisons — and work to secure his release. To accomplish that, we implemented a three-point strategy,” ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow said in a statement to The Christian Post on Monday.

Source : Christian Post

Militants Shout ‘God Is Great’ in Slaughter of 20 at Pakistani University

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Militants Shout ‘God Is Great’ in Slaughter of 20 at Pakistani University
Militants have slaughtered at least 20 people and wounded dozens of others at a university in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, though there are conflicting reports whether the Taliban is claiming responsibility.

Reuters noted that government officials are warning the death toll at Bacha Khan University in the city of Charsadda could rise to 40, with Pakistan’s army continuing to carry out operations in the campus and in the surrounding area in the search for suspects.

At least four of the armed gunmen are dead, officials said, though it is not clear if others were involved.

A senior Pakistani Taliban commander initially claimed responsibility for the assault, but an official spokesman for the group later denied involvement, describing the attack as “un-Islamic.”

Mohammad Khurrassani, from the Pakistan Taliban’s central organization, said the group “strongly condemn the attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda and disown the attack, saying this is not according to Shariah.”

Pakistan continues to battle terrorism on its territory, especially in the regions closest to the border with Afghanistan.

“We’ve seen consistent operations by the Taliban up in this area,” CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd said. “I see this as simply as retaliatory, that is the Taliban saying, ‘If you’re going to bring Pakistani special forces and the army up into our turf, you’re going pay a heavy price.”

Back then the attack was condemned by the Afghan branch of the Taliban, however, saying that the killing of children goes against the Islamic faith.

“The intentional killing of innocent people, children and women is against the basics of Islam and this criteria has to be considered by every Islamic party and government,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

Television footage of the latest attack apparently showed that many of the dead were shot in the head execution-style.

The gunmen are believed to have scaled the university walls on Wednesday morning, before entering different buildings and opening fire on students and teachers.

Witnesses to the attack said that the attackers chanted Islamic slogans as they carried out the shooting.

“We saw three terrorists shouting, ‘God is great!’ and rushing towards the stairs of our department,” said one student, who wasn’t named, according to BBC News.

“One student jumped out of the classroom through the window. We never saw him get up.”

Reports are also emerging of a chemistry lecturer, named Syed Hamid Husain, who apparently shot at the gunmen to allow his students to flee, before he was shot dead.

“He was holding a pistol in his hand,” Geology student Zahoor Ahmed told AFP news agency.

“Then I saw a bullet hit him. I saw two militants were firing. I ran inside and then managed to flee by jumping over the back wall.”

Source : Christian Post

United Methodist Church Bans Intelligent Design Group From General Conference

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United Methodist Church Bans Intelligent Design Group From General Conference
Christian Post Report – Participants sing during the opening worship of the 2012 United Methodist General Conference held in Tampa, Fla., April 24.

The United Methodist Church has rejected an Intelligent Design group’s request to have an information table at the denomination’s 2016 General Conference.

Reaffirming a decision from December, the UMC’s Commission on the General Conference decided last week to not allow the Seattle-based Discovery Institute an information table at the Mainline Protestant denomination’s gathering in Portland, Oregon.

Diane Degnan, spokeswoman for the UMC, told The Christian Post that this was the first General Conference to allow for “outside exhibitors.”

“The Commission on the General Conference determined that the application by the Discovery Institute did not meet the guidelines established for exhibitors in that it was not consistent with the purpose of the exhibitor program,” said Degnan.

[The program] states that exhibits are not to provide a platform to survey or test ideas but to provide products, services and resources which are credible and proven to help local church ministries), and, in their opinion, it conflicted with our social principles.”

United Methodism’s official position on the Creation vs. evolution debate has been decidedly in favor of evolution, with their website offering links to works calling on Christians to embrace the theory.

In 2008, the UMC passed a resolution voicing opposition to any efforts to have ideas like Intelligent Design or Young Earth Creationism included in public education.

“… the General Conference of The United Methodist Church [goes] on record as opposing the introduction of any faith-based theories such as Creationism or Intelligent Design into the science curriculum of our public schools,” read the resolution.

Last October the Discovery Institute inquired the UMC about having an information table at General Conference.

John G. West, vice president of the Discovery Institute, told CP about the reasons for wanting an exhibit table at General Conference.

“We are a nonprofit educational and research organization, and we have sponsored information tables at a wide variety of conferences and events,” explained West.

“A staff member or ours who is a United Methodist brought to our attention the fact that the United Methodist General Conference would be held this year in Portland, Oregon, which is just a few hours away from our headquarters in Seattle.”

Last December, the Commission denied the Institute’s application and last Thursday reaffirmed the decision, reportedly referencing the 2008 resolution to justify their reasoning.

West told CP that he believed this reasoning was “ridiculous,” since his organization “does not favor introducing Intelligent Design into public school science classes” but rather thinks “students should learn about the scientific strengths and weaknesses of modern Darwinian theory.”

“More importantly, our information table was not focused on public school policy, but about resources dealing with science and faith; and nothing in the resolution they cited said United Methodists couldn’t believe in Intelligent Design or discuss it,” continued West.

“I would point out that the UMC’s slogan is ‘open hearts, open minds, open doors,’ and UMC leaders claim to be in favor of open dialogue. But banning us from even having an information table is not open-minded. It’s close-minded in the extreme.”

Source : Christian Post

Muslim Who Shielded Christians in Kenyan Bus Attack Dies From Injures

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Muslim Who Shielded Christians in Kenyan Bus Attack Dies From Injures
Christian Post Report – A mortuary worker labels coffins for the students killed during an attack by gunmen at the Garissa University College, at the Chiromo Mortuary in Nairobi, April 8, 2015. Kenya’s Education Principal Secretary Richard Kipsang said the government had started releasing the bodies to their relatives ahead of the burials and that their target was about 20 per day. In the biggest single attack on Kenyan soil since the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing, gunmen from the Islamist militant group al Shabaab stormed Garissa University
College and killed 148 people and left dozen others injured on April 2, 2015.

One of the Muslim passengers who stood up and defended Christians during a bus terror attack in Kenya in December has died from a bullet wound he sustained during the ambush, but not before urging Christians and Muslims to live as brothers.

BBC News reported on Monday that Salah Farah died while receiving surgery for his injuries in the capital, Nairobi.

Farah and other Muslim bus passengers risked their lives during an Al-Shabaab attack in December to save fellow Christian passangers. While the attack left two people dead and three others injured, including Farah, authorities said at the time that many more would have been killed had the passengers not stood up to the gunmen.

In an interview with BBC following the attack, Farah, a father of five, revealed that the gunmen had initially offered him an escape.

“They told us if you are a Muslim, we are safe. There were some people who were not Muslim. They hid their heads,” he revealed.

Later in January, Farah told Voice of America News that Muslims and Christians can live peacefully together as neighbors.

“We are brothers. It’s only the religion that is the difference, so I ask my brother Muslims to take care of the Christians so that the Christians also take care of us. … And let us help one another and let us live together peacefully,” he said.

Religious leaders, including the Bishop of Garissa in Kenya, have praised the Muslims who stood up to Al-Shabaab during the attack. A number of the Muslims told the radical gunmen to “kill them together or leave them alone,” and refused to allow the terrorists to separate them from the Christian passengers.

“It is a very good thing; a concrete sign that Kenyan Muslims are against violence,” said His Exc. Mgr. Joseph Alexander.

“The Shabaab now know that they do not have the support of the Muslim community,” Alexander added. “We hope that we continue in this direction, because a year ago there was a similar attack that caused a massacre.”

Joseph Nkaissery, Kenya’s interior cabinet secretary, echoed the praise, saying that it shows Kenyans can stand together united against terrorism.

“We are all Kenyans, we are not separated by religion,” Nkaissery said. “We are one people as a nation. And this is a very good message from my brothers and sisters from the Muslim community.”

Al-Shabaab, which has been attacking Kenyan citizens for years, has used the tactic of separating Christians from Muslims and then killing the former on a number of occasions.

The militants slaughtered 152 people, mostly Christian students, during a massacre at Garissa University College in April 2015, which was one of the deadliest terror attacks the country has suffered.

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet described Farah as a “true hero” following his death.

“We provided a plane to fly the body home to Mandera for burial. This is because the deceased died while trying to shield innocent Kenyans,” he added.

Source : Christian Post

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