NewSpring Pastor Perry Noble Reveals He Was ‘Racist,’ Used N-Word ‘Recreationally;’ Now Condemns Confederate Flag

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NewSpring Pastor Perry Noble Reveals He Was ‘Racist,’ Used N-Word ‘Recreationally;’ Now Condemns Confederate Flag

Perry Noble (Photo: Facebook; Reuters)

Christian Post Report – Megachurch pastor Perry Noble (L). The Confederate battle flag is permanently removed from the South Carolina statehouse grounds during a ceremony in Columbia, South Carolina, July, 10, 2015 (R).

Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring Church in South Carolina, revealed last Friday that he used to be a “racist” and spouted the n-word “recreationally” with his family until he found Jesus.

Perry made the revelation in a blog post in which he explains why he believes removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Capitol grounds after 54 years was the right thing to do.

“I was not born in the South, but, by the grace of God my parents got me here when I was 4 years old by moving our family from Los Angeles to Easley. I was introduced to sweet tea, biscuits and gravy and fat back— and knew this was the greatest place in the world,” said Perry.

“I was also a racist. My grandparents used ‘the n word’ recreationally. In fact, most white people I knew did —and so I did too. I did not see black people as individual people with real hearts, real souls, real feelings and who really mattered to God — I saw them as a group of people who were different than me, thus allowing me to place them in a category and dismiss them as unimportant,” said Perry.

“But … something happened in me in 1990 that would begin to change (and is still changing) the way I see people — I prayed to receive Christ in my life, which truly is the catalyst for the changing of my heart and mind on the issue of the Confederate flag,” continued the megachurch pastor.

The Christian Post reached out to Swift Monday for comment in light of Noble’s recent confession that he used the n-word recreationally in the past but a response was still pending at the time this story was published.

The Confederate flag which has been decried as a symbol of hate was removed last Friday morning after a deep-seated fight over its use was reignited by the massacre of nine black members of the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston last month.

And Perry, in celebration, tweeted: “Thankful that the leaders in our state did the right thing — it is a major step toward reconciliation!”

The NewSpring pastor, who was once a staunch defender of the Confederate flag, said he used to defend it for historical reasons.

“In 2000 there was a major battle in the state to remove the flag from flying over the capital — and I had very strong opinions in regards to the fact I thought the ‘stars and bars’ should continue to fly. I used the ‘heritage, not hate’ argument and claimed it was a part of the history of our nation, and that the memory of what happened needed to be preserved,” he noted.

Now, he explains, he’s changed his stance on the Confederate flag because he began to “develop and value friendships with people who are black” and he took a hard look at “the harsh reality of the Civil War.”

“White people don’t see it (Confederate flag) as that big of a deal — but a white man has never cried the tears of a black man. We don’t know the struggle of being considered a minority, we do not know the pain of having derogatory names screamed at us by passing cars, nor do we have to fear if someone sees a group of us standing around then it is automatically assumed we are involved in some sort of illegal activity,” said Noble.

“Romans 14:13 clearly tells me that if there is something that causes my brother or sister to stumble, then I should take steps to remove it,” he continued.

“Like it or not, the Confederate flag is a major stumbling block that has prevented white people and black people from being able to sit at the same table for too long,” he said.

“… For those who stand in support of the flag let me take a second to ask you, honestly, how is your heart? How do you view other people who have a different skin color than you? Have you ever really thought about how human trafficking and the Civil War go hand in hand?” he asked.

“I know there are some who will disagree, which is your right as an American (not a Confederate)! However, I am celebrating this decision in our state — I do so publicly and unapologetically and pray that people can set aside decades of a sinful, racist filter through which they viewed life and understand that the Gospel actually brings us together — not drives us apart.”

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

Source : Christian Post

Daily Mail Report : ISIS plotting female jihad on Christian sites

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Daily Mail Report : ISIS plotting female jihad on Christian sites

ISIS is planning to send members of its feared all-female police force to attack religious sites in Europe, a Syrian expert claims.

The terror group will send at least ten members of the ruthless Al-Khansaa Brigade to target ‘Christian symbols’, possibly in suicide bomb attacks, the president of the Centre for Strategy, Military and Security Studies in Syria told MailOnline. 

As many as 60 British women are thought to be members of the brigade and they are paid around £100 a month.

The militants patrol the city with AK47s, mercilessly beat women who step out of line and even force some into becoming sex slaves.

Threat: ISIS plans to send women from its all-female ‘Gestapo’, the Al-Khansaa Brigade, to attack religious sites in Europe

Rare images of the female militants show them covered head-to-toe in black burkas but they will enter Europe dressed as tourists so they do not draw attention, according to Fahad Al-Masri.

Before taking up his current role, Al-Masri was a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group who battled both ISIS and government of President Bashar Al-Assad during the country’s civil war.

He has appeared on international TV stations like Sky News Arabia where he aggressively urged all foreign jihadists to ‘get out of Syria’ in a 2013 interview. He was fired by the FSA shortly after the interview because the group said he did not represent its views.

Citing his sources inside ISIS-held territory in Syria, who cannot be named for safety reasons, Al-Masri said: ‘This is the first time women will be used in these operations. It will be a surprise for the European authorities who look for men.

‘Women are not as difficult as men to sneak into countries and there are many European women in the Al-Khansaa Brigade – like French and British – which makes it easier for them to get in undetected.

‘We don’t think the women will be wearing a hijab or burka – so they do not stand out. They will be normal like everybody, as if they are tourists.’

Among the dozens of British women who have joined the brigade is Aqsa Mahmood from Glasgow, who is thought to have reached a senior position in its ranks.

The three Bethnal Green schoolgirls who joined ISIS – two of whom have since been married off to militants – were also feared to have joined the brigade.

Covert: Its fanatical members (file photo) will enter Europe dressed as tourists, the president of the Centre for Strategy, Military and Security Studies in Syria told MailOnline

Covert: Its fanatical members (file photo) will enter Europe dressed as tourists, the president of the Centre for Strategy, Military and Security Studies in Syria told MailOnline

Fanatics: It was feared that Amira Abase (left), Kadiza Sultana (centre) and Shamima Begum (right) had joined the fearsome Al-Khansaa Brigade

Fanatics: It was feared that Amira Abase (left), Kadiza Sultana (centre) and Shamima Begum (right) had joined the fearsome Al-Khansaa Brigade

Some experts believe the Sunni extremists have targeted Shi’ite Muslims in Iraq and Syria to spark a sectarian war between the two sects of Islam.

After analysing the information his secret sources have given him, Al-Masri says ISIS may be trying to do the same against the West.

He said: ‘The next operations for ISIS in Europe will be against Christians… In the Middle East, it’s mainly been Sunni against Shi’ite Muslims, but now ISIS wants to create a conflict between Christians and Muslims.

‘That means ISIS will try and attack Christian symbols in Europe – like the Vatican for example.’

European nations are not the only ones in danger. ISIS also plans to send the female fanatics to attack African nations and Arab countries like UAE, Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey also, Al-Masri’s sources told him.

ISIS wants to create a conflict between Christians and Muslims… That means ISIS will try and attack Christian symbols in Europe – like the Vatican for example
Fahad Al-Masri, president of the Centre for Strategy, Military and Security Studies

But security analysts told MailOnline the claims are ‘far-fetched’ because intelligence agencies are tracking both male and female jihadis, security is very high in European countries following recent terror attacks such as the one in Tunisia and there is no evidence of the male-dominated terror group ever using women to carry out attacks.

Raffaello Pantucci from counter-terrorism think-tank RUSI told said: ‘These women would have the same difficulties as anyone else trying to launch an attack.

‘Who would you send? You would have to send someone you know had not been noticed by security services before – because they know women as well as men are traveling so they’re watching out for both.

‘You would have to sneak past a very high level of security and in some countries that might be doable but if you try and get into a country like the UK, it would be incredibly difficult.

‘Why would such a chauvinist society send women back to carry out attacks? There is no evidence of them every using women before so there’s no reason for them to start now.’

In May, MailOnline uncovered ISIS marriage certificates that suggested the jihadi group would begin to use women to carry out suicide attacks.

Written in Arabic and signed by both husband and wife, the document stated the final decision over her life – and death – rested with ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

Under ‘conditions of wife’ it said: ‘If the Prince of believers [Baghdadi] consents to her carrying out a suicide mission, then her husband should not prohibit her.’

Bethnal Green schoolgirls reportedly identified in Syria

Heartless: The ruthless women (file photo) patrol Raqqa with AK47s, mercilessly beat women who step out of line and even force some into becoming sex slaves

It confirmed Islamic State were forcing women to the battle-front to replace the countless male fighters being slain in bloody battles across Iraq and Syria, counter-terrorism experts told MailOnline.

In raqqa, ISIS’s de facto capital, Al-Khansaa women operate undercover, mingling into crowds to listen out for dissent and they run brothels where kidnapped girls are expected to ‘satisfy’ fighters returning from battle, according to Channel 4 documentary, ‘Escape From ISIS‘.

Abducted women and girls are supposedly taken to Raqqa and imprisoned as sex slaves. Some of those who miraculously escaped claimed they were made to sleep with hundreds of different fighters in just a few weeks.

A former Al-Khansaa enforcer, Umm Abaid, told the filmmakers how she led a normal life until ISIS stormed into Raqqa and imposed its strict interpretation of Sharia law.

She said: ‘I went to school, to coffee shops… but slowly, slowly my husband [a Saudi Arabian ISIS fighter killed in a suicide bomb attack] convinced me about Islamic State and its ideas. I joined the brigade and was responsible for enforcing the clothing regulations.

‘Anyone who broke the rules, we would lash. Then we would take her male guardian, her brother, father or husband, and lash him, too.

Agreement: A wedding document discovered in May (pictured), which states a husband can not stop his wife going on suicide missions, suggested ISIS would start using women to carry out their depraved attacks

Agreement: A wedding document discovered in May (pictured), which states a husband can not stop his wife going on suicide missions, suggested ISIS would start using women to carry out their depraved attacks …    Read more 

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Robert Jeffress Accuses Liberal Churches of Harboring Illegal Immigrants; Dr. Richard Land Says Churches Should Welcome Needy People

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Robert Jeffress Accuses Liberal Churches of Harboring Illegal Immigrants; Dr. Richard Land Says Churches Should Welcome Needy People

Pastor Robert Jeffress (Photo: Courtesy of First Baptist Dallas)

Christian Post Report – Pastor Robert Jeffress inside the sanctuary at First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.

Dallas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress said in a recent interview that liberal churches sometimes harbor illegal immigrants who might be a danger to society, but added that his First Baptist church does not check the immigration status of people who come visit. Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, said that churches should offer needy people food and shelter and show them mercy.

Jeffress said on “Fox and Friends Weekend” this Sunday that liberal churches that harbor illegal immigrants claim to be following the example of Jesus, but are making a mistake.

“The only problem is they are following the Jesus of their imagination, rather than the Jesus of the Bible,” Jeffress asserted.

“Jesus was not this wimpy little guy who walked around munching sunflower seeds and saying nice things to people. The real Jesus of the Bible said: ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.’ That is — obey the government,” the pastor added.

“And I believe that the real Jesus is just as concerned about the horrific death of Kate Steinle and now this 3 year old that was burned alive by an illegal immigrant. He is just as concerned about them as he is about the poverty and plight of immigrants.”

Steinle, 32, was shot dead by an illegal immigrant on June 30 in San Fransisco, with the suspect being deported five times and holding seven felony convictions prior to the murder.

In a separate incident last week, another illegal immigrant was accused of killing his teen girlfriend and their 3-year-old son in Washington state, Tri-City Herald reported.

Jeffress was speaking about statistics which show that churches in 23 states and Washington D.C. offer sanctuary for illegal immigrants.

“We’re not going to check the immigration status of people who attend our church, but we’re also not going to harbor illegal immigrants who are criminals like some of these churches are doing,” the pastor said.

Dr. Land, who is also the executive editor of The Christian Post, was asked by Fox if churches have a responsibility to turn over illegal immigrants.

“If someone kills my wife, I have an obligation as a Christian to forgive that person. I have a right to expect the civil magistrate to execute that person when they are found guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt,” he responded.

“I don’t think we should be aiding and abetting criminals, of course not, but when people show up and they’re hungry, and they’re thirsty, and they need shelter, the cross of Christ says ‘this is a place where you’re going to get a cup of cold water, where you’re going to get some shelter, where you’re going to get some hot food,” Land continued.

“And it’s not our job to be asking for green cards before we extend the mercy of Christ.”

The illegal immigration debate is set to be one of the major issues on the table in the upcoming 2016 presidential elections.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recently changed her position and said that she will back a path to “full and equal citizenship” for illegal immigrants, and accused Republicans of treating illegals as “second class.”

“This is where I differ with everybody on the Republican side. Make no mistake, not a single Republican … is clearly and consistently supporting a path to citizenship. Not one,” Clinton said during a campaign stop in Nevada in May. “When they talk about legal status, that is code for second-class status.”

Source : Christian Post

Pastor Tony Clark Says God Sends ‘Storms of Correction’ in Believers’ Lives as He Preaches at Harvest Church

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Pastor Tony Clark Says God Sends ‘Storms of Correction’ in Believers’ Lives as He Preaches at Harvest Church

TonyClark Screenshot

Christian Post Report – Pastor Tony Clark preaching at Harvest Church

Pastor Tony Clark from Virginia delivered a sermon at California’s Harvest megachurch on Sunday, sharing two reasons why Jesus allows storms in believers’ lives. How Christians come through those storms determines how they worship God, he said.

There are two main reasons why God allows storms in believers’ lives, Clark, pastor of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia, told the congregation after Harvest pastor Greg Laurie introduced him to his congregation.

There are “storms of correction,” Clark shared, using the example of Jonah from the Old Testament.

Jonah knows this storm, the pastor said. God asked him to go and preach to the Ninevites, who were known to be cruel people, he added, explaining that Jonah perhaps didn’t want God to forgive such people.

In today’s context, it could be something like God asking a Christian to go to the Islamic State terror group in Syria and Iraq to preach the Gospel, Clark said.

Jonah got into a boat and started in a different direction, and “God sent a storm of correction,” he told the congregation.

A good thing about a storm of correction is that God creates a “fish” to swallow us and then spit us out on the land where we were supposed to go from the start, the pastor explained.

There are also “storms of protection,” the pastor said, defining it as a storm that God allows “to blow into our lives to protect us from something that would harm us spiritually.”

Clark read Matthew 14:22, 23: “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone.”

He asked why did God urge His disciples to get into a boat and go away immediately after feeding 5,000 men? “What was so urgent?”

He read John 6:14-15, which states, “After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, ‘Surely, this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.”

While the people who were fed were trying to give Jesus a position by force that He already had, His disciples were arguing who is the greatest among them, Clark pointed out. This is why Jesus thought they must go away immediately, he explained.

Sometimes the Lord has to make us do something we should do, the pastor said. The fact that Jesus had to urge them strongly implies they were not willing to go. Perhaps they didn’t want to go without Jesus. But Jesus was trying to teach them that He is there with them even when physically absent.

“Jesus made time to pray, to commune with the Father,” Clark said.

When the evening came, Jesus prayed alone, he added. “Can you pray when it’s the evening time in your life?” the pastor asked the congregation, and said we don’t have to pray only when the sun shines.

“Storms can occur in our lives suddenly, especially at a time of success and victory,” he warned. The storm came after Jesus fed multitudes and the disciples argued over who is the greatest among them, he pointed out.

The disciples were in the storm for about nine hours, which must have felt like eternity to them, Clark said, adding that Jesus finally came. “Remember that Jesus is going to come to you in your storm.”

Clark read verse 26: “When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear.”

Tears and fears can cause us to miss seeing Jesus come, the pastor reminded the congregation. We should also understand that God uses people to comfort us, the pastor said, explaining that sometimes we dismiss the people He sends, failing to recognize that God has sent them.

During the storm, Peter asked Jesus to command him to walk on the water. Peter believed that God enables when He asks us to do something, Clark said. But when he took his eyes off Jesus, looking at the waves, he started to sink. We also sink in hopelessness, desperation and sorrow when we take our eyes off Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, the pastor told the listeners.

When Peter said, “Lord, save me,” Jesus immediately caught him and rebuked him lovingly.

Sometimes, we doubt if God can do it for us, Clark said. That’s doubting His willingness and not His ability, he explained. But Jesus would say to us, “I’m willing; be clean.” He is able to make you clean, the pastor stated.

Clark then read verse 33: “Then those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.'”

This should be our attitude also as we come out of a storm, the pastor said. How we come though a storm determines how we worship Him, he added.

God allows storms to correct us, perfect us and protect us, Clark said, adding that God does it not because He is angry, but “because He loves you.”

Source : Christian Post

Iraqi Christians Join Muslim Forces in Last Stand Against ISIS to Liberate Iraq

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Iraqi Christians Join Muslim Forces in Last Stand Against ISIS to Liberate Iraq

Iraqi Christians (Photo: Reuters/Stringer)

Christian Post Report – Iraqi Christians volunteers, who have joined Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilization), allied with Iraqi forces against the Islamic State, take part in a training at a military camp in Baghdad, July 1, 2015.

Close to a thousand Iraqi Christians who say they have been abandoned by their government have formed a militia to avenge ISIS taking their land and slaughtering their families. The Christians have said they will fight alongside their “Muslim brothers” who have also suffered at the hands of the terror group.

Rayan Al-Kildani of the Babylonian Brigades, the Christian militia group part of the Shiite-dominated militias organization known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, told NBC News that ISIS “displaced us from our houses, they took our money, killed our young men and women and they took our properties.”

“By the will of God we will avenge what happened to our community,” Al-Kildani vowed, and said that the Christian fighters will help Muslims who are also standing up to ISIS.

“ISIS terrorists do not differentiate among Christians, Muslims, Sunnis and Shiites — they kill everyone,” he added. “We have to help our Muslim brothers liberate Iraq.”

ISIS has driven out hundreds of thousands of Christians from their ancient homes across Iraq and Syria, including almost 200,000 Assyrian Christians from the Nineveh plans, the NGO Reach Initiative said.

Iraqi Christians have said they feel abandoned by the central government, and argued that the treatment they are suffering now is a culmination of over a decade of violent persecution of Christians in Iraq.

“We don’t want to leave the country that we lived in all our lives, where we enjoyed life and our religion. But we need a secure place to live,” explained Batool Airyagoos, a refugee who fled Qaraqosh, the largest Christian town in Nineveh.

Government forces have clashed with ISIS fighters on a number of occasions, but entire cities with formerly large Christian communities, such as Mosul, have been captured. There, ISIS has been forcing Christians to choose between converting to their version of Islam, paying a tax, or being killed.

Athra Kado, an Assyrian Christian fighting in the militia, noted that the volunteer fighters have received little help from the government, with military training coming to a halt after the first 500 volunteers. The fighters haven’t received weapons or financial assistance from Baghdad, instead all of their funding comes from within the community or Christian groups abroad.

Back in September 2014, a Catholic priest said that Iraqi Christians were left helpless and angry at government soldiers who fled when ISIS took Mosul.

“The people are angry because the government just gave up on them. They told us that, in Mosul, where there had normally been a presence of 60,000 soldiers, after the onslaught of ISIS, in only a matter of hours, these soldiers abandoned them, laying down their weapons,” said Fr. Rami Wakim, the secretary to Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham.

Abu Yasser, a 53-year-old former Iraqi Army officer now fighting in the militias, said that it is not unusual for Christians and Muslims to fight side by side, noting that they did so in the army of former leader Saddam Hussein.

Christians have “lived for years side-by-side with our Muslim brothers,” Yasser said. “We drink from the same river and eat the same food; this goes back hundreds and thousands of years.”

He added: “In battlefield you forget who you are, to which religion you belong. … The only thing that you think of is how to defeat your enemy.”

Source : Christian Post

Tina Campbell Says the Gospel Gave Her Strength to Forgive Husband’s Infidelity

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Tina Campbell Says the Gospel Gave Her Strength to Forgive Husband’s Infidelity

Tina Campbel (Photo: AMC Networks)

Christian Post Report – Mary Mary’s Tina Campbell

Gospel music star Tina Campbell and her husband, Teddy, recently appeared on “The Boris and Nicole Show” where the Christian couple, who publicly overcame infidelity, gave marital advice to parents in their 20s who are struggling to make time for each other.

Campbell, a mother of five, told the 21 and 23 years old couple — who’ve been married for two years and have two children — that it’s equally important for them to make time for sex.

“You do what you want to do. I know when we started having children I made my children more important than my husband,” Tina shared on “The Boris and Nicole Show.” “I think it’s healthy for your children [for you] to say, ‘You sit over there and play together, eat food, make a mess. But mommy and daddy are going to go love on each other for a little while.’ You find the time and you make each other important.”

Campbell, the 41-year-old Mary Mary singer who ventured into solo territory with a new book, I Need a Day to Pray, and album It’s Personal, did more than dish marital advice on the new talk show, she also revealed how the Gospel enabled her to forgive her husband after he had an affiar.

The singer admitted she almost walked away from her Christian faith as she struggled to overcome Teddy’s infidelities.

“Initially, I lost my way, and I said ‘forget this faith thing it doesn’t work,'” Tina revealed on the Fox talk show. “I pursued vengeance and I was going to get him back and everybody back and make the world understand they should have never hurt me.”

“I crashed, I cursed, I attacked, I drank myself to sleep,” she admitted. “I was miserable.”

Her husband, however, said he made the decision to fight for their marriage

“In the moment where I did all of this to her, I was like, ‘OK, either I’m going to run, like I normally did, or I’m gonna rise up and I’m gonna stand up and be the man that I know that she needs,'” Teddy said.

Tina has been candid about her personal struggles for some time and previously said she’s willing to share her testimony, no matter how difficult, to help encourage others.

“Part of my testimony, my willingness to speak about the difficult times, comes from the joy I have in the knowledge that it was God who saved me,” she previously wrote on the Yahoo! Music Instagram page.  “I want to let those feeling as low as I once did know that if He brought me through, He will bring you through! #OnlyJesusDidIt.”

Source : Christian Post

The Living Word

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The Living Word

Christian Post Report – Hebrews 4:12-13

The Bible is the most amazing book ever written. God used human beings to record His thoughts and words in writing so that others could know Him (2 Peter 1:20-21). The One who spoke the universe into existence still speaks just as powerfully through the pages of the Bible that you hold in your hands.

  • Dr. Charles F. Stanley
    (Photo: In Touch Ministries)
    Dr. Charles F. Stanley (File).

At the moment of salvation, believers receive the Holy Spirit, and the lines of communication with the Lord are established. Then, whenever the Scriptures are read, children of God can hear His voice, and the Spirit enables them to understand and put into practice what they have heard.

The Bible is not just a good book with comforting verses but is effective, always accomplishing the purpose for which God sends it (Isaiah 55:10-11). Scripture is active and alive and “performs its work in [those] who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). The Word of God has the power to change our lives if we will believe Him and do what He says.

God uses Scripture to transform us from the inside out. His Word has the quality of a sword that cuts through our hearts and judges thoughts and intentions, delivering light to the darkness hiding in our souls. This Book tells us not only who God is, but also who we are.

Sometimes life’s concerns can deafen our “spiritual ears.” Before reading Scripture, ask God to help you hear and understand what He’s saying. As you believe and obey, your spiritual hearing will become more acute, and your time in the Word will be an intimate conversation with the Lord.

Used with permission from In Touch Ministries, Inc. © 2015
All Rights Reserved.

Source : Christian Post

US Drone Strike Kills Top ISIS Leader in Afghanistan; Islamic State Bombs Italian Consulate in Cairo

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US Drone Strike Kills Top ISIS Leader in Afghanistan; Islamic State Bombs Italian Consulate in Cairo

ISIS (Photo: Reuters/Social Media Website via Reuters TV)

Christian Post Report – An Islamic State militant holds a gun while standing behind what are said to be Ethiopian Christians in Wilayat Fazzan, in this still image from an undated video made available on a social media website on April 19, 2015. The video purportedly made by Islamic State and posted on social media sites on Sunday appeared to show militants shooting and beheading about 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya. Reuters was not able to verify the authenticity of the video but the killings resemble past violence carried out by Islamic State, an ultra-hardline group which has expanded its reach from strongholds in Iraq and Syria to conflict-ridden Libya. Libyan officials were not immediately available for comment. Ethiopia said it had not been able to verify whether the people shown in the video were its citizens.

While the Islamic State terror group claimed Saturday it was behind a powerful blast outside the Italian Consulate’s compound in downtown Cairo earlier during the day, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said a top regional leader of ISIS was killed in a U.S. drone strike.

At least one person was dead and several others were wounded after a bomb exploded in front of the Italian consulate in Cairo Saturday morning, Reuters reported.

The bomb had been placed underneath a car and was detonated remotely, according to local media. Due to the ongoing Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, there was little traffic in the area.

A few hours later, Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, circulated a statement on jihadist Twitter accounts, claiming responsibility for the explosion, according to The New York Times.

ISIS claimed “soldiers” of its Egyptian branch attacked the consulate, using with a 450-kilogram car bomb, and warned Muslims to stay away from “legitimate targets,” including “security dens.”

The explosion occurred as the Egyptian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi struggles to deal with a growing insurgency. An Egyptian terror group based in the Sinai Peninsula, which has allegedly carried out many deadly attacks in the country, announced its affiliation with ISIS last year.

Meanwhile, Afghan intelligence officials said a U.S. drone strike killed a top leader of a local ISIS affiliate, Hafeez Sayeed, along with more than 30 other terrorists in Nangarhar province near the country’s eastern border with Pakistan, according to The Associated Press.

U.S. Army Col. Brian Tribus, a spokesman for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, confirmed an airstrike was carried out in the area, but refused to confirm the death of the ISIS leader.

Earlier during the week, Afghan officials said another U.S. airstrike in the same province killed the second-highest leader of the local ISIS affiliate, identified as Gul Zaman, and six others, including a former Pakistani Taliban spokesman.

ISIS is an offshoot of al-Qaeda and wants to establish a caliphate in the Levant region and beyond. It has gained control over large swathes of territories in Syria and Iraq, and is now seeking to expand its territory.

Christians are among the top civilian targets of ISIS, which has beheaded several Christians.

In January, ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani officially recognized the wilayah (territory) of Khurasan, which is a region that includes Afghanistan, most of Pakistan and parts of neighboring countries.

In April, ISIS claimed its suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the Kabul Bank in the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 35 people and wounding more than 100.

However, the terror group controls little terrain in the region, and its territory is more notional than physical.

Source : Christian Post

After Apology for Church’s ‘Grave Sins,’ Pope Francis Dedicates Mass to Women in Paraguay

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After Apology for Church’s ‘Grave Sins,’ Pope Francis Dedicates Mass to Women in Paraguay

Pope Francis (Photo: Reuters/David Mercado)

Christian Post Report – Pope Francis looks to the side as he attends a World Meeting of Popular Movements with Bolivia’s President Evo Morales (not pictured) in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, July 9, 2015. Pope Francis on Thursday urged the downtrodden to change the world economic order, denouncing a “new colonialism” by agencies that impose austerity programs and calling for the poor to have the “sacred rights” of labor, lodging and land. In one of the longest, most passionate and sweeping speeches of his pontificate, the Argentine-born pope also asked forgiveness for the sins committed by the Roman Catholic Church in its treatment of native Americans during what he called the “so-called conquest of America.”

Pope Francis, who was in Paraguay Saturday for the last leg of his three-nation tour of Latin America, dedicated his trip’s first mass to the women of that country, days after he apologized for the “many grave sins” committed by the Catholic Church against indigenous peoples in both North and South America.

“Here I would like especially to mention you, the women, wives and mothers of Paraguay, who at great cost and sacrifice were able to lift up a country defeated, devastated and laid low by war,” the pope said as he celebrated Mass at Paraguay’s most popular shrine of Our Lady of Miracles of Caacupe on Saturday.

“You are keepers of the memory, the lifeblood of those who rebuilt the life, faith and dignity of your people,” said Francis in front of tens of thousands of people, according to Vatican Radio.

The pontiff was referring to the 19th century war against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, which killed almost the entire male Paraguayan population.

The shrine, where the mass was held, is just 25 miles from the Argentinian border. Tens of thousands of Argentinians crossed the border and gathered for the mass, waving Argentina’s flag and cheering out loud.

“Thanks for making me feel at home,” the pope responded.

In Bolivia on Thursday, Pope Francis apologized to the native peoples of the Americas for the Catholic Church’s sins during the conquest of the continents.

“I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offenses of the church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America,” he said, speaking to a group of around 5,000 social workers of the church.

“I also want for us to remember the thousands and thousands of priests who strongly opposed the logic of the sword with the power of the cross. There was sin, and it was plentiful,” he continued in his off-script remarks, according to the Independent newspaper. “But we never apologized, so I now ask for forgiveness. But where there was sin, and there was plenty of sin, there was also an abundant grace increased by the men who defended indigenous peoples.”

It was a clear departure from his predecessor Benedict XVI, who during his 2007 visited to the continent said the natives of Latin America had been “silently longing” to become Catholics before they were forcefully converted.

Pope Francis has focused on poverty and inequality during his Latin America tour.

Francis has said he wants a “Poor Church for the Poor.” And this is reflected also in his choice of countries he has visited. For example, he visited Albania and Bosnia in Europe before going to wealthier countries in the region.

Francis did not include Argentina in his South American tour, perhaps due to the forthcoming presidential election there. But he plans to travel to his native country next year.

In September, the pope will visit the United States.

Source : Christian Post

ISIS Slaughters Hundreds of Iraqis, So Much Blood It Shows Up on Satellite Imagery

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ISIS Slaughters Hundreds of Iraqis, So Much Blood It Shows Up on Satellite Imagery

ISIS (Photo: Reuters/Stringer)

Christian Post Report – A resident of Tabqa city touring the streets on a motorcycle waves an Islamist flag in celebration after Islamic State militants took over Tabqa air base, in nearby Raqqa city August 24, 2014. Islamic State militants stormed the air base in northeast Syria on Sunday, capturing most of it from government forces after days of fighting over the strategic location, a witness and a monitoring group said. Fighting raged inside the walls of the Tabqa air base, the Syrian army’s last foothold in an area otherwise controlled by IS, which has seized large areas of Syria and Iraq.

ISIS executed over 700 Iraqi soldiers in Tikrit in June of 2014 and the blood soaked ground was visible with satellite imagery.

The amazing photos were published by the Daily Mail on Thursday and shows mass execution sites which tripled the initial death toll estimated by experts. The photos helped build a case to prosecute two dozen ISIS militants implicated in the massacre, while hundreds are still at large.

Those apprehended were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court. Human rights experts were also able to identify raised earth, pointing to evidence of mass graves and earth moving equipment. Bulldozers were apparently used to cover the mass graves.

At least one witness who was able to escape confirmed to Human Rights Watch details and location of the massacre and helped provide evidence of a third mass grave.

The man, who goes by the name of Ali, was lined up with a group of ten other men that were shot with pistols. He says that somehow he was not hit, pretended to be killed, and waited for nightfall to sneak out under the cover of darkness.

Another witness told Human Rights Watch he saw the men being lined up and packed in trucks, although he is uncertain of the fate of the men he saw being taken away by ISIS fighters.

After conquering Tikrit in 2014, ISIS claimed to execute 1,700 Shi’ite members of the Army attempting to flee the militants. Soldiers were shot execution style and blood was left visible on the cement, before being tossed into mass graves.

According to an Iraqi official, eleven bodies from the execution have been recovered downstream in the Tigris River.

“Another piece of this gruesome puzzle has come into place, with many more executions now confirmed,” said Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch. “The barbarity of the Islamic State violates the law and grossly offends the conscience.”

Some of the imagery published shows large groups of men in shallow trenches being executed while their hands were tied. Executions took place next to Tikrit’s presidential palace compound, formally a residence of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

ISIS initially told the men, many who had changed into civilian clothes to avoid capture, that they would be returned home safely. Instead, they were marched into lines, robbed of their possessions and executed.

Human Rights Watch expects the full death toll to climb from the massacres as new evidence emerges and is analyzed by experts.

Last week ISIS released a video purportedly showing mass executions of dozens of men in the Roman ruins of Palmyra, Syria, an ancient city they overran in May.

Part of ISIS tactics include using mass executions to terrorize the local populace as well as making propoganda videos from them to recruit more fighters, including some from the Western world.

On Thursday, Iraqi forces were able to repel attacks from ISIS in Iraq’s Al-Anbar Provence. The Iraqi military has struggled to reclaim lost ground against ISIS.

Previously referring to ISIS as “jayvee,” Obama declared this month that the battle against them “is a long term campaign.”

Source : Christian Post

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