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Georgia Church Sends Over 5 Tons of Oreos to US Troops Serving Overseas

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(Photo: Nelson Wilkinson / Patriotic Sunday)

Christian Post Report – The congregation of Alpharetta First United Methodist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia donated 5.4 tons of Oreos for troops serving overseas in June of 2015.

A church in Georgia has recently collected over five tons of Oreos, which were shipped overseas to members of the United States Armed Forces.

Alpharetta First United Methodist Church collected 5.6 tons of the beloved cookies in an annual charitable endeavor called “Operation Oreo.”

Beth Allain, spokeswoman for Alpharetta UMC, told The Christian Post about the process undergirding Operation Oreo.

“We collect the Oreos during the month of June and conclude Operation Oreo at the patriotic Sunday worship service that is held on the Sunday before July 4. Immediately following that service, we pack up the Oreos,” said Allain.

“The next couple of days we receive cookie donations collected by fellow United Methodist churches in the North Georgia Conference of the UMC. And by that Wednesday, the cookies are sent to the post office. We have already gotten thank you notes and photos of soldiers who received the Oreos this year.”

Allain explained that Operation Oreo began in 2009, directing CP to a letter written by senior pastor Don Martin in that year.

(Photo: Reuters/Lucy Pemoni)

Members of the 25th Infantry Division bow their heads in prayer during a deployment ceremony at Schofield Barracks, near Wahiawa, Hawaii, July 7, 2006. About 7,000 troops from Schofield will be leaving Hawaii in the next few weeks and will be deployed to Iraq. This continues the largest deployment of Hawaii-based troops since the Vietnam War.

In the letter, Martin recalled a plane trip he had in February of that year wherein he sat next to a young soldier who served in Iraq whose primary mission was defusing bombs.

“‘What did you miss most while you were in Iraq?’ I asked. ‘Oreos, Double Stuf!!!’ was his quick reply,” wrote Martin.

“I told him that I was the senior pastor of the finest Methodist church in all of Christendom and that I would see that ‘Oreos galore’ would be sent to Iraq.”

Allain told CP about the scale of the annual Operation Oreo, how in 2010 they gathered 2,000 packages of Oreos and by 2013 it had spiked to over 6,000.

“Because the cookies come in so many different sized containers, we stopped counting by the package in 2014. By then Operation Oreo had turned into a community — not just church — outreach project, and the packages were just too many to count,” explained Allain.

“We set our goal that year [2014] at 2 tons, but we collected 3.7 tons of the cookies. Our goal this year was 4 tons, and we collected 5.6 tons.”

Alpharetta UMC engages in community outreach for Operation Oreo in several ways, including social media, contacting business and community leaders, putting ads in local papers, and with signs outside their church building.

Operation Oreo has caught the attention of many, with donations coming from several entities, noted the local media news site northfulton.com.

“Congregations at Chamblee, Roswell, North Springs, Mt. Pisgah, Bethelview, Cannon and Simpsonwood United Methodist Churches collected hundreds of packages each,” reported the site.

“In addition, members of Boy Scouts Troop 69 and Cub Scout Pack 459 donated cookies and wrote thank you notes. A note was attached to nearly every package of Oreos sent.”

Operation Oreo is not the only way that Alpharetta UMC helps the troops. According to Allain, the church also supports the Alpharetta Old Soldiers Day Parade and has a ministry centered on helping returning soldiers find civilian employment.

Source : Christian Post

Luis Palau on His Bucket List: I Want to Preach to ‘a Million Chinese in Tiananmen Square’ (Interview Part 1)

Church and Ministry

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(Photo: Luis Palau Association)

Christian Post Report – Evangelist Luis Palau is seen in this 2004 file photo.

NEW YORK — Luis Palau, who started his missionary career in 1962, has traveled the world preaching the Gospel to millions. Yet, the 80-year-old Argentinian evangelist says there are still a few special locales remaining on his bucket list of places to bring the Good News.

Palau, who recently preached to an estimated 60,000 people in New York City’s famous Central Park, has “personally shared the Gospel with more than 30 million people through evangelistic events in more than 75 nations, and hundreds of millions more through radio and television,” according to his self-named ministry, The Luis Palau Association.

In the first of a two-part interview with The Christian Post, Palau comments on his most recent campaign, NY CityFest-CityServe, which brought together 1,700 local churches to assist their communities and schools through service projects. He also shares what he has learned by working with the NYC Latino evangelical community and lists some of the top places around the world where he would still like to preach.

The interview was conducted on Saturday, July 11, before Palau was to deliver his main message on stage at NY CityFest in Central Park. The transcript has been edited for clarity, and the questions re-worded for better context.

(Photo: The Luis Palau Association)

Evangelist Luis Palau speaks on stage on the Great Lawn at Central Park on July 11, 2015, in New York City.

CP: What is the NY CityFest Central Park event about?

Palau: Today (Saturday, July 11) is a climax of sorts of a certain wave but it will carry on. This now will go on, God willing, for many years. The cooperation is growing among churches. The number of churches, I think, is growing. Some, the minority churches, the Latinos particularly, but others also, have always felt a little isolated. I think now they feel more integrated, properly so. I think there’s going to be in the future more working together. I hope the Latinos, senior people who have authority over congregations or denominations, that they will see that this is an opportunity to lead the Body of Christ, the Church, forward.

Some that I thought have a reputation in town, but have not involved themselves, I think have forfeited the authority over some … many, many currents of the evangelical movement and they’ve forfeited their authority and they’ll never recuperate it.

Many of the pastors who are small church pastors, the vast majority have to work two jobs, they’re bi-vocational. I honor them for that. I just bow before these fellows, who with their families have two jobs: pastoring a church and working for a cash-living. I honor their faithfulness and the spouse’s faithfulness. So we learned it by accident. We wanted to have a meeting at 10 a.m. and none of the churches appeared, only a few hot shots who had a secretary and an assistant, you know. Then we realized, they’re working that’s why.

Those Latino fellows, and there are others, too, I think that these guys are gonna be leaders in the future. And not the long-term future. I was exhorting some of them right on the platform: “It’s your chance to bless the Body and lead the Body of Christ.” Because the Body of Christ needs leadership, not authoritative or from the top down, but just moral, spiritual, motivational, in the Holy Spirit. … Motivate God’s people to witness and to serve and do it in fellowship. That was the prayer of the Lord Jesus.

I’ve been speaking in a lot in the churches the last two years and one of my main themes is John 17: Father, may they be one so that the world may believe that you sent me. So (Jesus’) great passion was that “the world may believe that they sent me.” How is that done? By uniting the Body. How do you unite the Body? By being filled with the indwelling Christ, because He says, “Father, you in me and I in them so that we may be perfectly one.”

What makes us one is not the form of baptism or that we have male or female pastors or secondary issues, but it’s Christ in us. That gives us the motivation to love. Anyway, long sermon there. But it’s true, it’s important. And I think the leadership of the evangelical movement of New York is gonna change hands. It was in hands that refused to use the authority that God gave them and now I think you’re gonna see Latinos, Jamaicans, Koreans — I was excited to be in a Korean church where they really tried to bring in Latinos, and they did, quite a bit. They have to keep working on it, because there are cultural things and so on.

CP: What is going to happen when you pack up and leave NYC?

Palau: Well, I hope people will be relieved (laughs). I think what will happen is now they’ll really get going. So I think that they will get going to what we’ve been talking about, keep doing more of the same, keep multiplying the unity. I sure hope they follow, and I think every intention is that. I hope that those who kinda sat on the sidelines because they’re too busy will come to realize that the Scripture urges us to be one, and act like one and push like one.

CP: I read a report on you from a couple of years ago that said you had a dream about preaching in New York …

Palau: Not a dream-dream, just in my heart, you know. When Billy Graham had his crusade here in 1957 at the old Madison Square Garden, I got bulletins. They put out a bulletin everyday. It was three months at the old Madison Square Garden, every night. And they put out a bulletin of conversions and what they were gonna do this week, and da-da-da. A missionary’s kid who was studying in Toronto came down to help that summer and he mailed it to me. Every two or three days he’d put it in an envelope, and I read it and I thought, “Someday I’m gonna preach in New York.”

That was the dream … a vision, a desire, you know. Because New York is like Buenos Aires, very big, kind of pretends to be self-sufficient. I think since 9/11 a bit of that has been chopped off, you know, a little less chip on the shoulder kind of thing. But New York and Buenos Aries are alike that way.

CP: Would you say that today is the fulfillment of that dream or big desire?

Palau: Well, yes. Now, evangelists you know, if you give them 60,000, they want 120,000, give them 120,000 they want 250,000, so you have that. We could have had more if the police hadn’t put the barrier around you know. I’m not blaming the police, they’re doing what the law demands. If we had a free place, there could have been 300,000, 400,000 people easily. But still, who doesn’t rejoice to see a crowd like this one, cheering the Lord, worshipping and standing for so many hours. But the Holy Spirit is at work in New York. … There’s a great hunger in New York. There is spiritual hunger …

CP: You are 80 years old, you’ve preached in countless countries before millions of people. What’s next for you?

Palau: I’d like to go to Cuba. You know, we’re working on that because I couldn’t go in the past for various reasons. I dream of having a large campaign in Paris, France. And of course, number one in my book, is Beijing, China. We have been going in and out of China now for 15 years and we’re still waiting for the day that the Lord might open the door. … I want to have a million Chinese in Tiananmen Square. That’s what I want to do, that’s my dream for the future.

Email this CP reporter at nicola.menzie(at)christianpost.com | Follow this CP reporter on Twitter.

Source : Christian Post

Pastor Facing 12 Years in Prison for Building a Church Gets 15-Day Release After Family Pays Iran $40K

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(Photo: Present Truth Ministries)

Christian Post Report – Pastor Behnam Irani smiling in this undated photo.

Pastor Behnam Irani, who’s been held in an Iranian prison since 2011 because of his Christian ministry work, has received a temporary release and is now visiting with his wife and children at home for the first time in more than four years.

Irani, a 43-year-old former Muslim who is now an evangelical Christian leader in the Islamic Republic, was originally sentenced to serve six years in prison for reportedly forming an evangelical congregation in the city of Karaj.

But in September of last year, Irani was accused of 18 new charges, including “spreading corruption on Earth,” which is punishable by execution.

Irani was subsequently sentenced to serve an additional six years in prison — 12 in total — after being convicted of committing crimes against Iranian national security, which is a charge often used to imprison Christian leaders who set up house churches in Iran.

Present Truth Ministries, a ministry dedicated to supporting the persecuted church in the Middle East and has continuously campaigned for Irani’s release, reported last Friday that Irani was granted a 15-day release on July 4 after his family posted a $40,000 bond.

In order to pay the bond, Irani’s mother pledged her own home as collateral. She will get the full rights to her property back if Irani returns to prison on the scheduled date of July 19.

Irani is now home visiting with his wife, Kristina, an Armenian Christian, and their two children.

“We are so grateful he was able to get back home to be with his family even for this short period of time,” the Present Truth Ministries report stated. “It is the first time they are together at home in four and a half years.”

In June of last year, Irani went missing for over three weeks and many feared that he was secretly executed. However, he was later returned to the prison and not allowed to say where he was taken or what was done to him.

“He was missing since June 7, 2014, without any information being given to his family regarding his whereabouts,” Present Truth Ministries reported at the time. “The fear was that he was taken and executed without notice.”

The news of Irani’s release comes as Iran and six world powers came to an agreement Monday on a deal that many conservative opponents say could eventually lead to the Islamic Republic gaining access to nuclear weapons. Opponents have been adamant that such a deal should have required Iran’s release of imprisoned American pastor Saeed Abedini, Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and other wrongfully imprisoned Americans.

Although it is unlikely the Obama administration secured the Americans’ release, it was reported last week that imprisoned Iranian pastor Farshid Fathi, who has been imprisoned since 2010 for his ministry work, had been granted an early release date.

Fathi, who was scheduled to be released in 2017, will be released on Dec. 10.

Source : Christian Post

‘Duck Dynasty’ Star John Luke and Mary Kate Robertson Share ‘Dream’ Honeymoon Photos From Australia

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(Photo: Instagram/MaryKateRob)

“Duck Dynasty” star John Luke Robertson and his wife, Mary Kate, traveled to Australia and Indonesia for their honeymoon following their wedding on June 27, 20Christian Post Report – 15.

(Photo: Instagram/MaryKateRob)

“Duck Dynasty” star John Luke Robertson and his wife Mary Kate, traveled to Australia and Indonesia for their honeymoon following their wedding on June 27, 20Christian Post Report – 15.

(Photo: Instagram/MaryKateRob)

“Duck Dynasty” star John Luke Robertson and his wife, Mary Kate, traveled to Australia and Indonesia for their honeymoon following their wedding on June 27, 20Christian Post Report – 15.

(Photo: Instagram/Marykaterob)

“Duck Dynasty” star John Luke Robertson married his fiancee, Mary Kate McEacharn, in a country style wedding on June 27, 20Christian Post Report – 15.

“Duck Dynasty” star John Luke Robertson and his wife, Mary Kate, made their way back to Louisiana this week to begin their new lives as a married couple, following a two-week jaunt across Australia and Indonesia.

The couple, who are both Christian Post Report – 19, tied the knot on the Robertson family farm in West Monroe on June 27 before jetting off Down Under for their honeymoon. They recently shared several stunning photos of their romantic getaway on Instagram and Mary Kate said on Sunday that while the trip was a “dream,” she and her new husband are excited to return home to start their new lives together.

“These past two weeks were an absolute dream! But happy to be heading back to Louisiana,” she captioned alongside a beach photo of her and John Luke.

During their two-week adventure, the couple enjoyed jet skiing, snorkeling, swimming with exotic creatures and most importantly, bonding over their Christian faith. In one particularly photo shared over the weekend, Mary Kate wrote about God’s “goodness” while sharing a photo of a healthy breakfast and a crystal blue ocean.

“Talks about our awesome Creator over breakfast. … God continues to just completely amaze me by His goodness and by not only the way He creates beautiful things, but how He also creates us to see things as beautiful!” she wrote.

The couple’s discussions about faith may have been inspired by Robertson’s uncle, Alan, who advised them to “have the same mindset as Jesus” in their relationship just days before their country style wedding.

“In your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,” Alan, known as the “beardless brother” on A&E’s “Duck Dynasty,” wrote in an email to The Christian Post earlier this month.

The advice was given to the couple during their wedding rehearsal dinner on July 26 and Alan, a retired pastor of White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ in West Monroe, quoted scripture (Philippians 2:3-5).

“My advice is to be honest with each other and always be prepared to forgive offenses because there will always be plenty of opportunities for that,” he said.

“If a couple can live out the challenge Paul made to the Philippian church in Philippians 2:3-5, they will do well. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.”

The Robertsons wed before a group of 800 in an outdoor ceremony at the family farm and John Luke’s father, Willie, officiated the wedding.

“I had an amazing time!” Robertson told Us magazine in a statement, with his new bride adding via Instagram “Thank you to everyone for the love and support and thank you to God for the absolutely perfect weather.”

John Luke also explained why he and his young bride chose Australia for their honeymoon destination.

“We’re going to the Outback! I’m a groomsmen in a wedding on the Fourth of July in Australia. It’s a crazy story how I met this guy but we ended up becoming best friends and he’s from Australia,” he said.

“His visa expired so he had to move back. He got engaged a week after I did, and so I called him to tell him about my engagement and he told me about his and he wanted me to be in his wedding. So we’re kind of killing two birds with one stone.”

Source : Christian Post

No, There Are No Muslim Spies in Your Churches, Says ‘Ex-Muslim’ Pastor Naeem Fazal

Church and Ministry

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(Photo: Courtesy of Randy Baranosky/Mosaix 2013)

Christian Post Report – Naeem Fazal speaks at the Mosaix 2013 conference held at Grace Brethren Church in Long Beach, Calif., Nov. 6, 2013.

After outspoken Jewish Author Avi Lipkin told a prominent evangelical gathering last month that “all” churches have Muslim spies cataloging Christians for the day Jihad is called on America, one former Muslim who is now a Christian pastor says Lipkin’s claim is nothing more than a fear-driven “conspiracy theory.”

Lipkin, who is an Israeli citizen and frequent critic of Islam, tours American Christian churches and issues dire warnings about the jihadi threats the religion presents to the world. In mid-June, Lipkin, who has authored seven books, spoke at the the Skyline Wesleyan Church’s Future Conference in San Diego, hosted by the church’s pastor, Jim Garlow, where he explained that his wife works eight hours a day listening to Arabic hardline radio, internet and TV feeds for the Israeli government.

“My wife has picked up broadcasts that say all the churches in America have Muslim spies in them, including former Christians who converted to Islam,” Lipkin proclaimed on June 15. “When Muslims come to you and say, ‘Oh yes, we have accepted Christ and we are born-again,’ you gotta be real careful because lying in Arabic is not only permissible it is commanded. Lying is a virtue in Islam to defeat the enemy.”

In a follow up interview with The Christian Post, Lipkin did not back down from his claim that there are Muslim spies in churches, except to say that it is unlikely that Muslim spies have infiltrated small congregations located on “back-hill” countrysides.

“I am talking more about the megachurches and the big churches that the Muslims are interested in monitoring.” Lipkin explained. “That is where you are going to find Muslim spies.”

Naeem Fazal, the pastor of Mosaic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and author of the book Ex-Muslim, grew up in Kuwait as a Muslim but has been involved in the evangelical Christian community for over 20 years. Fazal told CP that he believes Lipkin’s “Muslim spies” claim is “not true at all.”

“Because I don’t know him, I don’t know where he is coming from but it seems to me that he is motivated either by fear or trying to create awareness in the Christian community with fear. It is a fear-based statement,” Fazal said. “I don’t see that to be true at all. The claims are pretty out there, in terms of the ideology that he is presenting that Muslims believe. It is hard to find that in the Quran itself.”

Fazal further explained that most churches tend to notice when individuals of different cultures attend their services.

“For so many churches, especially evangelical churches, they are so tuned in to who is coming in through the doors that if they see some semi-Muslim or a different culture, they are so excited,” Fazal said. “They are going to be in their lives and going to make sure that happens. So, I think people are aware. Now again, you have megachurches. Now, do they know all among the tens of thousands that come? I don’t know. But again, I think it is a conspiracy theory.”

Fazal explained that he was even once accused by a woman who attended his church of being a Muslim sleeper cell.

“She tells me that for six months she believed that I was a sleeper, exactly what [Lipkin said],” Fazal explained. “I wanted to laugh out loud. That was the first time that I had ever heard something like that, but I knew that she was very seriously convinced. I knew that she was repenting. I didn’t even know how to comfort her. I thought it was so absurd that I felt sorry for her.”

“How much fear do you have to live under, the amount of fear and anxiety in life you are carrying is counter to the message of Christianity,” Fazal continued. “You are supposed to be the most bold and courageous and faith-filled. That’s what the Christian message is, but instead you are here for six months carrying this burden that I am a sleeper cell guy.”

Although Fazal said it is “absurd” for the congregant to believe he was a sleeper cell or for Lipkin to boldly assert that churches have been infiltrated by Muslim spies, he knows that there are many Christians who actually believe such claims are true.

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Source : Christian Post

Imprisoned Christian Asia Bibi May Not Avoid Death Even If Acquitted by Pakistan’s High Court

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(Photo: Adrees Latif/Reuters)

Christian Post Report – The daughters of Asia Bibi posed with an image of their mother outside their residence in Sheikhupura, located in Pakistan’s Punjab Province.

Pakistan’s first woman on death roll, Asia Bibi, whose struggle with the country’s highly criticized blasphemy laws, may not be able to truly escape the death sentence even if she’s acquitted of her “crime.”

Bibi’s husband, Ashiq Masih, recently told U.K.-based Daily Mail that his 50-year-old wife, who has been imprisoned for six years for allegedly blaspheming Islam by drinking out of a Muslim’s bowl, is on the local Muslim clerics’ hit list and a bounty has been placed on her head. Masih said his family is “broken” over what has happened to Bibi and believe she is framed.

“My children cry for their mother, they are broken. But I try to give them hope where I can,” said Masih to Daily Mail.

Masih plans to petition Pakistan’s Supreme Court to acquit Bibi of her alleged crime later this month but said even if she’s freed, the family will never return to their home for fear of violence against them from local Muslims.

“The Maulvis (clerics) want her dead,” said Masih. “They have announced a prize of Rs 10,000 to Rs 500,000 ($98 to $4915 USD) for anyone who kills Asia. They have even declared that if the court acquits her they will ensure the death sentence stands.”

Masih hopes that if Bibi is acquitted, the family can seek asylum in a country where they will be safe.

Recent reports indicate that Bibi’s health has greatly deteriorated while in prison. According to a report from The Global Dispatch, Bibi’s family was permitted to visit her in May and noticed that she is “so weak that she can hardly walk.”

She is reportedly suffering from intestinal bleeding and has been in dire need of medical attention. Her lawyers are working to ensure that these issues are addressed and are attempting to move her to a prison in Lahore, which is closer to her relatives, according to a family source.

“When vomiting there is also shown traces of blood. Asia has difficulty feeding properly, while constant pain in the chest,” The Global Dispatch quoted the unnamed family source as saying. “Therefore it is necessary that Asia Bibi be submitted as soon as possible [for] a full medical checkup, including blood work.”

Bibi’s imprisonment has even attracted the attention of Pope Francis.

The pontiff met with Bibi’s family at the Vatican in April, and was urged to speak to Pakistan’s government for her release. They met with the pope after his Wednesday General Audience.

“We are here in Italy to make sure we can be the voice of an innocent woman who has been suffering in jail for six years,” Catholic News Agency quoted Masih as saying after the brief meeting with the pontiff. “Since the day Asia Bibi was arrested, our family is totally destroyed. The children cannot survive without their mother. Asia Bibi misses her children, the children miss her.”

Christian groups such as the British Pakistani Christian Association have spoken out against the treatment of Bibi. The group’s president, Wilson Chowdhry, encouraged Christians in the West to contact their government officials and urge them to pressure the Pakistani government to either move up Bibi’s Supreme Court hearing or release her.

“If Asia Bibi is prevented her opportunity to exonerate her name, it will be viewed as a great travesty of justice and a blight on the reputation of the supposedly democratic nation of Pakistan,” said Chowdhry. “I urge people in the west to challenge their country’s leaders to intervene on behalf of Asia and directly email the Prime Minister President of Pakistan, calling for them to expedite her Supreme Court hearing and to ensure she gets adequate treatment for her current poor health.”

Bibi was imprisoned under Pakistan’s much-condemned blasphemy laws, which have been widely reported to be abused by Pakistani Muslims for personal revenge against local Christians. These laws have been protested by human rights groups around the world, which seek to have them abolished.

Pakistan’s former Governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer and former Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, the first and only Christian to hold a cabinet position in Pakistan, spoke out against the treatment of Bibi and called for reform of the blasphemy laws. However, sadly, both anti-blasphemy law activists were assassinated for defending Bibi and their advocacy for reform.

In recent months, the sectarian violence in Pakistan seems to be getting worse, with 100 Pakistani Christians in March arrested, tortured and beaten after they were blamed for allegedly lynching two Muslim men who they believed were involved in church bombings.

International Christian Concern, a leading Christian persecution watchdog and advocacy group, spoke out against the beatings at a press conference shortly after the mass arrests.

“They were telling us that they were beaten to a pulp,” said ICC President Jeff King to The Christian Post at the time. “A lot of times, what they are saying is that they get beaten to a pulp and get left on their doorstep in a bloody mess, and the whole point was to extract confessions.”

King also said the Christians who were arrested had nothing to do with the lynchings.

“We would seek for justice for those Muslim families but arbitrary arrests and detention are not the way to get justice,” said King. “They only serve further flames of injustice and hatred. Frankly, it is a mark of a Banana republic and an incompetent police force.”

Source : Christian Post

ISIS Plotting Attack on Christian Sites in Europe Using Female Jihadists Disguised as Tourists, Says Syrian Expert

World News

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(Photo: Reuters/Jesus Blasco de Avellaneda)

Christian Post Report – Masked Spanish police officers lead a detained woman in Melilla, December 16, 2014. Spanish and Moroccan police have arrested seven people in a ongoing joint swoop on suspected efforts to recruit women to go to Syria and Iraq to support Islamic State insurgents, the Spanish Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

Terror group ISIS is planning to send members of an all-female police force to attack Christian holy sites in Europe, a Syrian military expert has said, identifying the Vatican as one possible target of the attacks.

Fahad Al-Masri, the president of the Centre for Strategy, Military and Security Studies in Syria, shared with the MailOnline on Monday that members of the infamous Al-Khansaa Brigade are planning to disguise themselves as tourists in Europe so that they can carry out the attacks.

“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,” Al-Masri said.

“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.”

The female police force is known for patrolling Syrian cities with AK47s, and punishing women who break the rules and regulations enforced by ISIS in the regions it has captured.

Al-Khansaa has carried out violent punishments, and in February reportedly poured acid on 15 Iraqi women who were caught without their faces being fully veiled. The women are now permanently disfigured.

“They have implemented this punishment so that other women in the city will never consider removing or not wearing the niqab,” said Saed Mamuzini, an official from the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Mosul.

The brigade is made up of a number of foreigners as well; at least 60 British women are believed to have joined the unit in Iraq and Syria.

Al-Masri, who has also served as a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army rebel group, which is battling both ISIS and the government of President Bashar Al-Assad, said that his sources on ISIS have told him the operations in Europe might target major sites like the Vatican.

“The next operations for ISIS in Europe will be against Christians. … In the Middle East, it’s mainly been Sunni against Shiite Muslims, but now ISIS wants to create a conflict between Christians and Muslims,” he added.

“That means ISIS will try and attack Christian symbols in Europe — like the Vatican, for example.”

The inspector general of the Vatican’s police force confirmed back in March that the Islamic militants have made threats against Pope Francis, but was not aware of a specific plan of attack.

“The threat exists. This is what has emerged from my conversations with Italian and foreign colleagues,” said Domenico Giani, inspector general of the Corpo della Gendarmeria, Vatican City’s state police force.

Source : Christian Post

Western Leaders and Iran Reach Historic Nuclear Deal; Obama Says Iran Will Not Obtain Nuclear Weapons

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(Photo: Reuters/Joe Klamar/Pool)

Christian Post Report – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammon, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz (L to R) pose for a group picture at the United Nations building in Vienna, Austria, July 14, 2015. Iran and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal on Tuesday, capping more than a decade of on-off negotiations with an agreement that could potentially transform the Middle East, and which Israel called an “historic surrender.”

Several Western world leaders and the government of Iran have reached a historic deal which is set to limit Iranian nuclear activist in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. President Barack Obama and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani have both praised the deal, calling it a “new chapter.”

“Today after two years of negotiation the United States together with the international community has achieved something that decades of animosity has not: a comprehensive long-term deal with Iran that will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Obama said on Tuesday morning from the White House.

Obama added that “every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off” for Iran.

Rouhani also addressed Iranians in a live message on Tuesday, CNN reported, where he said:

“Negotiators have reached a good agreement and I announce to our people that our prayers have come true.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who attended the final negotiation session, described the deal as “a historic moment.”

(Photo: Reuters/Leonhard Foeger)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attends a plenary session at the United Nations building in Vienna, Austria, July 14, 2015. Iran and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal on Tuesday, capping more than a decade of on-off negotiations with an agreement that could potentially transform the Middle East, and which Israel called an “historic surrender.”

“We are reaching an agreement that is not perfect for anybody, but it is what we could accomplish, and it is an important achievement for all of us. Today could have been the end of hope on this issue. But now we are starting a new chapter of hope,” Zarif said.

Western leaders have said that the deal is the best way to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power, while Iran has been pressuring for years the intentional community to lift restrictive sanctions that have weighed on its economy.

Negotiations on a possible deal began back in 2006, BBC News noted, and involved the countries of Iran, US, UK, France, China, Russia, and Germany.

A number of previously agreed upon deadlines for the deal passed without a final agreement, the last one on June 30th.

Several persecution watchdog groups, such as the American Center for Law and Justice, had warned, however, that a deal should not be finalized until Iran proves that it is willing to improve its poor record on human rights, especially with its imprisonment of Christians.

On Tuesday Obama argued that the deal “makes the world safer and more secure,” adding that it provides for a rigorous verification regime.

“This deal is not built on trust – it is built on verification,” the American president said.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini added that deal was “a sign of hope for the entire world.”

“It is a decision that can open the way to a new chapter in international relations,” Mogherini said.

The specific details behind the deal have not yet been released to the public, but other world leaders, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have slammed the negotiations.

“From the initial reports we can already conclude that this agreement is a historic mistake for the world,” Netanyahu said Tuesday. “Far-reaching concessions have been made in all areas that were supposed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons capability.”

Source : Christian Post

Jesus, Our Rock

Opinion

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Christian Post Report – Malachi 3:6

People will sometimes say, “The only constant is change.” Fortunately, this is not true. There is One who never changes: Jesus Christ always remains the same. What a comforting truth! But it’s hard to find refuge in someone we don’t know well. So let’s explore the Lord’s actions to learn more about His nature.

(Photo: In Touch Ministries)

Dr. Charles F. Stanley (File).

• Jesus forgave others. He showed mercy, not judgment, to those who recognized their sin. For example, Jesus had compassion on the woman caught in adultery and stopped her death penalty with a few wise words. Then, instead of pronouncing condemnation, He said that her sins were forgiven (John 8:1-11).

• Jesus comforted the hurting. He visited Mary and Martha, who were mourning the loss of their brother Lazarus (John 11:1-45).

• Jesus provided for needs. After spending three days healing all kinds of disabilities, He was concerned that the large crowd hadn’t eaten. He could have sent all 4,000 away to find their own food, but He provided more than enough to satisfy their hunger (Mark 8:1-9).

• Jesus interceded for His disciples. Just before He was crucified, He asked the Father to protect and sanctify His followers, which includes you and me (John 17:15, 17, 19-20).

• Jesus strengthened believers and gave them power to do God’s work. In Acts 1:8, the Lord sent His disciples out to share the gospel, assuring them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”

Jesus still forgives, still comforts, still provides, still intercedes, and still empowers. What a blessing that we can find refuge in our amazing Lord!

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

Source : Christian Post

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