The US signed a peace agreement with the Taliban on Saturday in an effort to end 18 years of war in Afghanistan and allow US troops to return home.

Under the terms of the agreement, the US would decrease forces to 8,600 from 13,000 in the next 3 to 4 months, The Associated Press reports. The remaining US forces would pull out within 14 months.

The complete withdrawal of troops would depend on the Taliban meeting their obligations to prevent terrorism.

The Washington Post reports the deal indicates that the Taliban will agree to enter into negotiations with the Afghan government and will not support terrorist groups that intend on attacking the West.

After the agreement is signed, the Afghan government must put together a negotiation group and move forward with a prisoner exchange.

The Taliban gave US negotiators the names of 5,000 Taliban prisoners currently detained by the Afghan government. And the soldiers announced 1,000 members of the Afghan security forces in Taliban custody would be freed in exchange.

A #Taliban member in #Doha, Shahabuddin Delawar, says it is a “happy day,” as an agreement “that will ensure the full withdrawal of foreign forces will be signed today.”

He says Afghans will live in peace. #Afghanistan #PeaceDeal#Alfath #peace #Qatar
pic.twitter.com/VXBd1NxwJS

— Badr-ul-huda Media’بدرالھدی (@Badr_ul_huda) February 29, 2020

“This is a test for the Americans,” said former senior Taliban official Abdul Salam Zaeef. “When this step is taken properly, then we’ll go to negotiations.”

A group of Republican legislators released a letter on Thursday cautioning that the Taliban has “a history of extracting concessions in exchange for false assurances.”

“They will accept nothing less than a full-scale U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Our withdrawal would allow terrorist groups in Afghanistan to grow stronger and establish safe havens from which to plot attacks against us,” the letter stated.

A peace agreement with the Taliban is a foreign policy goal for President Trump, who has promoted an end to the war.

In a White House statement on Friday, Trump called the deal “a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home.”

“Ultimately it will be up to the people of Afghanistan to work out their future. We, therefore, urge the Afghan people to seize this opportunity for peace and a new future for their country,” he added.

US representative Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar signed the agreement at a hotel in Doha, Qatar on Saturday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo witnessed the signing and called the moment “historic.”

President Trump thanked the thousands of American troops who have served in Afghanistan, adding that the agreements are a result of their grueling efforts.

“We honor your service and the sacrifices you and your families have made for the American people,” Trump said.

#DOHA 31-member #Taliban delegation has arrived in #Qatar to sign a US troop withdrawal deal that could end the war in #Afghanistan. #USA & Taliban in Afghanistan are poised to sign a #peacedeal in the presence of Secretary of State Mike #Pompeo ending the longest US war. pic.twitter.com/QxZMcx6wXZ

— Children of Peace (@ChildrenofPeace) February 29, 2020

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A Note From Daniel Whyte III: Outside of My Father Daniel Whyte Jr., the Mark Anthony White That I Remember,Who We Called Tony, Was the Most Sincere About His Christian Faith, and He is Now in That Most Beautiful Place Called Heaven and His Days of Pain and Heartache and Sickness Are All Gone. Please Pray for His 5 Children That He Left Behind

For believers who earnestly seek to commit themselves to God’s will for their lives, it indeed becomes increasingly evident that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6a). Christians and non-Christians alike have heard “faith” discussed in so many ways—in such diverse forums—that the biblical meaning has been diluted by mixing with it secular definitions that describe lesser convictions. The referenced text of Hebrews 11:6 sheds some light on the type of faith required of the committed believer.

“For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”

Sounds simple enough,doesn’t it? Basically, all you need to know is that God is a good God, right? But what about when circumstance and misfortune begin to press our souls? What about when that long-time dream is denied or deferred? It is at these times that life asks us who we really are and who do we know our Lord to be. Believing that God is, is to know in one’s heart that our heavenly Father is all that Scripture says He is. For example: it’s being totally convinced that God is good (Psalm 100:5; Nahum 1:7); God is caring (I Peter 5:7); God is righteous (Psalm 7:9; 119:137); God is all-powerful (Genesis 17:1); God is all-knowing (Isaiah 40:14); God is always with us (Jeremiah 23:23, 24; Psalm 37:25); God knows each of us personally (Matthew 10:30); God is merciful (Psalm 136); God is gracious (Psalm 116:5); God loves us (John 3:16)—just to name a relative few attributes. And further, by knowing these things, we rest in the assurance that our Lord always has our best interest at heart.

But what about those seemingly “crazy” detours that we’re forced to take? You know, those times when we are confident that we’re heading in the right direction when, out of the blue, something happens to hinder our stride. It is these times when we hold fast to that which we don’t see and wait for that which has yet to be manifested.

A look back at Hebrews 11:1 makes it clear to us that, among other things, possessing faith is essential for us to be able to walk honorably with the true, invisible God who has made us His own. This well-known verse asserts that our conviction consists of our confidence in the Lord, and that this same assurance is the proof of what we know to be true, all-be-it unseen.

But how can this be? How can we reach a point where we cease to have doubt about our ultimate well-being in any circumstance (Romans 8:28)? A good starting place would be to accept from God’s Word that, by His Spirit, He has given us faith with which to believe in Him (Romans 12:3; I Corinthians 12:7). Once we have accepted this truth, we’ll need to submit ourselves to God’s “maturity plan” for believers which consists of inconvenient and oftentimes, painful trials. The reason for this method has nothing to do with sadism, but a lot to do with the fact that our Lord, sadly, doesn’t get our undivided attention until our personal agendas are interrupted. This can sometimes mean grave disappointment which, in turn, can mean emotional hurt. But what we, as believers, can hold fast to is that all people undergo some type of hardship in their lives (I Corinthians 10:13a), but we have the benefit of these experiences resulting in wonderful blessings at key points in our lives.

So, there is a point to this after all. God communicates the stages of His process in His Word:

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:1-5).

These truths clearly steer believers from accepting the humanistic notion that events that occur in our lives are often happenstance. Indeed, occurrences in the Christian’s life, even some of those which strike us as insignificant, have meaning. These occurrences serve as both minor and major contributions to our respective developments as productive servants of the most High.

THE GAIN OF PAIN

Verse 3 of the above text alludes to the tribulations or trials that inevitably enter our lives from time to time. They appear for a myriad of reasons such as: (1) tests of our faith, (2) adversarial attacks, and (3) sin. Nevertheless, our God is able to turn these adverse situations into great advantage for His children, if we trust Him (Psalm 37:3). Such trials often bring with them difficulty and heartache, In fact, the Lord consistently impacts our sensitivities just enough to make us stop and, if we are wise, become introspective and examine ourselves for such things as priority (i.e., Who’s really number one in our lives?); purity (i.e., Are we ignoring some habitual sin in our lives?); purpose (i.e., Are we carrying out the duties that the Holy Spirit has convicted us to?).

WAITING ON THE LORD

Tribulation triggers the exercising of our patience (Romans 5:3b). A new trial not only requires the endurance capacity that we presently possess but also that which only God, and not we, know that we have. This waiting can be the hardest part, and sometimes spiritually dangerous, as we tend to steer toward carnal comforts (eg.: unhealthy relationships, compulsive self-abuse, withdrawal from fellowship). Again, there is a fruitful purpose to this. James 1:3-4 states that “the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect (complete) and entire, wanting nothing.” We see here that the trials that God allows to impact our lives, force us to begin to rely on that which is not temporary and that which we cannot lose—the Lord Himself. We become complete by attaching the placentas of our souls directly to Him by feeding on His Word and by consistently praying. Our Lord wants us to tap into a direct feed as oppose to relying on indirect and occasional transmissions of His nourishment. It is good for us to remember that God’s schedule, no doubt, is very different from our own timetable. He contemplates the entire season, while we’re entranced with but a moment of a day.

“I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13).

Romans 5:4a informs us of the result of patience. And it is that time which we can look back in our lives and be reminded of God’s faithful deliverances. It is the proof of the fact that, in Christ, we are overcomers (John 16:33); indeed, solid proof, as we are the ones who have been made victorious. In order for us to obtain this knowledge of both crutches, He disallows our spouses or other close friends from meeting our needs, no matter how well-intentioned they may be. Our favorite pastimes and hobbies often lack appeal during these times. Career goals strike us as meaningless. At the cost of our discomfort, our loving God is greatly blessing us to see what we should always see—at all times, sunshine or rain. He’s all we have. With each trial we see more and more clearly that our Lord can always be trusted.

God uses each tribulation to enhance our knowledge base so that when the next challenge comes along we have a genuine confidence, not based on some pretense of clairvoyance, but one solely based on our Father’s impeccable track record. In a nutshell, we take the sentiment expressed in a very popular spiritual:

I don’t believe

He brought me this far

To leave me

(from the song, “I Don’t Feel Noways Tired”)

EXPECTING GOD’S BEST

The Lord preserves us as we face painful ordeals, as we faithfully reside in Him. This preservation plants within us an earnest expectation (Philippians 1:20a) that all shall be well for us because we and our world are in His hands. Because He said that He would be with us, because He’s never let us down, we honour Him for His faithfulness by steadily anticipating His conclusion to the matters of our lives. Romans 5:5a states that, if we persevere, our Lord will not “leave us hanging.” We will not be fools for having trusted Him. After all, He will be to us what He is: faithful and true (Revelation 19:11). As a result, we learn to look for the good that God has for us in the midst of a desperate situation. We look for His good, and in His time, we obtain it.

THE PURPOSE OF THE PROCESS

Certainly, God walks (or carries) us through this process to develop us into what He created us to be for His glory. But there’s an additional purpose to all of this, and it typifies His loving heart. You see, God uses our refined selves to further impact this world with His love. Indeed, He uses our tribulation to give us a divinely-inspired compassion for others. Second Corinthians 1:4 describes God as the One “Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” Our Lord creates within us the ability to lovingly empathize with others. This type of caring is not limited to the “There, but for the grace of God, go I” school of thought. But it is based on unselfish motivations that incline us to seek to relieve others of burdens (Romans 12:15) that we may very well never have. It is true that God is steadily molding our natural selfish selves into more perfect servants (Philippians 1:6). You may recall that after all Job had suffered, it was after he displayed a servant’s attitude and prayed for his fickle friends, when God greatly blessed him with more than he ever had (Job 42:10). Despite his humanity, Job trusted God (Job 13:15). This is the enduring trust that takes us to a higher level and closer to His likeness.

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Talk about a very black pot calling the kettle black. But that’s exactly what happened when pro-abortion senator Elizabeth Warren challenged Mike Bloomberg on the issue of abortion. In the end, the issue was not the life of the child at all or the sanctity of the womb. Instead, the issue was, “You don’t have the right to tell me to kill my baby. That’s my choice alone.” This is as pathetic as it is absurd.

In the most recent Democratic presidential debate, Warren again claimed that she was fired for being pregnant in 1971 as a special education teacher. She then said to Bloomberg, “At least I didn’t have a boss who said to me, ‘Kill it,’ the way that Mayor Bloomberg is alleged to have said to one of his pregnant employees.”

Bloomberg, for his part denied the allegation, saying, “I never said that, and for the record, if she was a teacher in New York City, she would never have had that problem. We treated our teachers the right way, and the unions will tell you exactly that.”

As for Warren, her strategy was to draw attention to the larger issue of Bloomberg’s alleged treatment of women, adding, “People want a chance to hear from the women who have worked for Mayor Bloomberg.”

This, of course, is a valid issue. How did Bloomberg treat his female employees? What about the non-disclosure agreements? And was he really so crass as to tell a pregnant employee to kill her baby, calling the baby “it”?

The problem is that Elizabeth Warren is the last person to raise a protest about abortion.

She is a passionate supporter of a woman’s right to “kill it.” That she challenged Mayor Bloomberg in such a manner is hypocritical, to say the least.

It would have been more honest had she said, “You don’t get to tell me to kill it. That’s my choice.”

Remember. This is the same Elizabeth Warren who pledged to wear the Planned Parenthood scarf at her inauguration if elected president. (For the record, that scarf should be blood red.)

Too bad she wasn’t wearing that scarf during the debate. The irony would have been thick.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Brown

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A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has unanimously ruled that YouTube can censor conservative content, as it is not compelled by the First Amendment to allow all viewpoints.

The popular conservative YouTube channel PragerU filed a lawsuit against YouTube and Google, accusing the entities of wrongfully censoring their videos.

However, in a decision released Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit panel affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing Prager’s lawsuit against the video-sharing website.

Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown authored the panel’s opinion, arguing that despite its large-scale use and viewership, YouTube remains a private forum rather than a public forum.

“Despite YouTube’s ubiquity and its role as a publicfacing platform, it remains a private forum, not a public forum subject to judicial scrutiny under the First Amendment,” wrote McKeown.

“PragerU runs headfirst into two insurmountable barriers—the First Amendment and Supreme Court precedent. Just last year, the Court held that ‘merely hosting speech by others is not a traditional, exclusive public function and does not alone transform private entities into state actors subject to First Amendment constraints.’”

PragerU CEO Marissa Streit said in a statement released in response to the panel’s decision that they will continue to resist having their content restricted.

“As we feared, the Ninth Circuit got this one wrong, and the important issue of online censorship did not get a fair shake in court,” Streit said.

“Sadly, it appears as if even the Ninth Circuit is afraid of Goliath — Google. We’re not done fighting for free speech and we will keep pushing forward.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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A mother who spent several days posing as an 11-year-old girl online recently detailed how she and a team of investigators used cutting edge technology to expose the prevalence of child predators on the internet.

Roo Powell, whose Medium essay, titled “I’m a 37-Year-Old Mom & I Spent Seven Days Online as an 11-Year-Old Girl. Here’s What I Learned,” was written using a pseudonym and viewed over 7 million times and translated into four languages, recently detailed the extent of their investigations into the prevalence of pedophiles preying on children online.

Powell is the head of creative and leads the Special Projects Team at Bark, a tech company that uses artificial intelligence to detect grooming and sexual predation and helps parents monitor text messages, YouTube posts, emails, and other social networks their children might be using.

In a video released last Thursday, Powell explained that the abuses that occur online mostly go unreported and happen quietly. To gain greater understanding on the depth of the problem, her team created a fictional 15-year-old girl named Libby Connelly, complete with a believable back story and social media identity, and then documented how long it would take for a predator to reach out to her.

Using photo manipulation, the Bark team managed to make Powell look two decades younger and used that image as the fictional girl since they could not use a photo of an actual child. The team coordinated their efforts with law enforcement agencies at every level of government.

“Within the first hour of posting on Libby’s accounts seven adult men contacted her,” Powell explains in the video. “By the end of nine days, that number was 92.”

“The conversations ranged in severity, from making sexual comments to sharing and requesting explicit photos and videos, to manipulation and threats.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Brandon Showalter

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A coffee bar in Naples, Italy, features an altar dedicated not to the Madonna but to Maradona. As in Diego Maradona, the retired soccer player.

The owner explains: “For us, Maradona is more than a man. He’s a god. We Neapolitans love soccer and live for soccer. We can never forget what he did for us.” The altar displays what is claimed to be a strand of Maradona’s hair inside a rotating, transparent box.

Maradona led Napoli to its only two Italian league titles in 1987 and 1990, plus the 1989 UEFA Cup. Since Napoli had never won anything significant before his arrival, he was treated as a savior. “We saw with our own eyes the miracles he created,” the bar owner claims.

Down the street from the bar, you can find a figurine of Maradona for sale alongside figures of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. The city’s soccer stadium is revered as well. A former player notes, “In Naples, football is like a religion, and the Stadio San Paolo is the church. . . . Sometimes, football feels like it is the only thing that matters.”

The lure of transactional religion

One of Bob Dylan’s songs says, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody / Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord / But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”

We were created by God for relationship with him. As a result, every culture known to history has worshiped something or someone. When I lead study tours to Israel, we always stop at Megiddo and look out over the valley of Armageddon. Then we note the nearby Canaanite altar that dates to 2,700 BC.

If we do not worship and serve the one true King, we will worship and serve pretenders to his throne. It might be a star athlete, a celebrity musician or actor, a politician, or a wealthy business leader.

But when we worship someone other than God, we’re really worshiping ourselves.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Jim Denison

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