Topic: He Doesn’t Diminish [Thursday, 12th October, 2017] If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2:13
Ever been at a place where a person you look up to spiritually slips in a seemingly small issue. Or you may know someone who has been at that place. It is really devastating. It’s so bad for some people that they go as far as quitting Christianity and moving on. It’s like a huge betrayal from someone you so much trusted to “sin”. Two questions arise. Firstly, why do we get so devastated, and sometimes go as far as stop been a believing in Christ? Secondly, does it mean God is not God and was not able to change the sinful nature of this person? Firstly, the reason we get so devastated is because we focus so much on this person and make them the reason for our faith. But as scripture point over and again, faith is only through Christ, and there is no faith outside of Him. (Acts 3:16, Romans 10:17). When our faith is based on man, and not on Christ, it is so easily wavered that we are tossed to and fro by these turbulences. That is why in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, Paul noted that he made sure that the people’s faith were not based on man, but on God. And also we are admonished in Hebrews 12:2 to look up to Jesus, the “author and finisher of our faith.”
Secondly, that a man slips and falls does not make God any less God. That a man called of God to preach the gospel commits gross injustice against his fellow man does not mean God does not have the power to change a man. Now, it is trite and established that God’s actions does not conform to man’s actions, neither does He repent of a decision He’s made because a man failed. Scriptures say: “and also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.” (1 Samuel 15:29). And don’t forget, He is all knowing, and He knew that man would fail. It’s all a pointer to the truth that the only one you should look up to is God. And like our anchor scripture says, if we believe or not, He will not deny Himself. He will not be any less God. So look up to Jesus today, and base your faith solely on Him, for unlike man, He never fails nor disappoints.
Keep winning daily. Prayer:
Dear Father, thank You for access to Your truth. Help me to rest my faith on You and not on any man, in Jesus’ Name. Amen. By Esun Tekeme
Christians attending an Evangelical Alliance conference. Increased diversity, and the erosion of near-monopolies of religion by institutional denominations, is good news for forms of religion that lay a large stress on personal choice and decision.
It’s 5.30pm on a Sunday in central Dublin. Just off O’Connell Street, tourists in T-shirts tramp past yet another of Dublin’s fine old churches without giving it a second glance. A typical scene that seems to embody the post-Christian secularity of our capital city.
Then you step inside that old church building, and your perceptions are transformed. Every one of the dark wooden pews is crammed to capacity. The balcony is overflowing. On one side of the ornate pulpit a 50-voice choir – images being projected onto a huge screen at the front – is singing in beautiful harmonies.
Over 700 worshippers, all of them adults, are listening in rapt attention. Downstairs over 200 children are engrossed in Sunday school classes. It’s hard to remember that, just yards away, open-top buses are rumbling past.
You have stumbled into one of the many manifestations of a religious revolution of which tourists, and most Irish people, are completely unaware even though it is taking place right under our noses.
This congregation is just one of dozens of Romanian Evangelical and Pentecostal churches that meet across Ireland. Some are small, but others are fast outgrowing any venue that they can rent. Recently another Romanian church, to the west of the city, was granted planning permission to construct a building to seat over 1,000 worshippers each week.
And it’s not just Romanians that are meeting in this way. The Redeemed Christian Church of God, a denomination founded in Nigeria, has over 100 congregations in the Irish Republic.
You can add to that the many Filipino churches, Indian churches, Brazilian churches, Russian-speaking churches, Korean churches, Chinese churches and hundreds of other congregations that cater predominantly to the “new Irish”.
Click here to read more.
SOURCE: The Irish Times Nick Park is executive director of Evangelical Alliance Ireland. He is also pastor of the Solid Rock Church in Drogheda, Co Louth, a congregation comprising worshippers of over 40 nationalities.
Topic: Pursue The Knowledge Of God — Thursday October 12, 2017.
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:” (Ephesians 1:17 KJV)
All power belongs to God. I am not just talking of spiritual power. Economic power, political power or whatever power you can think of, it all belongs to God. Occult power is not power. All these little gods that are all over the place on the continents of Africa, Asia etc. making noise are powerless. Power belongs to God. And the bible says that the gospel we preach is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. That’s why you shouldn’t just assume you know all about this God, simply because you went to church yesterday. Do you know that preaching a good sermon and getting people saved does not mean that the preacher knows God? I hear some people say they go to the university to study God. How dare you think you can study God? You can’t study God! God is a revelation! You know him, when you follow on to know. And the good thing is that the more you know him, the more you know the power you carry. That’s the truth. That is why it is very important that you know God for yourself. When God says we should know and live for him, he’s not trying to prove a point, it is for our benefit. No wonder Paul declares towards the end of his ministry, in spite of everything he had achieved, that his greatest desire is that he may know him, the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering and to be made conformable to his death (Phil. 3:10).
If you are going to amount to anything in these last days, you must understand this God by knowing him. When you know God, then you will know the power you carry. When you know God, you will know that you are not an ordinary person, you are more than a conqueror. You can do all things through Christ that strengthens you. Greater is he that is in you than he than he that is in the world. You are a new creation, old things are passed away, and all things are become new.
Further Reading: Philippians 3:1-14, Ephesians 1:15-22
Written by Dr. Mike Okonkwo; Is the Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM); a versatile man of God with over 30 years of dedicated service unto the Lord.
Roy Moore is just one of the types of candidates the Republican Party needs. (Marvin Gentry / Reuters )
It is time to flush the toilet in Washington, D.C., and I am so glad that Steve Bannon has decided to declare “war” on the Republican establishment.
For decades, these globalists have told us what we want to hear during election season, but then once they take office they betray us over and over again. It is time to hold Republican members of Congress responsible for betraying the base, and I am so thankful Bannon is organizing anti-establishment candidates into a cohesive movement. We are going to challenge Republican incumbents all over the nation in 2018, and we are going to win over and over again.
Just look at what happened in Alabama. The Republican establishment spent more than $30 million against Roy Moore, and we still won by a very wide margin.
Now we are going to take that template and repeat it all over the country. During an interview with Sean Hannity on Monday, Steve Bannon boldly declared that his forces are going after every Republican senator who is up for reelection in 2018, except for Ted Cruz.
On Monday’s edition of “Hannity,” Breitbart executive chairman and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon talked about his plan to challenge every Republican senator up for reelection in 2018 in the primary, except Sen. Ted Cruz. Bannon said Republican incumbents have committed “economic hate crimes” against the “forgotten man.”
Bannon said he is declaring “war” on the Republican establishment, and those who don’t back what President Trump ran on. He said there is a “new game in town” and promised to “cut off the oxygen” to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and stop his fundraising for establishment candidates. Bannon said any person running for the Senate in 2018 who wants his support must oppose McConnell as the Republican leader.
On Monday’s edition of “Hannity,” Breitbart executive chairman and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon talked about his plan to challenge every Republican Senator up for re-election in 2018 in the primary, except Sen. Ted Cruz. Bannon said Republican incumbents have committed “economic hate crimes” against the “forgotten man.”
Bannon said he is declaring “war” on the Republican establishment and those that don’t back what President Trump ran on. He said there is a “new game in town” and promised to “cut off the oxygen” to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and stop his fundraising for establishment candidates. Bannon said any person running for the Senate in 2018 that wants his support must oppose McConnell as the Republican Leader.
HANNITY: Is this a fair statement: Is Steve Bannon declaring war on the establishment that are not for the working men and women in this country?
BANNON: 100 percent. We are declaring war on the Republican establishment that does not back the agenda that Donald Trump ran on and the president of the United States, and that’s the agenda we know that backs the working men and women …
Karl Rove, Steven Law, these guys should get the joke. Their donors are coming to us because they are tired of having their money burned up by trying to destroy people like Judge Moore. It’s a new game in town. We are to cut off the oxygen to Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell’s biggest asset is the money. We’re going to make it the biggest liability. We’re going after these guys tooth and nail.
This is music to my ears, because my campaign has already been trying to promote anti-establishment candidates here in Idaho and around the nation. But obviously we need coordination at a national level, and Steve Bannon can do that.
And the environment is right for this kind of movement. The Republicans in Congress have an approval rating that is so small that you can barely see it with a microscope, and the base is sick and tired of these so-called “conservatives” governing like Democrats. The following comes from Rush Limbaugh:
“Some people make an argument that there really isn’t a Republican Party left. I mean, there are people who call themselves that, and they go out and raise money, and they raise a lot,” he said. “But whereas the party used to be known for one, two or three very serious things, they’re not anymore,” he said. “When the Republican Party joins the Democratic Party on things like amnesty for illegal immigrants—that’s not the Republican Party.”
Of course, 2018 is just another stage in the war. In order to boot all of the globalists out, it is going to take an extended period of time. In fact, Steve Bannon says that he is ready to go to battle for the next 20 years.
To take your country back—it’s not going to happen in any just one election. This is something you’re going to have to grind out day in and day out for the next five, 10, 15, 20 years.
It took us a long time to get here. There’s no magic wand we can wave and drain the swamp. There’s no magic wand we can wave and blow up this establishment. I hate to tell people, but you’re going to have to work.
But you know what? The grit, determination and courage of the American working men and women—we are going to win.
If you are sick and tired of the Republicans in Congress getting nothing done, then I hope you will join this fight.
Very few members of Congress are actively fighting for the things the conservative base truly wants, and it is time to hold them accountable. Next spring, Republican primaries will be held all over the nation, and the truth is that only a small percentage of the population actually votes in primaries.
If we get active and get mobilized, we can fundamentally transform Republican politics in this country. If you live in Idaho, I would encourage you to get involved in my campaign, and if not, I would encourage you to help the anti-establishment candidates in your particular state.
We are sick and tired of politics as usual, and the status quo is simply not good enough anymore.
Let me leave you with one final quote from Steve Bannon: “Nobody is safe. We are coming after all of them and we’re going to win.”
Michael Snyderis a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book, titled Living a Life That Really Matters, is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.
Michael Snyderis a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.
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Topic: His Authority and Power — Thursday October 12, 2017. Text: Luke 11:14-28
Key Verse: “And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered”(Luke 11:14).
One of the great rewards that God has bestowed upon our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for His suffering on the Cross is that at the name of Jesus, every other name should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, as all power has been given unto Him in heaven and in earth. Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, opened blind eyes, cleansed lepers and freed sinners from the bondage and consequences of sin during His earthly ministry. Here in our text, a dumb victim of Satan had been freed and the devil cast out of him by Jesus. As the dumb spake, hostile and misguided unbelieving elements attributed the healing to the power of Beelzebub which they said Jesus used. The Scriptures make it clear that unpardonable sin consisted in the denial of God’s power through the Holy Spirit in the healing process. And worse still is to attribute such miraculous healing and deliverance to Satan.
How can Satan cast out Satan and thus divide his house and ultimately cause its fall? There is a power stronger than Satan’s: the power in the name and blood of Jesus. Are you one of the doubters of the power of Jesus to heal, deliver and free the vilest of sinners from the consequences of sin? You can be free today only if you can believe, acknowledge your sins, confess them and accept the Lord Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour.
Every believer needs a profound, yet sublime, revelation of that Name to be able to appropriate the fullness of God’s blessings therefrom.
Thought for the day: In Christ alone lies the fullness of God’s redeeming glory.
Bible Reading in one Year: 2 Kings 1-2
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
Prayer-Not Social Media-is What More People Turn to in Crisis, Study Finds
A recent study found that more people are inclined to turn to prayer when making a difficult decision than they are to turn to social media.
ChristianToday.com reports that the study, conducted by ComRes, found that, when facing a difficult decision, the majority of people will consult friends and family (77 percent), over half will turn to the internet to search for answers (51 percent), six percent say they turn to prayer, and only four percent look to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Although only a small percentage say they turn to prayer when making a difficult decision, researchers say it is significant that more will turn to prayer than social media.
Professor Stephen Bullivant, director of the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, said: “More people are likely to pray about something than they are to consult social media. That is across the board. There is a lot of research already pointing to how religious London is, and reflecting this, the proportion who choose prayer in London is eight per cent, compared to one per cent in the North East. Given the amount of time people spend on social media, and the amount of attention it gets, the fact that people are more likely to ask God for help in making difficult decisions than Facebook is really interesting.”
Ruth Gledhill, a leading religion journalist and the outgoing editor of Christian Today, added, “I think these findings represent both a challenge and opportunity for the churches. The opportunity is in the clear pre-eminence of friends and family as sources of wisdom when making difficult decisions, even in today’s online world. The challenge is for the local vicar to become seen as one of those friends that we turn to.”
(Photo: Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch)Plastic statuettes of 16th-century Protestant reformer Martin Luther, which are part of the art installation “Martin Luther – I’m standing here” by German artist Ottmar Hoerl, are pictured in the main square in Wittenberg, eastern Germany, August 11, 2010.
The Presbyterian Historical Society is overseeing a study tour in celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation by traveling to cities in Germany and Switzerland that were key to the religious movement’s development.
Organized by the Presbyterian Historical Society, which serves as the National Archives of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Presbyterian Foundation, the study tour began on Tuesday and will continue through Sunday, Oct. 15.
“The tour is designed to guide participants along the footsteps of the leaders who sparked the Protestant Reformation and to explore the circumstances that led Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin and other reformers to call the Roman Catholic Church’s practices into question,” noted PCUSA in a press release.
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(Photo: Presbyterian Historical Society)The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania headquarters for the Presbyterian Historical Society, which is the National Archives of Presbyterian Church (USA).
“Participants will also examine how the consequences of the Reformation movement — be they positive or negative — have led to the state of Reformed churches today and contemplate what it means to be reformed now and in future generations.”
Cities on the agenda include: Augsburg, Berne, Erfurt, Geneva, Leipzig, Lindau, Rothenburg, Wildhaus, Wittenberg, and Zurich.
“The study sessions will also include conversations with the Rev. Odair Mateus, director of faith and order commission of the World Council of Churches; the Rev. Serge Fornerod, Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches’ director of external relations; the Rev. Margit Ernst, theologian and World Communion of Reformed Churches, General Council theological coordinator; and Francoise Demole, honorary president of the International Museum of the Reformation Foundation,” the PCUSA adds.
The study tour isn’t the only event that the Presbyterian Historical Society is overseeing in honor of the Reformation’s 500th birthday. Later this month, the society will hold an open house featuring Reformation-era books.
Scheduled for Oct. 20, the open house at their Philadelphia headquarters will feature various items from different eras, including “Reformation-era rare books featured in celebration of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses.”
For Reformation Sunday, which this year falls on Oct. 29, the Presbyterian Historical Society is also providing free bulletin inserts with information about Martin Luther and his German translation of the Bible.
“It took Luther and a team of fellow scholars 12 years to translate the Old Testament, which was printed in 1534 together with Luther’s New Testament,” noted the insert.
“Despite criticism for the way he valued certain books of the Bible over others and for editing passages to fit his own theology, Luther’s Bible was an immediate and lasting success; one Wittenberg publisher alone printed 100,000 copies between 1534 and 1574.”
(PHOTO: HERESMYHEART)The Christians are bravely sharing their testimony about freedom from homosexuality in the documentary
Today’s culture tells people who are homosexual there is no other way and there is no ‘cure,’ but Christians who were once LGBTQ have a different story to tell. And they’re telling it in a new documentary.
Men and women who once embraced gay relationships and transgender identities share how their lives and their sense of self completely changed after coming to meet Jesus.
Just some of the ex-LGBTQ Christians sharing their story in the upcoming ‘Here’s My Heart’ documentary are Brooklyn Wojo, who identified as lesbian aged 12 and transgender at the age of 18, before meeting Christ and being born again.
Kaya Brown, 22, was homosexual for 10 years and struggled with gender confusion during that time until she had a powerful encounter with Jesus on her grandmother’s living room sofa.
Ieacha Lusk was a lesbian for 19 years and homeless for 12 years before God removed her desire for another woman in 2015.
Casual gay sex, drinking and clubbing were all the norm for Davon Johnson before starting his own spiritual quest into his sexual identity and landing at the feet of Jesus. Today he is a minister and husband.
Joshua Buchanan spent his high school years feeling confused about his sexual identity before fully embracing the homosexual lifestyle at community college. He tried drugs, partying and homosexual relationships before hitting rock bottom in 2009 when he was diagnosed with HIV. That’s when he started going to church and met God in a magnificent way before fully accepting Christ into his life at an altar call. His identify was never the same again and he went on to graduate from Heritage Bible College with a degree in Worship & Music.
The documentary is being put together by MJ Nixon, author of The Journey Back Home and a member of the Refuge Ranch Atlanta deliverance ministry.
She’s not documenting these powerful stories as an outside observer; rather she herself also struggled with same gender attraction before experiencing a fundamental change in her heart after meeting Jesus.
‘The Lord started showing me all these people that I knew in the different groups and communities that I’ve been a part of in the last six years since I’ve been saved,’ she told The Activist Mommy.
‘All these men and women who have powerful testimonies of only the power of God being able to set them free from being transgender, being bisexual, being homosexual.’
She has so many hopes for her documentary. One of them is, of course, to give a witness to the power of Christ.
But that’s not all, though; she also wants to ‘equip the body of Christ on how to minister more respectfully to the LGBT community.’
And importantly, she wants the documentary to minister to those within the church who deny that homosexuality is a sin.
‘What I have found is that one of the hardest groups to reach is the Christians who believe it is OK to live this lifestyle and love Jesus,’ she said.
‘I look at Romans 1:26 I cannot deny that this is unnatural. No matter how much I try to justify it, it’s unnatural. When God showed me the truth of His Word, it set me free. And I couldn’t look at it and say ‘no God, I wanna live the way I wanna live.’
Russian businessman and investor, Dmitry Rybolovyev, did own one of the most expensive art collections ever. But a huge divorce settlement between him and his wife Elena Rybolovyev is one of the reasons he has decided to sell the panting.
The artwork, Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World), is the last Leonardo Da Vinci in private hands and will go on sale in Christie’s auction house in New York next month. It shows a typical Renaissance portrayal of Jesus from that period of him as a white man with long hair. Dmitry Rybolovyev bought it for $127.5 million.
The painting was created for Louis XII of France in the 16th century and belonged to Charles I in 1649, the year he was executed.
However, in 1958 it was bought for £45 as the artist was unknown. Its authenticity wasn’t discovered until 2011.
More than one person has died after an incident involving a vehicle and stabbings in the London Bridge area of the capital, police have said.
Armed police responded to reports of a van hitting pedestrians on the bridge in central London.
The Met Police said officers were also at Borough Market nearby where they were responding to reports of stabbings.
The force said they were also attending a reported incident in Vauxhall.
Downing Street said Prime Minister Theresa May, who has been campaigning in the general election, was returning to Downing Street to receive further briefings from security officials.
Transport for London said London bridge has been closed in both directions due to a “major police incident”.
Bus routes were being diverted and the neighbouring Southwark Bridge has also been shut, it added.
TfL said there were further closures in Borough High Street, where armed police were later seen. On the north side of the river, Lower Thames Street was closed.
BBC reporter Holly Jones, who was on London bridge, said the van was driven by a man and was “probably travelling at about 50 miles an hour”.
“He swerved right round me and then hit about five or six people. He hit about two people in front of me and then three behind,” Ms Jones told the BBC News Channel.
Five or six people were being treated for injuries after the vehicle mounted the pavement and hit them, she said.
“I’d say there are about four severely injured people. They all have paramedics assisting them at the moment.”
She said the van, which was travelling from the direction of central London, headed towards the south side of the river.
Ms Jones later reported seeing a man being arrested by police. She said he was handcuffed and had his shirt off.
She said a French woman was among the injured. She had told said she did not know where two people who had been with her were.
London Ambulance Service tweeted: “Multiple resources attending an incident at #LondonBridge, please avoid the area”.
Speaking to the Press Association, Will Orton described being in a pub in the area and seeing people coming running inside.
“We didn’t really know what was going on,” he said.
“We thought maybe there was a fight or something outside. And then there were almost hundreds of people coming inside.
“The bouncers did a really good job, they shut the doors and locked everyone in. There was panic – it seemed like it was literally outside the door. People were coming inside and saying they had witnessed people being stabbed.”
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