At least two gorillas at the San Diego Zoo have tested positive for COVID-19, the zoo has announced. They arent the first animals to contract the coronavirus in this pandemic, and they probably wont … [+2291 chars]
9 Success Factors for Achieving Your Best Life – by Brian Tracy
Listen to this 9 Success Factors for Achieving Your Best Life – by Brian Tracy.
There are 9 success factors that you must know in order to start moving forward in life. Each one of these success factors has been proven to be critical in the achievement of the best life possible for any given person.
Click the link above to receive my FREE goal-setting e-book: GOALS! – http://www.briantracy.com/
The Washington National Cathedral has been Criticized for Inviting Max Lucado Because He Opposes Same-Sex Marriage
Christian Headlines reports that Washington National Cathedral received heavy criticism last week for inviting one of the nation’s most popular evangelical pastors.
The Washington National Cathedral, a prominent Episcopal church in the nation’s capital, announced Feb. 3 that author and pastor Max Lucado would be preaching the following Sunday during a virtual service. Lucado is the teaching minister at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas and the author of books that have sold more than 120 million copies and been translated into 54 languages. It was his traditional, biblical views on sexuality that caused some to oppose his appearance.
The Episcopal News Service ran a story about the controversy, reporting that his “past statements against homosexuality and same-sex marriage” had led to a “growing backlash from some Episcopalians.” Opponents pointed to a 2004 article authored by Lucado.
Episcopal News labeled Lucado’s beliefs “anti-LGBTQ views.”
More than 1,500 signed an online petition calling on the National Cathedral to rescind the invitation, saying he “has inflicted serious harm” on the LGBT community.
Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith defended the invitation. Despite the controversy, Lucado preached on Sunday.
“When we only engage with those with whom we agree on every issue, we find ourselves in a dangerous (and lonely) place,” Hollerith said. “My hope is that all churches and faith communities will find ways to open their doors to perspectives different from their own.”
Jim Naughton, a former canon for communications with the Diocese of Washington, said the cathedral was wrong to invite Lucado.
“Max Lucado does not have any problem making himself heard. He does not need the cathedral, the pulpit of Washington National Cathedral, to reach his audience,” Naughton told Episcopal News Service. “The issue is whether Washington National Cathedral wants to give its imprimatur to him and wants to extend the prestige of its pulpit. … I find it incredibly disrespectful.” Read more …
Family of Assaulted Pastor Attacked Again by Area Muslims
NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Muslim villagers on Sunday (Jan. 24) attacked the wife and children of a pastor in eastern Uganda who is still receiving hospital treatment for a previous assault, sources said.
Nearly four weeks after the assault on pastor Moses Nabwana and his wife, Lovisa Naura, in Nankodo Sub-County, Kibuku District on Dec. 27, three area Muslims broke into their home at about 4:20 a.m. on Sunday, injuring two of their children and the mother of eight who is still recovering from the prior beating, she said.
“I heard loud noises and plates being broken. The children and I woke up,” Naura told Morning Star News. “The attackers had broken the door and entered in. One started strangling me, while another threw one of my daughters outside through the window and broke the skin on her leg.”
Her brother-in-law and his family rushed over, and the Muslims fled, she said.
“The assailants left behind a Somali sword, which I think they possibly had planned to use to rape and then kill me,” she said. Read more …
SYRIA Crying Out, Please Don’t Forget Us
ACN UK – Coronavirus is causing the West to forget the people of Syria who are still in desperate need of healing after almost a decade of conflict – according to a nun who has risked her life to provide urgent aid.
Sister Annie Demerjian told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that COVID-19 had brought the country’s recovery to a halt.
She said: “Syria is like someone who has had a serious operation and he needs to heal, he needs to recover and he suddenly doesn’t have time to recover.
“The world has begun to forget about Syria and that’s painful.”
Sister Annie, a leading project partner for ACN, explained that the pandemic came just as people were beginning to piece their lives back together.
She said: “Everybody knows we are coming out of a very difficult situation, the civil war. People start breathing, the remaining Christians are beginning to stand on their feet.
“Then the pandemic came and people collapsed. It’s a big burden – no work, no jobs.”
Sister Annie stressed that the combination of the civil war, the pandemic and fresh economic sanctions against the government of Syria have left many people in abject poverty.
She said: “Life without electricity and gas is very hard and that’s because of the sanctions.
“Only every couple of hours we get one hour of electricity. That is not enough to heat a house.
“There is not enough gas to cook food.” Read more …
12-Year-Old Christian Girl in Pakistan, Chained as a Slave
The father of a 12-year-old Christian girl – kidnapped, raped, shackled hand and foot, and forced to work from dusk till dawn – has at last spoken out about her ordeal.
When police rescued Farah Shaheen from the Faisalabad house of 45-year-old Khizar Ahmed Ali (Hayat) in December 2020, she was too traumatised to speak but, bit by bit, has revealed her harrowing five-month ordeal to her father, Asif Masih.
In a statement to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Mr Masih said his daughter was attached to a chain and forced to work all day “as a slave” damaging her shackled hands and feet in the process.
Mr Masih said: “Farah has told me she was treated like a slave. She was forced to work all day, cleaning filth in a cattle yard. 24-7 she was attached to a chain.”
Condemning Mr Ahmed for forcing Farah to marry him and convert to Islam, he said: “She was sexually assaulted by her abductor and raped multiple times by [his] landlords”.
Mr Masih described his “dismay” at the alleged failure of the police, the courts and medical professionals, whom he accuses of “repeatedly letting us down” for failing to do justice for his daughter.
He said that, in spite of an official birth certificate confirming Farah was only 12 in June when she was abducted, a medical report, commissioned by the courts assessing the legitimacy of her marriage to Mr Ahmed, gave the girl’s age as between 16 and 17.
Criticising the medics, who examined Farah’s teeth, bones and genitalia, he said: “The findings of this medical report we, as a family, dismiss as an utter fabrication, a travesty of justice and an insult to the independence of the medical profession. It is an outright lie.”
He spoke out against the judiciary which – pending a court case into the legitimacy of her marriage to a man more than 30 years her senior – placed Farah in a women’s refuge rather than allowing her to go home to her family.
Mr Masih said: “It is imperative that the courts annul the marriage conducted against Farah’s will and allow her to come home.
“It is urgent that she returns to us for the good of her mental health.”
He said: “Farah needs psychological help. She was already vulnerable as she lost her mother – my wife – five years ago.
“Farah has serious symptoms of mental distress… She speaks in broken sentences and her powers of reason and decision making are seriously impaired.”
Mr Masih blasted the police for failing to act in June 2020 when he reported that Farah had been abducted and for taking three months to register the case.
He said: “When I reported to the police that Farah had been abducted, I was called ‘churrah’ which means filthy, a term of rebuke often used against Christians.
“The police refused to listen to me and it was nearly three months before a FIR [First Information Report] was opened in this case.”
Mr Masih stressed: “The police, the courts, the judiciary and the medics have repeatedly let us down.”
Reports have now emerged that the Municipal Committee Hafizabad, the city where Farah was taken after her abduction, has declared her certificate of marriage to Mr Ali to be a false document. Read more …
Built To Last – Vantage Forum 2021
Vantage Forum, is Elevation’s Church NGR business and economic outlook event for business executives and business owners
Date : Saturday, 30th of January from 9am ONLINE.
Speakers : Bismarck Rewane, CEO Financial Derivatives Company; Juliet Ehimuan, Country Director, Google West Africa; Kunle Soriyan, CEO The Olakunle Soriyan Company, Yemi Faseun, Head Human Resources, Globacom, Funke Amobi; Country Head, Chinyere Almona, CEO, Vantage Coaching & Consulting Services Human Capital, Stanbic IBTC and Godman Akinlabi, Host & Lead Pastor, The Elevation Church.
Kindly register for FREE at elevationng.org/vantageforum
Enjoy Christian MOVIES on Demand – by Christian Cinema
For twenty years, Christian Cinema, a Giving Company brand, has been on a mission to provide the widest variety of Christian films to families of faith. In that time, we transitioned through formats, starting with one VHS on January 12, 1999, to DVDs in 2001, and then to digital in 2013, when we began building out what would become the DVD replacement solution for our market.
Click here to see Christian Movies on Demand
Today, Christian Cinema is the industry leader in Digital Transactional Video on Demand which enables consumers to buy and rent movies. Christian Cinema’s world-class digital platform is integrated across seven major platforms: Apple TV, iOS, Android, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, and Fire Tablets.
Christian Cinema powers digital movies for the largest Christian retailer on the planet, Christianbook.com, and we are working with other, yet to be announced, Christian retailers and distributors around the world on their integration so that they can continue to support and carry Christian movies in a future without discs. The digital format is the path ahead for purchasing high resolution filmed content and makes the most sense for consumers, suppliers, and retailers. Read more …
You Need Be Discipline To Achieve Your Vision – by Dr Myles Munroe
To create your life, you need a vision that will impose discipline on you. You need the vision to have discipline, which causes an attraction to you. It comes from a vision which defines what you do in life. Your destiny dictates your vision, your vision, simplifies your life because you know what to do. It causes you to live intentionally. When you live intentionally you can become a leader.
To be a leader you must have self-discipline.
“Discipline is a self-imposed standard for the sake of a higher goal” says Dr Myles Munroe. As a leader, you self-impose discipline on yourself, therefore, external discipline is not necessary.
