Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Pastor describes how Christians should be ‘salt of the earth’

Pastor describes how Christians should be ‘salt of the earth’

By Rachel Waligorski
Baptist Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--When Christians follow Jesus’ call to be salt of the earth, they need not be impressive, Kansas City native Charles J. Briscoe told a chapel audience at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“As salt, we are called not to impress, but to influence,” said Briscoe, who was honored Feb. 6 with a presidential medallion from the Missouri seminary.

Briscoe served 35 years as senior pastor of Paseo Baptist Church in Kansas City until his retirement in 2003. He now serves as urban director of PastorServe, a ministry that supports pastors in the greater Kansas City area by seeking to foster reconciliation across denominational and racial lines.

In a message from Matthew 5:13, Briscoe underscored how Christians should have a Kingdom influence on those around them, yet defer all glory to God, keeping nothing for personal glory.

“We’re not here to parade ourselves,” Briscoe said. “[As salt,] we’re here to purge, preserve and to purify. We’re to purify our culture with the Kingdom agenda.”

Briscoe encouraged believers to confront the world in spite of opposition and personal sacrifice.

“As salt, we are not to hold on, to save ourselves, to keep ourselves in a selfish way,” he said. “We are here to give ourselves away. Salt does not fulfill its purpose until it looses itself.”

While being salt in the world may be costly, Briscoe reminded Christians that it will be far more costly if they refuse to be the salt God has called them to be.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

The Almighty Dollar No More?

The Almighty Dollar No More?
By Paul Strand
CBN News

CBNNews.com - THE FEDERAL RESERVE - Recently the American dollar fell to a two-year low against the euro.

You might not think that affects you, but it may be a warning of a dollar disaster that could hit you right in your wallet.

The dollar is the symbol of the world's strongest, most respected economy.

Economic giants like China and Japan have traditionally put their massive savings into safe havens based on the dollar - like U.S. government securities.

China has the world's largest reserves -- more than $1 trillion worth.

But what if the Chinese get worried the greenback might start plunging in value? Or they can get a better deal elsewhere?

Economic consultant Morgan Grace said, "They might want to perhaps find another currency in which to place their valuable reserves."

China's premier hinted they might be thinking along those lines last month when he said they may consider diversifying away from the dollar.

And the equally cash-rich oil producing countries a couple of months back started quietly shifting some of their holdings from dollars into euros.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

Strict Abortion Bill Revisited in South Dakota

Strict Abortion Bill Revisited in South Dakota
By Joe Kafka
Associated Press Writer

CBNNews.com -- PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Lawmakers who watched as a near-total ban on abortions failed in South Dakota voting booths last year have revived the legislation with changes that may make the difference in public acceptance. But the bill's success is far from assured.

None of the Legislature's leaders, notably some sponsors of last year's bill, are joining the effort this year because waging last year's fight was so exhausting.

"It's far too soon to put our state through something of such a difficult nature again," said Democratic Sen. Julie Bartling, a prime sponsor of last year's abortion bill.

"The state needs to heal, and I just don't feel that we need to take this up in this legislative session again," she added. "The people have spoken."

The bill introduced in January includes exceptions for victims of rape or incest and if continuing the pregnancy would harm the woman's health significantly.

Last year's ban exempted only abortions needed to save a woman's life, and the lack of more exceptions was cited when voters repealed the ban in November. Public opinion polls have shown that a ban with rape and incest exceptions would pass muster with South Dakotans.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

Pastors Wary of Christian Government Plan

Pastors Wary of Christian Government Plan
CBN News

CBNNews.com - ANDERSON, S.C. - A group called Christian Exodus is moving thousands of Christians to South Carolina to reestablish a Christian government there, according to its Web site, ChristianExodus.org.

But some South Carolina pastors say they're concerned by a group who wants to move to their area to take over local politics.

The Reverend Tom Ritchie, pastor of a Presbyterian church in Anderson, says he has difficulty finding Scripture that suggests Christians should take over government.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

Women of Terror: Dying to Kill

Women of Terror: Dying to Kill
By John Waage and Salam Eid
CBN News
February 13, 2007

CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM - Every week in Israel, authorities prevent dozens of potential suicide attacks from Palestinians. But hundreds, even thousands in the West Bank and Gaza Strip continue to volunteer to attack Israelis.

And, a growing number of them are women.

Some of the women in training are part of a terror group called the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades.

And in the strange world of the Middle East, although their group is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, they're also part of the Fatah Party, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, America's designated partner for Middle East peace.

They train in Gaza's olive groves, learning to move out as a unit.

They also learn to operate light weapons, part of their training diversity.

Om Jandal is a Martyr's Brigades commander. She's in charge of the "army of women" based in Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp. And she's the mother of four children.

"In the battlefield I can be a soldier, and when I am back at home, I will go back to motherhood and be a wife to my husband," said Jandal.

Om Jandal claims to have 300 women prepared to sacrifice to kill Israelis.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

Israel launches Arrow anti-missile system

Steinitz: Arrow test gives Israel advantage over Syria, Iran

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and Agencies

Israel's latest test of its Arrow missile defense system proves Israel has a jump on its fiercest enemies, Iran and Syria, a senior lawmaker on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said Monday.

Israel successfully tested the Arrow anti-missile system Sunday night, in its first nighttime trial, intercepting a test target that simulated the warhead of a long-range Iranian surface-to-surface Shihab-3 missile.

"The test yesterday was exceptional," said MK Yuval Steinitz, a former head of the committee. "It proved it can bring down any kind of ballistic missile, a capability no power in the world possesses."

He said that, "Even if Iran or Syria were to develop more sophisticated missiles than they now have, Israel is one step ahead."

Lieutenant Colonel Moshe Fattal, a senior official in the Defense Ministry department responsible for the project, said Sunday that the successful test firing of the Arrow missile shows that Israel can now defend itself against an Iranian nuclear missile threat.

"The test proves that Israel is prepared to deal with a missile attack from Iran, including a nuclear one," Fattal told Army Radio.

"The missile is capable of dealing with future Syrian and Iranian threats as we see them, as of now. I believe that the citizens of Israel can sleep peacefully."

A defense establishment official took issue with Fattal's assessment, however. "There is no significance to the results of the test," the radio quoted the unnamed official as saying Monday. "There is simply no such thing as defense against nuclear missiles."

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

Temple's location found, says Israeli archaeologist

Temple's location found, says Israeli archaeologist
Study of ancient cisterns pinpoints sacred site,– Muslim Dome of the Rock outside confines
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Using maps created in 1866 by a British explorer and passages from the Jewish Mishnah, an Israeli archaeologist and professor at Hebrew University says he has pinpointed the location of the sacred Jewish Temple, twice built and twice destroyed in ancient times.

While popular consensus places the Temple, built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. and rebuilt by Jews who returned from Babylon in the 5th century B.C., on the site of the present Muslim Dome of the Rock, Prof. Joseph Patrich says archaeological remains show its exact location – and the consensus is wrong.

According to Patrich, the Temple, its corresponding courtyards, chambers and gates were oriented in a more southeasterly direction, sitting diagonally on what is the modern Temple Mount. The difference in orientation and the placement further eastward varies from the east-facing orientation of other scholars who believe the Temple was closer to today's Western Wall.

However, that difference is why, Patrich says, the Temple did not sit over the rock believed by Jews to be the site where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac and where Muslims believe Muhammad ascended into heaven.

Patrich's siting of the Temple is derived from information collected by British engineer Sir Charles Wilson in 1866 on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Wilson mapped a series of ancient cisterns below the present Temple Mount platform. One of those, Patrich says, preserves a vestige of the Temple that stood until it was destroyed by Rome in A.D. 70.

The cistern mapped by Wilson, approximately 15 feet wide, 170 feet long and 45 feet deep, was located near the Temple Mount's southeast corner. It was oriented in a southeasterly direction with branches extending north and south.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

Olmert 'caved to Muslims' on Temple Mount

Olmert 'caved to Muslims' on Temple Mount
Israeli PM criticized for approving plan for minaret, but not synagogue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to allow Muslims to construct a massive minaret on the Temple Mount will embolden the enemies of the Jewish state and signal that violence and terrorism are working, according to a group of prominent rabbinic leaders in Israel.

The Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a coalition of more than 300 Israeli rabbinic leaders and pulpit rabbis, said in a statement today Olmert "does not have the moral or historic right to hand over even one inch of Israeli territory to foreigners."

"The mere fact of giving up sovereignty of the Temple Mount – the holiest site of the Jewish People – is an indication of how far the Israeli government has deteriorated and is prepared to forfeit Jewish rights and ownership of Israel granted in our holy Torah, the most authoritative book in the world," the rabbis said.

The rabbis were responding to a story first reported by WND that Olmert granted permission to Jordan to construct a large minaret at a site on the Temple Mount where Jewish groups here had petitioned to build a synagogue.

A minaret is a tower usually attached to a mosque from which Muslims are called to the five Islamic daily prayers.

There are four minarets on the Temple Mount. The new minaret will be the largest one yet. It will be the first built on the Temple Mount in more than 600 years and is slated to tower over the walls of Jerusalem's old city. It will reside next to the Al-Marwani Mosque, located at the site of Solomon's Stables.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

Navy may deploy anti-terrorism dolphins

By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer

SAN DIEGO - Dozens of dolphins and sea lions trained to detect and apprehend waterborne attackers could be sent to patrol a military base in Washington state, the Navy said Monday. In a notice published in this week's Federal Register, the Navy said it needs to bolster security at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, on the Puget Sound close to Seattle.

The base is home to submarines, ships and laboratories and is potentially vulnerable to attack by terrorist swimmers and scuba divers, the notice states.

Several options are under consideration, but the preferred plan would be to send as many as 30 California sea lions and Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins from the Navy's Marine Mammal Program, based in San Diego.

"These animals have the capabilities for what needs to be done for this particular mission," said Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Program.

LaPuzza said that because of their astonishing sonar abilities, dolphins are excellent at patrolling for swimmers and divers. When a Navy dolphin detects a person in the water, it drops a beacon. This tells a human interception team where to find the suspicious swimmer.

Dolphins also are trained to detect underwater mines; they were sent to do this in the Iraqi harbor of Umm Qasr in 2003. The last time the animals were used operationally in San Diego was in 1996, when they patrolled the bay during the Republican National Convention.

Sea lions can carry in their mouths special cuffs attached to long ropes. If the animal finds a rogue swimmer, it can clamp the cuff around the person's leg. The individual can then be reeled in for questioning.

The Navy is seeking public comment for an environmental impact statement on the proposal.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

Tentative Deal in N. Korea Nuclear Talks

By JAE-SOON CHANG
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) -- Negotiators reached a tentative agreement on initial steps for North Korea's nuclear disarmament, the U.S. envoy to the talks said Tuesday.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the agreement outlined specific commitments for North Korea and would set up working groups to implement those goals to begin meeting in about a month. He declined to give other details.

"I'm encouraged by this that we were able to take a step forward on the denuclearization issue," Hill said.

The agreement could mark the first step toward disarmament in more than three years of inconclusive negotiations and deadlock. The process reached its lowest point in October when North Korea conducted its first nuclear test explosion.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

Too late to halt Iran's N-bomb, EU is told

Iran will be able to develop enough weapons-grade material for a nuclear bomb and there is little that can be done to prevent it, an internal European Union document has concluded.

In an admission of the international community's failure to hold back Iran's nuclear ambitions, the document – compiled by the staff of Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief – says the atomic programme has been delayed only by technical limitations rather than diplomatic pressure. "Attempts to engage the Iranian administration in a negotiating process have not so far succeeded," it states.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

'Who's Who' list challenging Darwin grows

'Who's Who' list challenging Darwin grows
100 more of the world's top scientists express skepticism of theory
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

The list truly is a "Who's Who" of prominent scientists in the world today, and now another 100 ranking leaders have added their signatures to a challenge to Darwin's theory of evolution.

It's for those who have reached the epitome of their fields, but still are questioning the validity of the Darwinian philosophy and want to put their concerns in writing.

The names include top scientists as MIT, UCLA, Ohio State, University of Washington, University of Pennsylvania, University of Georgia, Harvard, the College of Judea and Samaria, Johns Hopkins, Texas A&M, Duke, University of Peruglia in Italy, the British Museum and others.

"Darwinism is a trivial idea that has been elevated to the status of the scientific theory that governs modern biology," said Michael Egnor, a professor of neurosurgery and pediatrics at State University of New York, Stony Brook, and an award-winning brain surgeon who was picked as one of New York's top doctors by "New York Magazine."

"We know intuitively that Darwinism can accomplish some things but not others," said Egnor, who has signed the statement. "The question is what is that boundary? Does the information content in living things exceed that boundary? Darwinists have never faced those questions. They've never asked scientifically, can random mutation and natural selection generate the information content in living things."

John West, associate director of the Center for Science & Culture, said more scientists than ever before are "standing up and saying that it is time to rethink Darwin's theory of evolution in light of new scientific evidence that shows the theory is inadequate."

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

Research: God did speak world into existence

Research: God did speak world into existence
Student's scientific documentation offers evidence of biblical account
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

A science student in Kentucky says when the Bible records God spoke, and things were created, that's just what happened, and he can support that with scientific experiments.

"If God spoke everything into existence as the Genesis record proposes, then we should be able to scientifically prove that the construction of everything in the universe begins with a) the Holy Spirit (magnetic field); b) Light (an electric field); and c) that Light can be created by a sonic influence or sound," Samuel J. Hunt writes on his website.

"There are several documented and currently taught laboratory experiments that accurately portray the events in Genesis in sequential order, the most important being that of sonoluminescence," he wrote.

That, he described to WND, is the circumstance in which sending a sonic signal into bubbles in a fluid causes the bubbles to collapse and they release photons, or create light.

That aligns with one of the earlier descriptions of the creation by God, when, in Genesis 1:1-3, the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of the deep, which generally is considered water, and said "Let there be light," he explained.

God was sending a sonic influence into the waters, and basically creating light, Hunt said. He's documented his theory, and the experiments he believes back it up, in his "Episteme Scientia, the Law of All That Is."

Researchers at institutions no less than UCLA and the University of Chicago have verified the production of light from bubbles when sound is passed through a liquid, called sonoluminescence.

Hunt said he was spurred on in his work because the advanced physics and other courses he was taking were advancing propositions that sometimes didn't match up.

"The further I went, the more my questions seemed to be being answered in the Genesis record," he told WND.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

Death threat against Christian opponent of homosexuality

Jim Brown and Jeff Johnson
OneNewsNow.com

Police in Durham, North Carolina, are investigating a death threat against Illinois family advocate Peter LaBarbera that was posted on a popular homosexual website.

Pro-family activist Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth has been the target of a death threat posted on a popular homosexual website.

The origin of the threat comes from "Pam's House Blend," a site operated by lesbian activist and Duke University Press employee Pam Spaulding. Not long after LaBarbera's address was posted on the site, someone identified as "Barry G. Wick" posted a comment that read: "It's across from a park in an area with cul de sacs. I'd bet it's a residence ... and across from a park. Snipers take note."

"Wick" went on to justify violence against people like LaBarbera as a way to serve the larger homosexual cause. LaBarbera says he's not ignoring the threat, which he describes as "over the top."

"We have to take [the threat] seriously because some of the fringe elements and the nastier homosexual activists are consumed with hatred, unfortunately," LaBarbera shares. "They hate Christians because they hate God's norm of sexuality. Our family is [taking it seriously], and we just hope by exposing this, maybe this kind of extremism will fade away."

LaBarbera has contacted the FBI and Durham, North Carolina police, who are investigating whether the threat constitutes an Internet crime. The family advocate wonders what the authorities' response would be if the scenario were reversed.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)

Search the Bible

Lookup a word or passage in the Bible



BibleGateway.com
Include this form on your page
You scored as Reformed Evangelical. You are a Reformed Evangelical. You take the Bible very seriously because it is God's Word. You most likely hold to TULIP and are sceptical about the possibilities of universal atonement or resistible grace. The most important thing the Church can do is make sure people hear how they can go to heaven when they die.


What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

Ray Comforts Blog...