Before Midnight
miércoles, 14 de enero de 2015
lunes, 1 de diciembre de 2014
Bloopers from Church Bulletins
Bloopers from Church Bulletins
From The Norton Buzz, August 3, 2000.
- Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B.S. is done.
- The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday morning.
- Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7PM. Please use the back door.
- The pastor will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing "Break Forth Into Joy".
- A songfest was hell at the Methodist church Wednesday.
- Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.
- The eighth graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7PM. The Congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
- Thursday night potluck supper. Prayer and medication to follow.
- The rosebud on the altar this morning is to announce the birth of David, the sin of Rev. and Mrs. Adams.
- Tuesday at 4PM there will be an ice cream social. All ladies giving milk will please come early.
- A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.
- At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.
- Weight Watchers will meet at 7PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
- Mrs. Johnson will be entering the hospital this week for testes.
- Please join us as we show our support for Amy and Alan who are preparing for the girth of their first child.
- The Lutheran Men's group will meet at 6PM. Steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread and dessert will be served for a nominal feel.
- The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge -- Up Yours."
- Our next song is "Angels We Have Heard Get High."
- Don't let worry kill you; let the church help.
- For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
- This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Lewis to come forward and lay an egg on the altar.
- The service will close with Little Drops of Water. One of the ladies will start quietly and the rest of the congregation will join in.
- Eight new choir robes are currently needed, due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
- The senior choir invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning, to join the choir.
miércoles, 22 de octubre de 2014
Idaho Couple Facing Fines, Jail Time for Not Hosting Gay Weddings May Be Saved by State Law
Idaho Couple Facing Fines, Jail Time for Not Hosting Gay Weddings May Be Saved by State Law
BY MICHAEL GRYBOSKI , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
Hitching Post Lakeside Chapel of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Idaho couple Donald and Evelyn Knapp, ordained ministers and owners of the Hitching Post Lakeside Chapel of Coeur d'Alene, are facing thousands of dollars in fines and possible jail time for refusing to host gay wedding ceremonies, which the city claims violates its anti-discrimination ordinance. The couple has since filed their business as a religious organization, which means they might be saved by an Idaho law that protects religious freedom.
Jeremy Tedesco, senior legal counsel for the Scottsdale, Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom legal organization, told The Christian Post that while Coeur d'Alene has an ordinance saying that under "public accommodation" businesses cannot discriminate, state law offeres a possible exemption for the Knapps.
"In addition to our federal claims (i.e. First Amendment), our complaint brings a cause of action under the Idaho Free Exercise of Religion Protected Act," Tedesco said. "[Under] Idaho Code § 73–401 et seq., this state law says 'government shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion ...'"
Tedesco recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Knapps in district court, as well as a motion to provide immediate relief.
"We are now waiting for the court to decide whether to grant or deny our request for a temporary restraining order," Tedesco said. "By filing a motion for a temporary restraining order, we are asking the court to act as soon as possible and order the city not to enforce its ordinance against the Knapps while our case proceeds."
City officials, who did not provide comment to CP by press time, have argued that the Hitching Post is in violation of ordinance §9.56, which bars facilities of public accommodation from discrimination.
According to the ordinance, this discrimination can include denying "any person because of sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression, the full enjoyment of any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities or privileges of any place of public resort, accommodation, assemblage, or amusement."
When asked by CP if religious institutions such as churches and church-owned properties are exempt from ordinances like the one in Coeur d'Alene, Tedesco said, "Same-sex marriage advocates have always said that pastors would 'never' be forced to perform same-sex marriages. Well, 'never' came quick as pastors are being threatened with jail and criminal fines for not participating in ceremonies that contradict the definition of marriage."
He continued, "No one is safe — even religious institutions currently exempt under this ordinance and others are on notice. It's foolish to depend on the very same politicians and bureaucrats who have already threatened pastors with six months in jail and $1,000 per day to respect anyone's freedom."
"Under this ordinance, our clients face up to up to 180 days in jail and up to a $1,000 fine each day they follow their religious beliefs and ministerial vows and decline to perform a same-sex wedding ceremony."
Speaking about the Knapps decision to file as a religious organization in an effort to gain exemption from performing gay wedding ceremonies at their chapel, Coeur d'Alene Councilman Dan Gookin told Fox News, "I understand that the way the law is currently written right now that the religious freedom has a priority. It trumps that other desire of mine to see more equality in that area."
martes, 21 de octubre de 2014
Halloween, a covenant with DEATH and Hell
“. . . We have made a covenant with DEATH, and with HELL are we at agreement;. . .” Isaiah 28:15 |
Dr. Terry Watkins | Dial-the-Truth Ministries |
Secular Jihad in Houston
Secular Jihad in Houston
BY WALLACE HENLEY , SPECIAL TO CP
Secular jihad – that's the best way to characterize the subpoenaing of sermons and other communications from pastors opposing the Houston city regime and their "bathroom law."
It's important not to overreact to the overreach of Mayor Annise Parker and her supporters on the Houston City Council. Yet their actions call for vigorous opposition: First, because of the violation of the Constitution's First Amendment, and second, the irrationality of the bathroom law itself. That latter reason reveals the depth of cultural insanity prevalent in contemporary society.
Calling the subpoenas a form of "secular jihad" is not an overreaction, as a close examination of the origin and meaning of "jihad" shows.
"Jihad" is "struggle" against ideas counter to what one believes to be true. Some scholars of Islam, both Muslims and non-Muslims, believe the Quran teaches three forms of jihad. Personal jihad is the individual's struggle to purify his or her soul from corrupting influence. Verbal jihad is non-violent efforts to persuade others and seek justice. Physical jihad is the use of violent force against opponents.
History shows that when verbal jihad fails there is a turn to physical jihad. Such a struggle, as extremist movements reveal, seeks to stun and astound enemies with brute use of power. One evidence of this brutishness is the factor that the five pastors who were subpoenaed were not part of the lawsuit that the city is defending against.
Mayor Parker and her Council minions do not want a public vote on their bathroom bill because it cannot be passed on merit. The secularists, despite their new militancy, are unable to persuade the public by reasonable arguments (like: it's perfectly reasonable to open women's restrooms for men who perceive of themselves as women, even if your eight-year old daughter is using the facilities). The Parker regime knows it cannot win the vote, so, in good jihadist style, it launches its version of secular jihad through the force and intimidation of the courts.
The Houston subpoenas did violence to the Constitution and the First Amendment, and this is truly stunning. Are lawyers who demanded those subpoenas, the courts that approved them, and Annise Parker and her supporters on the City Council the product of an academic system that taught them either that the Constitution was the concoction of a bunch of old slave-holding white men that can therefore be disregarded, or an educational environment that taught them nothing about the Constitution at all?
Can they really be that judicially ignorant, or is this one more attempt to stretch the Constitution to accommodate current views on homosexual rights? After all, homosexual rights and global warming are now our nation's highest foreign policy priorities according to President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Kerry, and Candidate Hillary Clinton.
Secular jihad, like power-dependent religious jihad, wants to threaten, condemn, and dominate. Thus, said Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston Pastors Council –
and a lightning rod in the current maelstrom – the subpoenas "were an act of intimidation and harassment by the city through these law firms." The objective, he thinks, was "to bury us in this type of a demand in an attempt to shut us down, to try to run us out of time, will, or money to continue this lawsuit to its conclusion."
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the subpoenas were "aggressive and invasive," and reveal a lack of regard "for the very serious First Amendment considerations at stake." In a letter from Abbott to David Feldman, Houston's city attorney, Abbott said, "your action is a direct assault on the religious liberty" constitutionally guaranteed.
Those assaults don't come just from the homosexual lobby, but from the militant atheism that threatens individuals who seek the right of free expression, ranging from schools to the public square. As the proliferation of costly litigation that harnesses free speech shows, secular power-jihad is now becoming widespread. "We do recognize that we are the latest in a series of skirmishes across the nation in this battle," said Welch.
Ironically one of the church leaders whose messages were demanded for government scrutiny was a Vietnamese pastor who had come to the United States as one of the "boat people" fleeing communist oppression in his homeland. One hopes reason will prevail, and he will see that America continues to be the "land of the free" to which he came at such great cost.
Feldman said, in response to the criticism, that the city would now limit its requests to only those pastoral communications that dealt with the bathroom bill. Another stunner: He still apparently does not understand that the Constitution gives the right to pastors to oppose government mandates on moral and ethical grounds.
The Bible these leaders follow condemns the use of violence in their resistance. The Houston pastors who take the New Testament seriously won't bomb City Hall or try to assassinate leaders. They will "sanctify Christ as Lord" in their hearts, fight on their knees in prayer, proclaim truth from their pulpits that trouble the civil powers, and, as the Apostle Peter put it, be ready to give an apologia (a reasoned defense) of the "hope that is in them." (1 Peter 3:15)
Perhaps Feldman and Parker and their friends on the Council believe they have succeeded in their stun and astound strategy of secular jihadism. Maybe they think they have cowed the pastors and congregations so they will not resist the city machine.
Actually, all they've done is awakened multitudes to the dangers and arrogant expansion of secular jihad. Churches everywhere will watch the Houston situation carefully. Houston may be the first city to see this particular application of the strategy, but if it succeeds secular jihad might be executed against church leaders of all types.
lunes, 20 de octubre de 2014
Idaho city tells pastors: Celebrate gay weddings or face fines, jail time
Politics: Idaho city tells pastors: Celebrate gay weddings or face fines, jail time
Published by: Dan Calabrese on Monday October 20th, 2014
Fascism.
Bakers, photographers and florists are being forced to shut down their businesses unless they accede to demands that they join in the celebration of gay "marraiges," but so far no one has faced jail time for putting commitment to the Word of God ahead of the demands of homosexuals and their cultural champions.
Until now. A couple in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho who own a wedding chapel there declined the request of a gay couple that they perform their "wedding." They couple did what gay couples seem to do a lot in these situations. They didn't just go find someone else. They complained to authorities, who are now threatening to throw the pastors in jail. That's how out of control this has gotten:
The Idaho case involves Donald and Evelyn Knapp, both ordained ministers, who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel. Officials from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, told the couple that because the city has a non-discrimination statute that includes sexual orientation and gender identity, and because the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Idaho’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, the couple would have to officiate at same-sex weddings in their own chapel.The non-discrimination statute applies to all “public accommodations,” and the city views the chapel as a public accommodation.On Friday, a same-sex couple asked to be married by the Knapps, and the Knapps politely declined. The Knapps now face a 180-day jail term and $1,000 fine for each day they decline to celebrate the same-sex wedding.
Note how the secular left is trying to create a fascimile of the civil rights movement in turning these pastors into criminals, and doing so very disingenuously. First, of course, they're trying to make gay people the equivalent of black people, and trying to say the "discrimination" against the former is exactly the same as that practiced against the latter two generations ago. That is total nonsense. Anti-black bigotry was (and to the extent it still exists, still is) based on complete ignorance that looks at the color of a person's skin - a completely irrelevant matter - and passes a judgment against that person. Those who object to homosexuality are objecting to behavior, not appearance, and the objection is Bible-based.
(I know there are secularists who will try to say old-time racists used the Bible to justify their bigotry, and it's true that over time people have often clung to flimsy readings of Scripture to justify things. But there was never any mainstream acceptance among serious biblical scholars or pastors of such justifications. And you can read from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, and any sort of support for anti-black racism simply can't be found. By contrast, you can't get any clearer than 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 when it comes to homosexuality.)
Perhaps the more insidious tactic, though, is the misuse of the notion of "public accommodations." Back in the civil rights era, blacks were being denied access to basic accommodations like places to eat, or places to get a drink of water - things that are staples of the needs of every human being. It wasn't right to deny these things to anyone. It wouldn't be right to deny them to homosexuals, either.
The situations we're talking about today are entirely different. Bakers, florists, photographers and ministers provide services in which they actively participate and join in the celebration of the wedding ceremony. This goes way beyond accommodating your basic human need to get something to eat or to drink. It relates specifically to the behavior and lifestyle of the homosexual, and demands that the service provider actively endorse and help facilitate that behavior.
The Christian who believes homosexual sex is an abomination in the eyes of God cannot perform a gay wedding ceremony, or take photos of Bob and Gary, or write "Congratulations Anna and Shirley" on a cake without compromising his or her devotion to God. That is not the same thing as making them sandwiches.
The left wants the state to use the notion of "public accommodations" to force business owners to do things that directly violate their faith. The state is complying.
The idea that we've now reached the point where a city is prepared to put these folks in jail for refusing to take part in this travesty shows that we've passed the point where we were merely dealing with a cultural fad. We're looking at full-on fascism here. If you are risking jail, not because you did anything to anyone, but because you refused someone else's demand that you provide a service that is anathema to your faith - then we have a new civil rights crisis in this nation, and homosexuals are not the ones with the problem at all.
sábado, 18 de octubre de 2014
Report: Nigeria Reaches Deal With Boko Haram Islamists to Release Kidnapped School Girls
Report: Nigeria Reaches Deal With Boko Haram Islamists to Release Kidnapped School Girls
Heather Clark
(christiannews.net). ABUJA, Nigeria – The Nigerian government has reached a deal with the Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram to release over 200 school girls that have been held captive for over six months, reports state.
As previously reported, members of Boko Haram stormed an all-girls secondary school in Chibok, Borno State in April, kidnapping 276 students while they were taking their final exams. Over 50 girls later escaped, but more than 200 have remained missing.
“They … started shouting, ‘Allahu Akhbar,’” one of the abducted teens told the Associated Press about the day she and others were taken captive. “And we knew.”
The teen stated that a number of girls escaped by jumping out of one of the vehicles carrying the students.
“We ran and ran, so fast,” she explained. “That is how I saved myself. I had no time to be scared; I was just running.”
“I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah,” the group’s leader, Abubaker Shekau, stated in a video released in May. “There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. … They are his property and I will carry out his instructions.”
Boko Haram, being translated, means “western education is sinful.” Shekau reiterated the group’s opposition to the West during his statement.
“Western education should end,” he declared. “Girl, you should go and get married.”
International outrage resulted in numerous campaigns calling for the release of the students, including the popular hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, and protests were held in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on a regular basis. Efforts to secure the release of the girls have so far been unsuccessful.
However, government officials now state that they have reached a ceasefire and agreement with Boko Haram that will reportedly result in the release of the students.
“They’ve assured us they have the girls and they will release them,” Presidential Aide Hassan Takur told reporters on Friday. “I am cautiously optimistic.”
“A batch of them will be released shortly, and this will be followed by further actions from Boko Haram,” added spokesperson Doyin Okupe. “It is a process. … It is not a question of hours and days.”
Members of Boko Haram met with Nigerian representatives in Chad surrounding the matter last week, and although there are no details available as to what concessions the Nigerian government made in order to secure the release of the girls, the government says that it did not grant any land to the organization.
Boko Haram has been in the headlines for the past five years surrounding its responsibility for numerous violent acts throughout Nigeria that have resulted in an estimated 10,000 deaths. According to reports, the group seeks to implement Sharia law in the nation, and is especially hostile toward Christians.
As previously reported, 19-year-old Hajja told Reuters last December that she was held by Boko Haram and told to renounce Christianity or perish. Members of Boko Haram threatened to slit her throat if she did not give up her faith in Christ.
“They told me I must become a Muslim, but I refused again and again,” Hajja said. “They were about to slaughter me, and one of them begged me not to resist and just before I had my throat slit, I relented. They put a veil on me and made me read from the Koran.”
Boko Haram made Hajja a domestic slave. She was forced to clean and prepare meals for the terrorist militia, but later escaped from her captors.
“They want to ‘Islamitize’ Nigeria. That is why they are targeting Christians,” stated Habila Adamu, who was shot in the head after he likewise refused to deny Christ, but miraculously survived. “They wanted me to deny Jesus. We are sinners! We are condemned criminals. We are supposed to die! But He took all these burdens! He paid for our debt! He died for us! Why can I not submit to Jesus? That is what I did. I stood for him!”
As previously reported, members of Boko Haram stormed an all-girls secondary school in Chibok, Borno State in April, kidnapping 276 students while they were taking their final exams. Over 50 girls later escaped, but more than 200 have remained missing.
“They … started shouting, ‘Allahu Akhbar,’” one of the abducted teens told the Associated Press about the day she and others were taken captive. “And we knew.”
The teen stated that a number of girls escaped by jumping out of one of the vehicles carrying the students.
“I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah,” the group’s leader, Abubaker Shekau, stated in a video released in May. “There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. … They are his property and I will carry out his instructions.”
Boko Haram, being translated, means “western education is sinful.” Shekau reiterated the group’s opposition to the West during his statement.
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International outrage resulted in numerous campaigns calling for the release of the students, including the popular hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, and protests were held in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on a regular basis. Efforts to secure the release of the girls have so far been unsuccessful.
However, government officials now state that they have reached a ceasefire and agreement with Boko Haram that will reportedly result in the release of the students.
“They’ve assured us they have the girls and they will release them,” Presidential Aide Hassan Takur told reporters on Friday. “I am cautiously optimistic.”
“A batch of them will be released shortly, and this will be followed by further actions from Boko Haram,” added spokesperson Doyin Okupe. “It is a process. … It is not a question of hours and days.”
Members of Boko Haram met with Nigerian representatives in Chad surrounding the matter last week, and although there are no details available as to what concessions the Nigerian government made in order to secure the release of the girls, the government says that it did not grant any land to the organization.
Boko Haram has been in the headlines for the past five years surrounding its responsibility for numerous violent acts throughout Nigeria that have resulted in an estimated 10,000 deaths. According to reports, the group seeks to implement Sharia law in the nation, and is especially hostile toward Christians.
As previously reported, 19-year-old Hajja told Reuters last December that she was held by Boko Haram and told to renounce Christianity or perish. Members of Boko Haram threatened to slit her throat if she did not give up her faith in Christ.
“They told me I must become a Muslim, but I refused again and again,” Hajja said. “They were about to slaughter me, and one of them begged me not to resist and just before I had my throat slit, I relented. They put a veil on me and made me read from the Koran.”
Boko Haram made Hajja a domestic slave. She was forced to clean and prepare meals for the terrorist militia, but later escaped from her captors.
“They want to ‘Islamitize’ Nigeria. That is why they are targeting Christians,” stated Habila Adamu, who was shot in the head after he likewise refused to deny Christ, but miraculously survived. “They wanted me to deny Jesus. We are sinners! We are condemned criminals. We are supposed to die! But He took all these burdens! He paid for our debt! He died for us! Why can I not submit to Jesus? That is what I did. I stood for him!”
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