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If my people, who are called by my Name, humble themselves and pray (Part One)

The text, for those who have trouble with a rather individual cursive, reads as follows: Scandal after Scandal. No institution safe....

Saturday 31 May 2014

Does Obama care about Meriam Ibrahim? Update.

There are suggestions that the Sudanese government has realised that it has gone too far and will overrule the barbarous sharia law that has sentenced Miriam Ibrahim to death. See the BBC news here.

See also articles in the Telegraph and the Daily Mail .

However, this is by no means certain and it remains to be seen if the fanatics will take the law into their own hands as they have done in Pakistan and other Islamic nations on many occasions.

International outrage has been immense.The UK can, for once, be proud of its leaders.




Prime Minister Cameron, the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats and Ed Miliband, leader of the Opposition have all condemned this outrage and are putting diplomatic pressure on Sudan. They cannot withdraw aid to Sudan as there is no direct aid to withdraw.

The silence from the USA and, most especially, the White House has been deafening. I know that US politicians have been protesting about this situation, but there is no voice that can speak for the nation coming out of the USA.

Why is President Obama so silent about this Christian family. Do they not resemble him closely enough?

You may find some answers at the following websites:

The PJ Tatler Just how much of an apostate is Obama?

Grumpy Elder

Maggie's Notebook

I find these whilst searching for an explanation of Obama's silence. If they are to be be believed then one of Obama's brothers is working for the Sudanese at a high level.

The USA has some hard questions to put to its silent President.

In the UK, a protest is being planned outside the Sudanese Embassy see here.

Friday 23 May 2014

Does Obama care about Christian, Black Americans? Not if they are in a Muslim prison for being Christian.

If you live in the UK, you may well have read about this. If you are a US citizen who reads WND or the USA's most read online paper The Daily Mail (UK!) then you will have read about it.  If you read Mark Steyn, you will have read about it. You could also try The Telegraph. Other than that, it will probably be news to you.

The Mail link shows why she was accused in the first place. Her Muslim family want what she's got, without earning it.

Two US citizens are about to be forcibly removed from their parents and brought up as Muslims, because by sharia law they are Muslims and not Christians. Their mother will be flogged 100 times for adultery. She married their father when she was not married to ant one else, but her absentee father was a Muslim. She was brought up a Christian. After that she will be executed for apostasy - leaving the faith of her father and believing the faith of her mother, who brought her up as a Christian.

If nothing is done then this brave sister in Christ will die a martyr.

Mark Steyn documents it here.

 

You can sign anyone of a myriad petitions by Googling "Miriam Ibrahim petitions" or going here.

A quote from Mark Steyn:

On Saturday, President Obama issued a Tweet in observance of International Anti-Homophobia Day:
"No one should face violence or discrimination—no matter who they are or whom they love." —President Obama
Fine words, but, as is often the case with this man, utterly empty. An American citizen is about to have his life ruined because of "whom they love". Daniel Wani suffered discrimination from the US Government because he fell in love with Meriam Ibrahim. And, because of that discrimination, he now faces violence from the Sudanese Government, which presently has his entire family - his wife and unborn child, and his two-year-old son - shackled in Khartoum. After Meriam gives birth, she will be hanged, and Daniel, because he has committed the crime of being a Christian, will never see his children again.

Those children are American citizens, and this is not a Sudanese news story but an American one.

The United States bureaucracy failed Daniel Wani, grievously. Washington should make Meriam Ibrahim a US citizen. The Ambassador in Khartoum should then demand access to the family. And the US Government should make plain to its Sudanese counterparts that it expects the entire family on a plane out of there in 48 hours.

Everyone, even the U.N., is protesting. Your former 'oppressors' the evil Brits are protesting. Some of your politicians are protesting. Where is your President?

On the golf course?

Don't hold your breath.

Thursday 15 May 2014

More on Boko Haram - it isn't just the girls.

Prominent Anglican blogger Cranmer has two powerful posts on Boko Haram's war in Nigeria.

Firstly, this one where lays out his point in words. Then he posted this one where his pictures speak for themselves.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxdwwrAPA-w7aBnoWmwceeEu8itQAfyhnmUx8gbOZMIi7u8eCZafg5NJ_312QdC3pg-if5-PEHmUMTuho7qqzv1meXNrdXjDhqdi2A-86aS3neRV37WfjxL8CwspR0lBzlmANA1TgVAkP/s1600/Nigeria+boys.jpg

As I said in my previous post, the war between Islam and Christianity in Nigeria has been going on for years.

Australian cleric, the Rev. Dr. Mark Durie has posted an interview in which he exposes the ancient Islamic roots of Boko Haram. You can listen to the interview below or read his additional; material by following the previous link to his blog.

He is not alone in declaing this information. Over at The Omega Letter, J.L. Robb has posted an article doing much the same thing but also enumerating the effects of Sharia law on women. Here is a sample of that list.
  • Adultery is a capital crime, punishable by whipping and then death, often by stoning.
  • Apostasy (saying or thinking something uncomplimentary about Islam or Muhammad) is a capital crime to be punished by death. Apostates are to be “killed wherever they may be found.”
  • Female genital mutilation to make sure sex isn’t too enjoyable for the women.
  • Women are considered inferior to men. Court testimony by a woman only counts for half of the testimony by a man. Women receive only half the inheritance that a man receives. A woman’s vote, if she is allowed to vote, counts one-half of a man’s vote.

It carries on in the same vein.

The excellent 'Barnabas Fund' has been involved in the campaign in the US to get Boko Haram registered as a terrorist organisation. The following is part of the article on their website.

"Our honorary director in the US, Bishop Julian Dobbs, worked with others to petition the State Department and other government agencies to designate Boko Haram as an FTO. On one occasion Bishop Dobbs was assisted by the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, Primate of the Anglican Church in Nigeria who made the case in the corridors of power on behalf of suffering Nigerian Christians. 
Bishop Dobbs, who is an Anglican missionary bishop of the Church of Nigeria, said the FTO designation was significant for three reasons:
Firstly, it shows that the US government has realised that it’s a serious situation and is concerned about it. Secondly, the FTO label enables certain US resources, such as military and intelligence, to be involved in circumstances like we are seeing now with the kidnapped girls. And thirdly, it helps us to heighten awareness about our brothers and sisters in Nigeria suffering at the hands of what we can now call a terrorist organisation.
He said that the US government continues to dismiss the religious motivation of Boko Haram, insisting that it is an ethnic and social issue:
The next step is to get all Western governments to recognise the clear religious motivation of Boko Haram, which wants to impose sharia across all of Nigeria and rid the country of any Christian presence. Our brothers and sisters in the North continue to suffer on a daily basis as a result of the group’s atrocities."

According to  UK national newspaper 'The Daily Mail', Boko Haram have links to the Nigerian Army, which could well explain why this is all taking so long, see here.

Britain and the US have both sent teams and equipment to Nigeria.

The abductions have triggered a worldwide social media campaign under the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, and prompted the U.S., Britain, France and Israel to offer help or send experts to Nigeria.
The U.S. has already sent military, law-enforcement and development specialists.
Two U.S. officials said on Tuesday a mix of manned and unmanned American surveillance aircraft were being used to aid the search for the missing girls.
One U.S. official identified the drone as a Global Hawk, which is a high-altitude, unmanned spy plane manufactured by Northrop Grumman.

Britain has also offered Nigeria a surveillance plane and a military team to help with the search for the missing schoolgirls, Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday.
'Today I can announce we have offered Nigeria further assistance in terms of surveillance aircraft, a military team to embed with the Nigerian army in their HQ and a team to work with U.S. experts to analyse information on the girls' location,' he told parliament.
The Ministry of Defence clarified that one Sentinel plane would be sent.
The new offer of help comes after Britain Britain last week sent a team of experts to Nigeria including officials from the ministry of defence.
Mr Cameron's spokesman said on Monday they had met Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan.
Britain's minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, is also travelling to the Nigerian capital today for talks on further assistance, the Foreign Office in London said.

I don't know what the French are doing, but 'Israel Today' has reported that Israeli security forces have joined the effort to free the girls, see here.

Boko Haram are not some crazy African terrorist gang, but part of a back-to-basics Islamic reformation that takes its example from Islam's founder, see here and here

Rev. Doctor Mark Durie's video: 

 

Monday 12 May 2014

Dreams from my Father concerning the Church (Part Three)

This was a complex dream with three distinct parts.

In the first part, I dreamt that I was to build a town. This future town was in a desert place. I was being asked, most persistently and several times, what I would build first and where in the town would it be. 

I was equally certain, indeed adamant, that I would build a Church and a place of prayer. I was also certain that they would be in the centre of the town and that the other essential buildings, law courts, financial institutions (all the stuff one finds in the centre of towns) would be built later.

In the second part of the dream, I had started to build and as I cleared away the dust to build the foundations I discovered the foundations of an older church with a tiled floor. The foundations were sound, but some of the tiles needed attention and/or replacing with new ones. In my dream I was engaged  in this process.

Finally, I was told that God would be calling Evangelicals to account. Some individuals would find themselves called into God's Presence, by accident or illness, to account for their failure to evangelise. They would then be sent back to finish the job. Somehow, some evangelical churches would find themselves having to give the same account before being released back into His work. How this will come about, I have no idea.

My interpretation is as follows:

The town is the present state of Western civilisation. It needs re-building with the Church at the centre. It is in a desert place as it is Godless. The additional building for prayer is often a practical essential as many active churches can find it hard to provide proper places for continuous prayer.  This resonated with my vicar as we often have that difficulty.

Nevertheless, it also means that  continuous prayer needs to exist alongside the other proper activities of the Church.

When this is in place then the other institutions of the town can be built.

In the West, we tend to think that Law and Money can sort out everything. We are surprised when we discover the level of corruption inherent in our society. See also here.

The second part of the dream showed me that sound foundations for the Church already exist, to wit, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prophets and the Apostles. Ephesians 2:20.

Also, many mainstream denominations have sound statements of faith based on these foundations. For example, the Church of England needs to start enforcing the 39 Articles.

The tiles in the floor, are individuals who have been built into the church but may need repair or replacement (pruning again).

The third part of the dream is self-explanatory and somewhat disconcerting. It shows again how seriously God is taking the current state of His Church. He is already acting to renew His Church. He will take sovereign and miraculous action when it is needed.

This is not a picture of foundations in a desert place, but the ruins of Egglestone Abbey near my home town. I couldn't resist it.


http://heartofteesdale.net/rendition.medium/Gallery/Teesdale%20-%20Egglestone%20Abbey%20View%204.jpg

Egglestone Abbey

Friday 9 May 2014

Boko Haram kidnap over 200, mostly CHRISTIAN, girls.

In the UK and the US. the mostly Christian affiliations of the girls kidnapped for slavery have been kept secret. This is conversion by rape. As slaves they will be forcibly married and they and their children treated as Muslims. Any attempt to escape will be apostasy and punishable by death.

BokoHaram-WIT-GUNS 

Robin Harris in The Spectator tells all. Is it true? Well, about 25 years back, I was involved in fighting for the asylum of a Nigerian family. He was a Muslim convert to Christianity and dared not return to Nigeria, in fear of his life and of the lives of his wife and family.

We won the fight on other grounds as the UK government did not believe his story.
They believe it now.

Thursday 8 May 2014

If My people who are called by My Name, humble themselves and pray (Part Two)

Part One of this post goes back nearly a year, see here and was addressed to the Church and to the Nation. It contains a prophecy of judgement.

I'm posting a video and linking to WND's article because most of what Rabbi Cahn has to say is valuable and apposite to the UK and the rest of the Anglo-sphere as well as to the USA.

A couple of small issues should be dealt with. Israel's covenant with God was initiated by God. The USA's 'covenant', if it exists was initiated by the USA. There is no record of God agreeing to it.

The USA is not the only nation with a biblically based constitution. It may come as a surprise to many, but the UK has a biblically based constitution. You can read the Coronation Oath here. This is the most relevant part to our post:

Archbishop. Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel? Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law? Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England? And will you preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of England, and to the Churches there committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges, as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them?

Queen. All this I promise to do

Which means that although only the Church and Israel have Divinely initiated covenants, the UK  and the USA have covenanted themselves to God and must live with the consequences. If the Rabbi's argument has any validity, it must be valid for the UK as well.

Some time back I posted a Power-Point on Prayer triplets here.

At the end of my sermon I listed need for prayer and quoted the same verse that Rabbi Cahn quotes. 

All the sins he lists are applicable to the UK, but so is the Gospel he proclaims. 

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

Dreams from my Father concerning the Church (Part Two)

In the previous post of this series, I forgot to mention a 'picture' and a word of prophecy that was given at a prayer triplet I attend. (I have posted teaching on Prayer triplets here and here .)

The picture was of a 'standard' bush or tree. This is a gardening term for a particular style of topiary.

 

In the picture, the bush had become overgrown and dense. It bore neither fruit nor flower.

The word of prophecy said that it was necessary to let light into the centre of the bush. To do this the dead wood would have to removed, followed by branches in the wrong place and branches not bearing fruit or flowers.

We would rejoice at some of the pruning as long-standing sin and opposition would be removed. We would be less happy with the costly nature of some of the pruning when it was necessary to cut into live wood.

On a personal level, seeing the back of some long-standing sins will be a relief, but others may come as a surprise to us and we may find it hard to bear.

On a Church level, even deadwood is still made up of living people. Some will be moved to other fellowships, but others will be a cause for great pain.

Nevertheless, God intends to have His church back. The pruning process has started.

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Ken Livingstone's Anti-Semitic assumptions.

All Jews are rich.
Rich Jews all vote Tory.

It doesn't get any cruder than that. The evidence is here in the Telegraph.

Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London Photo: PA

“If we were talking 50 years ago, the Roman Catholic community, the Irish community in Britain, the Jewish community was solidly Labour. Still the Irish Catholic community is pretty still solidly Labour because it is not terribly rich.
“As the Jewish community got richer, it moved over to voting for Mrs Thatcher as they did in Finchley.” 


On the other hand, Mr. Adrian Cohen of the London Jewish Forum said," 
"Ken Livingstone last made comments to this effect during the Mayoral election. It's pretty obvious that politicians shouldn't write off parts of the electorate based on crude assumptions about their perceived relative affluence.
"Many Jews are not rich, indeed many struggle to make ends meet. In any event there are many factors which influence how a person chooses to vote and one shouldn't refer to Jewish Londoners as if they were homogeneous." 



 

The Syrian 'little shop of horrors'.

From the people we are told are good rebels against the evil Assad come two more horrors to add to our growing collection. See here for the previous horrors.

Now we can add two more sickening examples of evil.

Daphne Anson has posted this:

You can read all about it here.

This photograph apparently shows the infant child of Christian parents being threatened and tormented by Islamic jihadist rebels in Syria.

Is this a thief or  a Christian? It depends on what you read and whom you believe.

Public crucifixion: Beaten, blindfolded and crucified in a town square, a thief is strung up for townsfolk to take pictures on their mobile phones

See the Daily Mail here and here or Frontpage here and the Christian Telegraph here.

Daily, it become more obvious that we are being lied to about Syria.

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Dreams from my Father concerning the Church (Part One).

I admit it, I'm being a little naughty with the headline. I mean real dreams that I believe are from my Heavenly Father. It's part of being a new creation and a somewhat different inheritance!

About two weeks ago, I had a most interesting dream that stayed with me.

(When a dream stays in the memory and doesn't fade with the morning, it could be significant and is always worth some prayer and meditation).

I dreamt that my wife and I were out walking when we saw a young woman in a business suit collapse through sheer exhaustion. I knew that she was the Church. We passed by, but I knew that I had to return to help her.

When I got back to her, she had, seemingly, recovered and was getting up. As she turned to face me, she no longer had the face of a young woman, but of a bearded young man, quite trimmed and stylish. Nonetheless, he was hostile. I knew him for an evil spirit.

In my dream, I spoke to him in tongues. He recoiled acknowledging the spiritual power. I spoke again, but he would not yield.

Then I spoke to him in English. 

"You have seven days to release her. After that, everything you have will be taken from you and divided up. Furthermore, you will be divided," (As I said this, I was pointing at him and then I drew a line up his abdomen, from his belly to his neck - indicating the manner of his division), 

"And by division you shall die".

I knew that the spirit was one of gender confusion and that he held the church in thrall. I realised that God had declared war against this spirit. I believe that Jesus will rescue His bride and will release her from this powerful spirit

I do not know if the seven days are seven literal days or seven years, but if they are seven literal days, and my hunch is that they are, then certain areas of what calls itself church are about to find that God is at war with them.

I should add that it might take seven years to rid ourselves of this evil spirit. 

Ed. note 2016. It looks like seven years might be the interpretation.

That same day, when I had awoken, I read in the Telegraph that two 'priests' had 'married', see here. Also, a gloating Roman Catholic analysis here. He has no idea of what God will do.

Ed. note 2022. In 2021  a programme of 'educating' the church in 'Living in Love and Faith' began.