WE MUST SHOW OUR CHRISTIAN COLOURS

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Cooper Kupp’s team, the Los Angeles Rams, ended up winning the Super Bowl, and Kupp was named Most Valuable Player. But regardless of that, even if they’d lost and Kupp had not played well, he says it would have still been his best year in football ever. In fact, in the interview, Kupp says that because of his growth in his walk with Christ, even if his team hadn’t won a single game it still would have been his best year in football ever! (Here’s an article) about Cooper Kupp and his wife Anna Marie. She says, “We have prayed for a season to glorify our Savior Jesus Christ and you are doing just that my lovey.)

C. S. Lewis wrote, “We must show our Christian colours if we are to be true to Jesus Christ.

We cannot remain silent or concede everything away.” Even the Apostle Paul requested that the Ephesian believers “Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” (Ephesians 6:19–20, NIV)

If Paul needed prayer for boldness, who doesn’t? When he was given the MVP award Kupp said, “I don’t feel deserving of this. God is just so good…”

In these last days may we be fearless in making the gospel of Christ known so that we may bring glory to God just as Cooper Kupp and his wife Anne Marie are doing.

PRAYING AND MEDITATING ON SCRIPTURE WILL IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH

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Gone are the days when gun-shy theologians bowed to the god of science. Reliable scientists are now affirming how ingenious God is and how His principles hold up under the piercing light of scientific scrutiny.

Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg, MD, who studies the relationship between spiritual phenomena and the brain, has demonstrated that we were designed physically and mentally to interact with God through prayer and Scripture. It’s a known fact that there are centres in the human brain that respond positively to prayer, reading and meditating on God’s Word, group worship, hymn singing, and empathy for other people. And Dr Newberg believes that practising a personal religious faith is the most powerful way to maintain a healthy brain.

The brain’s frontal lobe is used in focusing attention, rational thinking, and decision-making. It responds to prayer and meditation by helping to reduce stress, strengthen our immune system, enhance memory, and increase our capacity for compassion. It helps us ward off age-related brain deterioration and live longer! Newberg’s research indicates that praying for at least twelve minutes a day slows age-related brain decline. Prayer and reading Scripture also deactivates areas in the brain associated with anger, guilt, anxiety, depression, fear, resentment, and pessimism. It seems that finally, twenty-first-century science has joined ancient Scripture in echoing what the psalmist said: “Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous.’”

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” Psalms 139:13-14

Can you think of a better reason to ‘let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly’?

“And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16

Source:Vision Christian Media

THE GOSPEL CHANGES LIVES FOR ETERNITY

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These three men started 33 churches despite persecution.  Brahim, his son Wararni and his cousin Usaden, who serves as chief of his village.

Soon after hearing the gospel and witnessing the love of Jesus Christ in the lives of Christians, Brahim decided to leave Islam and put his faith in Christ. After doing so, he felt compelled to share the Good News with others in his Tuareg tribe, starting with his family.

Brahim first led his wife and seven adult children to Christ. Then he shared the gospel with other relatives, most of whom came to faith in Christ immediately.

When he shared the gospel with a tribal leader in his region, the man refused to leave Islam. However, he gave Brahim permission to continue sharing his faith in the more than 100 villages the leader oversaw. After telling a large gathering of Tuareg villagers that Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life,” Brahim and another pastor led more than 400 of them to Christ in a single day.

Two of Brahim’s family members — his son Wararni and his cousin Usaden, who serves as chief of his village — soon joined him in his ministry work. Like Brahim, they both had a strong desire to share the gospel with other Tuaregs.

“The understanding I got on the day I accepted Jesus is that this work has to be my life,” Wararni said. “The work is not for me only; the work is for more people to hear.”

Since 2018, when the three men began sharing the gospel, they have seen hundreds of people come to faith in Christ each time they preach. And together, they have helped start 33 churches. VOM supports the evangelists by providing them with print and audio Bibles as well as other ministry tools.

The reason so many are coming to Christ at once, a front-line worker explained, is that the tribe has the characteristics of a close family. When members of a tribe see a leader accept Christ, they don’t question his decision.

But as word spread that hundreds of people in multiple villages were leaving Islam for Christ, local Islamic leaders grew angry. Once, a group of men came to Brahim’s house threatening to kill him and his family if he didn’t stop his ministry work. Their threats didn’t faze him, however, because he knows where he’s going when he dies. “I know if you touch me, you are declaring war with heaven,” Brahim said.

Brahim hopes to share the gospel with each member of the Tuareg tribe in his region of Niger, which covers hundreds of miles. His goal is to complete this by 2025, no matter the cost. “I am looking for 100 percent,” he said. “The objective is to take the gospel to everybody, not just a few.”

You can partner with front-line workers like Brahim as they work to advance God’s kingdom. And with any monthly gift, you will receive VOM’s Global Prayer Journal.

PRO-LIFE AND PRO-GOD EFFORTS ARE ADMIRABLE

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Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have introduced a “Texas-style” ban on abortion after watching the abortion rate plummet in the Lone Star State. Sadly, we know that these efforts will not alter the prophesied persecution of Christians, “a time of tribulation even great tribulation” during the reign of the Antichrist in the last days before Jesus returns.

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.” Matthew 24:21-22

“This bill is modeled directly after the legislation passed in Texas last year,” Tennessee state Rep. Rebecca Alexander (R), who sponsored the bill, told a subcommittee for the state’s House of Representatives. “Abortions, since that bill has been passed, have dropped 60% in Texas.”

“If this bill is allowed to go into effect, people who need abortions will be forced to either travel out of state, not receive the health care that they need, or seek abortions in unsafe situations,” read a statement from CHOICES Memphis Center for Reproductive Health. “This is a heartbreaking decision and one that sets Tennesseans back decades.”

News of the pro-life bill in the Volunteer State comes on the heels of a decision by the Texas Supreme Court, ruling state officials do not have a role in enforcing the six-week abortion ban, meaning they are not appropriate targets for lawsuits, which is a major blow to abortion providers.

Texas Justice Jeffrey Boyd wrote that the law — Senate Bill 8 — includes “emphatic, unambiguous, and repeated provisions” stating civil litigation “is the ‘exclusive’ method for enforcing the act’s requirements,” USA Today reported.

Since the state’s high court ruled licensing officials are not responsible for enforcing the near-ban on abortion, the case brought by abortion providers is all but over. The law’s unique focus on private citizens’ right to file civil lawsuits — rather than establish a criminal penalty — has allowed the legislation to evade constitutional challenges.

“There is nothing left,” said Marc Hearron, attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which led the challenge against the pro-life bill. “This case is effectively over with respect to our challenge to the abortion ban.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated the court’s ruling, calling it a “major victory.”

“This measure, which has saved thousands of unborn babies, remains fully in effect, and the pro-abortion plaintiffs’ lawsuit against the state is essentially finished,” he said.

HEADING TOWARDS THE MARK OF THE BEAST

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Globalists like the United Nations and the World Economic Forum which is controlled by billionaires like Bill Gates, are now openly proclaiming transhumanism as if it’s a good thing. Saying it will eliminate free will and the concept of human souls. This of course means such a person loses the ability to be saved by Jesus. Watch this episode of Last Days Breaking News with Nelson Walters to see actual video footage of a leading expert and advisor of the World Economic Forum and Klaus Schwab freely describe how AI and brain to computer implants will forever change the world – and how this matches up with Bible Prophecy.

So much of end times, Bible prophecy is lining up in our day whether it be floods, droughts, famine, pestilence, apostasy. wars and rumours of wars. The Apostle, John must have wondered about what the mark of the Beast would be and it is only in our day that the technology is available to make it a reality.

ISRAEL SEES ALL-TIME HIGH IN EXPORTS

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Israeli exports increased to about $140 billion in 2021 and hit a record high, an increase of close to 20% compared to about $114.3 billion in 2020, according to estimates by the Foreign Trade Administration at the Ministry of Economy and Industry.

For the first time in Israel’s economic history, exports of services exceed exports of goods with a 51% to 49% ratio, while the exports of goods are also on the rise.

Despite pandemic, Israel sees all-time high in exports
Industrial container yard at Haifa Port

The leading sectors in the export of goods are automation and electronic equipment, products of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and optical and medical equipment.

Israel’s top exporting destinations are the U.S., China, Netherlands, Turkey, and Germany.

The two most significant trends that contributed to the change in the balance of power between goods and services are a significant increase in the high-tech industries in Israeli exports – exports of programming services and research and development services that are not start-ups, which grew by 25% and 15% respectively, and the significant increase in transportation services exports that jumped this year by 138% percent. Exports resulting from the sale of start-up companies also jumped by 257% and these trends led to the overall growth of about 30% in the export of services.

The majority of exports, 39%, are directed to European markets, 33% to American markets, and about 25% to Asian markets.

Ohad Cohen, Director of Foreign Trade Administration at the Ministry of Economy and Industry, stated Monday that “the year 2021 will break records in Israeli exports and its components. Whether we reach the $140 billion threshold or not, this is an all-time high in exports, which was slightly halted in 2020 due to the Corona pandemic.”

He noted that the exporting sector showed “an impressive recovery” in late 2020 and even more so in 2021, both in the export of goods and services.

This nation which God established for His purposes to be a blessing to the world is being a blessing to the world in the development of high-tech products and services but sadly it will not fulfill God’s purpose until its Messiah Jesus returns to establish His Millennial Kingdom. In fact, we are told in God’s Word only one-third will survive the coming reign of the Antichrist.

“In the whole land, declares the Lord ‘two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it. This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people, and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’” Zechariah 13:8-9

•The prince-of-preachers Charles Spurgeon preached: “I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough about it. But certainly, if there is anything promised in the Bible it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual restoration of the Children of Israel . . . For when the Jews are restored, the fullness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in; and as soon as they return, then Jesus will come upon Mount Zion with his ancients gloriously, and the halcyon days of the Millennium shall then dawn; we shall then know every man to be a brother and a friend; Christ shall rule with universal sway.”

PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS INTENSIFIES

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March 6th, 2022 China (International Christian Concern) – A Christian woman in China, named Zhou Jinxia was detained for her repeated attempt to share the good news of Jesus Christ with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan.

Using placards filled with Gospel messages, Zhou regularly stands outside a gated area in Beijing where top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials reside. Last month, she did so to greet President Xi when he returned from the Winter Olympics, leading to her arrest for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” Authorities ordered Zhou to return to her hometown of Dalian, where her beef with the government began.

In 2009, local authorities seized and demolished Zhou’s house in Dalian without her consent, later turning it into a city square. According to the group China Aid, Zhou and her family members have spent years seeking justice, only to be detained and lose their jobs.

Religious liberty magazine Bitter Winter explains that Zhou “took seriously [President] Xi’s statements he would fight corruption.” So after his 2013 inauguration, she repeatedly wrote to him about her unjust eviction. Because Xi never replied, Zhou “concluded that no solution to China’s problem would be possible unless [the president and his wife] would receive Jesus in their hearts.”

The Dalian native was sent back to Liaoning province by the police after her action in Beijing. She was subsequently detained. On Feb. 20, Zhou went to Zhongnanhai in Beijing, the central headquarters for the Communist Party of China and the State Council of China, holding up a sign asking Xi Jinping to believe in Jesus.

The police in charge arrested her before Dalian police brought her back to Dalian. She was criminally detained and charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” on February 21. Her family received the notice of her criminal detention from Dalian’s Public Security Bureau’s Xigang Branch on March 1.

According to China Aid, in recent years, Zhou has attempted to share the good news with her Chinese leader more than 50 times. As early as March 2015, Zhou was detained for ten days for her evangelism activities. In March 2016 and March 2018, she was detained again for the same charge.

Beginning October 2020, Zhou has resided in Fengtai district’s Xiaobailou village in Beijing. She actively shares the gospel and is involved in her church. On June 27, 2021, she was driven away by local leaders and police, while her amenities of daily life were confiscated. As someone whose house was forcibly demolished by the government, Zhou is not unfamiliar with the injustice in China.

We need to pray for Zhou Jinxia and the many like her in China and other countries where Christians are persecuted. Moreover, we should ask God to give us the courage to be like her in the face of intense persecution that we will see intensify across the globe in these prophesied “last days” before Jesus returns.

LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

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The Christian life is supernatural but not magical. God does not make us happy when we make work, sports, leisure, or sex into our idols. If we choose to seek happiness elsewhere, the Holy Spirit will not force Himself on us. And He certainly won’t give us happiness in what’s not from Him.

GOD IS A TRINITY AND MAN, MADE IN GOD’S IMAGE IS A TRINITY: BODY, SOUL, AND SPIRIT

We must understand that Jesus made it possible for our Heavenly Father to send the Holy Spirit to indwell the Spirit of every believer. The third person of the Trinity takes up residence in your Spirit. He is our counsellor, teacher, and comforter. He enables you to live the Christian life and we are clearly told that we can grieve Him and quench His work in our life.

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30

“Do not quench the Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

He will open up God’s Word to you each day if you ask Him. He will guide your steps each day if you ask Him. Only then will joy and happiness envelop your life.

Our actions must be in concert with our prayers—we should pray to find happiness in God and then take the kind of actions that will help us find happiness in God.

Some people who claim to be Christians say, “I thought I would experience joy in the Christian life, but I never have.” Is that because they spend hours a day on social media but “don’t have time” to join a home Bible study? Do they fill their day with activities but not regular times with God? Why do they expect to be happy in God when they are not choosing to spend time with Him and to do what they can to learn, study, and discuss who God is, what He has done, and what He’s doing?

Adapted from an article by Randy Alcorn Finding Happiness in God is not Automatic – Patheos

WHEN DOES THE LAST SEVEN YEARS BEGIN BEFORE JESUS RETURNS

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What event begins The Tribulation or 70th Week of Daniel? Is it a peace treaty with the Antichrist, the Rapture, the revealing of Antichrist, the start of the twice-daily Temple sacrifice, or is it something else? It is crucial that we know because those days are almost here. Watch this Nelson Walters video to find out, and why knowing will help prepare us for those times.

If you have not already done so can I suggest you read my recent post “What will initiate the last seven years before Jesus return?” It shows how important the Seventy Weeks prophecy of Daniel is in understanding what is playing out in world events today.

The Seventy Weeks prophecy of Daniel is a foundational end times prophecy

“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.” Daniel 9:24

In this Seventy weeks (seventy weeks of years) prophecy, the first 69 weeks have played out exactly as prophesied including Jesus first coming to this earth and being killed “cut off”. There is an unspecified time gap between the 69 weeks and the last seven weeks (seven years) but as many of the other end-times events specified by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24) and in Revelation are beginning to play out we know that the last seven years before Jesus returns to set up His Millennial Kingdom is not too far off.

WILL CHRISTIANS OBJECT TO NOVAVAX VACCINE?

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Novavax is an anti-COVID vaccine that has been submitted to the FDA for approval.  Developed by a Maryland biotech company, Novavax is already in use in 170 countries, including the UK and here in Australia.

Novavax is a traditional protein vaccine, similar to today’s flu shots, as opposed to the new-style mRNA vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer.  Novavax is derived from moth cells.  The company says it is showing 90% effectiveness.

But here is what makes Novavax distinctive:  It was made with no use of fetal tissue or cell lines from aborted fetuses.

That cannot be said of some of the other vaccines.  Moderna and Pfizer are not made of fetal cell lines, but the testing process did make use of them.  Pro-life groups, including the LCMS, generally believe Moderna and Pfizer vaccines can be taken ethically, though not those of AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson.  But many pro-lifers believe that the way they were tested makes Moderna and Pfizer problematic also.

But, according to the company, “No human fetal-derived cell lines or tissue, including HEK293 cells, are used in the development, manufacture or production of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373.”

Pro-life activist Abby Johnson, a critic of other vaccines, hailed this development.  “It is my understanding that (Novavax) has been used successfully in several countries with a high efficacy rate,” she said. “It is also my understanding that there are not any ethical concerns regarding Novavax, which is hopeful for pro-lifers who have avoided the vaccine due to those objections.”

Taken from Pro Life Vaccine? article by Gene Veith March 11th, 2022