PRAYER CONNECTS YOU TO THE SOURCE OF LIFE

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God’s Word clearly tells us to ‘pray about everything.’

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-21

What an important Scripture read it often and practice what it teaches and you will know the truth about God and His desire to be in a relationship with you.

Today, science is beginning to recognize the value and the power of prayer. Researchers investigating the role of faith in health are discovering evidence that’s hard to refute.

THE MIND HEALTH REPORT (Secrets to Unlocking Your Mind for Work, Love, and Life) produced by Newsmax: A 2014 study confirmed that people who engage in private prayer, intercessory prayer, and church activities are healthier and live longer.

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: Researchers found that praying for somebody increases your readiness to forgive them. When a group of men and women prayed for the well-being of a close friend every day for four weeks, they were more willing to forgive not only the friend but people in general. Forgiveness is associated with better overall health and satisfaction with life.

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI: Their researchers discovered that prayer and religious practices improve your ability to pursue and achieve long-term goals. Prayer affects regions in your brain that improve self-control, and people who view their goals as sacred are more determined to attain them.

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON: A research study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison concluded that victims of abusive relationships recovered a positive self-image and reduced their emotional pain when their lives included prayer.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Columbia University researchers found that people who value religion and regularly attend church are 90 percent less likely to suffer from depression than their non-religious peers.

If you pray according to the will of God expect to receive a response as did Isaiah

“As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you.” Isaiah 7:16

“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” Isaiah 29:7

That’s pretty strong evidence in favour of prayer, wouldn’t you say?

Source: The Word for Today

HARVEST RIPE: THE GOSPEL WELCOME NEWS TO THE YOUNG

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A recent study from Barna that found that two-thirds of teens and young adults (65%) agree that “many religions can lead to eternal life” compared to 58% of teens and young adults surveyed in 2018. Additionally, 31% of teens and young adults “strongly agree” that what is “morally right and wrong changes over time, based on society,” compared to just 25% in 2018.

A 2018 study from Barna similarly characterized Gen Z as the “first truly ‘post Christian’ generation,” with only 4% adhering to a biblical worldview. “Moral relativism hasn’t just crept into the worldview of Gen Z,” said Jonathan Morrow, director of cultural engagement and student discipleship at Impact 360 Institute. “It is now the majority opinion.”

whosoevers.com – MAINSTREAM STATS AND QUOTES ON 25 OF SOME OF LIFE’S TOUGHEST TOPICS TEENS STRUGGLE WITH TODAY, AND THE BIBLE’S RESPONSE TO THEM.

Ryan Ries, co-founder of The Whosevers, a movement that seeks to deliver the message of the Gospel to schools and empower students to live boldly for Christ, told The Christian Post that these recent statistics reveal how important it is for young people to have a positive, biblically-grounded influence in their life.

“Anxiety, depression, suicide, identity issues, all of these things are at an all-time high right now,” he said.

“We are seeing it across schools, we’re seeing across the country. “Parents, youth pastors, and anyone who works with teens and young people need to “be honest about the statistics and really let them know what’s going on,” Ries stressed. “Kids know they are depressed, suicidal, and struggling, and when you try to sugar-coat the Gospel and avoid hard issues, they aren’t going to know there is freedom that can take place,” he explained. “We’ve got to have good conversations and address these things because otherwise, we’re missing an opportunity to have a high impact and disciple these kids.”

Thanks to social media, young people are able “to sin in the most radical ways,” Ries said, adding: “When we were young, we had to figure out how to sin. We are now living in a whole different time, where kids who are 9 years old have the mind of teenagers because of the content that they’re exposed to. They’re getting immune to it, callous to it, and corrupted by it.” But as a result, Ries said, the “harvest is ripe” for the Gospel. He said that he’s seen an unprecedented increase in teens and young people dedicating their lives to the Lord in recent months. “The fruit is so ripe that it’s literally falling off the trees up to this point,” he said. “Everyone is giving their life to the Lord. You’ve got to have a conversation with them, be genuine with them, let them know that you love them and that God loves them. They are so eager for the freedom and truth the Gospel gives.”

Time is short so take this opportunity to present the greatest good news ever told to all in your circle of influence. If you are available the Holy Spirit will bring people to you. God loved us sufficient to send His Son to die for us that we have the opportunity to get back into a son/daughter relationship with Him. Not only that, but also to be assured of eternal life with Him on a new earth and heaven with an end to pain, suffering and death.

Embrace LIFE not DEATH.

WORLD VIEWS THAT ARE SHAPING OUR WORLD

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Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla, thinks another mass extinction is coming. And he’s dedicated himself to saving us.
Musk is correct in that there was a mass extinction in the past but it is not what Musk and most of the scientific community believes. Based on belief in  evolution, they believe 251 million years ago, the Great Permian Extinction wiped out around 96% of Earth’s species. The correct Creation/Biblical view is God caused mass extinction just 4,000 years ago with a worldwide flood. Billions of dead things (fossils) buried all around the world is the stark evidence of this event.
Musk at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California
Jesus warned us that in the “last days”  “You should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgement and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 2 Peter 3:2-8 
Notice the reference to the fact that “with the Lord one day is a thousand years” is directly after he says, they will deliberately overlook His creation and the flood. I believe this is a direct reference to the days of creation being a template/picture of the age of the earth at the time of the His second coming. It confirms the age given by the genealogies given in the Bible in both the O.T and N.T., thousands not billions of years.
Musk recently granted Rolling Stone an exclusive interview where he discussed his troubled childhood, his fear of never finding someone to love him… and Earth’s imminent doom. If only, someone had told him the truth about His Creator. The Father who loves Elon enough to send His Son to earth to die for him so he can be born again, born of the Spirit into a renewed eternal relationship with his Heavenly Father.
One can only surmise how it would have changed Elon’s life. His accomplishments have been impressive.
Tesla, his electric car company, and Solar City, his solar energy company, both reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and make the air cleaner to breathe.
He’s also developing the Hyperloop, a mass transportation system that shoots pods through a tube at 800 miles per hour, thus reducing traffic and travel time.
Then there’s his honeycomb of underground tunnels – outfitted with electric skates – to relieve traffic congestion.
However, it’s interesting that Musk’s biggest concern is technology. From the Rolling Stone interview:
“Climate change is the biggest threat that humanity faces this century, except for AI [artificial intelligence]. I keep telling people this. I hate to be Cassandra here, but it’s all fun and games until somebody here loses a fucking eye.”
Musk fears artificial intelligence could enslave all of humanity. Perhaps he fears a Matrix or Terminator style future.
And that’s one of the reasons behind his company SpaceX– a private space travel company: when the stuff really hits the fan, you can hop on a rocket and leave Earth.
As Musk tells Rolling Stone:
“And if we were a multi-planetary species, that would reduce the possibility of some single event, man-made or natural, taking out civilisation as we know it, as it did the dinosaurs…
Unless you’re a cockroach or a mushroom – or a sponge – you’re fucked. It’s insurance of life as we know it, and it makes the future far more inspiring if we are out there among the stars and you could move to another planet if you wanted to.”
Without God and the Good News of Jesus, Elon is right we are f____. How important it is you have a right world view based on the inerrant word of God.

TRUE FACE OF ISLAM

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Rita Chaima radiates with joy. When you see her face, you can tell she’s filled with deep happiness and contentment.  But that’s the opposite of the way she used to feel. Chaima was raised a Muslim, and from an early age she struggled with suicidal depression.  She tells her powerful story in a new documentary called “In His Footsteps” by a ministry called The Last Reformation.

Rita Chaima 2

“I just saw a cruel world and I didn’t want to be a part of it,” she recalls.  Chaima says she tried to kill herself three times. “I was doing drugs, I was smoking, I was smoking anything… I just wanted to destroy myself.”  At one point she became so angry that she made up her mind to join ISIS in Syria. “I hated people who weren’t Muslim. I wanted to kill them,” she says. The videos by ISIS-inspired her. “I loved to see them bleeding. I was seeing videos of decapitation and loved it.

But then something else happened. Her mom got a bunch of free books for her, and there was a Bible among them. That’s when Chaima met Jesus.

“I started to read the Bible to prove to Christians that they were wrong,” she says. “But I was wrong! And the grace of Jesus Christ started to touch me.”

“I was reading things like ‘pray for your enemies,’ ‘love them,’ and I was someone who wanted to kill them. Intellectually, I didn’t want to accept Jesus, but Jesus started to do a work in my heart,” she says. She couldn’t resist the love of Jesus anymore, so she decided to follow Him.

When she told her family what she had done, they rejected her. She says they stopped talking to her, and for months she was alone in her room. “It was like a prison.”

She says in the past, depression would have overtaken her. But not this time. She started to read the Bible a lot. “Jesus was there with me. He was encouraging me. The Holy Spirit was really there. I felt it, I knew it.”

Her Muslim family has now totally abandoned her, but her story doesn’t end there.

When it was time for Chaima to be baptized, something supernatural happened.

“I don’t even remember what I did. I had to see the video of my baptism. I was completely crazy, the demon was crazy, it wasn’t me. I kicked Jon. He baptised me. I kicked him.” But as she flailed and screamed, Jon continued to minister over her, telling the demon to go until peace finally came over her body. She was finally set free and baptised in the Holy Spirit.

“After the baptism I felt like the heavy weight completely disappeared. And I was so excited to go and make disciples,” she said.

“I started to want to talk about Jesus to everyone, even to the people who led me to terrorism. I wanted to go and see them, tell them that they are wrong, and that love is waiting for them.”

And that’s just what she now does, traveling with gospel minister Peter Ahlman and other Christians, she shares her testimony wherever she goes.

You can watch her testimony below through an excerpt from the “In His Footsteps” documentary by The Last Reformation.

Could this be the END OF AUSTRALIA as we know it?

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The End of Australia

Well, Vern Gowdie of Port Phillip Publishing thinks so. Port Philip Publishing was established in 2005 as the Australian outpost of US publisher, Agora Inc. Agora was founded over 25 years ago by best-selling author and entrepreneur Bill Bonner, and is one of the world’s most successful publishers of financial, health and travel newsletters.

Vern’s book THE END of AUSTRALIA is currently available FREE from Port Philip Publishing to subscribers of one of their Financial Services.

Vern firmly believes Australia is headed for the greatest collapse since The Great Depression.

Remarkably the exact week that THE END OF AUSTRALIA was released the great market reversal predicted in the book began. And it has continued just as Vern predicted with the selling led by the banks.

Not even the new Prime Minister could stop the fall. The ASX 200 index closed another 78 points, or 1.5% down. The average Australian share portfolio is now 16% lower than it was just five months ago.

Vern says that is just the beginning. “Far, far greater losses are to follow for investors who fail to take evasive action now.” He says, it won’t happen in a straight line as the Central Banks will do their utmost to stop it. The financial industry will deny it to the end. American stocks are rallying as I write this post and Australian stocks may follow tomorrow but the crash is inevitable says Vern and I agree with him.

As Christians we understand that almost everything is being shaken and at risk – the economic, environmental and social fabric of society is deteriorating. God has called us to be part of the solution for this time! We need to be like the men of Issachar who understood the times and seek God’s YES for our personal and working life.