Heaven

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Marvelous & Saddest

Posted by whatyareckon on November 22, 2020
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“The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.” (John 9:30)

‘A “marvelous thing” in the Bible is something that generates awe or wonder. Sometimes it refers to a miracle but more often to something very unexpected and remarkable.

But the most marvelous thing of all is that unbelievers still persist in their unbelief. In our text passage the Lord Jesus Christ had just performed one of His most amazing miracles of creation—making perfect eyes for a man blind from birth. As the man testified to the frustrated Pharisees: “Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind” (John 9:32). Yet, these religious intellectuals, so opinionated in their prejudices, refused to believe what they saw and heard. Similarly, “when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things [i.e., ‘marvelous things’] that he did…they were sore displeased” (Matthew 21:15).

There are none so blind as those who refuse to see. One of the saddest verses in the Bible is John 1:10: “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” And, “he came unto his own, and his own received him not” (v. 11). Even when He raised Lazarus from the dead, “the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus” (John 12:10-11).

Modern “intellectuals” are still the same, rejecting the overwhelming testimony of the created complexity in the cosmos to the fact of a personal Creator in favor of an impossible scenario of chance origin. “Herein is a marvelous thing!” Such people “willingly are ignorant” and “without excuse” (2 Peter 3:5; Romans 1:20).’https://www.icr.org/article/12451/?utm_source=phplist9151&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=November+21+-+A+Marvelous+Thing

The Bible & The Professor at George Mason

Posted by whatyareckon on November 19, 2020
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Nothing should surprise us today in the universities of lower learning. Now, ‘Bible-carrying students and staff at George Mason University, take heed: You might not want to leave your copies of the Good Book sitting in classrooms unattended — because their very presence just might get documented by your school’s Bias Incident Reporting Team.

So it’s like this: In November 2019, a professor found a Bible and an accompanying CD in her classroom, the College Fix reported.

Apparently unable or unwilling to put them aside for the owner to pick up later, the professor gathered the items and then reported them to the school’s Bias Incident Reporting Team, the outlet said.

And how did the Bias Incident Reporting Team respond? The Fix said the team classified the incident as “discrimination” and “harassment” against “religion.”

Seemingly to shore up her case, the professor included photographs of the Bible in her report, the outlet said, adding that the Bias Incident Reporting Team collected the items in question. The outcome of the report wasn’t made clear.’https://www.theblaze.com/news/professor-finds-bible-in-classroom-then-notifies-schools-bias-incident-reporting-team-about-it?utm_source=theblaze-dailyPM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily-Newsletter__PM%202020-11-18&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Daily%20PM

Gab where Jesus is King

Posted by whatyareckon on November 14, 2020
Posted in: America, Bible, Christian. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

‘Yesterday the New York Times reached out to me for a comment on Gab’s recent growth. I’ve never had any luck with getting the New York Times to describe Gab accurately or fairly over the years, so I opted to use my new standard reply for all dishonest and corrupt media publications: “Jesus is King, speak freely on Gab.com.”

If they are going to print something with my name attached to it, at a minimum it will be glorifying to Christ and promoting Gab at the same time so that readers can visit the site for themselves and make their own judgements.

Predictably the New York Times referred to Gab as a “haven for racist memes and content,” but to my surprise they did indeed print my comment of “Jesus is King, speak freely on Gab.com” and even linked to my recent blog post about Gab’s explosive growth. USA Today also called Gab a “repository of toxic content” this week, which added more fuel to our fire and provided free advertising to promote our growing community.’https://news.gab.com/2020/11/12/the-peoples-media-revolution-and-the-digital-civil-war/

An Elegant Quilt of Relationships

Posted by whatyareckon on November 14, 2020
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Psalm 104:16-17 “The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.”

‘There are many incredible designs around us that are unlikely to exist if everything is the result of mindless chance. Many birds eat insects through the summer. While such high protein diets like this are good in mating and reproductive season, they do not prepare the birds to survive the cold weather of winter.

What they need to do is build a layer of fat both for calorie storage as well as insulation. So, as winter nears, the berries that have been growing and ripening all summer on various shrubs become more numerous. The high sugar content of the berries’ juice helps the birds to quickly build up fat. The freeze on cold fall mornings even helps to increase the sugar concentration in the berries. Even more amazing is that the various types of berries eaten by the birds ripen in a staggered fashion so that berry season is long and the supplies are always available. For example, as the elderberry supply is just about consumed, highbush cranberries are in production. Often, the summer’s hatchlings’ plumage doesn’t reach full color until they eat the various pigments in the berries, and those pigments are incorporated into the new feathers. In exchange, the birds spread the seeds in the berries.

All of these complex, interrelated systems depend on each other in an elegant, fine-tuned design.’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/an-elegant-quilt-of-relationships-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=an-elegant-quilt-of-relationships-2&mc_cid=083d9935d8&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c

Hillsong & Lentz’ Adultery

Posted by whatyareckon on November 13, 2020
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Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Philippians 1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

1Timothy 5:22 Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.

‘Brian Houston, global senior pastor of the international Hillsong Church,  announced today that an independent investigator will review the “inner workings” of Hillsong’s New York City branch after the firing of its lead pastor, Carl Lentz, on Nov. 4.

“We need a solid foundation for a fresh start and new beginning,” Houston said in a tweet, adding, “The best is yet to come.”

We are launching an independent investigation into the inner workings of Hillsong NYC/ East Coast. We need a solid foundation for a fresh start and new beginning. The best is yet to come.

— Brian Houston (@BrianCHouston) November 12, 2020

On Nov. 4, Houston emailed staff and members of Hillsong East Coast about Lentz’s termination. His email, which was obtained by The Roys Report, cited “leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures” for Lentz’s firing but did not reveal more details, saying to do so “would not be appropriate.” He later posted a similar statement on the church’s website.

The following day, Lentz, who founded the New York Hillsong location in 2010 with Houston’s son Joel, admitted in an Instagram post that he’d been “unfaithful to my wife.”

Lentz’s confession was accompanied by a photo of Lentz with his wife and three children. “I now begin a journey of rebuilding trust with my wife, Laura and my children and taking real time to work on and heal my own life and seek out the help that I need,” Lentz wrote.

According to Boz Tchividjian, a former prosecutor and founder of GRACE, an organization that works with churches to investigate abuse, he and an unnamed source reported sexual transgressions to Hillsong in 2017, but were rebuffed. “There have been many sexual transgressions at Hillsong NYC,” Tchividjian said. “We tried to address them in 2017 and we were told that we were spreading gossip.’”

Tchividjian added, “This is a common & effective method leaders use to shame victims into silence in order to protect offenders & institutional reputations.”

Brian Houston and his wife Bobbie founded the original Hillsong Church in 1983 in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. It now has locations in 28 countries around the world and, pre-pandemic, saw an average 150,000 attenders each week, according to its website.

The various global churches all report to Houston and a board of male elders.

Relatively unknown before taking the helm of Hillsong NYC, Lentz became a media darling for his hipster clothes, tattooed arms and his celebrity congregants, including Justin Bieber and his wife, Hailey Baldwin Bieber, as well as the Jenner sisters. He was one of a number of pastors GQ Magazine has described as “hypepriests” who lead churches frequented by celebrities. 

In answer to Lentz’s Instagram post, Esther Houston, Joel Houston’s wife, implied that, despite his admission, Lentz had not stopped the affair that led to his dismissal. 

“Amazing to see all the support being poured out for this despicable ongoing behavior,” she said in the comment. “Listen. I’m not gonna play this game. I fully denounce this and will make no excuses for it. You’ve been dealt a good hand, and you played it wrong.”

The British tabloid The Sun has reported that Lentz posed as a sports agent when he met a 34-year old designer, who identified herself only as Ranin, in a Brooklyn, New York, park. Ranin told The Sun she had been having an affair with the pastor for the past five months.

Ranin said after a few dates, she began to suspect he was married and asked. At that point, he admitted he had three children and had been married for 17 years. She later used his phone number to find out his last name and, at that point, discovered he was a pastor.

“My mind was blown,” she told the tabloid.

Ranin said Lentz told her that when he first saw her, “God told him to tell me that I need to know my worth and there’s something special about me … whatever whatever.”

According to Ranin, the two broke up last week. She said Lentz’s wife discovered their text messages on his computer at the Hillsong offices, with several of his coworkers there.

Lentz met his wife, Laura, a family friend of the Houston’s, in Australia when he attended Hillsong’s training program, Hillsong College. It is unclear whether she will remain in her position at Hillsong NYC, though some reports have said that she has also been let go.

In a brief appearance at Hillsong NYC’s Sunday streaming service, Brian Houston expressed gratitude for the team of leaders at the Manhattan church and said they were not only supportive of the decisions made, “but were part of the process.”

Houston also noted that during transitions, “It’s always a time where there’s speculation, rumor and gossip when change is made, and especially when radical change is made.”

“There’s great days ahead,” Houston assured the church. “We will continue to stay in touch when it comes to the long-term leadership of Hillsong East Coast.”

Neither Hillsong NYC nor Hillsong Global immediately responded to request for comment.’https://julieroys.com/hillsong-investigation-lentzs-firing/?mc_cid=17ba77ef58&mc_eid=b13d34ad49

Nazi Facebook & You

Posted by whatyareckon on November 10, 2020
Posted in: America, Australia, China. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

The Nazi’s at Facebook are not going to be satisfied until all conservatives either get off Facebook or surrender to their demands. As you probably already know ‘In a post-election move, Facebook has started putting “problematic” groups in a form of “probation” where admins are required to manually approve posts by members.

The move is yet another attempt by the social media company to censor what it perceives to be misleading information related to the presidential election.

The probation will apply to groups that supposedly allow too many posts that violate Facebook’s strict rules.

This is a rather impractical requirement, especially for large groups, as the probation period will last for 60 days, meaning that every post will have to be manually approved. Once implemented, probation cannot be appealed.

Groups put on probation will be closely monitored. Depending on how they handle the self-censorship, they will permanently be banned or the “probation” lifted after the lapse of the 60 days.

“We are temporarily requiring admins and moderators of some political and social groups in the U.S. to approve all posts if their group has a number of Community Standards violations from members,” said Facebook spokesperson Leonard Lam.

Admins of a popular group in Aberdeen City, Washington, were surprised with a notification telling them all posts would require their approval until January 4. The group has over 7k members who mostly discuss local events. It also has a policy prohibiting arguing over politics.

“At this point, we are wondering if we might close the group. The extra work and frustration is weighing heavy on us,” said one of the group’s admins.

While the measure makes admins responsible for the content shared on their groups, it is impractical for large groups. Some groups have hundreds of thousands of members with hundreds of posts daily.

This measure is one of the latest actions the social media company has taken in the past few days to curb the spread of accusations of election fraud. Others include banning hashtags related to accusations of election fraud and removing a group called “Stop the Steal” that had more than 360k members.’https://reclaimthenet.org/facebook-to-start-putting-users-on-probation/

Unfaithful in Marriage Reason 4 Hillsong NY Pastor’s Termination

Posted by whatyareckon on November 7, 2020
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‘In an Instagram post on Thursday, Carl Lentz, the lead pastor of Hillsong NYC, admitted he was “unfaithful” in his marriage, ending a day of speculation as to why he had been fired.

On Wednesday, Hillsong founding pastor Brian Houston notified staff and members of Hillsong East Coast by email of Lentz’s termination. The email, which was obtained by The Roys Report, cited “leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures” as the reason for the firing but did not reveal more details, saying to do so “would not be appropriate.”

“I know this will come as a shock to you, but please know that this action was not taken lightly and was done in the best interests of everyone, including Pastor Carl,” Houston wrote.

In his Instagram post, Lentz admitted to being “unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life.”

“This failure is on me, and me alone and I take full responsibility for my actions,” according to the post.

“When you accept the calling of being a pastor, you must live in such a way that it honors the mandate. That it honors the church, and that it honors God. When that does not happen, a change needs to be made and has been made in this case to ensure that standard is upheld,” Lentz said in the post.

He expressed gratitude for his time at the church and said leading Hillsong NYC “has been an honor in every sense of the word.”

“This is a hard ending to what has been the most amazing, impacting and special chapter of our lives.”’https://julieroys.com/lentz-ousted-unfaithful-to-wife/?mc_cid=4b3777fbc5&mc_eid=b13d34ad49

Psalm Eight

Posted by whatyareckon on October 31, 2020
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Nonconformist Matthew Henry states ‘This psalm is a solemn meditation on, and admiration of, the glory and greatness of God, of which we are all concerned to think highly and honourably. It begins and ends with the same acknowledgment of the transcendent excellency of God’s name.’

Psalm 8:1-9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 3 ¶ When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

The Not Yet Named Urinating Celebrity NC Pastor

Posted by whatyareckon on October 27, 2020
Posted in: Airlines, America, Christian. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

In the evangelical world of religion there are leaders that are considered ‘celebrities’ and those who are just plain ole preachers. Well, the ‘celebrity’ preachers seem to be often caught out doing some very strange things such as when a woman reported ‘…that as she woke up on a red-eye flight, a man later identified as a “well-known North Carolina pastor” was allegedly peeing on her.

Alicia Beverly, a Detroit resident, says the incident happened on a Delta flight from Las Vegas to Detroit on October 12th.

She told Fox News Detroit that she was in the back of the plane, next to her sister. She had fallen asleep but suddenly woke up to a strange feeling.

She said, “It felt warm, like on the side of me I felt something warm.”

As the drowsy woman woke up a little more, she saw something she was not expecting.

“I jump up and I seen his private area out and I screamed and that woke everybody up,” said Beverly. “By that time I actually looked at him and I see him shake himself off and I’m like this man just peed on me! I looked and there was a puddle of pee in the seats!”

Not surprisingly, she then screamed, which got everyone’s attention. One of the other passengers was an off-duty police officer. He quickly came to the back of the plane and restrained the man, who has so far only been identified as a “well-known pastor from North Carolina.”

Beverly, who said she was grateful for the offer’s intervention, reported she had to sit in her wet clothes for several hours before landing in Detroit.

The man was taken into custody when the plane landed and charges against him are pending.

People close to the pastor said he had a reaction to a sleeping aid and didn’t do it on purpose.

As the incident happened in the air, the FBI will be handling the case. They have not yet announced how they plan to pursue the matter.’https://yourmileagemayvary.net/2020/10/15/well-known-pastor-urinated-on-woman-while-on-delta-flight/

Reading of Psalm One

Posted by whatyareckon on October 26, 2020
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We live overseas and have dual citizenship and therefore, we may still have the privilege of voting in the USA elections. We vote for the one we believe will continue to uphold the Constitution as the founding fathers intended. Nevertheless, the enemies of freedom have been at work since the founding of the nation and are today doing all they can to tear down America morally, finically and spiritually. Sometimes it seems like a losing battle but God is still on the throne. May this reading of Psalm One be a blessing to you as you meditate not on man but on the Creator and Sustainer of all life! Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.