Be humble and gentle

Bible Verse of the Day: Ephesians 4:2 (KJV)

2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

Renew Your Mind

Today's Scripture: Proverbs 7

Proverbs 7 (KJV)

1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

4 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

6 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,

8 Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

9 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:

10 And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

11 (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

12 Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

14 I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.

15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

20 He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

Scripture Meaning

Invitations to learn wisdom. (1-5) The arts of seducers, with warnings against them. (6-27)

Verses 1-5: We must lay up God's commandments safely. Not only, Keep them, and you shall live; but, Keep them as those that cannot live without them. Those that blame strict and careful walking as needless and too precise, consider not that the law is to be kept as the apple of the eye; indeed the law in the heart is the eye of the soul.
Let the word of God dwell in us, and so be written where it will be always at hand to be read. Thus we shall be kept from the fatal effects of our own passions, and the snares of Satan. Let God's word confirm our dread of sin, and resolutions against it.

Verses 6-27: Here is an affecting example of the danger of youthful lusts. It is a history or a parable of the most instructive kind. Will any one dare to venture on temptations that lead to impurity, after Solomon has set before his eyes in so lively and plain a manner, the danger of even going near them? Then is he as the man who would dance on the edge of a lofty rock, when he has just seen another fall headlong from the same place.

The misery of self-ruined sinners began in disregard to God's blessed commands. We ought daily to pray that we may be kept from running into temptation, else we invite the enemies of our souls to spread snares for us. Ever avoid the neighbourhood of vice. Beware of sins which are said to be pleasant sins. They are the more dangerous, because they most easily gain the heart, and close it against repentance. Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it.
Were a man to live as long as Methuselah, and to spend all his days in the highest delights sin can offer, one hour of the anguish and tribulation that must follow, would far outweigh them.

Scripture Application

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we continue with the Book of Proverbs with Chapter 7. In our text today we see how Wisdom guards against immorality. In making application we see that living in this imperfect world we need wisdom to navigate through this world of sin.

Today the moral fabric of the world is full of immorality. If we are not careful we will be influenced by others in the worlds system. We need to constantly renew our mind with the Word of God. How about you?  Do your read the Bible daily? Let us learn from our text today to remember that we live in an imperfect world and we need to renew our mind daily to navigate our lives

Pakistan’s Calculated Spin on Apparent Killing of Chinese Evangelists

Interior ministry’s statement sends chilling message to foreign Christians.

Pakistan: (Morning Star News) - Islamabad’s claim that “violations” of business visas contributed to the murder of two Chinese evangelists last month served key government purposes.

Lee Zing Yang (Li Xinheng is said to be the more accurate rendering), 24, and Meng Li Si (Meng Lisi), 26, were teaching Chinese to people in Pakistan, and, like any Christian, they also intended to share the gospel with people they met. Pakistani media dutifully broadcast the Interior Ministry spin on their apparent deaths, which accused the couple of “preaching” - suggesting that it violated terms of their business visas (it was not clear how), and wrongly implying that they were exhorting crowds of people to believe in Christ.

Reports state that Lee and Meng were paid 30,000 rupees (US$280) per month to teach Chinese to people in Pakistan at a language institute run by a South Korean, Juan Won Seo. The interior ministry released a statement asserting that security officials told Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in a June 12 meeting that, “Instead of engaging in any business activity, they went to Quetta and under the garb of learning [the] Urdu language from a Korean national …were actually engaged in preaching.”

The apparent error that they were there to learn Urdu aside, Khan’s announcement, which included a call to tighten processes for issuing business visas, sent the message that the pair’s kidnapping and apparent murder resulted from allegedly violating terms of their visas.

Lee and Meng were kidnapped off the streets of Quetta, capital of northwestern Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, on May 24. The Islamic State-affiliated news agency Amaq reported on June 8 that IS fighters had killed two Chinese teachers being held in Mastung, Balochistan, and IS released a video showing what are believed to be their bodies shot and bleeding.
Pakistan reportedly confirmed that the Chinese teachers had been killed, though it was unclear if officials had recovered their bodies.

The interior minister’s emphasis on the need to shore up the visa process, rather than improving security against Islamic extremists, served the government’s purpose of deflecting blame. It also sent a chilling message to foreign Christian evangelists. Previously the government had leaked news that two Korean Christians, 27-year-old Kown Ki Ye and 23-year-old Lee Ha Gyeong, had been expelled from a private hostel in Quetta after they were discovered “preaching Christianity” to students at Sardur Bahadur Khan Women’s University in Quetta.
“The government has deliberately leaked this information to create panic in the foreign missionary circles,” a source told Morning Star News.

The interior ministry’s spin on the murder of the Chinese pair also served its purpose in relations with China, which has pledged to invest $57 billion in infrastructure in Pakistan designed to link China with the Middle East and Europe. The capital for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPC) has put China in position to make demands of Pakistan that have raised criticism within Pakistan.

Besides helping to preserve the enormous CPC investment, the government’s statements on the killing of Lee and Meng were done deliberately to check China’s position in bilateral relations, a Foreign Affairs ministry contact told Morning Star News. Pakistan has since bolstered its position vis-a-visa China by boosting security for Chinese nationals.

Pakistan has also deported Juan Won Seo, accusing him of setting up a phony business as a cover for a church and “preaching activities.” A South Korean official has denied this claim. True or not, whether Seo broke any laws by telling others about Christ while operating a language institute in Pakistan remains unclear.

While Islam is the state religion of Pakistan, its constitution states that all citizens have the right to profess, practice, and propagate their religion, as well as the right to freedom of speech subject to “reasonable restrictions in the interest of the glory of Islam.”

What does seem certain is that Pakistani officials have violated international standards of religious freedom and free speech by deporting foreign evangelists and suggesting that those who exercise their faith are responsible for violence done to them.






cred: The Morning Star News

Buddhists Attacks Newly Converted Christians

Buddhists in Burma Attack, Injure Newly Converted Christians

YANGON, Burma (Morning Star News) - About 150 angry Buddhists and monks this month attacked newly converted Christians in Burma (Myanmar), destroying their homes and property and injuring seven people.

In Thi Taw village in northwest Burma’s Sagaing Region, the mob threw stones and broke into houses on July 6, two days after two families put their trust in Christ and left Buddhism, a local official told Morning Star News. Four women and three men who were hit with stones and sticks and suffered injuries on their heads, faces and backs. Three motorbikes were destroyed.

The Buddhists told local press that the Christian villagers sang and preached late into the night to celebrate and welcome the new Christians. The local Buddhists told Morning Star News that the Assembly of God Church members, visiting from neighboring Chin state, held services for three days, prompting them to attack on the third day.
The two converted families are ethnic majority Burman who put their faith in Christ on July 4.

Prior to the attack, a monk in Thi Taw told the worshiping Christians to be quiet and stop making noise late at night, several residents told Morning Star News.

“They made noise every night when neighbors were asleep,” a local Thi Taw official, Soe Thura Hlaing, told Morning Star News. “They were clapping, and dancing until late at night. On the third day, neighbors were angry and went to attack them. They took sticks and stones with them.”
As is common in Burma, the Buddhists made unfounded accusations that the Christians gave money to the two Buddhist families to convert to Christianity.

“I don’t know whether they were given money,” Hlaing told Morning Star News. “But what I know is that they were attacked because they were converted to Christianity.”

Several witnesses told Morning Star News that the mob got very angry after local police and local authorities tried to stop them from attacking the Christians’ houses. Police shot into the sky to warn and frighten the assailants, which only further infuriated them, and they destroyed the Christians’ furniture and other belongings, besides beating them, Hlaing said.

“When we turned on the torch [light] toward them [the assailants], they threw stones also toward us,” said Hlaing, who tried to help police stop the attackers. “So a policeman in our group fired the gun in the air three times. When they heard gunfire, they become more aggressive and threw more stones at us.”
Unable to stop the attack, he and police asked other monks to help them, he said.
“When the monks arrived, we shouted for them not to throw stones,” Hlaing said. “And the monks took pastors and injured people and sent them to local clinics.”
Christian families have relocated to a compound belonging to a local church until their houses can be rebuilt.

The Chinland Guardian reported that the attack was well-organized, as local monks and authorities brought villagers in five vehicles to hurl stones at the Christians’ homes, where the worship services were taking place. The attack reportedly lasted four hours.

Monks and authorities tried to pressure the newly converted Christians to return to Buddhism by making them choose between “re-conversion” and being banished from the village, local press reported.





cred: The Morning Star News

Consider the Ant

Today's Scripture: Proverbs 6

Proverbs 6 (KJV)

1 My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,

2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.

3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.

4 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.

5 Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

8 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

12 A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.

13 He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

14 Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.

15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.

16 These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

20 My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

21 Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

22 When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

24 To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

26 For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adultress will hunt for the precious life.

27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?

29 So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;

31 But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

32 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

33 A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

34 For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

35 He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.

Scripture Meaning

Cautions against rash suretiship. (1-5) A rebuke to slothfulness. (6-11) Seven things hateful to God. (12-19) Exhortations to walk according to God's commandments. (20-35)

Verses 1-5: If we live as directed by the word of God, we shall find it profitable even in this present world. We are stewards of our worldly substance, and have to answer to the Lord for our disposal of it; to waste it in rash schemes, or such plans as may entangle us in difficulties and temptations, is wrong.
A man ought never to be surety for more than he is able and willing to pay, and can afford to pay, without wronging his family; he ought to look upon every sum he is engaged for, as his own debt. If we must take all this care to get our debts to men forgiven, much more to obtain forgiveness with God. Humble thyself to him, make sure of Christ as thy Friend, to plead for thee; pray earnestly that thy sins may be pardoned, and that thou mayest be kept from going down to the pit.

Verses 6-11: Diligence in business is every man's wisdom and duty; not so much that he may attain worldly wealth, as that he may not be a burden to others, or a scandal to the church. The ants are more diligent than slothful men. We may learn wisdom from the meanest insects, and be shamed by them. Habits of indolence and indulgence grow upon people.
Thus life runs to waste; and poverty, though at first at a distance, gradually draws near, like a traveller; and when it arrives, is like an armed man, too strong to be resisted. All this may be applied to the concerns of our souls. How many love their sleep of sin, and their dreams of worldly happiness! Shall we not seek to awaken such? Shall we not give diligence to secure our own salvation?

Verses 12-19: If the slothful are to be condemned, who do nothing, much more those that do all the ill they can. Observe how such a man is described. He says and does every thing artfully, and with design. His ruin shall come without warning, and without relief. Here is a list of things hateful to God.
Those sins are in a special manner provoking to God, which are hurtful to the comfort of human life. These things which God hates, we must hate in ourselves; it is nothing to hate them in others. Let us shun all such practices, and watch and pray against them; and avoid, with marked disapproval, all who are guilty of them, whatever may be their rank.

Verses 20-35: The word of God has something to say to us upon all occasions. Let not faithful reproofs ever make us uneasy. When we consider how much this sin abounds, how heinous adultery is in its own nature, of what evil consequence it is, and how certainly it destroys the spiritual life in the soul, we shall not wonder that the cautions against it are so often repeated. Let us notice the subjects of this chapter.
Let us remember Him who willingly became our Surety, when we were strangers and enemies. And shall Christians, who have such prospects, motives, and examples, be slothful and careless? Shall we neglect what is pleasing to God, and what he will graciously reward? May we closely watch every sense by which poison can enter our minds or affections.

Scripture Application

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we continue with the Book of Proverbs with Chapter 6. In our text today we see the warning against foolish actions. We are given the example of the ant and how his diligence produces prosperity. In making application we see how we need to consider the ant.
How he works hard in the harvest, is not lazy, and is diligent. If we follow the ants example we will prosper in this world. How about you? Are you diligent with the responsibilities the Lord gives you? Let us learn form our text today to remember to not be foolish but consider the Ant and be focused, diligent, and focused on what the Lord would have us to do..

God's Lovingkindness

Bible Verse of the Day: Psalm 36:7 (KJV)

7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

Homosexuality, Christianity and Heaven

Question: Can you be a homosexual and still be a Christian and go to heaven? - anonymous

It should be clear after you’ve read it that homosexuality is not part of God’s plan for humanity. It is in fact one way a person can express their rebellion against our Creator. But that doesn’t answer your question in its entirety does it?

It is quite possible for a person to have very strong same-sex attractions - to have homosexual desires - and still be a Christian. Sometimes our personalities are the products of factors beyond our control. People can be raised in social circumstances that predispose them towards certain behaviour; we often pick up the attitudes of the people we are raised with on a whole lot of topics. Some people are born with obsessive / compulsive personalities, and that makes things like alcoholism or any other form of addictive behaviour much more likely, and therefore dangerous. Consequently a person can find themselves with homosexual desires and have no clear memory of ever making a ‘choice’ to be that way. That doesn’t make the behaviour right, but it does make it a lot harder for that person to resist.

It’s important to realise that it’s not a sin simply because you are tempted by something. It becomes a sin when we give in to those temptations. Jesus was tempted, just like us, but he didn’t sin - he didn’t elevate his desires over God’s (Hebrews 4:15). It’s also important to realise that just because we do sin, a person doesn’t cease to be a Christian. Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins represented a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice for every sin that we have ever committed or will commit (Hebrews 9:24-28; 1 Peter 3:18).

The Bible also assures us that once we have trusted ourselves to Jesus, nothing - not even our own sins - can part us from him and our eventual home in Heaven because our salvation depends not on what we do, but on God’s promise to honour Jesus’ sacrifice (Romans 8:31-39). But a Christian is a person who has turned their back on sin and is no longer satisfied with the sinful life that was taking them further and further away from God. The Bible describes people who put their trust in Jesus as those who ‘put off the old self’ and put on the new life they now have because of him.

So you can see that it is possible to have a homosexual nature and yet be a Christian. But it is not possible to willingly practise homosexuality, thinking no more of it, and yet be a Christian. A Christian, when everything else is said and done, is a person who has chosen to follow Christ first.

Israelis March Demanding Access to Temple Mount

Israelis March Demanding Access to Temple Mount and Building of Third Temple

Monday evening marked the beginning of the Jewish fast of Tisha B'Av, which commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples.

Thousands of Israelis participated in an annual march around the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, with a special focus on the Temple Mount.

Though it is Judaism's holiest site, Jews are still not allowed to pray there due to threats of Muslim violence.

Government officials participating in the march noted that the people of Israel are seeking much more than just the right to pray atop a Muslim-occupied Temple Mount.

They want the Third Temple.

"Everyone who came here tonight proved with his feet that we want the Temple back - and quickly," Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben Dahan told Arutz 7.




cred: Israel Today

Vietnam pastor freed early from prison in return for exile to US

Vietnam has released a Lutheran pastor and deported him to the United States, reports UCA News.

Nguyen Cong Chinh, was serving an 11-year prison sentence for “undermining national solidarity” through religious activities with ethnic groups in the country’s Central Highlands. He was also a director of the Vietnam-U.S. Lutheran Alliance Church.

A statement released last week (29 July) by the US-based Boat People SOS (BPSOS), said that Chinh arrived in Los Angeles on 28 July with his wife and five children following a deal that saw him released in return for leaving the country.

“We welcome the early release of Pastor Chinh but deplore the fact that he and his loved ones must go into exile,” said BPSOS President Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang.

Chinh, who had been imprisoned since 2011, was recently further punished for speaking to a visiting US diplomatic delegation about the abuses he had suffered. Last year Chinh’s wife, Tran Thi Hong, described her interrogation and beatings for publicising Chinh’s case with international human rights organisations, and the arrest of one of their children, as an ‘intolerable’ level of harassment towards her family.





Cred: World Watch Monitor

Church in Zanzibar, Tanzania Shaken as Court Supports Muslims’ Opposition to Building

Christian leaders see Islamist bias in ruling

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) - A court on the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, ruled on Thursday (July 20) that a church cannot continue constructing a worship building it has tried to finish for eight years, sources said.

Hard-line Muslims outside Zanzibar City have been fighting the construction of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God building since 2009, having demolished the partially built structure twice before then. They claim the party that sold the property to the church was not the rightful owner.
Christians believe the court on the overwhelmingly Muslim island acted out of religious bias. A previous court ruling allowed construction to go forward.

Pastor Amos Lukanula of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God church said last week’s ruling has serious implications for the survival of congregation on the island, and that the church plans to appeal to the High Court of Zanzibar.

“Our church members have persistently worked alongside with me and are frustrated and weary, but we are always hopeful that God will still intervene,” Pastor Lukanula said. “We cannot allow the Muslims to put up a mosque in place of the church.”

The case has dragged on for more than eight years as the area Muslims have forced the church in Chukwani to incur legal costs of $100 per month in an effort to take over its property, sources said. Pastor Lukanula said the court had been waiting for the church to fail to attend the monthly court hearing in order to rule against it on a technicality.

The church purchased the property in 2004 and began putting up a temporary structure, but the area Muslims pulled it down. The church then spent three years putting up a semi-permanent structure, which the hard-line Muslims also destroyed, sources said.

After the third structure of stone blocks was half-way finished in 2009, the Muslims stopped construction with a court order until the legal dispute could be resolved. This forced the church to raise 5.7 million Tanzanian shillings, more than US$2,500, to fight the case in court, with an attorney from mainland Tanzania traveling to Zanzibar each month at a cost of $100 per visit.

“We bought the land from Harun Gikaro Wanzo, who passed on in 2009, and now his widow is the one remaining who has a small piece of land,” Pastor Lukanula said, saying the church has allowed Wanzo’s widow, Annah Philippo Barihuta, to remain living on the premises. “Now she might too lose that land, and she has several children to take care of. We appeal for support and prayers as we appeal for justice to be done.”

On Feb. 21, 2011, a lower court ruled in favor of the church, which then continued with construction. But after the death of Amina Binti Saleh, the seller of the property to Wanzo, area Muslims and Saleh’s daughter, Jilubai Binti Saleh, filed another appeal to stop construction in 2011. The Muslims claimed that Saleh’s son, Sadik, was not the blood son of her late husband, Abdul Shakar, and hence did not have the right of ownership of the land that was sold to Christians. They held that Saleh’s daughter, Jilubai Binti Saleh, had been the rightful heir.

In the church’s bid to show that Barihuta’s late husband, Wanzo, had the right to sell the land to the church, the impoverished widow and her family have borne much of the costs of the court case. Barihuta is a member of the church.

The Muslims claimed in court that Barihuta invaded Saleh’s land in 2004 and uprooted 20 coconut trees, then put up a house illegally, and that in 2007, Pastor Lukanula illegally put up the church building within a residential area and destroyed trees worth 2 million Tanzanian shillings (US$885).





cred: The Morning Star News