Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog - What to watch in 2019: Russia building dangerous military alliance with Iran, Turkey, Libya and other enemies of Israel as U.S. withdraws from Syria.

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What to watch in 2019: Russia building dangerous military alliance with Iran, Turkey, Libya and other enemies of Israel as U.S. withdraws from Syria. by joelcrosenberg (Jerusalem, Israel) -- As 2019 begins, I will be writing a series of columns on leaders, countries and global trend lines to keep a close eye upon. Chief among them: Russian President Vladmir Putin's diplomatic and military activity in recent months. Putin is steadily building strategic alliances with Israel's worst enemies, from the leaders of Iran who long to create a nuclear-armed Persian empire to President Recep Erdogan of Turkey who sees himself as a modern day sultan longing to create a new Ottoman empire. Note: On November 24, 2017, Putin, Iranian President Rouhani and Erdogan held a summit together in Sochi, Russia. On April 4, 2018, the three met for a summit in Ankara, Turkey. On September 7, 2018, the three met for a summit in Tehran, Iran. On December 28, 2018, it was reported that the Russian, Iranian and Turkish leaders would hold their next summit in Moscow in early 2019. This would be cause for concern enough if the U.S. superpower was playing a robust and proactive role in the Epicenter. But it is all the more concerning with President Trump's recent decision to remove all U.S. forces from Syria in recent months and his statement yesterday that Iran "can do what they want there (in Syria), frankly,” It's still more concerning when you look at the other countries in the Middle East and North Africa that the Kremlin is selling arms to and building alliances with. I will provide more analysis on this soon. For now, take a look at these recent headlines and you'll get a sense of what Putin is up to. Iran, Turkey, Russia threaten Israel in Eastern Mediterranean (Jerusalem Post) An emerging Russia-Turkey-Iran alliance could reshape the Middle East (FPIF) Syria faces brittle future, dominated by Russia and Iran (New York Times) Three things the Tehran summit exposed about Russia, Turkey, Iran alliance (Al-Monitor) Russia to hold Mediterranean drills as Syria tensions rise (Times of Israel) Russia Has a Plan for Libya—Another Qaddafi; Vladimir Putin is working to fill voids left around the world as Donald Trump puts America first. (Bloomberg Czar Vladimir? Putin Acolytes Want to Bring Back the Monarchy -- Pro-Kremlin activists want to restore Russian traditions—and hope for a longer reign for Mr. Putin (Wall Street Journal)  Russia's game in Libya (Pravda) Russia set up two military bases and sent troops on ground in east Libya(Libyan Express) Algeria has bought half of the Russian weapons sold in Africa (Middle East Monitor) What is behind Sudan's 'rapprochement' with Russia? Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir paid a visit to Russia in a desperate attempt to stay in power.(Al-Jazeera) Russia and Sudan look to develop military cooperation (Middle East Monitor) For some, this may sound like a political thriller of mine -- The Ezekiel Option or The Kremlin Conspiracy. But what makes it chilling is that these headlines are all too real. Stay tuned. —————————– PRE-ORDER — To pre-order a copy of THE PERSIAN GAMBLE, please click here.  To order a copy of The Kremlin Conspiracy — the New York Timesbest-selling political thriller, now available in paperback, hardcover, e-book and audio formats — please click here, or order from any of your favorite general market or Christian bookstores. To order copies of the new mass market paperbacks of the J.B. Collins novels — my most recent trilogy of novels about ISIS plotting attacks on the U.S., Israel, Jordan and Egypt — please click here. —————————- Would you like to make a generous, tax-deductible investment in The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.com)? This is the non-profit organization that my wife, Lynn, and I founded in 2006 to educate and mobilize Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, to care for the poor and needy in Israel (both Jews and Arabs) with food and other humanitarian relief, care for Holocaust survivors, care for Syrian and Iraqi refugees, and strengthen the Church in the epicenter. The Joshua Fund is a member in good standing of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. Please click here to learn more. Thanks so much! Visit Joel’s website at www.joelrosenberg.com and sign up to receive up to three novels by Joel absolutely free. Sign up to get every blog Joel writes delivered immediately to you by email — just click here and enter your email address in the RSS feed section (see top right-hand section of the blog’s homepage. This post is ad-supported ​ joelcrosenberg | January 3, 2019 at 5:06 am | Categories: Epicenter | URL: https://wp.me/piWZ7-8K6

Your news from Israel - 30 November 2016 - THE JERUSALEM JOURNAL

IRAN: NAVAL BASES IN SYRIA, YEMEN ARE "MORE IMPORTANT THAN NUCLEAR POWER" ...by Brian Schrauger Iran's vision for its future is vast. The "territory" it forsees as its own will require naval bases in Syria, Yemen, the Indian Ocean, and on manmade islands. Establishing these bases, it says, is "ten times more important than nuclear power." READ MORE... ✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡ THE REAL REASON FOR TODAY'S RESURGENCE OF ANTISEMITISM Antisemitism, reaches back at least as far as Pharaohs in Egypt who murdered Jewish boys and refused to voluntarily release the Jews from slavery. It is a virus of the human soul that persists and, once again, is going viral. But what is its cause? Auschwitz survivor, former Mossad agent and sports journalist, Noah Klieger, gives one reason. READ MORE... ✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡ ISRAEL WATCHES: PUTIN MANEUVERS TO ESTABLISH BASE IN LIBYA ...by Brian Schrauger Libya's General is in Moscow seeking help in the fight against ISIS. For his part, Putin may be asking for a new military base on Europe's southern doorstep. The prize that everybody seeks? Libya's Mediterranean oil fields. READ MORE... ✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡ POST-FIRE REHAB IN ISRAEL COULD TAKE 30 YEARS ...VIDEO INCLUDED A week of wildfires throughout the country has destroyed whole communities and devastated huge swaths of Israel's natural reserves and wildlife. From drone footage over Israel, see for yourself. READ MORE... ✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡ D O N A T E !        E N D O W ! Around the world, news agencies are finding it increasingly difficult to fund their operations. As a result, the quality of news, especially written news, is suffering. If you do not want to see this happen to news about Israel, from Israel, we need your help.  If you have a passion for the news, especially news about Israel and from Israeli perspectives, help us. Donate a monthly amount, endow us for the present and coming crucial years. CLICK HERE Our primary financial need is to pay those who write for us. Many do so at no charge. Even so, every laborer deserves to be paid. Inasmuch as we pay our reporters, we facilitate their lives in Israel, encourage them and insure more and better stories in the future. There is also a need to go on location where stories are happening stories. Because we are already in the Middle East, we do not have to go far. Still, there is a cost in sending reporters to places "on the ground" where stories are happening. Partner with us in this work through your monthly donation.

The Jerusalem Journal is a USA 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. As such donations may have tax benefits. Please, check with an accounting professional to see if a gift has a beneficial impact on your income taxes. Copyright © 2016 The Jerusalem Journal, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: The Jerusalem Journal Jerusalem Jerusalem 91010 Israel

Former Muslim Now Baptizing Muslim Converts - CBN News George Thomas

Former Muslim Now Baptizing Muslim Converts

03-08-2016

CBN News George Thomas

Shahid is proof that God is moving powerfully across parts of Muslim-majority Middle East and North Africa.

Shahid (not his real name for security purposes), is from Libya and grew up a devout Muslim.

"As every Libyan, when I was a little boy, I used to go to the Koranic school," Shahid told Leading The Way with Dr. Joseph Youssef, a Christian television and radio ministry that broadcasts in more than 190 countries around the world.

Shahid spent 14 years of his life attending Muslim schools, where a strict interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence was taught. He became an expert in the Koran, even memorizing the entire Muslim holy book.

But the closer he examined the Muslim laws, the more he become disillusioned with what he read.

"Islam was completely exposed with its hidden reality," Shahid said of studying Islam. "Little by little, I had serious concerns about Islam."

To get some answers to his questions, he sought the advice of friends and family. But they told him not to question his faith. They even became hostile.

"They told me there is a verse in the Koran that urges Muslims not to seek answers to questions about some things, as it may hurt them if they know the answers."

The doubt. The questions. The inaccuracies of his faith tormented Shahid.

"I lived in a struggle for more than four years," Shahid told LTW in a video produced by the organization.

Desperate and despondent, Shahid said he decided to abandon the faith of his childhood and become an atheist.

"I got to a point when Islam had no part of my life, and religion ceased to exist and Muhammad meant nothing to me."

It was around this time that Shahid came across Kingdom SAT, Leading The Way's 24-hour satellite channel, which broadcasts across the Muslim world.

With the help of Leading The Way partners in the Middle East, Shahid secretly connected with Christians in Lebanon and Jordon and eventually was introduced to Jesus Christ.

"I learned about who Jesus is and how to be a Christian. We studied how to live with Christ, fellowship with Him, and be part of the church."

After several months of intensive Bible studies, Shahid said he "accepted Jesus' salvation and got baptized."

Inspired with revelation of God's profound love for him, Shahid said he felt compelled to share his new found faith with his countrymen in Libya and others across the region. 

"I couldn't keep my mouth shut," Shahid said. "I had to share Jesus with others."

According to LTW, Shahid has been sharing the love of Christ with Muslim followers and many have turned to faith in Christianity.

Two years after leaving Islam, Leading The Way says Shahid has planted 11 churches across North Africa and Europe and is baptizing Muslim converts.

Shahid recently shared a picture with Leading The Way showing him baptizing new converts to Christianity on the same shores of North Africa where the Islamic terror group ISIS beheaded 21 Coptic Christians in February 2015.

Leading The Way's founder and president Dr. Michael Youssef says testimonies like Shahid's and countless others should bring hope and inspiration to the Body of Christ.

"He is a free man," Youssef said of Shahid's testimony. "Most importantly, he is free in Christ!"

Despite the sufferings of Christians, Leading The Way says Shahid's life is one more powerful example of how God is transforming lives across the Middle East and North Africa.

Watch here: Former Muslim in Libya Now Baptizing Muslims Converts

The United States Is Not the Center of the Universe - J. LEE GRADY

If you are a Christian, you are a global citizen. (iStock photo)

The United States Is Not the Center of the Universe

 2/3/2016 J. LEE GRADY  charisma magazine

My friend Kelechi is a brave Nigerian evangelist who has gotten himself kidnapped several times so he could share Christ with armed militants. More recently he has been involved in dangerous evangelism efforts in northern Nigeria, where Islamic jihadists have killed 17,000 people in the past five years.

A few days ago, Kelechi sent me a disturbing email, asking for prayer. He had just learned that a young man he was discipling, Boulous, was killed by militants while trying to get some Christians out of a village that had been targeted for a surprise attack.

Kelechi wrote: "Please would you pray for me and ask your friends to lift us before the Lord? It is a very trying time. We are the only people doing evangelistic work there, so we cannot stop. Also pray for me as I go to the area next week when I think it will be safer."

I feel helpless trying to raise awareness of Kelechi's cause. One of the worst waves of terrorism on planet earth has hit Nigeria, yet the world's media gives it scant attention. The Islamic group operating there, Boko Haram, killed more people in 2014 than ISIS terrorists in Syria. Last week in the Nigerian village of Dalori, Islamic militants bombed homes and burned children alive.

The death toll in Dalori was 86. But did you hear anything about the attack? It wasn't on any news channel I listen to. All the major networks were talking nonstop about Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and the Iowa presidential caucus—along with the controversy stirred by Beyoncé's new music video.

In April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 Christian schoolgirls from the Nigerian town of Chibok—and for a few weeks people on this side of the Atlantic Ocean paid attention, especially after First Lady Michelle Obama tweeted her support for the girls.

Almost two years have now passed, and the girls are still missing. They are most likely living as slaves in a Boko Haram camp on the Chadian border. Most likely they have been forced to marry their abductors. And most people have forgotten about them.

All these foreign problems are just too stressful to think about. And too far away. Besides, we have a Super Bowl to watch.

I'm not trying to put anybody under a guilt trip. I am blessed to live in the United States, and there isn't much I can do to stop Boko Haram from torching African villages. But it concerns me that so many of us are completely oblivious to the needs of the rest of the world.

Just a few days ago, Islamic terrorists linked to the group Al Shabaab killed four Christian in Kenya. One of the believers was beheaded. I have to rely on a relatively obscure Christian news service for this information because mainstream media outlets rarely report on Christian persecution.

Wars are going on today in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Ukraine, Israel, Iraq, Nigeria and South Sudan—which is also dealing with a famine. But when I checked the latest headlines in USA Today, the focus of the news was on the New Hampshire presidential primary and pro football star Peyton Manning's legacy.

And this just in! Beyoncé will perform during the Super Bowl halftime show!

That's a shame. Especially when you do the math and realize that the United States has a population of 319.4 million while the global population is about 7.2 billion. That works out to a 4.4 percent share of the world's population. Who do we think we are?

We are not the center of the universe.

I'm not going to hold my breath until mainstream media improves its reporting. People are always going to be more interested in Kim Kardashian's latest reality show than in how we can stop global sex trafficking, how we can help abused women in Somalia or how we can protect Syrian refugees while they flee the terror in their country.

But Christians should care. We may live in the United States, but we are citizens of God's kingdom and we are called to pray—and care—for the whole world. Paul told Timothy: "Therefore I exhort first of all that you make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone, for kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty" (1 Tim. 2:1-2, MEV).

Please be a global Christian. Look at the big picture. Stay informed of world events so you can pray with understanding. Make friends with people from other cultures and see the world through their eyes. Pray for the nations.

You can start by praying for Nigeria—and for my friend Kelechi, who will be risking his life to share the gospel this weekend while millions of Americans watch a 17-minute halftime show that will cost $12 million.

J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma. You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady. He is the author of several books including 10 Lies the Church Tells Women, 10 Lies Men Believe, Fearless Daughters of the Bible and The Holy Spirit Is Not for Sale. You can learn more about his ministry, The Mordecai Project, atthemordecaiproject.org.

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We Must Focus on Ending Persecution of Christians Worldwide - Steve Strang

We Must Focus on Ending Persecution of Christians Worldwide

 4/21/2015 STEVE STRANG  charisma magazine

United Nations building (Wikimedia Commons)

Last Friday I had the privilege of speaking at the United Nations on the topic of the persecuted church. If you missed what I said, click here. Even though I've had many wonderful experiences in my role as a Christian journalist, it was a peak experience to go to that august assembly and be given the floor to speak out for those who have no voice.

Since Friday there have been reports of Christians thrown overboard by Muslims on a migrant ship in the Mediterranean apparently only because they were Christians. And some Ethiopians were slaughtered in Libya only because they were Christians.

When will the killing end? The United Nations and U.S. leaders must pass resolutions to protect Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.

It's also vitally important that President Obama appoint a Special Envoy for the protection of religious minorities in the Middle East and call for the establishment of an International Day of Prayer in solidarity with Christians in the Middle East.

There was an impressive lineup of speakers from Rabbi Jonathan Cahn to Lt. Gen. (Ret) William Boykin, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and representatives from nearly every segment of the Christian community. The speeches were so good that we will publish most of them in the next two weeks. It's my way of giving attention to the problem.

While it was a great honor to be invited to speak and I delivered my remarks with conviction, I realized the real value in my being there wasn't to speak as much as for me to be reminded of the seriousness of the problem. Also, it reminded me that I can't be content to write about it from time to time rather than make it a focus.

We must focus on this. If we don't, who will? And we can't just feel persecution of Christians is something that only applies to others in some far away place. If one part of the body of Christ suffers, we all suffer. And in a way, we're victims of the same anti-Christian feelings—there is more societal discrimination of Christians in the West too.

I call on other Christian media like Christianity Today, WND, Christian Post and Salem Communications to focus on this too. In addition, Christian radios and TV should raise awareness since the secular media seem to minimize it.

Friday's event, as historic as it was, received minimal coverage in the press.

So you can help by making your friends and fellow church members aware of the problem. Speak up. Make your voice heard. Forward articles on Christian persecution to your friends on social media—including the ones we publish.

And pray. We must pray for those who suffer. We must pray the suffering will end. We must pray that the U.N. will speak up to condemn this as unacceptable in the civilized world.

Do you agree? Leave your thoughts below.

Steve Strang is the founding editor and publisher of Charisma. Follow him on Twitter@sstrang or Facebook (stephenestrang).

To read more about Christian persecution and Islamic terrorism, please check out Mark Gabriel's Journey Into the Mind of an Islamic Terrorist. You can purchase the book by clicking here.

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