Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Christians shouldn't be punished for opposing same-sex marriage as they stand for traditional Christian beliefs.
On CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday he argued that forcing people of faith to accept gay marriage is like forcing Jews to serve "bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli." Both foods are violations of Jewish kosher rules.
"We're so sensitive to make sure we don't offend certain religions, but then we act like Christians can't have the convictions that they have had for over 2,000 years," Huckabee said.
"I would like to think that there's room in America for people who have different points of views without screaming, shouting, and wanting to shut their businesses down," he said.
Over the past few years, gay activists have done exactly that, targeting Christian cake makers, florists, and chapel owners who declined to service same-sex weddings.
Huckabee's comments come as the former Baptist pastor is weighing a run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He's counting on social conservatives and evangelicals who have great clout in early nominating Iowa to help him.
Huckabee also added a pitch for inclusion in his remarks, saying he has some gay friends.
"I accept a lot of people as friends maybe whose lifestyle I don't necessarily adhere to, agree with, or practice. Doesn't mean that I can't have a good relationship with anyone or lead them or govern them," he said.
"I don't chuck people out of my circle or out of my life because they have a different point of view," Huckabee said.
Still, he remained steadfastly opposed to special rights for gays and lesbians.
The number of Jewish visitors to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount saw a significant boost over the past year, despite ongoing efforts to discourage non-Muslims from ascending the holy plateau and a firm ban on all Jewish and Christian prayer.
Last month, the Temple Institute made a “freedom of information” request to the Israel Police regarding the Jewish visits to the Temple Mount. The group was pleased to learn that no fewer than 10,906 Israeli and foreign Jews had come to Judaism’s holiest site in 2014.
By comparison, 8,528 Jews visited the Temple Mount in 2013, and there were just 5,658 Jewish visitors in 2009.
For those who advocate full freedom of religion at the Temple Mount, those numbers were encouraging, especially given that Jews and Christians are only permitted to visit the holy site three days out of every week, and even then only at very restricted hours.
The issue of the Temple Mount has increasingly been the focus of tense debate within Israel’s Knesset in recent years. Last February, the Knesset held its first ever discussion on extending fully Israeli sovereignty over the site, which is presently managed by an Islamic Trust (Waqf).
It is at the Waqf’s request (demand?) that Jews and Christians are not allowed to utter even silent prayers while visiting the Temple Mount, and outbreaks of Muslim violence over any perceived violation has ensured that Israeli authorities do their best to honor the Muslims’ conditions.
Many Israeli lawmakers are increasingly frustrated by this situation, which they deem to be a total surrender to the dictates and threats of radical Islam. They want Israel to become the official overseer of the Temple Mount.
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Shai Sol, the young Israeli Messianic singer who caused something of a national stir in December after boldly declaring her faith while competing in the televised singing contest Hakochav Haba (The Next Star), is now working on her first album.
Israel Todaycovered Shai’s initial “coming out,” which was shocking enough for Hakochav Haba’s producers to make it the focus of their weekly promotional commercials at the time.
Are you abiding under the shadow of the cross? (Lightstock)
Because I was late when I arrived at the intercessory prayer meeting I had been invited to attend, I sought a far, vacant corner of the room that everyone seemed to be avoiding.
The frantic hand signals of a fellow intercessor stopped me in my tracks. Her finger was pointing to an ominous reflection on the wall next to me. There, looming bigger than life, was the shadow of a spider—hairy legs and all!
I shivered. My mind raced with pictures of the hairy beast jumping onto my sweater—or worse, into my hair! I shivered again. Thank God someone stopped me! What if it had bitten me? Then I saw the culprit.
Was that it? Why had I been so afraid? I laughed. The actual spider wasn't as big as the shadow it had cast. It raced to a crack in the door and disappeared. Obviously, it had been a shadow.
This reminded me of the enemy and how he works. Satan whispers to us all the time, playing the "What if?" game. What if you lose your job? What if they whisper about you when you leave the room? What if you gain all that weight? What if you go belly up financially? What if you are too old to try something new?"
Satan's lies, like dark, ominous shadows on the wall, loom big, at times bigger than our power to do anything about them. God's Word warns us that the devil walks about like a roaring lion (see 1 Pet. 5:8). He isn't the real McCoy, but his threats can, if we are not careful, get us to take our eyes off Jesus and His great power that guides, provides for and protects us.
That is not to say that you or I don't need to take care of ourselves and our families as good stewards; but we do so with our eyes on Jesus and not on the fears that overshadow Him and His great powerful promises of God—promises for eternal life and for abundant life on earth, promises for a future, no matter how bad the past has been.
Jesus commands us in Matthew 6:25: "Therefore, I say to you, take no thought about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on." No worry or ominous threat to us is any match for our Lord, "the God of all flesh" (Jer. 32:27). It is He, after all, who is the "head of all principality and power" (see Col. 2:10).
It is sometimes hard to remember this during seasons in which you see nothing but shadows. Yet God promises to take care of us in such times. Psalm 23 mentions "the valley of the shadow of death" (v.4)—revealing that it is a place one goes through but doesn't live in permanently.
And even in the valley we are to fear no evil, for the Lord our Shepherd is with us. The psalm ends with a promise of position for us—that we are to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. A God who claims us for eternity is a God of power. What, then, is there to fear in the shadows?
You and I are in Christ—"the secret place of the Most High" (Ps. 91:1)—which means that you and I are under only one shadow, and that is the shadow of the Almighty (v. 2). When the dark shadow on the wall sees the shadow of the Almighty, in whom we dwell, it has to go.
Prayer Power for the Week of Feb. 2, 2015
This week praise God that we are protected under the shadow of the Almighty when we abide in Him. Choose to believe His Word and embrace His peace, no matter what you face. Pray in faith, knowing that He hears and answers according to His perfect will. Continue to pray for our president and others whose decisions impact the entire world. Pray for those affected by recent storms and ask the Lord what you can do to help meet needs. As you pray for Israel, remember the persecuted church and ask God for more workers for His harvest fields (Ps. 91; Is. 26:3; 1 Tim. 2:1-8).
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The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem (Israel_photo_gallery/Flickr)
As world events unfold, CBN Middle East Bureau Chief Chris Mitchell's book, Destination Jerusalem, aims to put today's events in perspective.
Mitchell chronicles firsthand the meteoric rise of the Islamic State (ISIS), the growing persecution of Christians, the minimal response by the West and much of the Church, as well as the part Jerusalem plays in the scenario.
As prophecy unfolds before our eyes, Dateline Jerusalem points to how Christians can prepare for the days ahead.
Franklin Graham at the Oklahoma City Evangelism Conference (Courtesy/Billy Graham Evangelistic Association)
Times have changed. And no politician or political party can save us.
That's what Franklin Graham told an Oklahoma City crowd Monday night at the Oklahoma State Evangelism Conference.
Talking about the forces of secular humanism that have taken root in the United States, Franklin Graham called on Christ followers to take an active interest in politics—from local school board races to Washington.
"Now I'm not talking about Baptists or Republicans and the Tea Party," he said. "I have no confidence that any of these politicians or any party is going to turn this country around. The only hope for this country is for men and women of God to stand up and take a stand."
"Well, you say, 'Now Franklin, your father wouldn't get onto these subjects,'" Franklin Graham said, addressing the need to stand up to secularism.
"Wait a second. My father, when he was going to school, they had a Bible in school," he continued. "When he was going to school, they had the Ten Commandments on the wall. When he was going to school, you could pray in school, and the teachers would lead in those prayers.
"Our country has changed. And we've got to take a stand."
Talking about growing up in the '50s and '60s under the Red Threat, Franklin Graham recalled that communism was seen as the ultimate enemy of freedom.
"When the Berlin Wall came down, everybody said we won," he said. "And secularism came. And secularism and communism are the same thing. They're godless. They're anti Christ."
The message was strong and challenging. But a thread of hope ran through it, from start to finish.
"There is only one who can save," Franklin Graham said. "Only one. Jesus Christ."
Pulling from Matthew 8, where Jesus calmed the storm that had his disciples fearing for their lives, Franklin reminded the crowd that we aren't very different from the people who were with Jesus 2,000 years ago.
"There are storms that are coming," he said. "And we find ourselves in these storms, and many times we as a church, we run and we run to the wrong place.
"You see, Jesus is in the boat. All we have to do is call Him, call on His name."
Sometimes that will mean facing ridicule from a secular world, Franklin Graham continued. But the people of God have to stay strong.
"The secularists and the humanists, you mention the name of Christ, they jump all over you," he said. "I get jumped on all the time. I don't care. I really don't.
"I gave my life to Christ. He died for me; He shed his blood for me. I'm not going to back up, and I'm not going to run."
Two U.S. lawmakers have sent a letter to the State Department, asking whether President Barack Obama has "launched a political campaign" against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and whether American taxpayers are helping to fund the campaign.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas and Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. sent a letter this week asking the State Department to explain whether a non-profit group called One Voice, supported by U.S. tax dollars, is working with a campaign called Operation Victory 2015 (V15) to influence Israel's elections, to be held March 17.
The lawmakers called taxpayer funding for such a purpose "completely unacceptable."
"State Department grants should never be given to entities working to overthrow strong allies like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," Zeldin said Thursday. "Today, I join with Sen. Ted Cruz in calling for a U.S. Department of State investigation into this important matter."
In an article earlier this week, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz highlighted the work of Jeremy Bird, a political strategist who helped organize a door-to-door effort for the Obama campaign against Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina. The effort was very successful, and it helped to break open a dead even race between the two candidates, eventually leading to Obama's nomination and election.
This year, Bird brought a team of consultants to Israel to help organize Israeli political groups opposed to Netanyahu.
The 2014 version of anti-Netanyahu campaign is not without precedent.
The eagerness among former President Bill Clinton's staff to defeat Netanyahu in his first term was so strong that top Clinton operatives James Carville, Bob Shrum and pollster Stanley Greenberg camped out in Israel to help Labor Party candidate Ehud Barak to a come-from-behind victory over Netanyahu in 1999.
This year's activity comes amid charges by Democrats that Republican House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is playing politics by inviting Netanyahu to address Congress before the elections to report on the danger to Israel and the West from Iran's nuclear weapons program.
On the Republican side, Cruz and Zeldin want to know how much money the U.S. government has given to groups working in the Israeli elections, including One Voice and Peace Works Network Foundation, who approved the funding, how much oversight and accounting is involved, and whether non-profit groups such as One Voice are violating terms of their tax exempt status.
"Of course private American citizens are free to engage in political activities according to their inclinations," their letter stated. "But given the overtly partisan nature of this particular case, we are deeply concerned by the relationship that also exists between One Voice and the Department of State."
Lost in the din of the political battle another question looms: as the diplomats spend years negotiating with Iran, how close are the mullahs to acquiring nuclear weapons and what are the consequences for Israelis, Americans and the people living in the Middle East tinderbox if they do?
On his first visit to the United States, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin chose to make his first speech not to Jewish leaders, but to Black Christian leaders in Brooklyn's Christian Community Church. None of the previous nine Israeli presidents has ever addressed non-Catholic Christians inside a church outside of Israel. This unprecedented gesture was poorly covered by the media.
Short as Rivlin's speech was, it was nonetheless a landmark event worth much more attention than the short, cordial reports in the Jerusalem Post and on Brooklyn News. Worth noting was Rivlin's emphasis on learning history.
Lest one forget and assume history is important, former President Shimon Peres repeatedly asserted there was no need to study the past. The reasoning behind Peres' contempt for history was his vision of a world where land no longer mattered in the formation of national identity, which in itself he viewed as unimportant. This explains his enthusiasm for the idea of "land for peace."
Rivlin thinks otherwise. In quoting his host, Pastor A. R. Bernard, the Israeli president indirectly justified the existence of modern Israel by insisting, "We must celebrate the past. We must rehearse it in the ears of our children and the world, from generation to generation so that history does not become myth."
Rivlin's embracing of this profound approach to history as espoused by a wise African-American Christian leader should not be surprising. Jews have been doing this from time immemorial, and those like Peres will ultimately change nothing.
Rivlin certainly used the occasion to express much needed Israeli empathy with the American black community, but also to send a clear message to the world about the purpose of Zionism, a word increasingly associated with imperialism, occupation and injustice.
"I also have a dream," said our president, "that once again God will knock on our door. I dream that Jerusalem, which is a microcosm of the world, will serve as a model for coexistence between different communities and religions. Jews and Arabs were not condemned to live together, but destined to live together. We are all the children of Abraham, and as the prophet Isaiah said: 'It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it … For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'"
Amidst all the lies, disinformation and contempt thrown at Israel, Rivlin correctly presented Zionism as an effort to create a society that will be a light to the world.
Though by no means perfect, Israel is at least attempting to achieve Isaiah's vision, and our president believes that Zionism as it was intended to be will one day become a reality. This is a far cry from the bad press Israel receives, and it may be why this particular visit did not fit the agenda of the major news agencies.
PHOTO: Rivlin with Pastor Bernard in New York
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Iraq’s Yazidi minority, a small group of Kurdish people who cling to an ancient religion, were virtually unknown before coming under siege by ISIS last summer. Now they, much like the larger Kurdish nation, are seeking Israel’s aid in battling their Islamist foes.
In a telephone interview with Al-Monitor last week, a top Yazidi militia commander said his people, most of whom remain trapped on Mt. Sinjar in northern Iraq, would eagerly forge ties of friendship with the Jewish state.
“The Arab countries do not recognize us, nor do they recognize you,” said Lt.-Col. Lukman Ibrahim. “We regard you as a friendly state, with an opportunity for relations on the basis of neutrality and respect.”
While the Yazidi militia has managed to recruit no fewer than 12,000 fighters from a population numbering just over 200,000 in the region today, they are largely untrained and sorely under-equipped.
“We appeal to the Israeli government and its leader to step in and help this nation, which loves the Jewish people,” said Ibrahim. “We would be most grateful for the establishment of military ties.”
Israel is no stranger to aiding the Kurds in their battles against Arab neighbors. Kurdish-Israel ties are a poorly kept secret, and if a Kurdish state is ever realized, there is little doubt it would immediately become the Jewish state’s closest friend in the region.
Like the wider Kurdish nation, the Yazidis see Israel as a natural ally.
“We are not Arabs, nor are we Muslims. We see ourselves as sharing a fate with the Israelis, who went through similar pogroms,” said Majdal Rasho, a Yazidi who immigrated to Germany, but returned to help fight ISIS. “Those besieged on the mountain approached me and asked, ‘Maybe our Israeli brethren could lend a hand?’”
The Yazidis are adherents of a monotheistic faith linked to ancient Zoroastrianism. They believe in God as the Creator of all, but hold that He has given rule of this world to seven powerful archangels, the chief among them known as Malek Taus (the Peacock Angel). Muslims regard the Yazidis as devil-worshippers because according to Islam, Malek Taus is the archangel who fell from God’s grace and became Satan.
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