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Maoz Israel Ministries - US Office: PO Box 535788 Grand Prairie, TX 75053
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.
Friday, March 2, 2018
Maoz Israel Report - March 2018 Ari & Shira Sorko-Ram
Maoz Israel Ministries - US Office: PO Box 535788 Grand Prairie, TX 75053
Billy Graham's Last Crusade: 'The Greatest Tribute...Is to Do What Billy Did' - CBN News John Jessup
Billy Graham's Last Crusade: 'The Greatest Tribute...Is to Do What Billy Did'
03-02-2018
CBN News John Jessup
CHARLOTTE, NC – In a final farewell on Friday morning, the family of Billy Graham honors the man known as America's pastor. They're calling it the evangelist's last crusade.
After a week of reflecting in his home state of North Carolina and the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, family, friends, and fellow ministers of the gospel are in Charlotte to say goodbye to the Rev. Billy Graham.
On the grounds of his library, more than 2,000 guests will honor Graham in a service he helped plan himself, featuring songs from Michael W. Smith and the Gaither Vocal Band, tributes from his family, and a sermon from his son, Franklin.
Often called "counselor to the presidents," Billy Graham was also a simple man with a family left to mourn his death.
Boz Tchividjian – one of Graham's grandchildren – called him "Daddy Bill."
"That's what we all called him, and we all called grandma "Tete" which means old woman in Chinese," he explained.
As a teenager, Tchividjian says he learned about faith and humility when he found his grandfather alone in a New Orleans hotel room after praying at a political convention.
"I knocked on the door. Daddy Bill is in his pajamas, and I never will forget looking out of the corner of my eye on his bed and there you could tell he had been sitting and his Bible was open," he remembered.
He says that's just who his grandfather really was.
"It was a glimpse of the authentic Billy Graham, that when left alone, if he had the choice of spending time with Jesus or going out spending time with the influential politicians, he chose Jesus. And that memory has always stuck to me, because I left that night feeling a bit convicted but remember leaving going, 'Man, that's the real deal. Lord, help me to know and love you in that way,'" he said.
It's a quality also noted by scholars.
Prof. Anne Blue Wills of North Carolina's Davidson College said, "He wasn't in it for himself. He was in it to build Christ's kingdom."
Anne Blue Wills edited the book Billy Graham: American Pilgrim and points to his ministry's constant work with the local church.
"He did contribute to – and even create – modern evangelical Christianity in the US and contributed to this global Christian movement that we are seeing," she said.
He did it using media to promote the gospel while he also promoted others, like Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship.
"We became friends in the early 90s and I helped him with sermon prep," Laurie said.
Pastor Laurie believes even as people say farewell and celebrate his homegoing, every Christian believer can honor the legacy of the greatest evangelist of our time.
"To me, the greatest tribute we could pay to Billy Graham is to do what Billy did. What did Billy do? Billy proclaimed the gospel," he said. "That's the greatest tribute we could give to a man who dedicated his entire life to doing that."
Iranian Christians See Hope Stripped Away With Extreme Torture, Harassment on the Rise - WORLD WATCH MONITOR
Iranian Christians See Hope Stripped Away With Extreme Torture, Harassment on the Rise
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There was hope among Iranian Christians that the mass protests earlier this year could effect change for them, but they continue to be harassed and imprisoned on spurious charges.
An Iranian convert to Christianity, Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh, who recently lost his appeal against a 10-year sentence for "missionary activities", was reportedly moved to the infamous Evin Prison in Tehran two weeks ago—the same prison where two other Christians, Majidreza Souzanchi Kushani and Fatimeh Mohammadi (both members of the self-styled "Church of Iran"), have also been held since their arrest on Nov. 17 last year.
According to the advocacy group Middle East Concern, Kushani was charged with "disrupting national security" by being a member of an evangelical Christian group, for which he could receive a prison sentence of between two and ten years.
It remains unclear on what grounds Mohammadi is being held, in the women's ward of the infamous prison referred to by two other Christian women who spent eight months there as the "the world's most brutal prison".
Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh, speaking in November, said they experienced relentless interrogation and physical threats during their time in the prison in 2009/10.
It has been eight years since their release, but Rostampour said: "When people experience living in Evin Prison they will never be the same again. The stress is too much. We can't be the same people. We can't be as happy as before. We don't enjoy activities like normal people because all the time we think of those who are still there."
'They broke my identity'
Another Christian who recently spent time in the prison was Saman.* A convert from Islam to Christianity, Saman was arrested in 2016 and imprisoned in Evin for 44 days because of activities related to his Christian faith.
He says the time following his release was also difficult, as the authorities kept an eye on him to ensure he wouldn't visit other Christians or attend a church meeting. He says he was traumatized but did not receive the support he needed.
A local partner of the Christian charity Open Doors recently organized trauma-care training for Christians like him, where they were offered counselling, art therapy and Bible studies. Saman says the training helped to restore his hope and faith.
Saman says of his time in Evin: "They tried to break me by telling me what a nobody I was; they broke my identity." He says he was afraid and felt hopeless, even doubting his faith: "I thought: 'Is this it? Have I wasted 13 years of believing in Him [God]? Does he even exist?'"
He says the interrogators also brought in some of his friends, blindfolded, and when asked whose fault it was that they were there, they would all say "Saman" and that they would be willing to testify against him in court.
Evin Prison was visited by a delegation of 11 Iranian MPs on 30 January to investigate alleged abuse, as Radio Farda reported. During their visit, the MPs spoke with four detainees while surrounded by intelligence officers, drawing criticism from the deputy head of parliament's Legal and Judicial Commission, Mohammad Kazemi, who said: "It would have been better if they'd stayed away, since we had to talk to the detainees in private."
'We should trust the people'
Earlier this month, on the occasion of the 39th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, President Hassan Rouhani called for unity, saying: "We should trust the people. We must allow all inclinations to participate in elections ... Our revolution was victorious when we were all together ... All Iranian races, all Iranian religions, Shiites and Sunnis, Muslims, Christians, Jews and Zaroastrians—whoever believes in the constitution, that is our criteria. He is a revolutionary, and he must be respected."
His comments followed weeks of social unrest and protests, revealing not just economic frustration but also disillusionment with the way the 39-year-old regime is perceived by some to "use Islam for their own ideology", as Article 18's Mansour Borji told World Watch Monitor in January.
But despite the pressures, Christianity is spreading in Iran. Official figures are hard to come by in a country where turning away from Islam is a crime, but based on observing several factors Christian charity Open Doors says there are approximately 800,000 Christians in Iran—roughly one per cent of its population of over 80 million. This is a conservative estimate, they add, as several reports show that that the church is growing and that Christians from a Muslim background—and therefore unrecognized by the state—now outnumber the recognized Christian minorities of Armenian and Assyrian descent.
*Real name withheld for security reasons. 
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Israeli Satellite Exposes New Iranian Base in Syria; Holocaust Law will Not be Renegotiated; Prince William to Visit Israel - World Israel News
Report: Satellite Surveillance Finds Iranian Missile Base in Syria - Israel Today
Report: Satellite Surveillance Finds Iranian Missile Base in Syria
Friday, March 02, 2018 | Israel Today Staff
Iran's presence in Syria can no longer be dismissed as involvement in its ally's ongoing civil war.
Fox News reported this week that satellite imagery had revealed a new Iranian military facility near Damascus.
The size and position of two large hangars indicate that the base is hosting short and medium range missiles.
A similar base constructed by Iran last year was bombed and destroyed by Israel.
The rebellion against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad wouldn't require Iran to deploy medium range missiles to the country, especially given that the Russian Air Force is also involved on their behalf.
The only reasonable assumption is that these missiles are meant for Israel.
PHOTO: Israel's Iron Dome, Patriot and David's Sling anti-missile systems have been deployed to counter the Iranian threat. In the photo, an Iron Dome battery intercepts a Hamas missile fired from Gaza. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
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