On the Persecution of Christians Today

In my 57 years, I don't remember ever seeing, until this week, a top news media item, written by a minister of the gospel.  Considering the details, how could (Anglican) Canon Andrew White do any less than bear witness to the truth. People are dying simply because they refuse to give up their faith in Jesus. Sound the alarm! Pray! God help both them and us to react according to our means and God's direction. I have recently donated and recommend the frrme.org website.

 (Please read this link  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2720983/Vicar-Baghdad-We-need-military-actions-NOW.html )
 

Pray for God's people and their persecutors. Pray for all innocents caught in the snares of the wicked. Iraq and Syria are merely two peaks on the top of the iceberg. From Liberia and Nigeria, to Sudan and Egypt, to Saudi Arabia and Chechnya, to Gaza and Israel, to Iran and Pakistan, to China and North Korea, to Brazil and East Timor, to Russia and the Ukraine, to Europe and Scandinavia and indeed to Britain and the Americas, our enemy, the devil, prowls the whole earth like a roaring lion seeking to devour. He is the sower of division and confusion. He is the Father of Lies, and for a time, the god of this world, of ISIS or DA'ISH, of FASCISM, of MORAL RELATIVISM, of HAMAS, of REBELLION, of HERESY, of SCHISM and of all other forms of SIN.

In the spiritual battles which rage believers are given both armor and guidance. Put on the gospel armor: the helmet of Salvation, the breastplate of Righteousness and the belt of Truth. Don't take it off. Make sure it's tight as it needs to be and put it right back in place when the enemy knocks it off. Don't forget that on your feet you wear the Preparation of the Good News of God's Peace and that in your hands and your mouth you are equipped with a Mighty Spiritual Sword, The Word of God.

Stand firm and remember that Our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is infinitely Greater than any other pretender. His Merciful Love is Everlasting. He is the Sun of Righteousness, the all-consuming Fire. March Forth. Don't give up. God's will shall prevail.

Even so, Come Lord, JESUS...YESHUA!

A Warning!

During a Sunday service some months ago in Kazan Cathedral on Red Square, Metropolitan Kirill the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church issued a grave warning regarding the growing phenomena in the west of legalizing same sex unions and same sex 'marriages' .

He warned against the formalization of sin by codifying it in the laws of a country; "This is a very dangerous apocalyptic symptom, and we must do everything in our powers to ensure that sin is never sanctioned ...
To understand his comments read further at the following link: http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=18565#.UvL1tdqYbX4

On Mental Illness and Sin, Healing and Salvation

In the old Anglican Prayer Book, Christians are asked to renounce three things: the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world and all the sinful lusts of the flesh, so that they would not follow or be led by them.

First, we stand against the Evil One who is the Father of lies, the deceiver, the ruler of this world who seeks to bring all creation under his own sway.
Second, we resist the attractions or distractions of the world in order to remain focussed upon the person and purposes of Almighty God.
Third, we battle against the internal personal drives which must be mastered in order to come to maturity as a believer and follower of Jesus.

This is a lifelong task, to learn to overcome the inertia of endemic evil systems, to endure through the chaos of broken communities until we reach the Heavenly Kingdom and to struggle through sin and disease toward salvation and health.

Christians have always battled sin. We have always been afflicted with disease. We have not been immune to diseases of the brain. Delirium and even hallucination can sometimes be attributed to physical causes such as infection. Mental illness cannot always be traced back to brain malfunction. Today, families are being manipulated by socio-economic forces; communities are built or destroyed by political design or geological accident; men, women and children have become objects of consumerism having only the illusion of democracy. It has always been so.

We see confusion and conflict in politics, industry and education, even in social work and medicine. We see tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes, acts of terror and warnings of plague and famine. We have instant access to vast amounts of information. Mental illness has become more prevalent, its steady rate of increase observed to be roughly 0.04, but sin is universal.

Jesus came to preach, teach and heal. He speaks of the acceptable year of the Lord. Today is always the right day to be saved. Anyone who admits that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead after being crucified, and who confesses Him as Lord will be saved from the ultimate penalty of sin. Yet even salvation cannot prevent illness.

Almighty God, who art afflicted in the afflictions of thy people. Regard with thy tender compassion all those in anxiety and distress; bear their sorrows and their cares; supply all their needs and help both them and us to put our whole trust and confidence in thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

If you are saved but still in torment, don't give up. Keep looking to the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. He will heal all our diseases. That is His promise, not mine.

for more info on the prevalence of mental illness in Canada click on the following link http://drrogercovin.blogspot.ca/2011/03/underestimating-mental-illness-in.html