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Praise to God
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Praise to God
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Many doubt that our Shepherd is a God of love and miracles -- that He continues to intervene in our lives and show His power and faithfulness in supernatural ways. Therefore we invite everyone to share God's special miracles in your own lives.
"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting."
Psalm 100:4-5
January, 2018: Trump Divides Americans and Un-Americans:
‘’There are two stories of America... On one side there are pilgrims settling a new land and on the other colonists ethnically cleansing the native population. ... We saw American elected officials stand for the flag, for the anthem, for veterans, for Jerusalem and for In God We Trust. And we saw the un-American officials selected by corrupt urban machine politics stay seated.President Trump’s State of the Union address was more than a great speech. ... It was the living soul of America soaring once again.
State Of The Union: In one speech, Trump officially destroyed the New World Order:
Over the last year, we have made incredible progress and achieved extraordinary success. We have faced challenges we expected, and others we could never have imagined. We have shared in the heights of victory and the pains of hardship. We endured floods and fires and storms.But through it all, we have seen the beauty of America’s soul, and the steel in America’s spine. Each test has forged new American heroes to remind us who we are, and show us what we can be. (Listen to the speech)
President Trump Earns the Highest Presidential Approval Level of All Time:
Today, a “presidential approval poll” is little more than taking attendance. If you’re a Democrat, you disapprove of President Trump.... If you voted for Trump, you probably still approve of him... At the same time President Trump is “talking up” our economy, he’s talking North Korea’s economy to ruin. ... President Trump’s tweets didn’t cause a war; they caused North Korean flexibility....
‘Trump in One Year Is Already Better Than 16 Years’ of Bush, Obama ‘Put Together’: President Donald Trump’s economic policies incentivize economic investment in America, said Decker, noting the mobility of capital in the modern era. “Businesses and consumers are [responding] logically” to the Trump administration’s economic policies.
Senate confirms Trump’s 20th federal judge: Despite the attempted filibusters, Mr. Trump has had 20 federal judges confirmed, outpacing President Obama, who only had 14 judges confirmed during his first year. That record has thrilled conservatives, who say Mr. Trump is building an army of young conservative-leaning judges who will fill the federal bench for years. ...
“One of the greatest and most lasting successes of President Trump’s first year was appointing a record number of highly-qualified judicial nominees,” said Carrie Severino, the group’s chief counsel. “Thank you, President Trump and Senator McConnell for your important work on confirming outstanding judicial nominees....”
Trump Admin. Reduces Refugee Admissions by 70% in First Year: During the first 11 months of Trump’s presidency, the populist-nationalist president cut the number of foreign refugees entering the U.S. by about 70 percent... In his first 11 months, Trump admitted 28,875 foreign refugees to the U.S., a vast difference from the whopping 93,668 foreign refugees admitted in the same time period under Obama. ...
Between Jan. 20 and Dec. 20, 2017, more than 53 percent of the 28,875 refugees resettled in the U.S. were Christians.
Trey Gowdy Speech That Shocked America
How blessed we are with so many wonderful old hymns! The one below is one of my favorites, but I forgot to post it on Christmas day. Please sing it to yourself and rejoice in our wonderful Savior who is with us every day!
In the little of village of Bethlehem there lay a child one day
And the sky was bright with a holy light o'er the place where Jesus laid. Hallelujah, oh how the angels sang, Hallelujah how it rang,
and the sky was bright with a holy light,
T'was the Birthday of a King.
December 5, 2017: Standing up for students’ First Amendment rights: (Near the end of the article:) These are times of great division and danger. One thing all of us can and must hang on to — conservatives and liberals alike — is the Constitution and its founding values. That’s why we’ve co-sponsored a bipartisan resolution reaffirming students’ First Amendment rights on college campuses.
We believe that institutions of higher education should facilitate respectful debate, freedom of expression and open exchange of ideas. When white supremacists and neo-Nazi skinheads descended on Jefferson’s beloved University of Virginia last month, they targeted the Founder who embodied our national commitment to equality, freedom and progress through scientific reason and debate. See Taking a Stand
President Trump Triggers Liberals On Thanksgiving & Puts 'Almighty God' Back Into Thanksgiving Proclamation After Obama Removed All Mention Of God In 2016: The President invoked God six times in his first Thanksgiving proclamation, starting with the very first sentence when it states "On Thanksgiving Day, as we have for nearly four centuries, Americans give thanks to Almighty God for our abundant blessings." This is stark contrast to the past eight years as Barack Obama did not personally invoke God in his first Thanksgiving day proclamation... (Read the rest)
Praise. Trump renews his call for wall after Border Patrol agents killed, wounded: President Donald J. Trump has renewed his call for a wall spanning the length of the U.S.-Mexico border after one Border Patrol agent was killed and another injured over the weekend. ... Following the incident, Trump tweeted that the United States “will, and must, build the Wall,” and said “We will seek out and bring to justice those responsible.” See The Power of Law
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The following is the text of a Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise, issued by John Hancock (Signer of the Declaration of Independence), while he was serving as governor of Massachusetts. The proclamation was issued October 5, 1791 and was declaring November 17, 1791 the day of Thanksgiving....
In consideration of the many undeserved Blessings conferred upon us by GOD, the Father of all Mercies; it becomes us no only in our private and usual devotion, to express our obligations to Him, as well as our dependence upon Him; but also specially to set a part a Day to be employed for this great and important Purpose:
...by the advice and consent of the Council, do hereby accordingly appoint, THURSDAY, the seventeenth of November next, to be observed as a Day of Public THANKSGIVING and PRAISE, throughout this Commonwealth... and in the name of the Great Mediator, devoutly and sincerely offer to Almighty God, the gratitude of our Hearts, for all his goodness towards us... And above all, not only to continue to us the enjoyment of our civil Rights and Liberties; but the great and most important Blessing, the Gospel of Jesus Christ....I do earnestly recommend, that we may join the penitent confession of our Sins, and implore the further continuance of the Divine Protection, and Blessings of Heaven upon this People... that all may bow to the Scepter of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, and the whole Earth be filled with his Glory.
__________________________________________________________________________________________Happy Thanksgiving! Acknowledging our gratitude to our Creator has been part of America since its beginning. The Pilgrims celebrated the first such day in 1621, almost four centuries ago. The Continental Congress declared the first national Thanksgiving on December 18, 1777. And, in 1789 George Washington declared the last Thursday in November a National Day of Thanksgiving.
However, it was President Abraham Lincoln who, in 1863, made it an official national holiday. It is important to note that at that time the Civil War was tearing our nation asunder.
Thanksgiving. Ben Shapiro: The Truth About Thanksgiving
An Unlikely Friendship Between A Dog And A Duck Surprised A Small Town In Minnesota: Sometimes animals form the most unusual friendships... Max the dog was 5 years old when Patrick and Kirsten... adopted Quackers (a duck)... “Max would sit next to his pen all the time, and they just kind of bonded that way... After we let him out, they never left each other’s side.”
“They sleep together, they eat together, they drink together, they go for walks together,” Kirsten added. ... Their bond is so beautiful, people even stop their cars to appreciate it. See My Friend
Ben Carson Finds $500 Billion (Billion!) in Errors During Audit Of Obama HUD: Ben Carson was the first neurosurgeon to successfully separate conjoined twins, so, he's kind of a super hero. But apparently, he's also not a bad accountant. President Trump picked Carson to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, whose budget grew by leaps and bounds under Barack Obama. In one of his first acts as HUD Secretary, Carson ordered an audit of the agency. What he found was staggering: $520 billion in [Obama's] book-keeping errors. See Our God reigns!
Nearly 60 U.S. cities set to shower Trump with patriotic support: Since President Donald Trump’s campaign and election, America has repeatedly witnessed vitriolic protests and riots. ... But now there’s a new, peace-loving, Trump-backing crowd in town.... It’s a patriotic crowd that describes itself as “the heart and soul of America.”
Muslim Jail Officer Dreamed... of Jesus and Pastors Wonderfully Released: ...Police forcibly entered in the pastors room... when they were praying and teaching Bible class. The two believers were local Muslims, attending worship services in the underground house church.... Police brutally beaten them.... (Read what God then did for His precious followers!)
Arabs donate wood to rebuild Haifa synagogue: Israeli-Arab businessmen who were asked to give an estimate to help repair damage caused to a synagogue in Haifa due to the massive fires there have said they will carry out the project pro-bono, and refuse any compensation for the restoration work." See His light in the darkness
Look What Happened the Minute that Trump and Pence walked into Church on Sunday!
: Israeli-Arab businessmen who were asked to give an estimate to help repair damage caused to a synagogue in Haifa due to the massive fires there have said they will carry out the project pro-bono, and refuse any compensation for the restoration work."
A Heartwarming Story: Israeli Doctors Saved This Orphan's Life: "Pediatric cardiologist Dr. Alona Raucher, fondly known as Dr. Alona by her patients, first met Esther in Israel.... ''And although she was very, very sick, she was very, very happy. She took us over.'... During the bus ride home an amazing thing happened. [Esther] entertained all the passengers, and they asked me, 'Who is this girl?' ... Esther was eight at the time....' Dr. Lior Sasson operated on Esther for hours..." See Victory in Christ
My Lord forever: Here is a song I often sing silently to Him in the morning when I wake up -- and as He brings it to my mind day or night. A wonderful pianist and friend has recently added a beautiful version of the melody. I hope you will enjoy singing the words as a prayer to our wonderful Lord." See My Friend
Federal jury decides in favor of Scouts [6-23-10] "A federal jury Wednesday decided that Philadelphia violated the Boy Scouts' First Amendment rights by using the organization's anti-gay policy as a reason to evict them from their city-owned offices near Logan Square. ...Scouts lawyers expect U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter to issue a permanent injunction that bars the Scouts' eviction because of their policy - set by the national organization - that homosexuals cannot be scouts or troop leaders." See Praise
Here are two examples of women who turned to God in prayer -- and for wisdom -- in order to bring truth and love to distressed burglars:
1. Alleged Robber Hands Bullet to Store Clerk After She Prays With Him
: "A man suspected of robbing an Indianapolis check cashing store removed the bullet from his gun after the clerk talked about God and prayed with him, police said. Alleged armed robber hands bullet to store clerk after she prays with him. The man, Gregory L. Smith of Indianapolis, turned himself in to police a few hours after he allegedly held up the Advance America check cashing store Monday." : "Held up at gunpoint, a store clerk invoked her faith to turn the desperate thief into a repentant gunman. A store clerk's mention of her religion leads to a robber's change of heart."When a man tried to rob a MetroPCS cell phone store at gunpoint in Pompano Beach, Fla., store manager Nayara Goncalves, 20, calmly talked to the man about Jesus and her faith until he left without taking any money."' See
God's unchanging WordGratitude: "It is easy to take things for granted. For example, you are reading this essay. Have you thanked God for the fact that you are able to see, and you know how to read? If we look for things to thank God for, we will find more and more reasons to be grateful. And if we look for things to complain about, we will find more and more reasons to complain."
A blessing we often take for granted: A wonderful video on the beauty of colors. See Our creator
Canadian Lifetime Speech Ban Lifted: "A couple of years back, the Rev. Stephen Boissoin committed the crime of writing a letter to a local newspaper objecting to various aspects of 'the homosexual agenda.' The Alberta 'Human Rights' Tribunal convicted him of this crime and imposed a lifetime speech ban preventing him, in essence, from saying anything about homosexuality in public or private ever again anywhere for the rest of his life. The Court of Queen's Bench in Alberta has now struck down this outrageous decision.... 'The direction to cease and desist the publishing of 'disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals' is beyond the power of the Panel. 'Disparaging remarks' were not defined by the Panel. But clearly, 'disparaging remarks' are remarks much less serious than hateful and contemptuous remarks and are quite lawful to make."
Santa Rosa graduating class defies ACLU and prays at graduation: "...nearly 400 graduating seniors at Pace High School stood up in protest against the ACLU and recited the Lord’s Prayer during their graduation ceremony on Saturday. Many of the students also painted crosses on their graduation caps to make a statement of faith. This event follows a lawsuit the ACLU filed against the Santa Rosa County School District (Florida), claiming some of the teachers and administration endorsed religion. Liberty Counsel represents Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and school teacher Michelle Winkler."
Parents may home school children without teaching credential: "Parents may legally home-school their children in California even if they lack a teaching credential, a state appellate court ruled Friday. The decision is a reversal of the court's earlier position, which effectively prohibited most home schooling and sparked fear throughout the state's estimated 166,000 home-schoolers. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had vowed to allow home schooling through legislation if the court did not act, praised the ruling."
War and Forgiveness: "The Doolittle bombing raid was close to a suicide mission, a one-way trip to bring the war to the Japanese homeland for the first time. Coming not long after Pearl Harbor and before the Pacific island victories to come, the raid was a huge boost to domestic morale....
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DeShazer was taken prisoner, and was starved, beaten and tortured by his Japanese captors. For 34 of his 40 months in captivity, he was kept in solitary confinement. His pilot... and engineer-gunner... were killed by firing squad. But DeShazer survived the war, was liberated after V-J Day in August 1945, and went on to get a degree in Biblical literature from Seattle Pacific College.... In 1948, he returned as a Christian missionary ... and he would continue his ministry in Japan for 30 years."Trusting God's guidance. The Minnesota Teen Challenge program is thanking God on several fronts for His awesome protection during the bridge collapse on Interstate 35 yesterday. This bridge is located just ¼ mile from our main center and is traveled hundreds of times by many of our students and staff as the main route to the Northeast metro area. I have heard almost a dozen stories from employees and students who were on this bridge just minutes before it went down. I want to share three of the most powerful miracles.
First, Jessica our admissions supervisor, told me in tears how at 6:00 last night she was ready to enter the I-35 Bridge over the Mississippi. The Holy Spirit spoke to her very abruptly to turn off the freeway and go a different way home. She obeyed the Holy Spirit arguing with him all the way. Since she takes this same route every day and her commute home takes almost an hour, detouring from the freeway and not crossing over the bridge didn't make sense. Shortly after she detoured from I-35, the bridge went down. Jessica most likely would have been on that bridge.
The second testimony was told to me by dozens of our Teen Challenge students. Every Wednesday night for the past 3 years our buses and vans are loaded and a caravan of vehicles transport our men over the I-35 Bridge to a local church. They leave our buildings at 6:00 and cross over the bridge at approximately 6:10. As the caravan of vehicles left the building, a staff who normally drives the bus stayed back with a group of sick students. He called one of the drivers to say that it might be best if "just tonight."
They didn't go over the freeway bridge and instead took an alternative route. When the students arrived at the church and heard what had happened, the vast majority got on their knees and wept.
Lastly, my daughter who works at the University of Minnesota and is on that bridge every night at around 6:10 p.m. just "happened to" ask for the day off of work. She also could have been on this bridge.
Right now they say that over 50 cars are lying near or under the bridge on the bottom of the Mississippi River. They believe that most of these vehicles have fatalities. Thank God for His divine protection! Please pray for our city! Yesterday we had our Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan and members of the Minneapolis City Council at chapel. It was a powerful time and at the end we prayed together for our city and for God's wisdom on our leaders and law enforcement. Little did we know that just hours later our city would experience the greatest catastrophe in Minnesota's history.
Please keep us in prayer.
Rich Scherber, Executive Director
MN Teen Challenge
1619 Portland Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55404
There's No Such Thing as Luck: "There was a bus filled with fifty children. There were three almost-certain destinations for the bus: (1) The River; (2) Crashing into a burning truck; (3) Trapping and crushing all children inside. What happened? None of the above. The bus stopped short by only a few feet from going off the edge of the bridge.
"With that story and many others I have grown weary and almost sickened by the constant use of the word 'luck.' ... Not one public person I have heard (and I could have missed it) gave any glory to God for making this less of a disaster than it already is. It wasn't 'the great people of Minnesota' that made this less tragic. It was God's grace." See Our God Reigns
Violent convicts are preaching religious conversion: "Donald 'Carolina' Biermann arrived at Angola prison in 1980. It was America's most violent jail, a Deep South sinkhole for killers and rapists. 'I came to Angola with the sole intent of dying here. I just did not care,' said the burly 48-year-old South Carolinian serving a life sentence for murder. But things have changed.... Biermann, once a feared inmate, is now in his second year at a seminary that has opened inside the prison. He hosts a Bible class for fellow prisoners on his wing each Thursday. 'Jesus took the hate out of my heart,' he said....
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The college sits incongruously in the main prison camp marked by the sign 'Baptist Theological Seminary'.... It is a tough course for some prisoners, many practically illiterate.... William Fallon, 26, a handsome man with a neat haircut, is serving life for murder. Now a born-again Christian, he is in no doubt where he would be without the seminary. 'I would probably be dead. If not dead, then insane,' he said.'" Galatians 2:20
On July 24, Jim Miller wrote us to order books -- then added, "I am currently hospitalized while waiting for a heart transplant." (This page tells more of the story: http://www.maze.cc/index.php?id=1
On August 6, he wrote this exciting testimony:
I received a heart transplant in the early hours of Wednesday, July 28. I came home this past Wednesday, August 4th. I am doing extremely well! Praise the Lord for his greatness and the blessings that he has shown me. Every aspect of this progression has been a miracle, especially the final 18 hours.
I have much to do, to heal completely, but know that God has given me this rebirth to serve Him. In the last few months, I have seen other people’s lives begin to change because of my illness.
I have been writing about my Cardiomyopathy experience for many years now. Recently, I started an on-line journal and photo gallery of my hospital experience. If you are interested, and find the time, you can see it at: http://www.maze.cc
Passengers Give Troops First-Class Seats: "Eight soldiers flying home from Iraq for two weeks of R&R flew in style instead of coach after first-class passengers offered to swap seats with them. 'The soldiers were very, very happy, and the whole aircraft had a different feeling.'"
May 2005
Pakistani Pastor Escapes Islamist Captors: "A Protestant pastor kidnapped last Sunday morning escaped from his Islamist abductors overnight Monday, some 40 hours after he had disappeared on his way to church services in Quetta.... Pastor Wilson Fazal, 41, managed to jump out of the vehicle in which his kidnappers were driving him to Peshawar late on the night of May 17... 'It was a very big miracle.' ... Fazal was severely beaten by his captors, who also subjected him to electric shocks, stabbed him through the tongue, shaved off his hair and mustache and taunted him with savage death threats if he refused to convert to Islam." Hope in Christ
April 2005
Bible verse to remain on fire truck: "The Bible verse, which is located on both sides of the fire truck's ladder, is drawn from Psalm 23: 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.' Fire Chief Steve Gorrell said he and firefighters chose the verse because it is 'how the firefighters feel at two in the morning when they go into a structure fire.' They don't fear any evil because of their training and being with the other firefighters, he said. The department had considered several secular sayings, but settled on the Christian one because it suited their sentiments best..... 'People need to remember they can look at that as a verse or of something that firefighters believe.'"
March 2005
Until that Day. Published in 1942, this book shows the courage of many Christians in pre-war Germany. Karl Hoffmann, the young pastor who told the story was a theology student in Berlin during the early 30s as Hitler rose to power. Feeling painfully alone among other Christian students and professors who seemed undisturbed by the growing threats to the church, he longed for fellowship with those who would share his concerns and convictions.
As Karl sat by himself one day, another student walked up to him and said, "Herr Hoffmann, I am Erich Doehr....I am curious to know if your one of us who believe that the fight for the Church's freedom must not be allowed to stop now...."
"Would I be willing?" Karl stammered. ... "You mean there are others?"
As young Doehr tells the excited theology student about the secret resistance organization, my mind drifted to Pastor Martin Niemoller, whose words have been an inspiration to God's people in America as well as in Europe. Some time ago I had framed his familiar words:
"... Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."
I took a break from my reading to find the framed message and hang on the wall of my little "office." Then I sat down again, picked up the book and continued reading:
"One man is the brains behind the organization.... We are organizing in small groups in order to escape notice. We call ourselves the [Christian Fighting Front. We are just getting started...."
"Your leader is intelligent.... Who is he?"
"His name is Niemoller... He is pastor of the church at Dahlem."
"Thank you, Lord," I said out loud. What special timing! This book had been sent to me years ago, and I had set it aside, unaware of its significance. Now He had prompted me to read it, and I was blessed. And even before I saw Martin Niemoller's name, God put him on my mind.
We posted some excerpts from this wonderful book, but we stopped when we discovered that this old out-of-print book is now back in print. You can order it from Amazon. You may also be interested in reading Preparing for Persecution.
God is so good! For the third time this week, our computer crashed and refused to reboot. Again we prayed and waited. I asked that, if He had any other encouraging words that we might share with all of you, He would graciously open it up once more. We tried again, and it did boot! Thank You, thank You, precious Lord!
My hope now is just to put as much encouraging information onto our website as possible in preparation for the possibility that we might not have a computer for two weeks. We have ordered a new workstation from Dell, but we were told it might not arrive until April 16. It's so good to know that "our times are in His hands" -- and His ways are perfect!
August 2003
Freed prisoner honored with forgiveness award: "Rick Walker served 12 1/2 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit. And when he walked out of prison in June, he told the world he was a free man, not a bitter one. He forgave everyone, he said. The judge, the jury and the prosecuting attorney -- Walker held no grudges. The faith that had sustained him through more than a decade behind bars didn't allow for anger or blame." God's love in us
May 2003
