Four Lumpkin County Schools teachers left their classes unattended on May 1st to attend a prayer rally with about 50 students in a coach's office. According to media reports, it began about 7:30 a.m. and lasted for more than six hours. One student claimed that "between 12 and 15 fellow students turned their lives over to Christ during the prayer."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is demanding that several teachers be "permanently removed" for allowing students at a Georgia school to skip class and attend a prayer rally.
Four Lumpkin County Schools teachers left their classes unattended on May 1st to attend a prayer rally with about 50 students in a coach's office. According to media reports, it began about 7:30 a.m. and lasted for more than six hours. One student claimed that "between 12 and 15 fellow students turned their lives over to Christ during the prayer."
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Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring for more fruit. (John 15:2) The key verse for this final lesson confirms it is God's desire that spiritual fruit be evident in your life. This chapter provides guidelines for developing spiritual fruit.
City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee arrives for his trial at the Subordinate Courts in Singapore Tuesday. Prosecutors for the trial said they had evidence of a "deliberately planned" scheme by church leaders to channel part of the church's building fund to fund the music career of Kong's wife, singer Sun Ho, according to local media. LHF Magazine Volume#2 Issue#9 now published and available free of charge! Headline Articles: Give God Your Brokenness New poetry from M.S. Lowndes, inspiring us to move forward even when we cannot imagine being worthy of acceptance by our Savior. (Read it on page 24) Scotiabank Funds Explicit Sex Program for Youth Most of the major newspapers in Toronto wrote stories this week about the sexually explicit poster placed in a grade 7 classroom for almost 7 months. This material is so vile that I cannot even describe most of it and it is funded by Scotiabank. (Read more on page 4) Faith Group s Given a Voice in Calgary's Core Calgary's elected officials have as much as admitted they made a mistake six years ago by not including faith-based institutions as stakeholders in plans to revitalize the city's core neighbourhoods. In early May, with no debate and no one opposed, they voted to correct that oversight. (Read more on page 22) Recovering Silence Philosopher Blaise Pascal asserted that all human troubles stem from our inability to sit quietly with ourselves in an empty room for more than 20 minutes. A similar case could be made for the current troubles in many church worship services. Silence was a part of biblical worship and was held in high esteem by the early Church. However, the "sounds of silence" in worship were lost to a great extent during the Reformation, and the noise level of many church services has increased steadily until the present day. (Read more page 30) Plus many more articles from around the world. Click on the button below to read more. Evangelist Franklin Graham blasted the Internal Revenue Service probe of conservative nonprofit groups as “un-American,” saying both the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the relief group Samaritan’s Purse were audited by the IRS. In a Tuesday letter to President Obama, Graham said the two organizations he leads were notified last September that the IRS would review their records for the 2010 tax year. The IRS inquiry, he noted, occurred months after the BGEA ran ads in April 2012 supporting a North Carolina amendment that banned same-sex marriage, which passed in May. The BGEA also ran ads last fall urging voters to consider candidates who make decisions based on “biblical principles and support the nation of Israel.” A march has been launched from Cairo’s neighborhood of Shubra to the Radio and Television Building in Maspero to mourn the victims of the attacks against Khosos and St. Mark Cathedral and to mark the 40th day since the victims' death. The Coptic Youth Front and Copts Coalition organized the march with a number of martyrs' families. They held up pictures of the martyrs, crosses and Egyptian flags. The participants divided themselves to two marches: the first moved from Tahrir Square after prayers, while the other march waited until 4:00 pm, heading to Maspero. Nine out of 10 churches in America are declining or growing at a pace slower than the rate of their communities. Churches limp along as members drift out the proverbial back door. So what can church leaders do to stop the exodus? Thom S. Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources and best-selling author, sees this as a symptom of an underlying problem in most churches. Rainer suggests American congregations are weak and in decline because church members have lost the biblical understanding of what it means to be part of the body of Christ. People join churches expecting to be served, fed and cared for, he says. On the Friday before Pentecost Sunday, Pope Francis is set to "unlock" a new media initiative of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States -- MISSIO App. "This App is a way for the Church and our Holy Father to reach the growing number of the world's people who have access to handheld mobile devices -- a way to connect as the one Body of Christ," said Father Andrew Small, OMI, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. "We're delighted our new Holy Father will 'unlock' the new App. What a great use of the Keys of St. Peter!" The launch will take place during an audience with the Pope of the National Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies who are participating in the annual meeting to distribute collected funds. With the concrete jungles we have built, we have lost sight of the beauty and wonder that lie just outside our front door. Lately, I have experienced nature in a whole new way. A few weeks ago I remember just looking up to the sky and letting the sun rays dance over my face. It was so refreshing to take some moments and just take in the sunshine. Since then I have been trying to spend more time outdoors and less time behind walls. <more...> Issue: I find that I have a hard time communicating my thoughts. There are times when I just wish other people could read my mind. When Geri Hennerman began serving in Bangladesh nearly 10 years ago, she didn't anticipate being constantly overwhelmed by poverty and needs. Each day she saw women and children begging on the street, families living in poverty in the slums and Bangladeshi friends struggling with finances. "It's day by day, sometimes five or six times a day," Geri says. "... It's not just people you're seeing on the street. It's people knocking on your door, coming in your home. So it's not something that you can really get away from unless you just don't deal with people at all, ever." |
Walter Blackwood
Associate Pastor with The Bridge Community of Faith in Kelowna BC Canada. Archives
May 2017
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