ETERNAL FLAME NEWS: Oct 8, 2012

Monday, October 8, 2012

Awesome Surprise Marriage Proposal that Involves Friends, Family and God

Greg Laurie Answers 'Why All This Chaos in Middle East?'

IRVINE, Calif. – Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship church took the opportunity during his Sunday sermon series on the book of Revelation to talk about the current events in the Middle East as it relates to Bible prophecy. He also pointed to the controversy during the Democratic National Convention over the party's vote on including Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in its platform as highly ironic.

"It seems like every time you turn around there's another outbreak of violence or at least a threat of one," Laurie said during last Sunday's sermon shared at his two Southern California churches in Riverside and Orange County. "Iranian president Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for the destruction of both the nation Israel and the United States and recently stood before the members of the U.N. speaking of an Islamic messiah and a new world order that is coming. Haven't I heard this before?"
Laurie then described events in the Middle East that were perhaps misinterpreted by some people at first.
"Of course, we all know [about] that tragic attack against our embassy in Libya by terrorists in a pre-planned attack on the anniversary of 9/11 and the murder of ambassador Chris Stevens," the pastor, also known for his evangelistic Harvest Crusades, said. "We know it was pre-planned because of the heavy weaponry they brought in and the fact that they knew where his safe house was that he fled to and then killed him in cold blood.
"If you thought the war on terrorism was done wake up, because after these riots broke out the crowds were chanting for the benefit of the cameras, 'Take a picture Obama. We're all Osama.' So it doesn't end with the killing of Osama bin Laden. It continues on."
Laurie continued, "Then, there's the Arab Spring and many thought that was going to change the climate in the Middle East, but instead of it being a hopeful sign we found it to be a Trojan horse for Islamic extremism through the so-called Muslim Brotherhood."

World food prices near crisis levels

World food prices rose in September and are moving nearer to levels reached during the 2008 food crisis.
The United Nations food agency reported on Thursday that the worst drought in more than 50 years in the United States had sent corn and soybean prices to record highs over the summer, and, coupled with drought in Russia and other Black Sea exporting countries, raised fears of a renewed crisis.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) price index, which measures monthly price changes for a food basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, rose 1.4% in September, mainly due to higher dairy and meat prices.
"It's highly unlikely we will see a normalisation of prices anytime soon," said FAO senior economist Abdolreza Abbassian.

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US Warns of Threat to Female Missionaries in Egypt

The U.S. embassy in Cairo has issued a warning to U.S. women Christian missionaries of the dangers of terror attacks they face in the mostly Muslim Egypt.
In a statement on its website, the embassy says it has credible information suggesting terrorist interest in targeting U.S. female missionaries.
It asks U.S. citizens to exercise vigilance and take necessary precautions to maintain their personal security. It also urges them to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, or STEP, which makes it easier for the U.S. diplomatic personnel to contact them in case of emergency.
Christians comprise 10 percent of Egypt's population of 83 million. They regularly complain of discrimination and marginalization in the mostly Muslim country. Right groups say Christians have also been the target of sectarian violence.

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Doctrine of Suffering

Seven Minute Seminary: Homosexuality and Scripture

App Lets Every Day Joes Become High-Tech Missionaries

New apps for smart phones arrive daily--some by the hour--to bring fun games, traveling tools, and convenient tips. But Jesus Film Media has brought a new kind of app to share the gospel through videos in over 1,100 languages directly on your device.
The Jesus Film Project introduces Jesus Film Media, a free app that lets anyone with an Android or iOS device access to the complete library of The Jesus Film Project--some 66,000 video clips.
"Film provides a way to casually engage in conversation about spiritual topics. We hope the app will spark spiritual conversations and connect more people with the life-changing message of Jesus," said Erick Schenkel, executive director of The JESUS Film Project.

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Are Cities Passing These Laws to Unfairly Target the Poor & Homeless?

COSTA MESA, Calif. (TheBlaze/AP) — Army veteran Don Matyja was getting by alright on the streets of this city tucked in Southern California suburbia until he got ticketed for smoking in the park. Matyja, who has been homeless since he was evicted nearly two years ago, had trouble paying the fine and getting to court — and now a $25 penalty has ballooned to $600.
The ticket is just one of myriad new challenges facing Matyja and others living on the streets in Orange County, where a number of cities have recently passed ordinances that ban everything from smoking in the park to sleeping in cars to leaning bikes against trees in a region better known for its beaches than its 30,000 homeless people.

Cities have long struggled with how to deal with the homeless, but the new ordinances here echo what homeless advocates say is a rash of regulations nationwide as municipalities grapple with how to address those living on their streets within the constraints of ever-tightening budgets. The rules may go unnoticed by most, but the homeless say they are a thinly veiled attempt to push them out of one city and into another by criminalizing the daily activities they cannot avoid.
There’s been a sharp uptick in the past year in the number of cities passing ordinances against doing things on public property such as sitting, lying down, sleeping, standing in a public street, loitering, public urination, jaywalking and panhandling, said Neil Donovan, the executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.

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Suspense mounts ahead of Nobel Prize announcements

This year's Nobel prize season kicks off Monday with rumours suggesting the peace prize could go to Egypt's Maggie Gobran for helping Cairo's poor, Afghan burka opponent Sima Samar or US scholar Gene Sharp.

The first Nobel to be announced this year will be the medicine prize on Monday, when the jury in Stockholm reveals the winner or winners around 11:30 am (0930 GMT.)

Like every year, most of the speculation in the run-up to the announcements focuses on who will take home the prestigious peace and literature prizes.

Betting sites have become a popular feature of the guessing game in recent years, with gamers sometimes curiously accurate amid suspicions of leaks from within the award committees.

This year, Coptic Christian Gobran, dubbed the "Mother Teresa" of Cairo's slums, tops the list of one betting site for the peace prize, with 6.5-to-one odds ahead of the October 12 announcement.

But that race looks wide open this year with no clear frontrunner among the 231 nominees.

Although the peace prize committee never discloses the nominees' names, former US president Bill Clinton, ex-German chancellor Helmut Kohl, the EU and WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning are known to be on the list.

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Prayers That Changed America's History

Calif. Pastor Rebukes 'Passive, Coward' Churches for Avoiding Hot Button Issues

Pastor Shane Idleman is all too aware of the moral decline he sees in the United States and he's speaking out about it. But what irritates him is the cowardice he finds in many churches when it comes to tackling "hot button" issues.

"I'm sick and tired of the passive, lukewarm, coward church doing nothing and saying nothing because it offends people. Yeah, it's a hot button, absolutely. But if the truth doesn't come from here (church), where does it come from?" he posed during his Sunday sermon at Westside Christian Fellowship in Lancaster, Calif.
Idleman wasn't afraid to be blunt as he joined hundreds of other pastors throughout the country in preaching on politics just ahead of the November presidential election as part of Pulpit Freedom Sunday.
"If I were to be honest, there's cowards in our pulpits in our nation," he stated. "I'm going to come up here and preach about being nice to your neighbor ... as limbs are being pulled from uteruses? Vacuumed out because you don't want it (the baby)? Let's support that, let's fund that. It's ridiculous!"
During his hour-long sermon, Idleman didn't specifically speak about the presidential candidates – President Barack Obama and GOP candidate Mitt Romney – and their positions, other than to say that one calls himself a Christian when he's "clearly not" and the other is not a Christian "because he's in a cult." Obama is a self-professed Christian while Romney is a Mormon.
But he clearly spoke to his concerns about wicked leadership and the murder of millions of babies in the womb since 1973.

Inspirational Story: HS Football Player Tackles Physical Disability

Romney scores 52-point debate victory - the BIGGEST in Gallup poll history

Romney also enjoyed a five-point national poll swing putting him level pegging with Obama at 47%
Even among Democrats, 49 per cent thought Romney was the winner with only 39 per cent of his own supporters saying Obama had won the day
Latest: Pew Research Center reported Romney taking a four-point lead among likely voters since the debate - 12-point swing from mid-September

Mitt Romney won the first presidential debate by a whopping 52-point margin according to Gallup - the most resounding margin since the polling giant began tracking debates 20 years ago.
The stunning judgement on the debate came as a bombshell Pew national poll put Romney four points ahead of President Barack Obama by 49 to 45 points - a huge swing of 12 points from mid-September, when Pew found Obama leading by 51 to 43 points.
In Gallup debate results published today, three times more people thought Romney did a better job than Obama in last week's so-called Duel in Denver presidential debate.
The poll about the Wednesday night's debate in Denver, watched by 67 million people, was conducted on Thursday and Friday. Of those who watched, 72 per cent thought Romney did a better job compared to 20 per cent for Obama.
Meanwhile, the respected Pew Research Center reported the most dramatic shift in a national poll during the entire general election campaign, with Romney’s fortunes improving in almost every respect. The center reported also pulling even with Obama on 46 per cent among registered voters and taking the lead by three points among likely voters.

Calif. Pastor Tells Megachurch: I'm Voting for Romney

A San Diego megachurch pastor told his congregation Sunday that he plans to vote for Mitt Romney for president, but he stopped short of endorsing the Republican candidate.

"My endorsement will be Jesus," said Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Church, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. "I'll tell you whom I'm going to vote for, but I don't think that makes it an endorsement. I'm going to vote for Mitt Romney, but I'm not telling you to."
Garlow was among 1,477 pastors who signed up to preach on politics, specifically to present biblical perspectives on the positions of electoral candidates, on Pulpit Freedom Sunday. Some have chosen to endorse or oppose candidates from the pulpit. The pastors were challenging IRS regulations that ban tax-exempt religious organizations from participating in any political campaign.
"It's not a case ... that we're wanting to lose our tax exemption," Garlow told CNN Sunday. "We're wanting to reclaim which is ours constitutionally based on the First Amendment – freedom of speech and freedom of religion – which American pastors enjoyed for 166 years of American history until Lyndon Baines Johnson got it passed, the Johnson Amendment, with only a voice vote."
"It's never been taken to court in 58 years."
Pastors and Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys, who organized Pulpit Freedom Sunday, are in fact hoping to provoke the IRS and take the amendment to court so that it can be declared unconstitutional.