Franklin Graham Prays for America

A Prayer for the Nation (Franklin Graham, Honorary Co-Chair of this year's National Day of Prayer)

Lord,

We are thankful for the abundant blessings you have bestowed on America.  Our Forefathers looked to you as protector, provider, and the promise of hope.  But, we have wandered far from that firm foundation. May we repent for turning our backs on your faithfulness. 

We pray that this great nation will be restored by your forgiveness.  From bondage, you grant freedom.  Through your own sacrifice, you offer salvation.  From the state of despair, you offer peace.  From the bounties of heaven you have blessed - not because of our goodness - but by your grace. 

You have given us freedom to worship you in spirit and in truth as your Holy Word instructs.  May our lives honor you in word and in deed.  May our nation acknowledge that all good things come from the Father above. 

President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that our nation should set apart a day for national prayer to confess our sins and transgression in sorrow, "yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon...announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. "

"We have vainly imagined in the deceifulness of our own hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own...We have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us!  It behooves us then to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness."

Help us to pray earnestly for our President and leaders who govern, that they will humble themselves and seek your guidance so that everything we do will shine the light of your glory in a darkened world.  May our prayers as a people and a nation be heard and blessed for such a time as this.  We make this plea in faith, believing in the might name of Jesus our Lord.  Amen. 

California School Sends Home 5 Students For Wearing American Flag T-Shirts

Would you believe this shirt is offensive to wear in The U.S.A? One California School thought so and sent 5 students home for wearing it.

Click to read full story from Fox News

Administrators at a California high school sent five students home on Wednesday after they refused to remove their American flag T-shirts and bandannas -- garments the school officials deemed "incendiary" on Cinco de Mayo.

The five teens were sitting at a table outside Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Wednesday morning when Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez asked two of them to remove their American flag bandannas, one of their parents told FoxNews.com. The boys complied, but were asked to accompany Rodriguez to the principal's office.

The five students -- Daniel Galli, Austin Carvalho, Matt Dariano, Dominic Maciel and Clayton Howard -- were then told they must turn their T-shirts inside-out or be sent home, though it would not be considered a suspension. Rodriguez told the students he did not want any fights to break out between Mexican-American students celebrating their heritage and those wearing American flags.

Dariano's mother, Diana, told FoxNews.com she and parents of the other four students are now demanding an apology from officials and are considering a lawsuit.

"We want an apology," Diana Dariano said Thursday. "Who in the United States of America would have an issue with that? It's a sad, sad day."

Dariano said her son has at least four T-shirts with American flags that he wears often and did not try to cause any conflict at school.

"I'm more hurt than anything," she said. "It is so hurtful and disrespectful the way this has turned. These are American kids"

The boys told Rodriguez and Principal Nick Boden that turning their shirts inside-out was disrespectful, so their parents decided to take them home, the Morgan Hill Times reports.

"I just couldn't believe it," Julie Fagerstrom, Maciel's mother, told the newspaper. "I'm an open-minded parent, but it's got to be on both sides. It can't be five kids singled out."

Galli told NBC Bay Area, "They said we could wear it on any other day, but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it."

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Morgan Hill Unified School District said it did not agree with the school's actions.

"In an attempt to foster a spirit of cultural awareness and maintain a safe and supportive school environment, the Live Oak High School administration took certain actions earlier today," the statement read. "The district does not concur with the Live Oak High School administration's interpretation of either board or district policy related to these actions."

Officials at Live Oak High School and the Morgan Hill Unified School District did not return several messages seeking comment on Thursday. A secretary told the Morgan Hill Times that Boden and Rodriguez were unavailable for comment on Wednesday.

According to its website, Live Oak High School is a 1,300-student institution in the southern part of Santa Clara County, with most students residing in the nearby cities of Morgan Hill and San Jose.

"The student population reflects the rich ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the community," the website reads.

More than 100 students were spotted wearing the colors of the Mexican flag -- red, white and green -- as they left school, including some who had the flag painted on their faces or arms, the Morgan Hill times reported.

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JMC Ministries Response

Our first question was did they take down the American Flags that hang in our Schools and on our Schools Flag Poles Too? 

Clearly this proves that there are many who want to get rid of everything that has to do with Honoring or even recognizing The United States of America!

Because, Oh we might offend someone when we proudly wave our Nations flag or Oh we may offend someone when we say the Pledge of Allegiance and leave One Nation Under God in it so we better suppress those who are supporting our nation and what it stands for, or it seems what it USE To stand for.

Did you know that in many states now you can’t even hang yellow ribbons on poles and trees in support of our Men and Women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Where have our freedoms Gone? What is so dangerous about the freedoms that our Forefathers founded our Country on?  When Children in what seems to be socialist schools now a days can’t even wear their own nations flag because others are afraid they might offend someone.

In schools today girls and boys wear clothing that is almost pornographic at times with shorts and skirts so short it barely leaves anything to the imagination. Shirts and pants so skin tight that it looks like just another layer of skin.  Children wearing clothing that says words that 20 years ago were considered swear words and you would be punished for saying them Even clothing that promotes Satanic rock and metal bands and rappers that use some of the most degrading and horrible language in their lyrics  are ok to wear as a fashion statement in today's schools.

But a t-shirt of the American flag is worse than any of those things. It is so bad that these young boys were told to turn their shirts inside out or be sent home!

Why do we have public schools today? In our opinion to try and brain wash America’s children and re-educate them into being mindless people that will do and believe whatever they are told. These are not public schools anymore they are government run institutes that are trying to take control of your children and take their freedoms away little by little. School is a battle ground for America’s future Generations and if we don’t start fighting to take back our schools, and this Country we are hurriedly losing our chances to change it before it is too late. 

Kentucky Congregation Turns Former Bar into Church and Worship Center

Click to read full story from WLWT News 5

FLORENCE, Ky. --

A local congregation that holds services at a motel and another church has decided to settle down and find a bar to worship in.

MISSION of God Church, which stands for "Mobilizing Ignited Selfless Servants In Obedience Now," is converting the former TJ's Sports Bar Café into a worship space after months of moving around.

Video: Go Inside Bar, Place Of Worship

The congregation had been holding services at Quality Inn in Florence and renting space at Open Door Church in Erlanger, but now they are clearing out the pool tables and barstools at the one-time Tanners Lane watering hole.

"The stripper's pole was over here, we had to take that down," said Pastor Wayne Guilliams. "A couple members did not want that to stay."

Two congregants who now counsel young people at the church recalled their own wild times at TJ's, before they found God.

"Lots of times you'd leave here and think, how did I make it home?" said Scott Lowe. "I mean, why am I not dead? I've lost a younger brother to a drunk driver and two weeks later my father-in-law the same way."

His longtime friend, Matt Morgan, described the path that led them away from the bar, to church – and then back again.

"Me and him both (realized), talking to one another, going, wow, you know, this can't be all there is, just wasting our lives in bars and doing stuff like that," Morgan said. "You know, where do we go? So here we are now turning the bar into a church."

The church still hasn't obtained all the necessary permits to turn the bar into a sanctuary, but they have a lease on the property.

"We're slowly building our finances up, too, but the Lord's providing," Guilliams said. "We're thankful for this."

While the location may be unusual, the building's past just might serve as a drawing card for potential congregants, the pastor's wife said.

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JMC Ministries Response

This is just a prime example of taking a place that Satan used and make into a place that is now used to Worship our Lord and Savior and also Help the Community. Instead of Lives being destroyed in this place that people went to drink, party and drown their sorrows. Now can be used to help save lives and restore them.

We can only pray that more Christians stand up and start taking their communities back like this church is. One bar at a time.

Church Reinstates Gay Pastor

Click to Read Full Article From 11 Alive.com

ATLANTA -- St. John's Lutheran Church has been celebrating the reinstatement of its pastor, Bradley Schmeling -- who endured a struggle dating back to 2006.  That's when he told his congregation he was gay -- contrary to the laws of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The church removed Schmeling from its roster of pastors in 2007.  It also removed Schmeling's partner, Darin Easler, another Lutheran pastor.  But church members like Barbara Arne stuck by Schmeling and his partner.

"I think we were always hopeful we would come to this day, where the ELCA would say 'we want to accept and include everyone who has been called to God's ministry," said Arne. 

Although the ELCA decided to remove pastor Schmeling in 2007, he never really went anywhere.  That's because the church congregation voted to keep him around, making him a pastor without portfolio for nearly three years.

"It was always surreal because on a day to day basis, my life in the ministry didn't change. But there were always people, not in this congregation but in the rest of the church, who didn't think of me as a pastor in the church," said Schmeling.

That doubt is now gone.  The Lutheran church not only reinstated Schmeling, it also reinstated Easler.

"It feels good to have them included." said Arne. "We also know there's a lot of pain for some people who may now feel the ELCA is not their church.  We're sensitive to that and want to support them and walk with them on this journey together."

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JMC Ministries Response

How can a church say that it is ok and even support their pastor who is committing the sin of Homosexuality and also adultery by sleeping with a person that he is not married to?

Why are people today justifying what the bible calls sexual immorality as something that is ok and they even support in their own church?

The bible says you cannot serve two master for you will love the one and hate the other.  You can not be a leader of the church and commit sin openly.

It seem so many people today are being lead astray by the lies that Satan is feeding them and saying they can justify their sins and God will still love and not turn them away. 

The bible says that God cannot even look upon sin, that is why Jesus came and paid the ultimate price so we can have the chance to come to him and ask for forgiveness of our sins and past transgressions. Not so we can justify sin and say well Jesus loves everyone and knows we aren’t perfect. Yes in a since that is true but when you know what the scriptures say and know that it is a sin and that God says that it is an abomination and you still do not turn away from it you are still sinning and not one of God’s Children. No matter how many times you may say that Jesus still loves you and won’t turn you away.

No we can’t turn this pastor out and not be kind to him but there is a line that we have to draw when it come to those who are leaders in the church and are openly sinning and not asking forgiveness of it and turning away from the sin. We must pray for this man and the church that see that what they are allowing to go on in the church is not Godly and pray that their eyes be open to the truth before it is too late.

Iran Playing War Games In the Persian Gulf is Raising Fears of War

Click to read full article from Fox News

TEHRAN, Iran — In the second military show in less than a month, Iran will hold a new set of maneuvers in the strategic waters of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, Iranian media reported on Tuesday.
Iran regularly holds such military exercises but they are likely to heighten tensions, coming at a time of a deepening standoff between the West and Tehran over the country's controversial nuclear program.
"The massive maneuvers dubbed Velayat-89 will show (Iran's) defensive and deterrent naval power," Iranian Navy chief Adm. Habibollah Sayyari was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. Submarine and air force units are also due to participate, he added.
Sayyari also confirmed a recent flyover by an Iranian surveillance jet and its close encounter with a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Iran "has the right to conduct routine surveillance flights," Fars quoted Sayyari as saying. He said the F-27 jet flew over the U.S. vessel and "despite their objection, we persisted on our right" to carry out the surveillance.

Sayyari did not elaborate on the time and location of the flyover.
But a U.S. military official said last week the U.S. Navy had a close encounter in international waters of the Gulf of Oman. The official said the jet buzzed the USS Eisenhower, coming within about 1,000 yards (meters) of the ship on April 21. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Iran's new war games are to start Wednesday, said IRNA. Fars said the exercise will last for eight days and cover a span of about 97,000 square miles (250,000 square kilometers) of Iranian territorial waters.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard held five-day maneuvers in late April in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway for around 40 percent of the world's oil and gas supplies.
The exercises are intended to show off the country's military might and act as a warning, should U.S. or Israel consider a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. The West suspects Iran's nuclear programs is aimed at building an atomic bomb. Iran denies the charge, saying it's for peaceful purposes, such as power generation

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Tennessee Still Under Water after Historical Flooding

Click To read full article from Fox News

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The dark waters of the Cumberland River slowly started to ebb Tuesday as residents who frantically fled the deadly flash floods returned home to find mud-caked floors and soggy furniture. Rescuers prayed they would not find more bodies as the floodwaters receded.
The river and its tributaries had flooded parts of middle Tennessee after a record-breaking weekend storm dumped more than a foot of rain in two days, rapidly spilling water into homes, roads and some of Music City's best-known attractions.
At least 28 people were killed in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky by either floodwaters or tornadoes. Water submerged parts the Grand Ole Opry House, considered by many to be the heart of country music, and the nearby Opryland Hotel could be closed for up to six months.
The flash flooding caught many here by surprise, and efforts to warn residents to not drive on flooded streets were hampered by power outages. As the water began to recede, bodies were recovered late Monday from homes, a yard and a wooded area outside a Nashville supermarket.
By Tuesday, the flash floods were blamed in the deaths of 17 people in Tennessee alone, including nine in Nashville. Authorities initially said 10 people were killed by floods in Nashville, but on Tuesday, they said one of those people died of natural causes.

Hundreds of people had been rescued by boat and canoe from their flooded homes over the past few days. Those rescue operations were winding down in Nashville on Tuesday, though emergency management officials were checking a report of a house floating in a northern neighborhood, trying to determine if anyone was in it.
It remained unclear how many -- if any -- people were missing in Tennessee. Authorities in southcentral Kentucky searched Tuesday for a kayaker who was last seen Monday afternoon in the swollen Green River.
"Those in houses that have been flooded and some of those more remote areas, do we suspect we will find more people? Probably so," Nashville Deputy Fire Chief Kim Lawson said. "We certainly hope that it's not a large number."

Damage estimates range into the tens of millions of dollars. Gov. Phil Bredesen declared 52 of Tennessee's 95 counties disaster areas after finishing an aerial tour from Nashville to western Tennessee during which he saw flooding so extensive that treetops looked like islands. The flooding also prompted election officials to delay Nashville's local primary, which had been set for Tuesday.
The Cumberland topped out around 6 p.m. Monday at 51.9 feet, about 12 feet above flood stage -- the highest it's reached since 1937. It began to recede just in time to spare the city's only remaining water treatment plant.
The severity of the storms had caught everyone off guard. More than 13.5 inches of rainfall were recorded Saturday and Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, making for a new two-day record that doubled the previous mark.
The water swelled most of the area's lakes, minor rivers, creeks, streams and drainage systems far beyond capacity. It flowed with such force that bridges were washed out and thousands of homes were damaged. Much of that water then drained into the Cumberland, which snakes through Nashville.
The weekend storms also killed six people in Mississippi and four in Kentucky, including one man whose truck ran off the road and into a flooded creek. One person was killed by a tornado in western Tennessee.
About 30 National Guard troops assisted local authorities in southcentral Kentucky on Tuesday, where flooding washed out roads and bridges and shuttered post offices, schools and government buildings.
"It's serious out there still," said Mark Marraccini, spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife. "These waters are very dangerous."

U.S Govt Census Worker Wanting Us To Give Out Personal Information On Our Neighbors

Written by Miranda Caverley
Normally JMC Ministries shares news that others have found or are covering here at the Eternal Flame News, but this is breaking news right here from our street in Chillicothe Ohio.
Just a few minutes ago I  was sitting here in my house and I see a woman wearing one of those vests that road construction workers normally wear. She was walking up and down our little dead end road that only has 7 houses on it so I knew something was going on. 
She walks down to our landlords house then back up past our house to our new neighbors.  My husband Jeremy looks out the window and says it’s a Census Worker.  I figured she wouldn’t bother us because we had already turned our Census papers back in. 
But no….Just after Jeremy left to go to his college class she knocks on our front door.  The first thing she says is that she’s not here to talk about me because my husband and I had turned our census forms in. What she was here for was to get all the information should could out of me about all my neighbors and even the ones that had recently moved out of the 2 houses on our road.
She wanted to know our landlords name her phone number. What the names were of the neighbors that had just moved out in the past couple of months. How long they lived their even exact dates. And even where they moved to after they moved away from here!
I was seriously thinking “Are you kidding me! The U.S Government is trying to get me to give them all the info I know about my present and past neighbors! NO WAY.”
The only information I gave her was our landlords name when she asked for the phone number I didn’t give it to her because honestly the U.S Govt should already have that information. I politely told her that I knew nothing of our past neighbors and just really tried to keep my mouth shut. 
I already don’t trust the our current President and most of the leaders running our country right now and I am NOT going to be their personal spy agent and give them the information they want.  They have all this technology supposedly to track all of us and keep tabs on us let them use that. But I am NOT going to be a pawn for them to use to get information on my neighbors and friends READ MY LIPS MR. OBAMA! NO!
So be warned U.S Citizens you may be getting a knock on your door from the U.S  Census Worker this year wanting you to give as much information as you know about your neighbors and those that live in your community.
Stand up don’t be afraid to just say NO! It works for drugs why not the U.S Government too!

UK: Preacher Arrested for saying Homosexuality is a Sin

Click to read full story from London Daily Times
A Christian street preacher has been arrested and charged with a public-order offence after saying that homosexuality was sinful.
Dale Mcalpine was handing out leaflets to shoppers when he told a passer-by and a gay police community support officer that, as a Christian, he believed homosexuality was one of a number of sins that go against the word of God.
Mr Mcalpine said that he did not repeat his remarks on homosexuality when he preached from the top of a stepladder after his leafleting.
But he has been told that police officers are alleging they heard him making his remarks to a member of the public in a loud voice that could be overheard by others.

Mr Mcalpine, 42, who earns about £40,000 a year in the energy industry, was arrested and taken to the local police station in the back of a police van after preaching in the Cumbrian town of Workington on April 20.
After seven hours locked up in a cell, he was charged with using abusive or insulting words or behaviour contrary to the Public Order Act 1986.
Mr Mcalpine – who has delivered open-air sermons and handed out leaflets in Workington for years, and has never been in trouble with the police – said the incident was one of the worst moments of his life.
‘I felt deeply shocked and humiliated that I had been arrested in my own town and treated like a common criminal in front of people I know,’ he said.
‘My freedom was taken away on the hearsay of someone who disliked what I said, and I was charged under a law that doesn’t apply.’
He said he was not homophobic and has gay friends, but he feels compelled by his faith to urge people to abandon all types of sins so they can seek salvation.

‘If you are preaching hate and calling on people to harm others, it is right that is against the law,’ he said. ‘But I would never do that. If we have a free society, I should be allowed to preach the Gospel as generations have before me.’

Christian campaigners said last night they were alarmed that the police seemed to be using legislation originally introduced to deal with violent and abusive rioters and football hooligans to curb free speech.
Neil Addison, a barrister and expert on religious law, said: ‘People should be able to express their opinions freely as long as their conduct is reasonable. In fact, it is part of the duty of the police to protect free speech.’
Mike Judge, a spokesman for the Christian Institute, which is supporting Mr Mcalpine, said: ‘Dale is an ordinary, everyday Christian with traditional views about sexual ethics.
'Some people will agree with him, others will disagree. But it’s not for the police to arrest someone just because others may disagree with what is said.’

Berlin Germany opens new museum At The"Third Reichs" former headquarters

Click to read full story of Fox News
BERLIN (AP) — A knee-high wall, a rusty gate, the brick foundations of razed buildings — such are crumbling remnants of the Nazi empire in the heart of Berlin known by historians as the "center of evil."
Sixty-five years after the end of World War II, a new exhibition center is opening this week on the site where the feared Gestapo, SS and other Nazi agencies ran Adolf Hitler's police state from 1933 to 1945.
The center adds a museum and a library to the previously Spartan exhibit known as the "Topography of Terror," which has attracted as many as 500,000 annual visitors for the last two decades to the former Prinz Albrecht Strasse. New exhibits document how Hitler's Reich operated and how Germans dealt with the dark chapter of history in the aftermath of World War II.
The area — adjacent to the Martin-Gropius-Bau arts museum — once housed not only Hitler's secret police Gestapo and its prison, but also the leadership of the SS, the Nazi party's paramilitary unit, and the Reich Security Main Office, which combined and coordinated all different police agencies.
Nazi leaders such as Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, and Adolf Eichmann all had offices on the street.

The authenticity of the site is what draws people's interest, from the casual visitor to the detailed academic, said the center's director Andrea Nachama.

"People coming to Berlin still want to know 'Where were the agencies of terror? Where was the capital of the Third Reich?'" Nachama told The Associated Press.
In addition to the new buildings, the new exhibit opens up the entire site, he said.
"Now, they can see the whole area for the first time, all 4.5 hectares (about 11 acres) not just one-eighth of it. They can see the layers of history on the site and they can come in and learn where the terror against millions was initiated and planned," he said

BP Vows to pay for Clean Up of Oil Spill

Click to read full article from Fox News

Energy giant BP vowed Monday to pay "all necessary and appropriate clean-up costs" from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The promise came after the White House demanded that BP step up efforts to contain the oil slick that is threatening the Gulf coastline from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle

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"BP takes responsibility for responding to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. We will clean it up," the company said in a statement.
"BP will pay all necessary and appropriate clean-up costs," it said, adding that BP was "committed to pay legitimate and objectively verifiable claims for other loss and damage caused by the spill."
In an interview Monday with NBC's "Today Show," BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward reiterated the promise, saying said company was "absolutely responsible" for cleaning up the oil spill that resulted when a well exploded on April 20.
Hayward also said BP preparing for a "worst case scenario" that it would need to contain the spill for two to three months.
Hayward said crews have been able to reduce the amount of oil reaching the surface from a massive underwater gusher with a new approach of using chemicals at the gusher.  He said BP is injecting dispersant chemicals into the oil as it pours out of an undersea well. He said it was a new approach and appeared to be having a significant impact on the amount that reaches the spreading surface slick. He did not elaborate.