Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

NATO Intercepts Russian Bombers Over Baltic Sea
Dec 10th, 2014
Daily NewsDefense News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A Russian Tu-95 Bear long rang bomber aircraft. (Getty Images)

Let the Headlines Speak
Dec 10th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Greenland Low Pressure 'Bomb' Brings Extreme Winds to Iceland; Huge Waves Building on Seas Near U.K.
People across northern Europe are bracing for the impact of a large and powerful low-pressure system that developed over the North Atlantic Ocean near Greenland Monday. The storm, named "Alexandra" in Europe, has already brought wind gusts up to 96 mph in Iceland, causing power outages and travel disruption there. Waves higher than 30 feet have already been reported over the open Atlantic.  

Shi'ite pilgrims flock to Iraq holy city, government fears attack
From across Iraq and neighboring states, millions of Shi'ite pilgrims are heading this week to the city of Kerbala for a religious ceremony that authorities say radical Sunni fighters are targeting for attack.  

How Does It Feel To Be Number Two?
Although this might all seem orchestrated, (and believe me, it is!) we must not forget the ideological changes our Number Two status could represent  

Pope Francis: ‘All Animals Go To Heaven’  Pope Francis has declared that all animals go to heaven during his weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square.  

Russian Media Warns Of World War 3 Over U.S. Resolution 758, Canada Offers Military Aid To Ukraine
Russian media is already warning that the recently passed House Resolution 758 could lead to “all-out” war if the U.S. Senate were to pass similar legislation. While President Barack Obama has yet to offer lethal aid and weapons to Ukraine, Canada has already announced they will provide military assistance outside the constraints of NATO.  

Teen girl doused, burned alive in Mississippi
A grisly killing in a small town in Mississippi has local residents on edge and looking for answers. A blond-haired teenager with no known enemies was found walking down a rural road on fire Saturday night. She had been beaten, doused with lighter-fluid and set ablaze.  

NY Stabbing Testimony: 'I'm Killing a Jew!'
He added that the difficult times of terror attacks and international pressure have created a dark time, but he noted this period is prophesied in Jewish texts as coming before the final redemption, stressing the need to think positively.  

Pakistani Opinion: Israel is the Next Superpower
A surprising op-ed in a large Pakistani paper sees Israel benefiting big-time from current chaos, rebuilding Temple. explained Noor. “The very words to focus on are ‘the time to build…has come.’”  

QUIET WITH A CHANCE OF FLARES
Solar activity has been low for days. The sunspot most likely to break the quiet is AR2230. Not only is the sunspot growing rapidly, but also it has an unstable 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares.  

Planned giant Eye of Sauron installation in Moscow condemned by Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church has warned of dire consequences for Moscow if plans proceed for a skyscraper light installation modeled on the all-seeing evil eye at the centre of JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novels. “This is a demonic symbol,” the Russian Orthodox Church’s head of public affairs, Vsevolod Chaplin, told Govorit Moskva radio station.  

Gruber in 1997: Aborting Poor Children Improves American Life
Tuesday morning, as Dr. Jonathan Gruber was testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)Heritage ActionScorecardRep. Thomas Massie revealed some surprising words previously written by President Obama’s trusted economic advisor. Gruber wrote: "From these results, we estimate that the legalization of abortion saved the government over $14 billion in welfare payments through 1994." In other words, murdering unborn poor children is good for the American economy.  

New Zealand approves new anti-terror laws
New Zealand's parliament has approved new anti-terrorism laws aimed at countering the domestic threat posed by overseas extremist groups. The bill passed late on Tuesday by 94 votes to 27. It permits video surveillance for 24 hours without a warrant and the cancellation of passports for up to three years for those suspected of involvement in terrorism.  

Weather bomb' storm brings disruption to northern UK
Thousands of Scottish homes are without power as a "weather bomb" storm hits western coastal areas. Electricity has been cut across the Western Isles, affecting 17,000 homes, and there is other disruption including train and ferry cancellations. The Met Office has warned parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland to "be prepared" as the rapidly developing storm threatens gusts of up to 80mph.  

Report: Palestinian Authority minister dies after clashes with IDF in West Bank
A Palestinian Authority minister died shortly after being hit and shoved by IDF soldiers during a protest on Wednesday in the West Bank, a Reuters photographer who witnessed the incident and a medic said. Ziad Abu Ein, a PA minister without portfolio, was rushed by ambulance from the scene, in the village of Turmusiya, but died en route to the nearby city of Ramallah.  

Bank of America sees $50 oil as Opec dies
"Our biggest worry is the end of the liquidity cycle. The Fed is done. The reach for yield that we have seen since 2009 is going into reverse”, said Bank of America. The Opec oil cartel no longer exists in any meaningful sense and crude prices will slump to $50 a barrel over coming months as market forces shake out the weakest producers, Bank of America has warned. Revolutionary changes sweeping the world’s energy industry will drive down the price of liquefied natural gas (LNG), creating a “multi-year” glut and a mucher cheaper source of gas for Europe.  

Gulf Arab states close ranks with navy, police
DOHA, Qatar — The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, which is concerned about Shiite Iran's regional influence and the rise of Sunni extremist groups, agreed on Tuesday to create a joint naval force based out of Bahrain and announced a police force based out of the United Arab Emirates' capital of Abu Dhabi.  

Kerry Says the Fight Against the Islamic State Could Expand Beyond Iraq and Syria
Secretary of State John Kerry says the fight against the Islamic State should not have any limitations on geography or ground combat.  

Civilian oversight approved for Los Angeles Sheriff's Department
LOS ANGELES - A plan to create a civilian oversight panel for the troubled Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was approved on Tuesday, as county leaders moved to avert problems of the kind that triggered unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.  

No terror link seen in NYC Jewish center stabbing
NEW YORK — A man with a history of mental illness slipped into the headquarters of a major Jewish organization in Brooklyn in the middle of the night Tuesday and stabbed an Israeli student in the head as he was studying in the library.  

One killed in Bahrain blast, second bomb in two days
MANAMA - A bomb explosion killed a Bahraini citizen and wounded an expatriate man on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said, the second fatal attack in the Gulf Arab state in as many days.  

Congress will block marijuana legalization in Washington, DC
Congress's massive appropriations bill will likely block a voter-approved marijuana legalization initiative in Washington, DC. The bill "prohibits both federal and local funds from being used to implement a referendum legalizing recreational marijuana use in the District," according to a summary from the House Appropriations Committee. DC's legalization initiative obtained more than 69 percent of the vote in November. But ballot initiatives, like all DC laws, must get congressional approval to become law, and they can be blocked through congressional budgetary requirements.  

UN diplomats: Report says Iran buying for reactor
UNITED NATIONS — Iran is being accused of illicitly stepping up purchases for its heavy water reactor, which if completed will produce enough plutonium for several nuclear weapons a year, U.N. diplomats said Tuesday.  

America needs a Patriotic President
What America needs most is a Patriotic President, a president who puts love of country well above love of self. America needs a president who, even before coming forward, has already shoved his ego into his back pocket; one wise enough to ignore the pandering of the moment and one whose head is never turned by Mae West type publicity.  

If Referendum Was Today ... Britons Would Vote to Quit Europe, Reveals Expert New Survey
Dec 10th, 2014
Daily NewsExpress
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

How Financial Warfare Could Bring America to Its Knees
Dec 10th, 2014
Daily NewsDaily Reckoning
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Financial warfare is coming to the fore. It’s something that’s been talked about for some years, but now it’s actually being played out and practiced. Since 2012 the United States has been in a financial war with Iran. It’s not a shooting war, we’re not invading Iran, but because of their nuclear ambitions, the U.S. has tried to isolate Iran. We kicked them out of the dollar payment system so Iran could not transact in dollars. They said, well who cares, we’ll just transact in Euros or Yen or other currencies.

So, then the United States got together with our allies and kicked Iran out of the international payment system, so suddenly they were at a point where they could ship oil, but they couldn’t get paid, at least not get paid in any currency that they would actually want. So, they started doing workarounds, barter deals, they put hard currency in Chinese and Russian banks and let those Chinese and Russian banks front for them to the international payment system. So the money was moving, but it looked like it was coming from Russia, and not from Iran, and Russia never disclosed who is the real party in interest.

There was a run on the bank and Iran’s people wanted to get their local currency out, convert to dollars on the Black Market to preserve the value against what was collapsing in their own economy. They had to raise interest rates, and it caused inflation in Iran. It was very, very disruptive and destructive to the Iranian economy. It was almost to the point that if we had pursued it longer, we might have got regime change in Iran without firing a shot. But last December, the President relieved some of those sanctions and freed up tens of billions of dollars for use by the Iranians, so we kind of let them off the mat.

There’s another financial war brewing right now, which is with Russia around Crimea. Russia of course invaded Crimea. No one – left, right or center thinks the U.S. should use military force in Crimea. We’re not sending the 82nd Airborne into Sevastopol anytime soon, but the U.S. doesn’t want to be seen to be doing nothing, and so we’re engaging in economic sanctions, which is a form of financial warfare.

There’s a big difference, however, between confronting Russia and confronting Iran. Russia has a much greater ability to strike back — and just to show how this could escalate, so we put sanctions on, you know, some mid level bureaucrats, who cares, that’s no big deal.

But recently, we put sanctions on Igor Sechin, who is one of the most powerful men in Russia, close crony of Putin’s, former KGB. Russia might decide to escalate. What could they do? They could freeze U.S. assets in Russia, they could dump U.S. treasury bills, drive up U.S. interest rates, sink our housing market and our stock market, which are sort of propped up by low rates and ultimately, they could unleash their hackers and shut down the New York Stock Exchange, which they’re completely capable of doing.

And people say well, wait a second, don’t we have hackers? Can’t we close down the Moscow Stock Exchange and I say, of course we can, but who wins? The Moscow Stock Exchange is practically irrelevant to global capital markets, but the New York Stock Exchange is the beating heart, so we shut down each other’s stock exchanges, the Russians win.

So, these are the kind of things that could come out of the blue. Most investors aren’t thinking about it at all. Why should they? They’re not expert necessarily in international politics or financial warfare, but if we’re going to have wars that are not shooting wars, that are cyber and financial wars, but capitals markets are the collateral damage that investors can suffer even if they don’t see it coming.

Does God Sanction Mystical Experiences?
Dec 10th, 2014
CommentaryRay Yungen
Categories: Warning

For many years during my research, I would come across the term contemplative prayer. Immediately I would dismiss any thought that it had a New Age connotation because I thought it meant to ponder while praying--which would be the logical association with that term. But in the New Age disciplines, things are not always what they seem to be to untrained ears. What contemplative prayer actually entails is described very clearly by the following writer:

When one enters the deeper layers of contemplative prayer one sooner or later experiences the void, the emptiness, the nothingness ... the profound mystical silence ... an absence of thought.

To my dismay, I discovered this "mystical silence" is accomplished by the same methods used by New Agers to achieve their silence--the mantra and the breath! Contemplative prayer is the repetition of what is referred to as a prayer word or sacred word until one reaches a state where the soul, rather than the mind, contemplates God. Contemplative prayer teacher and Zen master Willigis Jager brought this out when he postulated:

Do not reflect on the meaning of the word; thinking and reflecting must cease, as all mystical writers insist. Simply "sound" the word silently, letting go of all feelings and thoughts.

One of the most well-known writings on the subject is the classic 14th century treatise, The Cloud of Unknowing, written by an anonymous author. It is essentially a manual on contemplative prayer inviting a beginner to:

Take just a little word, of one syllable rather than of two . . . With this word you are to strike down every kind of thought under the cloud of forgetting.

The premise here is that in order to really know God, mysticism must be practiced--the mind has to be shut down or turned off so that the cloud of unknowing where the presence of God awaits can be experienced.

So the question we as Christians must ask ourselves is, "Why not? Why shouldn't we incorporate this mystical prayer practice into our lives?" The answer to this is actually found in Scripture.

While certain instances in the Bible describe mystical experiences, I see no evidence anywhere of God sanctioning man-initiated mysticism. Legitimate mystical experiences were always initiated by God to certain individuals for certain revelations and was never based on a method for the altering of consciousness. In Acts 11:5, Peter fell into a trance while in prayer. But it was God, not Peter, who initiated the trance and facilitated it.

By definition, a mystic, on the other hand, is someone who uses rote methods in an attempt to tap into their inner divinity. Those who use these methods put themselves into a trance state outside of God's sanction or protection and thus engage in an extremely dangerous approach. Besides, nowhere in the Bible are such mystical practices prescribed. For instance, the Lord, for the purpose of teaching people a respect for His holiness and His plans, instated certain ceremonies for His people (especially in the Old Testament). Nonetheless, Scripture contains no reference in which God promoted mystical practices. The gifts of the Spirit spoken of in the New Testament were supernatural in nature but did not fall within the confines of mysticism. God bestowed spiritual gifts without the Christian practicing a method beforehand to get God's response.

Proponents of contemplative prayer would respond with, What about Psalms 46:10? "Be still and know that I am God." This verse is often used by those promoting contemplative prayer. On the surface, this argument can seem valid, but once the meaning of "still" is examined, any contemplative connection is expelled. The Hebrew meaning of the word is to slacken, cease, or abate. In other words, the context is to slow down and trust God rather than get in a dither over things. Relax and watch God work. This isn't talking about going into some altered state of consciousness!

It should also be pointed out that being born again, in and of itself, is mystical. But it is a direct act of God, initiated by Him--the Holy Spirit has regenerated the once-dead spirit of man into a living spirit through Christ. Yet, we notice that even in this most significant of experiences when one is "passed from death into life" (John 5:24), God accomplishes this without placing the individual in an altered state of consciousness.

We can take this a step further by looking at the day of Pentecost recorded in Acts, chapter 2 where those present were "all filled with the Holy Spirit" (vs. 4). Notice that they were "all with one accord in one place" (vs. 1) when the Holy Spirit descended on them. From the context of the chapter, it is safe to assume this was a lively gathering of believers engaged in intelligent conversation. Then, when those present began to speak in other tongues, it was not an episode of mindless babbling or vain repetition as in a mantra. Rather it was an event of coherent speech significant enough to draw a crowd who exclaimed, "we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God" (vs. 11). Other observers who suspected they were in an altered state of consciousness said, "They are full of new wine" (vs. 13). Notice that Peter was quick to correct this group in asserting that they were all fully conscious. Would it not then stand to reason that their minds were not in any kind of altered state? Next, Peter delivered one of the most carefully articulated speeches recorded in Scripture. This was certainly not a group of men in a trance.

So, through the lens of perhaps the two most meaningful mystical experiences recorded in the New Testament (i.e., being born again and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost), an altered state of consciousness was never sought after nor was it achieved. In fact, a complete search of both Old and New Testaments reveals there were only two types of experiences sanctioned by God where the recipient is not fully awake--namely dreams and visions--and in each case the experience is initiated by God. Conversely, every instance of a self-induced trance recorded in Scripture is adamantly condemned by God as we see summarized in the following verses:

When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. (Deuteronomy 18:9-11)

An examination of the Hebrew meanings of the terms used in the above verses shows that much of what is being spoken of is the invoking of spells. And a spell, used in this context, refers to a trance. In other words, when God induces a trance it is in the form of a dream or a vision. When man induces a trance, it is in the form of a spell or hypnosis.

And remember, nowhere in the Bible is the silence equated with the "power of God," but the message of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18) most certainly is!