Category: Uncategorized

By Jim Torres “Towers”

I suppose some of my readers may think I’m too tough on them. I take no joy in expressing my tough love views; as a matter of fact I wish I could say everything is hunky dory (pardon the old expression). But so often in church settings the last thing we talk about amongst ourselves is spiritual things. It’s all about football, recipes and our children. While there is nothing inherently wrong with such banter, shouldn’t we be more concerned about the state of our nation and the plight of our fellow Christians around the world? Maybe we should even be praying openly about such important things, just as we did in my church last Sunday night. Unfortunately, only about 120 people showed up for that special prayer service out of three thousand members. What a pity.

Having been in Christian circles for over forty years I’ve heard and seen everything you can imagine, some good and some not so good. I can remember a time when other well-meaning Christians would say to me, “I don’t have to say anything, other people can see by the way I live my life that I’m a Christian. I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but even Mormons are more straight laced than we are – in public that is. However, I’ve read horror stories about what they do behind closed doors.

Because we didn’t share Christ verbally during the last generation, we missed a great opportunity to reach out to the hurting masses. We were too busy accumulating things and pleasuring ourselves in every way possible. That left things open for the far left to take over, and look where we are today. But here’s the clincher, they only constitute a small fraction of our nation yet they’ve managed to infiltrate our schools, universities and judicial system and our very way of life. That’s the price we paid for being wimpy, politically correct and just plain “religious.”

Jesus Christ often corrected his followers through parables; and it wasn’t always peaches and cream. He didn’t tiptoe around and try to please everyone. More often than not his methodology is what I refer to as “Tough Love”. His sermons weren’t self help speeches, nor were they laced with empty manmade drivel. Even the religious leaders weren’t immune to his correction. Jesus scolded them time and again. He also spoke truth so as to awaken those who were spiritually asleep.

Speaking of sleep, did you ever notice how some people doze off during the Sunday morning service? I know there are many excuses for doing so, and some of them are justifiable. However, it could just as well be Satan making your eyelids heavy with apathy. He used to do this to me in the very early stages of my spiritual growth. But thank God, today I listen very carefully to what a pastor has to say, especially in these perilous times.

Without warning his followers about the dangers of not being awake and alert Jesus would have been doing them a disservice. One of these parables about the bridegroom arriving at an unexpected hour (the rapture) contains just such an admonition in Matthew 25:13, and there are many more such warnings,

At this stage of the game I couldn’t care less about who won the championship or don’t even watch the playoffs. I won’t even listen to the same old words every four years of the inept politician’s speeches anymore either. I can almost recite what they will say verbatim: change now, read my lips, no more taxes and “a chicken in every pot” and oh yes, abortion on demand – phewy! The way things are developing in our country and the world, there’s a good chance there won’t even be another election!! We need a deep repentance and returning to God in our country.

Shouldn’t we also be praying for our nation and our Christian brethren across the world, rather than praying collectively for little Johnny’s grades or traveling mercies to our favorite vacation hide away? Come on, let’s get real, little Johnny needs to spend more time studying, and we shouldn’t be texting while driving. These are common sense things. But common sense isn’t so common anymore – even in the church.

In light of all of that, I hope you aren’t a “Sunday go to meeting” Christian who forgets all he heard the moment he exits the church doors, just to be the first to arrive at the local restaurant to get service. We must learn to put the horse before the cart and take these matters seriously; very seriously, our very lives and the lives of our loved ones depend on it. We must also quit being shallow, petty and apathetic. Hug your pastor and fellow believer, pray for them, and let them know how much you care. Invite them over for dinner. Encourage one another.

It’s the apathetic, wimpy and self-righteous person that I rail against. Narcissistic, arrogant and religious people irk me, but I find myself praying for them like Christ taught us to do in spite of it all…God help us.

As they used to say in the movies, “Times a wasting” and we’d better get our act together.

What about you? Isn’t there something you can do while you wait for the rapture to take you out of this crazy mess we’ve gotten ourselves into by voting so wrongly and then being apathetic about it? Only you know your capabilities, gifts and talents. We must be light and salt in our ever darkening world.

I realize all too well that each and every one of us is saved by grace alone, but remember, “Faith without works is dead.” We should be so grateful for our salvation that we feel the urge to show it through works. God is good and we should try to be too.

Ok…. I’m done. Oh, by the way;

The movie “90 Minutes in Heaven” was pretty well done, but kept you wondering when he was going there. In using this ploy the story teller kept you anticipating until the end. I only wish the pastor had told us more about what he saw. Maybe he didn’t see any more than what he revealed in the movie.

You can contact me for a synopsis of my movie “The Prophecies 2016”.

YBIC

Jim Torres “Towers”

jt.filmmaker@yahoo.com

Where do you find your motivation? What drives you? Are you doing what is right?

Most people never really think of this and thus squander the abilities and gifts God has given them.  Most people don’t look at the world around them, they look inward and the box they refuse to step out of.  In that box is everything you need to stay in your comfort zone, which is NOT the zone we should strive to be in.  The comfort zone is where dreams go to die.  It is the rut in life you can never get out of, the golden handcuffs.  It is not where the fight is, the fight is outside of the box.  The fight is where our faith and life is tested.

We should be looking outward, as my pastor recently preached.  Facing outward you see everything from a different perspective, you appreciate everything more and look at yourself and ask, what can I do to make a difference? It may be that change in your perspective could turn around your life and those you know.

I bring this up because today I want to tell you where I get my motivation from.  Its from the young man in that picture.  You see he was someone I worked for and admired.  He was a mentor.  He died on Sept 11, 2001 at the Pentagon.  I hope to see him again some day. When I need motivation, when I need drive, when life hurts, I think of Cliff.  I am still here, I can make a difference.  So can you, if you want to.

We don’t need to go to Seminary to preach the Gospel.  Jesus chose unlettered fisherman to be his disciples, the guys none of us would pick.   You see, what the world thinks of you and what God does are not the same.  So be brave, find out what your talents are and use them.

You are still here, and you can make a difference.

By Jim Torres “Towers”

Charismatic Christians (for the most part) are looking for signs of the rapture or the second coming in the Shmita and four blood moons. Whether this means the rapture is imminent or that this is the second coming hasn’t yet been determined in many Pentecostal churches. This is happening while the more mainline Bible believing churches aren’t even mentioning the Shmita that Rabbi Jonathan Cahn espouses, or even the four Blood moons that John Hagee wrote about.

In fact, instead of acknowledging these and other signs, some deluded pulpeteers in our country are advocating for Islam and homosexual rights! If ever there were “signs” of the times, those two signs are certainly a part of it and they may be right up there with the Shmita and/or Blood moons. Surprisingly, even the feast of trumpets also arrives in the same time frame as the Shmita and the Blood Moons. All of these things converge between September 13 and 28 of this year. Not only that, but the Pope is having a meeting in September with our president as well! Whatever they are up too, it can’t be good. Only time will tell.

I could add to the list of things that will be happening during September of this year, but other Christian fellow writers are already disseminating that for you and me. So hold onto your seats, we’re in for a bumpy ride in the mid to final days of September, that is, if these prognosticators are right. “If we fear God, we have nothing else to fear.”

I spoke to a friend last night about these things and my friend, being a mature Bible-reading person said, “I believe the Shmita and Blood Moons and feasts and such were meant for Israel and not necessarily for the United States.” My friend has a point.

There can be no doubt some writers of these books are often making up astounding theories and so-called prophecies just to make a buck from sensationalism.

If and when a writer sells a book that becomes a national best seller, it is in his best interest to roll out a couple more, even if they border on the extreme. These days a book buyer has to be aware of some of these Christian story tellers. The only way to do that is to compare their work with Holy Scripture, which is of no private interpretation.

So what are we to believe? First and foremost, we must believe the inerrancy of the Bible. If a theory, dream or “word of faith” doesn’t jibe with Biblical Scripture we must discount it. The Bible warns that in the last days there will be many imposters leading many astray.

For that reason and others, people are leaving the church in unprecedented numbers. Could this be the Great Falling Away of the church (yet another sign)? I believe it is. I believe that many sincere believers are leaving the church for its lack of relevance in today’s turbulent society and/or apostasy in the church in one form or another.

The indifferent, and luke warm “believers” who don’t care one way or another and might think, well I’m saved so I don’t care about anyone or anything else. However, if we’re reading the scriptures correctly we can forget about the rapture until there is true repentance in the church as a whole and a revival on a grand scale to help bring in the sheaves.

Unless the nearness of the rapture makes you want to be ready and inviting others to join you, there may be something wrong with your walk with Jesus Christ. I say this because when the rapture does happen Jesus may only be taking those without spot or blemish to the marriage supper of the Lamb. After all, who in their right mind wants a wanton, apathetic, lazy and/or defiled wife?

That being said, we must be prepared for any eventuality and we should be standing on the Word of God. These are evil days we live in and we must rely on the unshakeable infallible word of God to see us through when all around us everything else is being shaken. You might do well to also be prepared with a stock of staples in the pantry (just in case) to hold you over until the rapture takes place.

By the way,

The movie War Room is a breakthrough film. Jesus Christ was mentioned repeatedly. Scripture was quoted unabashedly and although it only affected one family in the film, it was good in every way except for the quality of directing. But, it beat out the rapping thug film “Straight out of Compton” at the box office this weekend. I hope that means that we are all burned out on that ridiculous and destructive subculture. This is followed up with “90 Minutes in Heaven” about a pastor who dies in a car crash and visits heaven for that length of time.

The paradigm in Christian film making is changing, and rapidly. God and Jesus Christ are beginning to be spoken about openly and things can only get more and more real. After a dry spell, we are in for a great season of Christian films, with Christian filmmakers becoming ever bolder.

Although the theatres are only half full with only devout Christians, there is hope that the unsaved will soon follow as they seek shelter from the soon coming storms.

My movie “The Prophecies 2016” has hit another drawback but I press ahead with preparation.

God willing, until next time

YBIC

Jim Torres “Towers”

jt.filmmaker@yahoo.com

“I’ve been raped 30 times and it’s not even lunchtime,” cried one young Yazidi woman in a dangerous and desperate call. Chillingly, she begged the man on the line, someone embedded with the Kurdish Peshmerga fighting ISIS: “If you know where we are, please bomb us. There is no life after this. I am going to kill myself anyway.”

That request was made a year ago. So far, no brothel has been bombed, no slave auction interrupted.

President Obama’s much favored “international community” — the United Nations, the European Union, the politically correct Western intelligentsia, the NGOs, the human-rights organizations — hasn’t rescued this woman or any of the other mainly Christian and Yazidi sex slaves who remain in the clutches of the barbarians.

But some individual heroes are doing so. With Oscar Schindler, Sir Nicholas Winton and Chiune Sugihara — who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust — as role models, Canadian Jewish businessman Steve Maman has, so far, overseen the rescue of more than 120 kidnapped Christian and Yazidi girls in Iraq. Maman founded the Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children of Iraq organization a year ago, after jihadists laid siege to Mosul and Sinjar.

Sister Hatune Dogan and Hans Erling Jensen of the Hatune Foundation have been rescuing Christian and Yazidi girls and women from Iraq and bringing them to Europe, mainly to Germany, for medical and psychological treatment.

Yazidi fighters head to battle ISIS on the summit of Mount Sinjar, Iraq, in December 2014.
Last month, Sister Hatune went to the Sinjar Shingal mountains. Thirteen Yazidi fighters “covered” her as she went to “the front lines.” She reports that “right now, there are 30,000 Yazidi fighters trying to stop the expansion of ISIS in this area. They live in 2,000 tents, in open camps in the mountains. They get neither support from the West or from the Kurds.”

She personally interviewed a young Yazidi girl who had been held captive by ISIS for two months. She was 14. “She was raped five to 10 times every day. She couldn’t express what she had been through. ‘I was dead — killed — hundreds of times,’ she says. She knew of many girls that had jumped from a high rock to kill themselves because they could not live on with the shame.”

This young girl is now safe.

The Hatune Foundation has freed 317 Christian and Yazidi girls from ISIS captivity since January 2014.

Last month, I met with Jensen in Europe to talk about the work he and Sister Hatune are doing. She described her monthly visits to the rescued girls this way: “I give them my shoulder to cry on. There is little more relief we can offer until we get them to Europe.”

Since January 2014, the Hatune Foundation has freed “317 Christian and Yazidi girls from the hands of ISIS.” In addition, with the help of “partners,” the foundation has been involved in “280 additional releases.”

Right now, “200 women and girls are under professional care in Germany” where they can safely recover. Most of these girls are without family.

Many have seen their loved ones brutally murdered. The task is huge.

Jensen met Sister Hatune and became director of the Hatune Foundation last year. They agreed to mount a web platform as a way of campaigning for the rescue of Christians and Yazidis. Sister Hatune got special permission from the Archbishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church to work outside the church.

Jensen tells me: “They have all been raped, sold as slaves countless times . . . Our long-term goal is to offer them security and comfort in life. We have bought three houses close to the foundation’s headquarters [in Germany] and we intend to design them for these girls when they have finished treatment.”

The Foundation is located in Germany because there is a large, active Yazidi community there — and, Jensen says, because Germany is “into Christianity much more so than many other European countries.”

The Yazidi women are not waiting for Western feminists or Western military men to come their aid.

A Yazidi singer, Xate Shingali, with the permission of Kurdish President Masoud Barzani, just formed an all-female brigade to fight ISIS. They have been equipped with AK-47s and wear military fatigues. Shingali says: “While we have had only basic training, we are ready to fight ISIS anytime.”

She adds, “ISIS will never go to heaven. We will kill them.”

Phyllis Chesler, a Shillman-Ginsburg fellow at the Middle East Forum, is an emerita professor of psychology and women’s studies and the author of sixteen books.

Source Link

Editors note: What have you done to help, prayers are a start. However please reach out to the many organizations that are providing for the needs of the Christians among others who desperately need it.  Reach out to me if you have any questions.

Martin

By Jim Torres “Towers”

Someone once told me, why you’re only preaching to the choir when you write your little articles! Well it just so happens that is my intent, since non-believers are in another category altogether and don’t know any better than to live like they do – apart from God. Often they do so not knowing anything of the Bible or not wanting to know. Some even deny the very existence of God.

In this writing, I feel called to address those who call themselves Christians, both “born again” and “carnal.” First of all, some so-called Christians make those of us who truly believe look bad in the eyes of the world. You and I know that the church is nothing more than a hospital for sinners seeking healing and hope. It is made up of diverse people from all walks of life, all with different agendas and baggage. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell a mature one from a babe in Christ. Some never get beyond their initial revelation.

Did you ever notice that we as a whole have a tendency to go over the same old ground again and again? We’ve made bible classes a social meeting place with coffee and donuts, coupled with mindless chatter and going nowhere. We go over the same old grind over and over and over again, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Our lives have become shallow and self serving. The Apostle Paul said that most of us who have sat under a bible teacher should by now be ready to go out and teach others, and we should stop drinking spiritual milk and begin eating spiritual meat – as it were.

There comes a time in every believer’s life when we have to make hard decisions. Do we continue on the same old treadmill or do we stand and minister to the lost and hungry? Do you know enough scripture to make a difference in other people’s lives? Only then can you speak with authority about spiritual matters. To that you might answer, “But I live a clean moral life and walk circumspectly.” But so do many Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses and Catholics – while not knowing the unadulterated Word of God.

There is much to be said about spiritual issues, especially in these latter days when there is so much controversy, varied opinions and books being churned out for public consumption. The book racket is becoming a lucrative business with church leaders going over things that we should already know from having read the bible. That isn’t to say that we can’t learn or get better insight into the mysteries of God, but if we neglect the Holy Scriptures we do ourselves a disservice.

The more we study Scripture the closer we draw to God our Father and His Son. We begin to see and understand the deeper things of God. The Bible is chock full of pertinent information for the believer. The Bible says, “Study to show yourselves approved, rightly dividing the word of God.” Yet many neglect reading it, thus leaving us in stunted growth.

For example, did you know that in the book of Genesis there is a verse (1:26) where God the Father says, “Let US make man in OUR image and in our likeness.” Who is He talking to? He’s talking to another person! That alone should tell us in no uncertain terms that God is Deity.

As you apply yourself to studying the word of God you will begin to see things in a different light, and a whole new perspective will open up to you. Do you want promises? The Bible is full of them. Do you need assurance of salvation? It is there too. Do you need courage? It is there.

One lifelong Christian woman in a bible class asked if her child, who died in infancy, was in heaven with God the Father. In the book of Psalms David declares that his child is with our creator God. And that although his prayers couldn’t keep him from dying, he one day would see him in heaven. There are other references to that question. Yet because she failed to know God’s word, she suffered with that question for years. Sadly though, the scriptures say, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” She should have known this by now by having studied the Bible.

Another deep question that is answered in the Bible is, “How can a man be held responsible for what he doesn’t know?” My bible says he won’t be. Take for example a person in the jungles of Borneo who has never heard of Christ. Did you know that the bible tells us that a man will be judged according to the light that is in him? However, it is still our God-given responsibility to share the good news of the Gospel with everyone, everywhere.

The Bible says God is love, but how can he then condemn the pre-dispossessed He created, if that be the case? In this pre-destination controversy, how can we be so arrogant as to think we are better than anyone else? God is no respecter of persons but is not willing that any should perish. Everybody ever born is written in the Book of Life. But, if a person persists in denying God and his Christ they have sealed their doom and their name is removed from that same Book of Life.

The Bible also says that the Lamb’s book of Life is for those who have acknowledged Christ as savior. I sincerely hope your name is written there. If it’s not, then make sure it is just by asking in your own words for God the Father to forgive you your sins, and decide to follow the teachings of Christ and asking Him to intercede for you. Then learn more about this wonderful salvation and promises through reading of His word in the Bible. “The word of God is of no private interpretation but was inspired and written by Holy men as God revealed it to them.”

All of these things taken together make the word of God come vibrantly alive and will be encouraging to us. Thus, we should all grow up, arm ourselves with Scripture and join in the battle for men’s souls.

You may not see things exactly the way I do, but one thing is certain, Jesus Christ came to earth to redeem us so that we could have fellowship with the Father and remain with Him forevermore.

YBIC

Jim Torres “Towers”

jt.filmmaker@yahoo.com

Link to story Christianity Today

A decorated soldier who has worked for the U.S. Army Special Forces for 11 years is being kicked out after he stood up for a young rape victim and his beaten mother in Afghanistan, it is claimed.

Sergeant 1st Class Charles Martland, 33, was serving in the country’s war-torn Kunduz Province in 2011 when he apparently learned an Afghan police commander he had trained had raped a boy.

He and his team leader, Daniel Quinn, confronted Officer Abdul Rahman – who had also allegedly beaten the 12-year-old’s mother for reporting the sexual assault – and ‘shoved him to the ground’.

Despite Rahman walking away only bruised, Martland and Quinn were disciplined. The Army reportedly halted their mission, put them in temporary jobs, and then, finally, sent them home.

Upon their return, Quinn quit the Army and secured a job on Wall Street, Fox News exclusively reports. However, Martland, from Massachusetts, launched a fight to remain a Green Beret.

But now, the dedicated soldier has been ‘involuntary discharged’ from the Army following a ‘Qualitative Management Program’ that was apparently carried out in February this year.

An Army spokesman refused to confirm the details of Martland’s discharge for privacy reasons.

However, several army officials – and politicians – have expressed outrage at the verdict, which they believe was made due to the negative mark on Martland’s record from the January 2011 incident.

One of the soldier’s ex-teammates, known only as Casey, told Fox that if he was a commander, he would have given Martland ‘an award’ for confronting Rahman and ‘saving the [rape victim’s] life’.

 Outrage: However, several army officials – and politicians – have expressed outrage at the verdict. The January 2011 incident happened in the Kundux Province (pictured in April)

Meanwhile, Congressman Duncan Hunter, who has written to Defense Secretary Ash Carter about the verdict, said: ‘It’s sad to think that a child rapist is put above one of our elite military operators.

He added: ‘Sergeant Martland was left with no other choice but to intervene in a bad situation. The Army should stand up for what’s right and should not side with a corrupt Afghan police officer.’

In his letter, Hunter, a Republican representative from California, said the Army’s decision to discharge Martland had left him ‘dismayed’.

He told Cater of the dispute involving Martland, Quinn and Rahman: ‘To intervene was a moral decision, and SFC Martland and his Special Forces team felt they had no choice but to respond.’

Former NFL defensive end Tim Bulman has also expressed support for Martland, whom he was friends with as a child, telling Fox: ‘You would want him in your corner and protecting our freedom.’

Prior to the 2011 incident, Martland and Quinn had trained up Rahman, armed him and even paid him in dollars, it is said. However, they had a problem with him and other Afghan police recruits.

According to Fox, the two Green Berets and their teammates had started hearing reports of cops in the country carrying out rapes.

When they confronted Rahman about claims that he had raped a young boy and beaten up the child’s mother, the officer ‘laughed about it, and said it wasn’t a big deal,’ Quinn told the site.

The two soldiers then shoved Rahman ‘to prevent further repeat occurrences’, Quinn said.

After Rahman formally complained, Martland and Quinn were flown out of the province and placed in temporary jobs in another location in northern Afghanistan – before finally being sent home.

Last year, Martland, who grew up in Milton, Massachusetts, and played football for Florida State University, was listed as a runner-up for the Special Warfare Training Group Instructor of the Year.

According to another former teammate, who wished to remain unnamed, the soldier saved the lives of some of his colleagues during his time in Kunduz Province by leaping in front of Taliban bullets.

Martland’s ‘involuntary discharge’ will take effect by November 1, it is reported.

Source

By Jim Torres “Towers”

Four in ten Americans and 77% of Evangelical Christians believe we are now living in the end times. I’ve been saying that for over forty years. During those forty some years such exclamations were falling on deaf ears. American society was just beginning to crumble and hardly anyone took notice. At the time I was living in Hollywood, California pursuing a career in the movies. Those were the turbulent days of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. I had only been a Christian for a few years but still I recoiled at the blatant in your face sub-culture that was brewing. Having been out in the world, as it were, I knew these things existed but my God, you kept such shameful things in the closet! Now, it was just beginning to be in your face.

I tried to live in Hollywood twice but couldn’t adapt to the moral rot. The first time wasn’t so bad, but even then it was getting crazy out there. At first there were only a handful of fruitcakes on the streets hoping to be noticed. I coped with it as best I could and figured they were just needy people. Today, night time on Hollywood and Vine has become a three ring circus. All constraints have been loosened. It is becoming a living nightmare, a virtual hell on earth. It was as if all the looney bins had been opened across the country and all of the inmates ended up in Hollywood. Could it be that our Creator has given these people over to reprobate minds? That seems to be the only logical explanation.

Today, forty years later there are no constraints and everybody is doing their own thing everywhere across the country. Closets are no more. Scoffers abound everywhere. Nothing is sacred anymore. Everything is out in the open and people with their tongues sticking out and twerking are everywhere making fun of those more straight laced. More often than not they poke fun at Christians as well. Maybe we’ve got it coming from our many years of apathy, slick money hungry so-called televangelist’s shenanigans and downright hypocrisy.

Every big city in the USA is teeming with violence. Police officers are hard pressed to make the right decisions when so many people are against the law and moral absolutes. If you take the time to read between the lines or follow the trails of some of the individuals shot and killed, they usually lead to previous arrests of the perps, and often their predisposition to a life of crime. They more often than not have an extensive rap sheet. And so, we have a subculture of hard core criminals and thugs. Having said that, some policemen are taking things too far, shooting first and asking questions later, but who can blame them for fearing for their lives?

The present generation is devoid of role models and everyone does as he or she pleases. It’s Sodom and Gomorra all over again. What are right thinking individuals to do? All too often we Christian believers hide behind the walls of the church with like-minded brethren, cowering in fear. Believing that we will soon be rescued by the rapture of the church we often smirk confidently when confronted by these stark realities. Suppose we also have to go through still darker times? Are you ready to face them with resolve and conviction?

Are you a shirker, a phony or a hypocrite? I hope not. Considering the things mentioned these must be the end times, what with all the apostasy going on in so many churches. Even the Laodicean church wasn’t as bad as what many of the churches in the United States have become, and Jesus said of them, “Because you are neither hot nor cold I will spew you out of my mouth.” The American church is in freefall. They don’t want to heed any warnings nor can they see the signs of the end times developing before their very eyes. There is no sense of urgency, no looking skyward, no expectation of Christ’s return for his own, and no anticipation of participating at the marriage supper of the lamb. Life here is too sweet with no one to answer to.

Many other carnal Christians donate money only out of compulsion to gain God’s favor in the form of yet more financial gain. Did you ever notice that only the huge churches that promise “blessings” are growing by leaps and bounds? Yet these same churches never preach about repentance or sin. Homosexuals with no inclination to repent of their putrid lifestyle lead the music ministry. Many have become glutinous individuals, eating sumptuous delicacies with their finger tips and sucking the juices from off them, their bellies hanging over their belts. Gossip, jokes and one-upmanship is the name of the game in many churches today. Biblical prophecy is frowned upon in most churches yet the New Testament tells us that prophecy is of utmost importance.

God doesn’t delight in wimpy, self-absorbed and fearful fruitcakes. Cowards will have to answer to Almighty God for their apathy and fearfulness. Although we can fool others, we can’t fool God with our self-made piety and speech. The scriptures say that “judgment will begin in the house of God” and God doesn’t lie, and that judgment may happen sooner than we dare think.

Knowing that God can save to the uttermost, and although our country may be doomed, maybe we can still be able to snatch some from the wrath of God which is soon to come in the form of the Tribulation period.

We believers in Christ and the God of the bible must be courageous. We must quit being shrinking violets. Nobody respects a wimp or wishy-washy person. We should know what we believe, tell others about God’s great salvation and do it out of concern and love for a dying world for Christ’s sake. This requires taking risks, but it’s well worth the effort just in knowing you’re doing the right thing. That’s what God intends for us to do. Doing so draws us closer to God as well. We are to be co-laborers in His harvest field in which humanity is overly ripe and even rotting in the fields of life. We, the church of God, must repent for our apathy, fearfulness, misplaced trust in money and outright hypocrisy.

“You believe there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?”

YBIC

Jim Torres “Towers”

jt.filmmaker@yahoo.com

Prayer to open the Kansas State Legislature in 1996.  Has the country gotten better or worse since then? Notice the reaction from the Democrats on this, why such animosity to what is clearly The Truth!

The response to this was immediate: A number of the Legislature walked out during the prayer in protest. House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer (also a Democrat) asserted that the prayer “reflects the extreme, radical views that continue to dominate the House Republican agenda since right-wing extremists seized control of the House Republican caucus last year.” Rep. Jim Long, a Democrat from Kansas City, said that Wright “made everyone mad.”

In six short weeks, the Central Christian Church had logged more than 5,000 responding calls, with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church received requests for copies of the prayer from India, Africa and Korea:

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today and ask Your forgiveness and
to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, “Woe on
those who call evil good,” but that’s exactly what we have done. We have
lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that:
We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism.
We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism. We have
endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle. We have exploited
the poor and called it the lottery. We have neglected the needy and called
it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We
have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists
and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and
called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political
savvy. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it
freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our
forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin
and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent
to direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of Your Son, the
Living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

By Geri Ungurean

Writing usually comes easy to me.  Not so with this article. You see, I believe that the Lord wants me to be vulnerable, and to step out in faith. I believe that He wants to use me to help others.  I pray that this will glorify the Lord and will help others who are bound by the lies of the evil one.  I pray that this will bring reconciliation and peace with God to those who are in chains.

I’m going to tell you a story about me, of which I’m not proud; but it is part of my life, and the Lord has used it to shape and mold me. It happened ten years before I met the Lord Jesus and was born again in 1983.

I sang in a band in Washington, D.C. for a living back then. I had been brought up in the synagogue, but my family was more secular in their beliefs; especially my mom. I had been dating a fellow whom I thought really cared about me. I got pregnant, and soon found out that the man I was dating, was not interested in a serious relationship. When he heard about my pregnancy, he told me to take care of it. Then I never saw him again.

I didn’t want to take care of it.  I wanted to have the baby. I began searching for a home or somewhere I could go, where they would actually help me to have my baby and get me on my feet.  I didn’t know about churches, being a Jew. I would wind up at counseling centers, but they were not able to actually help me. They just talked to me. One counselor told me to tell my parents.  At that point, I knew that I needed to go to my mother and tell her.

When I told my mom, she very calmly said, “Don’t worry, I’ll help you to take care of it.” There it was again — that phrase that went right through me. Take care of it; first of all, what did that mean, and secondly, why call my baby an it?

I told my mom that I wanted to have the baby. That’s when she exploded. She yelled at me and told me that if I had this baby, that I was not welcomed in their home ever again. I didn’t realize this at the time, but this was happening the same year as Roe Vs. Wade was enacted. Abortion had become legal on demand. My mom knew this.

My mother took me down to the abortion clinic. A counselor spoke with me and asked if I had any questions. I had many. What did my baby look like right now? The answer was “Just a clump of cells.”  I asked how a clump of cells could be the beginnings of a baby. She told me that it was not a baby. I said that I had to think about this more. My mother was furious, and didn’t talk to me on the way home.

When we did get home, my mother said that she was going to give me a choice. Either I have the abortion, or never see the family again.  I cried the whole night. I felt like I was not in control of my life. I was sad and angry. The next day, my mother took me back down to the clinic.

I was in the procedure room, when a doctor came in and introduced himself. I told him that I still wasn’t sure that I wanted to do this. He rolled his eyes as he looked at the nurse.  But then he said for me to just relax. He said that it was the best thing that I was doing.  I was shaking. He began to gather his instruments and they had a sheet over my middle. I got up and ran, crying hysterically.  I saw my mother and she was very angry. I went back in and allowed the abortionist to do his job.

My mom never told my dad what had happened. I’m pretty sure that she knew that dad would not be in favor of abortion.  I wanted to die. I felt like a murderer. I was preoccupied with how I would die. It was the darkest time of my whole life.

Years went on, and I got married and had kids. Then, in 1983, after the suicide my sister in law, I met the Lord Jesus Christ through a Christian couple who had baked food for us during the time of the funeral. I believed I was saved, but the memory of the abortion haunted me day and night.

I remember a pastor speaking on the horror of abortion and how the Lord hated it. I felt a sinking feeling inside, as if perhaps I wasn’t really saved. I kept thinking to myself “How can the Lord think of me as His own, when I had done something so reprehensible. I couldn’t get this out of my mind.  I wanted to tell someone, but I couldn’t run the risk of them kicking me out of the church. I was convinced that I had committed the unpardonable sin. I was also convinced that no other woman in that church had ever done something like this.  I hated myself.

This went on for years.  I read the Bible every day.  I read verses like this:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

I would think to myself that I did confess this awful sin to Him, and according to His Word, He was faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me. I would suddenly feel like I had the victory over this, but soon that guilt would return, and I would be back in that dark place.

I had nightmares about my baby. I knew that he was with Jesus, but in my dreams I was trying to find him. I just wanted to hold him.

Then I heard a pastor speak on abortion having at least two victims. The baby and the mother, and even sometimes the father.  I felt as if God Himself was speaking directly to me. The tears rolled down my cheeks as I listened to this godly man. He talked about repentance and forgiveness, and how God was waiting for those affected by what they had done, to come to Him so that He could forgive them. That day, the Lord freed me from the nightmare of what I had done.

I began writing letters to the editor about abortion. I didn’t speak of my abortion, but I spoke truth about the babies who were being slaughtered. I wrote that these little ones were not clumps of cells.  I would always get nasty rebuttals from the pro-death camp, but I didn’t care. I felt like the writing of the letters was a ministry of sorts. I needed to speak out for the babies!

We became part of a Baptist church where we placed hundreds of tiny blue and pink crosses in memory of the aborted babies.  Still, I never talked about my abortion.

In the last few years, I heard of a group of women called “Silent No More.” These were women who had abortions and had been tormented over it. They wanted to speak out about this, so that other women who were agonizing over their sin would know that they were not alone. They also hoped that their ministry might help women who were contemplating having an abortion – to change their minds.

Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, is part of that group. She is a lovely lady and her life is all about being part of the Pro-Life movement and Silent No More. She inspires me.

I love Pastor JD Farag, and hubby and I watch his prophecy updates each week. Last week, he spoke about the Planned Parenthood story which had just broken. Before he got into what he thought about the story, he made sure that if there were any women listening to him who had an abortion, he wanted to assure them that there is forgiveness at the Cross of Jesus Christ. This is so important for pastors to tell their congregations!

Did you know that studies have shown that the number of women in churches, who have had abortions, is just about the same as the women in the world? This shocked me at first. But then it confirmed the need for churches to minister to women who have done this in their lives — to lead them to the Cross for forgiveness.  The evil one constantly whispers his despicable lies to the children of God. He accuses us before our God day and night:

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night” (Revelation 12:10).

Are you a Christian woman who had an abortion, who still struggles with receiving God’s forgiveness?  Do you know of a sister in Christ who is going through an agonizing time over this?  Are you thinking of having an abortion or know someone who is? I pray that this article will be used by God to bring His forgiveness and mercy to those who are tormented by their sin. I also pray that anyone who is thinking of having an abortion will see the impact this sin has on a person for the rest of their life.

Did you know that the only unforgivable sin is to reject Christ and die without Him?  When the devil speaks lies to you, and tells you that you will not be forgiven, do this…..

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Satan has no power over you, child of God!  He is a liar and the father of them. He is the author of confusion.  Learn to say to him “Get thee behind me Satan!”

I was afraid when I first thought that the Lord wanted me to write this. I spoke to hubby about it. He was apprehensive too. We knew that this would open me up to possible attacks from unbelievers. We prayed about this. We both felt that it was worth the risk of backlash and ridicule, because writing this is glorifying to God.

God sent Jesus to the Cross, so that men and women could be reconciled to Him. Jesus paid the price for all of our sin. If He had not done that, we would die in our sins and all be bound for hell.  I believe that God wanted me to write this, because He wanted to tell the women who are being held captive by the lies of the evil one, that if you come to Him in repentance for the abortion and ask His forgiveness, He will forgive you!  And then He can use you in His battle for the lives of the unborn.

You can be Silent No More!

MARANATHA

grandmageri422@gmail.com