Worthy News
With a notoriously cold winter approaching, Russia has launched a major campaign to deny Ukraine heat, light, and running water, authorities said Wednesday.
Christians in more than 20 villages in central India were without the possibility to bury their loved ones in a dignified way on Thursday after Hindu nationalists reportedly stripped them of that right as part of a crackdown on spreading Christianity.
A senior Russian diplomat said Wednesday that the momentum toward a Ukraine peace agreement—sparked after President Vladimir Putin’s August summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska—has “largely been exhausted,” blaming European allies of Kyiv for obstructing diplomatic progress.
Thousands of churches across the United Kingdom may close within the next five years as financial hardship, maintenance costs, and declining attendance continue to erode the viability of many congregations, according to a new nationwide survey.
The U.S. federal government ended fiscal year 2025 with a $1.8 trillion budget deficit, according to estimates released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)–a figure only marginally smaller than last year’s record shortfall, even as tariff revenue surged under President Donald Trump’s trade policies.
The “brutal killing of Shamron Masih,” a mentally disabled Christian man in the Motra area of Pakistan’s Sialkot district, has sparked “widespread outrage across Pakistan’s Christian community,” Christian human rights investigators said Wednesday.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday night that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace plan, signaling the possible end of the two-year-long war in Gaza that began after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.
During a round table discussion with independent journalists at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump said his administration would designate Antifa a foreign terror organization.
Democratic U.S. Senators voted against opening the federal government for a sixth time Wednesday afternoon, dimming hopes that Congress will reach a funding deal in time for thousands of federal workers to receive their next paychecks.
President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met Tuesday at the White House for the second time since Carney’s election, as both leaders sought to navigate deepening trade tensions and a wave of tariffs that have strained one of the world’s closest alliances.
This is the code to run Worthy News with Pagination which allows for archive pages.
[worthy_plugins_news_stories detail_page_uri="/worthy-news/" excerpts=true limit=10 pager=true image=thumbnail image_position=left]
Worthy Devotions
While most read the story of Jonah focusing on Jonah’s journey, I want to pause and examine the lives of the pagan sailors. What a journey they were on! We see the hand of God touching them providentially through Jonah’s disobedience. Talk about God bringing good from evil.
So the captain came to Jonah, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.” At this point the captain (who probably worshiped Baal and Yamm, god of the sea) has more faith than Jonah.
It must have been a bad storm. These men were experienced, hardened sailors who had seen it all at sea. If they were scared, this could have been the first “perfect storm” since Noah’s flood. So they started the first interfaith prayer meeting in the Bible, each man crying out to his own god. As the ship groaned and creaked in howling wind and massive waves, and the men threw cargo overboard in a desperate attempt to save it, where was Jonah? On deck helping them? Confidently praying to His own God? Shaking with fear and paralyzed with deep conviction? No, he’s taking a nap down below…
For the next week or so we’ll be looking closely at the life of Jonah the prophet. Jonah was told to “preach against the city of Nineveh”, that was in the ancient kingdom of Assyria. Nineveh was a major city on the banks of the Tigris River about 500 miles north and east of where Jonah was; located on a contemporary map in modern Iraq, about 300 miles north of Baghdad. Archaeologists have found the ruins of ancient Nineveh right outside the Iraqi city of Mosul. Yes, the same Mosul that was taken last week by jihadists!
So Jonah goes and begins to preach in this pagan city. His message is very simple. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown”(v. 4). That’s it. That was his whole message. It’s eight words in English; only 4 words in Hebrew.
Abraham was sitting in front of his tent on the plains of Mamre, when the LORD (Yehovah — Yud Hay Vav Hay) came to him and declared the fulfillment of a promise He had made to him many years before, saying that through Abraham’s seed the world would be blessed! (Genesis 12:7; 13:15-16, 15:18, 17:7-9)
As we conclude the Feast of Sukkot tonight, I want to reflect on one of the profound mysteries of God—how He aligns the prophetic clock with the Hebrew calendar. Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Ingathering, is a harvest celebration. Notably, it remains one of the few biblical feasts yet to be fulfilled prophetically, pointing us to future events in God’s divine plan.
The story of the Exodus is a story of miracles – yet in the beginning when Moses first appeared before Pharaoh to deliver the children of Israel from 400 years of slavery, the Israelites were severely tempted and became angry because of the initial hardships that were laid upon them.
One beautiful correlation when celebrating Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) is recognizing its connection to marriage, specifically pointing to our future union with God. This festival not only commands us to rejoice, but it also carries deep symbolism that mirrors the joy and intimacy of a wedding celebration.
During the feast of Tabernacles in Yeshua’s (Jesus’) day, the temple priests would set up four great lampstands with golden lampholders, which they would light with the aid of enormous ladders in the Temple courtyard. The lighting of these lamps began the celebration of the “Great Hosannah” (Hoshannah Rabbah, in Hebrew).
This is the code to run Worthy Devotions with Pagination which allows for archive pages.
[worthy_plugins_devotion_list detail_page_uri="/worthy-devotions/" excerpts=true limit=10 pager=true]