Worthy News
On the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act last week, President Donald J. Trump declared his administration’s sweeping effort to “Make Social Security Great Again,” celebrating both his new tax relief for seniors and an unprecedented fraud cleanup inside the system.
Europe’s church leaders have warned of a “world in crisis” as wildfires, floods, melting glaciers, and deadly heatwaves devastate communities across Europe and Asia. Their concern comes ahead of the 2025 Season of Creation, the annual period of prayer for the environment running from September 1 to October 4.
Rights activists say local authorities in Indonesia’s West Java province have shut down a Christian prayer house and evicted its evangelist leader, underscoring broader concerns about religious freedom in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.
Christian advocacy groups are intensifying calls for Eritrea to release seven church leaders who have been held without trial for more than two decades.
Israel is preparing to issue tens of thousands of emergency call-up orders to reservists beginning Wednesday, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) finalize operational plans for a large-scale ground assault on Gaza City, defense officials confirmed.
The United States is considering organizing a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, according to several U.S. sources familiar with the plan.
A federal appeals court on Monday overturned a ban on student-run drag shows at West Texas A&M University, ruling that the school’s president violated students’ constitutional rights to free expression.
S&P Global Ratings said Monday it expects federal revenue from President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policies to help offset weaker revenues caused by his recently enacted tax-and-spending package, maintaining the United States’ long-term AA+ sovereign debt rating and short-term A-1+ rating.
China is preparing to unveil powerful new underwater drones during a major military parade in Beijing on September 3, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
A groundbreaking medical experiment in Israel may soon give paralyzed patients the ability to walk again. Researchers at Tel Aviv University, working through biotech company Matricelf, are preparing to perform the world’s first human transplant of a lab-grown spinal cord segment, following years of pioneering laboratory and animal studies.
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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).
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