Worthy News
Chants of “death to the dictator” rang out across Tehran as thousands of merchants, students, and residents joined expanding protests sparked by Iran’s deepening economic collapse. Security forces responded with tear gas and rubber bullets as large sections of the capital, including parts of the Grand Bazaar, were shuttered in protest.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he would support Israeli military action to prevent Iran from rebuilding its missile arsenal and warned that the United States would act “immediately” if Tehran attempts to revive its nuclear program.
At least four people were killed and around 60 others injured on Sunday as protests by members of Syria’s Alawite minority turned violent along the country’s Mediterranean coast, after a deadly bombing at a mosque earlier in the week, officials said.
The president of the United States says negotiations to end Russia’s war against Ukraine are nearing completion, although unresolved territorial disputes remain. Donald J. Trump’s comments followed lengthy talks between the U.S. leader and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Florida.
The murder of a Pakistani pastor has taken a dramatic turn, with police saying his wife and her alleged lover were the “masterminds” behind the killing, which investigators say was carried out by hired assassins.
Three men face the New Year behind bars after being found guilty of plotting to kill as many Jews as possible in Greater Manchester—an attack authorities said could have been one of Britain’s deadliest terror plots in years.
Dutch police said Monday they have found the body of a 16-year-old Ukrainian boy who went missing on Christmas Day, bringing a tragic end to a large-scale search effort involving hundreds of volunteers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Florida on Sunday ahead of a pivotal meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, amid growing Israeli concern that Washington may push forward with Phase II of the Gaza agreement without securing Israel’s core security demands.
Israel has officially deployed its Iron Beam laser-based air defense system in operational field use, marking a historic breakthrough in modern warfare, the Defense Ministry announced Sunday. The system has now transitioned from development and testing into active service with the Israel Defense Forces, becoming the world’s first high-power laser interception platform to reach full operational status.
A knife attack outside Suriname’s capital Paramaribo killed at least nine people, including five children, police said Sunday, in one of the deadliest violent incidents in the small country’s recent history.
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The African Impala (an African antelope) are amazing creatures that can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance greater than 30 feet. Yet Impalas can be kept in a zoo inside an enclosure with a simple 3 foot wall. Why? Impalas will not jump if they can’t see where their feet will land. Do we have something in common with these antelopes? Able to take great leaps of faith, but refusing to do it unless we can see where we’ll land?
An aging king woke up one day to the realization that should he drop dead, there would be no male in the royal family to take his place. He was the last male in the royal family in a culture where only a male could succeed to the throne – and he was aging. He decided that if he could not give birth to a male, he would adopt a son who then could take his place but he insisted that such an adopted son must be extraordinary in every sense of the word. So he launched a competition in his kingdom, open to all boys, no matter what their background. Ten boys made it to the very top.
For centuries in Ethiopia, there have lived a people we now know as the Falashas. They kept all sorts of Biblical traditions and call themselves Beta Yisrael (House of Israel). As experts began to study the matter, it became clear that these were descendants of the Jewish people who came to Africa in ancient times and intermarried. Unbeknownst to many, a percentage of them became believers in Jesus over the years. Jesus (or Yeshua, as they called Him) became a part of their identity as Jewish people. Many Falashan Jews worshipped Jesus as their Messiah and continued to practice Jewish tradition.
So often in our walks with the Lord, we become focused on what we can see, what we can hear and what we can sense in the physical realm. Like that young man, we focus on the enemy’s attacks around and about us. At times we can get so focused on our physical circumstances that we forget that the Lord has already provided for us the victory!
Why is it that some believers seem to go much deeper in their walk with God than others? I believe it has to do with a desire to pursue God and not to stop until they feel His very presence in their lives. These believers decide not to settle for anything less than a growing, vibrant relationship with God, and God honors that desire for those who seek it.
This pivotal passage of scripture, Isaiah 52 and continuing into Isaiah 53, profiles a suffering servant whom the nation of Israel would not recognize. The spiritual leaders of Yeshua’s (Jesus) day were blinded to the messianic passages which pointed to the messiah’s role as a humble servant and bearer of sins.
A recent study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and University of California Los Angeles wanted to find out, “if you had to choose between more time and more money, what would it be?” While they found most respondents answered, “more money”, they also found that those who preferred “more time” were generally happier! When I read this article, it reminded me of a story, that I’d like to share.
The Lord spoke to Moses, who led the children of Israel out of Egypt to be desperately cornered with the Red sea before them and Pharaoh’s chariots advancing upon them from behind. Overwhelmed with terror they cry out to Moses, “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” Having just miraculously escaped from the miserable life of slavery, and only beginning their new life of freedom, the children of Israel were faced with the most dire threat to their existence.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve begun a series of devotions based on the Exodus wanderings of the Children of Israel, and their tragic mistakes which we can learn from and avoid. One powerful influence common to their failures was fear.
For the past two weeks we have examined lessons from the OT account of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt in hope of avoiding the errors and attitudes of the children of Israel. This week we will draw connections between the Exodus and the prophecies in the book of Revelation.
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