Worthy News
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says proposals negotiated with U.S. officials on a peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine could be finalized within days, after which American envoys would present them to the Kremlin. The announcement came ahead of the establishment of the International Claims Commission for Ukraine in The Hague, which will seek compensation from Russia for Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.
Residents mourned and counted the cost Tuesday as Moroccan authorities confirmed that at least 37 people were killed after torrential rain and flash floods inundated about 70 homes and businesses in the coastal city of Safi, in what officials described as the deadliest such disaster in Morocco in at least a decade.
With Christmas approaching, thousands of Christians, many of them from Indigenous communities, marched near Mexico’s southern border “to thank God” for decades of relative peace in the Mexican state of Chiapas, despite reported acts of violence in recent years.
Jewish communities worldwide are impacted by one of the deadliest terror attacks against Jews outside Israel in decades, when gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, killing 15 people, Worthy News established Monday.
Following an alarming rise in fentanyl deaths in recent years, President Donald Trump is taking another step in cracking down on the deadly drug seeping its way onto American streets by designating it a weapon of mass destruction.
A remarkably rare, 1,300-year-old lead pendant decorated with a seven-branched menorah has been uncovered during archaeological excavations beneath the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount, shedding new light on Jewish presence in Jerusalem during a period when Jews were officially barred from entering the city.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told U.S. envoys that Ukraine is willing to give up its bid to join NATO if it helps bring an end to the war with Russia, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
American authorities have detained “a person of interest” following a deadly shooting at Brown University in the U.S. state of Rhode Island that officials said killed two students and wounded nine others, prompting a campus lockdown and renewed debate over security at the nation’s universities.
Australian police said Monday that a father and son carried out a deadly antisemitic terror attack at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, killing 15 people and wounding about 40 others, in what officials described as the country’s worst gun violence in nearly three decades.
An uneasy calm returned Monday to the streets of Amsterdam after Dutch police said they arrested 22 people following clashes with anti-Israel protesters outside one of the world’s most famous concert halls.
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For years, when I visited my father-in-law’s home in Jerusalem on the Sabbath, we would break bread and bless the bread with the traditional blessing – “Baruch Ata Adonai Eleheynu Melech HaOlam Ha-Motzi Lechem Min Ha’aretz” – which translated means,”Blessed are You Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has given us bread from the earth”. After the blessing, my father-in-law would take salt and sprinkle the challah bread as he broke and passed it to everyone at the table.
One day a passerby saw a homeless man on the roadside. He stopped for a moment to hand him some loose change and casually said “God bless you, my friend”.
“I thank God,” said the homeless man, “I am never unhappy.”
Here in Israel we have an interesting geographical phenomenon – there are two landlocked seas. One is alive and one is dead. The sea full of life is the Kinneret, better known as the Sea of Galilee. The dead sea is…….you guessed it, the Dead Sea. Now the Kinneret is constantly emptying as it flows through the Jordan River valley…. into the Dead Sea. But the Dead Sea does not empty its water at all. Instead, the Dead Sea is continually shrinking, because the intense heat at this lowest place on Earth actually evaporates more water than is flowing in. Do you see a parable here?
One of my passions is studying history, especially the American Civil War. Here is an amusing story about General Stonewall Jackson’s famous Valley Campaign. During the war, Jackson’s army found itself on one side of a river when it needed to be on the other.
We tend to focus on the part of that scripture where God does the blessing — but why did He bless Him? The answer lies in the passage! The Lord told Abraham: “I will bless you — and you shall be a blessing.” Abraham was blessed so that he could be a blessing!
In the Olivet discourse recorded in Matthew 24, Yeshua prophesied that “… nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” The word “nation” in Greek is the word “ethnos”, from which we get the English word “ethnic”. All of this polarization and ethnic warfare which the media feed upon and incite is the work of the enemy as he stirs up the sinful nature of men.
Several hundred years before Jesus was born, a plague broke out in Athens, Greece. In an effort to stop the plague and appease the ‘gods’, the Athenians sought counsel from a wise man named Epimenides from the island of Crete.
A new driver for an interstate trucking company was having a difficult time. He found the long cross-country trips extremely tiring. The older driver who traveled with him, however, seemed to thrive on those long trips. He always seemed to look as fresh at the end of the ride as he did at the beginning.
There’s nothing we can do to earn God’s love, however if we want to experience His blessings we need to observe the qualifications that He’s given us in His Word. Psalm 112 details a whole list of blessings, but the key to receiving them is verse 1.
Looking at the relationship between “love and affection” (“chiba” in Hebrew) and “obligation” (“chova” in Hebrew), we find another closely related word, “chaver”, one of the Hebrew words for “friend”. Friends are people with whom we share love and affection and also a sense of obligation. Our God and Father wants us to be His friends, to share love and affection with Him and to carry the sense of responsibility and obligation which friendship requires.
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