Worthy News
Sudanese Christians faced new challenges Tuesday after two of Sudan’s oldest churches were reportedly attacked by suspected Islamic vandals in the Sunni Muslim–majority nation.
A case involving a Mississippi street preacher–arrested for sharing the Gospel outside a concert venue–has now reached the U.S. Supreme Court, setting the stage for a ruling that could reshape how Americans defend their constitutional rights against local restrictions.
President Donald Trump announced last Friday that he is revoking all executive orders and related documents signed using an autopen during the Biden administration, alleging that the signatures were made without the former president’s authorization and are therefore unlawful.
President Donald Trump said on Dec. 2 that the United States will begin conducting military strikes inside Venezuela “very soon,” marking a significant escalation in Washington’s months-long campaign to dismantle narcotics networks that U.S. officials say are operating with the protection of the Maduro regime.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued one of his starkest threats yet toward Europe on Tuesday, declaring that Moscow is “ready right now” for a war with the continent if attacked–an escalation made just hours before meeting White House special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin.
Shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire just blocks from the White House, an Afghan national evacuated to the United States in 2021 is accused of killing one West Virginia National Guard soldier and critically injuring another in a broad-daylight attack that federal authorities say was entirely unprovoked.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel is prepared to reach a diplomatic arrangement with Syria’s new regime, but only under conditions that firmly protect Israel’s security and prevent the rise of new threats along its northern border.
The Trump administration’s push to broker an end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine entered a volatile new phase Tuesday, as White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, warned Monday that upcoming talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff could pressure Kyiv into making concessions. The two men are expected to meet on Tuesday.
The Dutch government has launched a campaign to prepare citizens for 72 hours without power, water, and food amid concerns the Netherlands may be targeted by Russia and its allies.
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At any time, how receptive your heart is will determine your response to God’s word. If your heart has been trampled, and harden by bitterness and unforgiveness, then receiving God’s message for you will become more difficult. If your heart is like shallow soil on top of a rock, then your mind comprehends God’s truths, yet these truths do not penetrate your heart to make a real difference in your actions. Or if you are concerned about the riches of this life, then your focus is on the here and now, and these pursuits prevent God’s Word from taking hold and producing quality fruit. But a heart that is on good soil, receives the Word, applies the Word, and in due time bring forth abundant fruit! This is God’s desire for you — to have a heart cultivated on good soil!
For those of you who didn’t get that title, it’s a well known children’s Suzuki violin rhythm.
Not long ago, I came across an old issue of Homemade, where Dr. Ernest Mellor writes on fostering good relationships. This is so good I had to share.
Some of the wealthiest individuals in the United States are real estate developers. They make their money by buying a piece of property that is terribly run down, seemingly useless, without any value to the naked eye and reforming it completely, making it look brand new! These businessmen are not as much interested in what is on the property as they are interested in the land it’s on!
A sailor who was shipwrecked on a desert island was captured by some of the natives of that island. They carried him off on their shoulders to their village, where he was sure he would end up being the main course. But instead, they put a crown on his head and made him king. He was enjoying all the attention he was receiving but was growing a little suspicious. He started making inquiries and discovered that their custom was to crown a stranger king for a year and at the end of that year the crowned king would be sent to a deserted island where he was allowed to starve to death.
With war drums beating even more intensely in Iran and Syria, we’ve received numerous phone calls and emails expressing their concerns — and understandably so! Nevertheless, even in this climate of anxiety, we are preparing to enter into Shabbat (the Hebrew word for Sabbath) this afternoon. And as we do, we are remembering again, the deep lesson of God’s entering into His rest following the six creation days.
This is one of my favorite promises in the Bible — that God turns mourning into dancing! He takes away the anguish of being clothed in sadness and replaces it with gladness. However, notice what God doesn’t do — simply stop your mourning and make it disappear. No, He transforms it…into joy!
As we discussed last week, the word for “sign” in ancient Hebrew is “oht”. It was used in Genesis to designate God’s covenant sign with Noah, (the rainbow). And we see now the same word again, in Exodus, identified with the deliverance of the Jewish people from the tenth plague, when the angel of death passed through all Egypt to strike the firstborn. Anyone under the “sign” of the blood was spared.
Yesterday we wrote about one of the greatest moves of God … the Moravian Revival. When the community was in complete disarray, Count Zinzendorf focused on how they could live together in love despite their differences. He called all the men together for an intense study of the Scriptures to focus on how Christian life in community was portrayed. These studies combined with intense prayer convinced many of the believers that they were called to live together in love and that their disunity and conflict were contrary to the clear calling of Scripture.
In the late 1800s, an awakening in South Africa led by Andrew Murray was a powerful move of God. Studying that revival yields essential insights concerning the events occurring now throughout the United States. As the spirit of God began to move in Cape Town, Murray compared the SA revival with past experiences of revivals in Europe. He decided that the intense “emotionalism” was a false experience of God and charged in to break up the meeting. Stepping out of the church, he encountered his father standing and weeping. His father rebuked Andrew, “How dare you stop something that I have prayed to happen for 30 years!”
Revivals, that is, genuine Divinely ordained seasons of the activity of God among men, have a universally unusual character. Normal activities and behaviors give way to the tangible influence of God’s Holy Spirit, whose inspiration brings a freedom of expression, emotion, conviction, worship, and other variations from normal experience.
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