Son of Hamas Leader now My Brother

This report by Fox (Ya I know...Fox) gives a breath of true hope to the ongoing Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Bottom line: horrible suffering on both sides, deep seeded idealogies, Satanic religions, and ceaseless cycles of hatred and violence, are no match for the power of the Gospel of Christ.
It is also a powerful reminder that we need to be praying for the souls of both Palestinians and Israeli's, that although they are at war with each other, in their sins both groups are at war with God. Peace with God is their greatest need.

(props to VOM Blog for pointing me to this story)

Pray for the DRC - UPDATED

As some of you know, an African church meets in our church building. The majority of the church members are refugees from the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), a place which God has put on our hearts. Through this church Sarah and I have gotten to know some of the wonderful people from The Light of Africa missionary organization. Two of their primary missionaries, Esther and Camille Ntoto, are strongly connected with the African Church. They minister in Goma, a region of DRC which has seen some of the worst fighting over the years. In the last few years of relative peace, the Ntoto's have had a very fruitful ministry working with churches, victims of violence and rape, AIDS patients, and starting a radio ministry amongst a myriad of other things. However, recently the rebel activity has surged dramatically. I recieved this email today, and share it with you to inform and challenge you to be praying and supporting our brothers and sisters in the DRC.

Subject: Urgent from Camille FW: GOMA WARDEN MESSAGE
> Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:12:02 -0700
>
> Camille has sent this response saying that Goma is in trouble (see below).
> Sam and I just got off the phone with Esther and Camille (two calls).
> Apparently, they received word that Goma was safe to return to earlier today
> and Camille headed towards Goma to catch the boat. They thought that would
> be the best and safest way to get to Bukavu. However, he met a friend in
> Gisenyi that told him his information was incorrect and to turn around. He
> did. Within 30 minutes, they heard heavy gunshots and realized that Goma
> was taken.
>
> Camille is in an expensive motel but safe and he has shelter. He is no
> longer trying to get to Esther. With Goma falling, Camille says that Bukavu
> will most likely be next but not imminent. He has to get Esther out of
> there. Bukavu isn't safe. He has her passport. Please pray that God will
> help us find a way to get her passport to her and get Esther to Camille.
> Camille even stated that he may consider going back into Goma/Gisenyi area
> to use the boat option to get her out.
>
> The bus trip is no longer a safe option. People, rebels and looters are
> everywhere.
>
> They are undecided on how to spend their time before their planned
> departure. Camille says it is very confusing to say the least. He thinks
> UNICEF may have an obligation to help take care of the women in Bukavu that
> are there with Esther.
>
> PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!
> Cindy and Sam




HERE IS AN UPDATE I RECIEVED TODAY FROM AMY FROM LIGHT OF AFRICA

Thank you for prayiing! God has protected Esther in many ways already. Your prayers were heard yesterday as Esther was in danger. People thought she was a Tutsi. She had gone up to her room and was getting ready to take a shower. She heard the noise of voices, turned off the water, opened the bathroom window. People were talking about getting to her room from the balcony. Statements were made about wanting to see her passport. She made sure all doors were locked, curtains closed and lights off. Right then a group of us here in the states were meeting about congo and decided to call her. We were able to pray for her, be there with her. By the time we called her back the she was able to reach the UN police were able to pick her up and take her to safety..

Esther is now getting her passport through the US Embassy and will be taken by UN protection to Rwanda to meet up with Camille. She leaves Saturday morning. Please pray for her safety on Saturday morning.

Camille has spent the last several nights at a hotel just across the border. Today he walked back into Congo, went to his house, paid workers. They hadn't been able to leave the premises for several days. He is doing what he can in the city during the "cease fire."

Pray for Camille's safety on the road.

Please pray that every voice will be used to stop a blood bath from happening in Eastern Congo once again.

If you would like to read more I've included accounts from Goma, from Heal Africa who Esther is very involved with. They provide physical, emotional and spiritual healing for the women who have been raped.

Call+Response

Just wanted to do my part in letting you know about the film "Call+Response", a film about the modern sex slave trade. Looks to have some pretty sweet music as well. A few quick facts:
- there are more slaves today than ever in the history of the world
- the sex slave trade made more money last year than Google, Nike, and Starbucks combined

May this film be used to convict, expose, awaken, and mobilize a generation of slaves of Christ to give their lives in bringing freedom, both spiritual and physical to the millions of slaves in this world we are passing through.

Check out the trailer here:



To find showtimes near you go HERE
If you are in L.A., leave a comment and we can find a time to all go together.

$700 billion

"It's extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion dollars to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases."

- Bono

The Cultural Argument Against Gay Marriage

Here is a link to a great article to educate you and help you speak about the issue of God marriage with intelligence and compassion.

The Cultural Argument Against Gay Marriage

Expelled - the Movie

Ben Stein (writer of presidential speeches, game show host, eye drop commercial guy, "Bueller, Bueller") has released a new film which documents the persecution Intelligent Design scientists have faced in the Academic world and the media. Should be a interesting and conversation starting. It opens April 18 nationwide. CHECK OUT THE TRAILER HERE

Planned Parenthood Accepts Money to Abort African American Babies

Here comes the chief

Whatever you think of the "Dubwa" you got to admit he's got moves. Just wish he would have used this kind of diplomacy in the Middle East.

The Great Porn Debate

The following is an announcement from XXXchurch, a ministry that helps those in the church who struggle with an addiction to pornography, as well as evangelizes and rehabilitates those who are in the porn industry. Hopefully this debate will be a powerful opportunity for the Gospel to be displayed and hope to be given to those in the bondage of pornography.



::: ITS ON! The Great Porn Debate is at Yale University this Friday night, February 15. You all are invited to watch it unfold on ABC. The ABC website will have the entire debate posted and Nightline will have short segments of it up one day after. Start watching the debate Thursday Feb. 21 on ABCNews.com, plus watch the full story on Nightline, Friday, February 22 at 11:35 pm ET. Check it all out here.

The debate is at Sex Week at Yale with porn pastor Craig Gross and porn star Ron Jeremy. This debate will feature former porn producer Donny Pauling with Craig and a current actress in the porn industry with Ron.


::: GET INVOLVED We need the X3 family worldwide to get involved!

On the ABC News website you can interact two ways:
1) Discussing the upcoming debate through the blogs of the site.
2) Submitting questions for the debate through video and text.

Help Craig and Donny out by asking some awesome poignant and provocative questions for both sides. Go here to get involved!


::: GET EXCITED It is a huge deal for ABC News and Nightline to cover the debate. We are excited that the other side of the porn story is being discussed. We encourage you to use this to open up discussion with others. Pass on the website link and video, and get to discussing. Thank you for your support!

Sanctity of Life week

This week is the 35th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade supreme court case that made abortion legal in the United States. For pro-choice supporters this week is a celebration over the triumph of the "freedom to choose" over the freedom to live. For pro-life supporters this week is a time to mourn the genocide of the unborn, to re-commit ourselves to reflect God's heart of compassion and justice in standing up for the unborn and showing the hope of the Gospel in forgiving mothers who have murdered their children, and celebrate the fact that we live in a country where we can speak out and change policy if we really want to. Below are some links and videos to remind us of the gravity of this national curse. May God move us to Spirit-guided action!





links to resources:
Abort73.com
a personal testimony
Eternal Perspectives Ministries - Prolife Resources

Sex trafficking in Los Angeles

You would be shocked at how common stories like these are in this city. All the more reason that the light needs to shine in this dark place.

"For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help,
The afflicted also, and him who has no helper.
He will have compassion on the poor and needy,
And the lives of the needy he will save.
He will rescue their life from oppression and violence,
And their blood will be precious in his sight;"
Psalm 72:12-14

"Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom : she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy."
Ez 16:49


"They are fat, they are sleek,
They also excel in deeds of wickedness;
They do not plead the cause,
The cause of the orphan, that they may prosper;
And they do not defend the rights of the poor.
' Shall I not punish these people?' declares the LORD,
'On a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?'"
Jer 5:28-29


"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."
Matt 5:16

Yet another reason to stop smoking

Apparently the rise of smokers in China is contributing to the rise of cost in printing Bibles. Check it out HERE

“Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’

One of the injustices that adds to the cycle of depravity on Los Angeles' Skid Row is the practice of "dumping" that hospitals and mental institutions occasionally (some might argue frequently) participate in. Check out this article about the lastest reported incident. Then pray for those stuck in a cycle of poverty, hopelessness, and addiction. Then seek the Lord to see if He is asking you to do something beyond prayer. If so let me know and perhaps I can offer some suggestions.


by His grace,
for His glory,
jrf

Jonathan Edwards on Ted Haggard

I try not to get caught up in the lastest media frenzies or wax eloquent on situation of which I am not directly involved but today as I was reading over Jonathan Edwards 70 Resolutions I found that Resolution #8 was a timely exhortation in light of the current scandal.

8. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.

by His grace,
for His Glory

Look out Will Ferrell

Two months ago the TV show NASCAR angels did an episode at the Nehemiah House. We still don't know exactly when it is going to air, but here's the synopsis according to the web site:

Episode 106: L.A. Youth Center - Scott Yetter is associate pastor of the First Evangelical Free Church of Los Angeles, an inner-city church with deep roots in its community. Before accepting this assignment, Scott and wife Sarah founded the church's SAY Y.E.S. inner-city youth program, and it's changing the lives of kids in their area. The program is located, in part, in the Nehemiah House, a very old home in the inner city. When the NASCAR Angels come to the neighborhood, church members, kids from the youth program and college students participating in an urban ministry training program will paint the Nehemiah House and landscape the grounds. As they give some TLC to their beloved home, the Angels will be showering some TLC on Scott's Honda Accord...

Christ is all
jrf

Cartoon Chaos

Check out this terrible but interesting and thought-provoking article: Cartoon Chaos

Are we asking these questions?

It's sad when the press is asking the questions that the Church (who has the answers) should be asking. Check this out:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9979343/#051109a

Thoughts on Hurricane Katrina

You may not have time to read this but I didn’t have time to write it, so that makes us about even. These are just a few things that have been running through my head as I struggle to take in the scope of this disaster.

Life is a vapor

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

James 4:14

I doubt anyone affected by the hurricane thought a month ago they would be where they are now. Just think about everything you own, maybe even everyone you love. Gone in one night. Never to return. The rest of your life, if you lived through it, you will be recuperating from this loss. America is a culture of comfort. Yet this comfort is a deadly false security. God can take it away in an instant. Don’t let the comfort of the present blind you from your need to know Christ and shout His salvation from the rooftops to a dying world. Tomorrow is not promised to us. The time to know and live the Gospel is now.

Trials beyond control reveal who we are

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2-4

The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked,

And the one who loves violence His soul hates.

Psalms 11:5

For the past few summers I have worked alongside Marines and former Marines at the MCRD SD Command Museum. Being around some of these veterans I have come to realize that these men, some of them decorated war heroes from WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, are just normal people. Often I would find out after knowing one of them for a year or two that they had done some act of valor on a distant shore long ago. I never would have known, as in every day life these men often seem – just plain old and unexciting. Their personalities don’t stand out as saying, “look at me! I’m a courageous war hero!” The point is that under fire, spiritually or physically, our true selves surface. Someone who may appear on the surface to be a witless, grumpy old man may in fact be capable of heroic acts. The opposite can also be true. As the chaos grows, stories of looting, violence and rape are pouring out of the South Coast. People who may have grown up together in the same neighborhood have caste aside concern for their neighbors and in turn have let loose the desires of their depraved hearts to run rampant through an authority-less city. With restraints gone, their true selves are being shown. That is not to say that everyone in New Orleans is a rapist, or even that there are no believers in New Orleans. I have no doubt that as we speak, heroes are being made. Unfortunately we will probably not hear much of them as brotherly love is not as news worthy as depravity and suffering.

God is Sovereign

“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."

Rev 4:11

Hurricane Katrina would have never existed unless God had allowed it to. At times like these, God’s sovereignty is hard to swallow. But remember this we are the creations, not the Creator. We see only one small part of His eternal plan. Who are we to tell God what to do? We do not yet know how God will use this tragedy for His glory and the salvation of souls. It is times like these that we realize our need for a sovereign Lord and Savior.

A Sovereign God still cries

I’ve always been amazed at the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11). Christ in His divinity knew that he had the power to and was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Yet when he sees the masses of mourners wailing at the grave of his dear friend, Jesus begins to cry. Again when Christ was looking over the city of Jerusalem, He wept bitterly because of their rebellion (Luke 19:41). Often in we are told in Acts and the Letters of Paul that Paul wept frequently through the pains and trials of giving His life for the Gospel and those he shared it with.

What am I getting at? Our unwavering confidence in an Almighty, All-knowing, All-controlling, and Sovereign God can never be an excuse to let our hearts grow hardened to the suffering of His image-bearing creations. Part of true love is feeling the pain and sorrow of those who are suffering.

As Christ’s body we must continue to lift up these people in prayer that God would shine His light of grace, redemption, and hope in this dark hour. We also must seek to serve in anyway possible. Ambassadors of Christ, the time is now.

By His grace, for His glory,
JRF

the poor of New Orleans

I ran across this article by Jim Wallis:

Prayer and action for hurricane victims

by Jim Wallis

During hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters, those who have the least to lose are often those who lose the most. Why?

First, the dwellings in which poor people live are not as sturdy, stable, or safe as others. "Shotgun" shacks, mobile homes, and poorly constructed apartment buildings don't do well in hurricane-force winds and tidal surges.

Second, the places where poor people live are also the most vulnerable. The rich often live at the tops of hills, the poor in the valleys and plains that are the first to flood. The living conditions in these neighborhoods are also usually the most dense and overcrowded.

Third, it is much harder for the poor to evacuate. They don't own cars, can't afford to rent them, and often can't even afford a tank of gas - especially at today's prices. They can't afford an airplane, train, or even bus ticket. And, as one low-income person told a New Orleans reporter, they have no place to go. People in poverty can't afford motel or hotel rooms, and often don't have friends or family in other places with space to spare. In New Orleans, there were many people who desperately wanted to leave but couldn't.

Fourth, low-income people are the least likely to have insurance on their homes and belongings, and the least likely to have health insurance. If jobs are lost because of natural disasters, theirs are the first to go. Poverty makes long-term recovery after a disaster more difficult - the communities that are the weakest to begin with usually recover the slowest. The lack of a living family income for most people in those communities leaves no reserve for emergencies.

New Orleans has a poverty rate of 28% - more than twice the national rate. Life is always hard for poor people - living on the edge is insecure and full of risk. Natural disasters make it worse. Yet even in normal times, poverty is hidden and not reported by the media. In times of disaster, there continues to be little coverage of the excessive impact on the poor. Devastated luxury homes and hotels, drifting yachts and battered casinos make far more compelling photographs.

The final irony of New Orleans is that the people who normally fill the Louisiana Superdome are those who can afford the high cost of tickets, parking, and concessions. Now its inhabitants are the poor, especially children, the elderly and the sick - those with nowhere else to go. Those with money are nowhere to be seen.

As the Gulf Coast now faces the long and difficult task of recovery, what can we do?

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco declared Wednesday a day of prayer: "As we face the devastation wrought by Katrina, as we search for those in need, as we comfort those in pain and as we begin the long task of rebuilding, we turn to God for strength, hope and comfort." She urged residents in her state to ask "that God give us all the physical and spiritual strength to work through this crisis and rebuild."

Hurricane Katrina

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

James 1:27

For ways to help those in need as a result of hurricane Katrina visit here