ON MISSION

TOP 10 ACTS OF CHRISTIAN COURAGE IN 2015

Exclusive: Linda Harvey cites incidents of religious-freedom violations, persecution

Who do you remember from 2015?

When faces come to mind, it’s hard not to think about the current field of presidential candidates and the bravery many have displayed at pivotal points in their political careers. Others have not shown such stellar qualities, and discerning voters hopefully will sort this out.

But when I look back at 2015, I remember ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances, and both wisely and sometimes creatively devising solutions. Many still walk a hazardous path where the foes are financial ruin, court drama or much worse: acts of terror from evil enemies. They need our fervent prayers and tangible support.

Here’s my list of the top ten acts of Christian courage in 2015:

10. Dedicated pro-life advocates gather daily outside Planned Parenthood clinics coast to coast to provide sidewalk counseling, to protest the actions of the abortion giant and encourage prospective patients to choose life instead. The week before Christmas, many local groups held “empty manger” protests while singing Christmas carols. A nationwide effort this summer was called #ProtestPP.

9. Crystal O’Connor told an Indiana TV reporter her family-owned pizza shop, Memories Pizza, would not cater a same-sex “wedding” if asked. Deluged with vicious calls and emails from “gay” sympathizers, including one tweet advocating arson, Memories closed. Good news: A crowd-funding effort yielded over $800,000, and the restaurant re-opened.

8. Cake designer Jack Phillips of Lakewood, Colorado, filed an appeal in October to the Colorado Supreme Court following two unconstitutional lower court rulings finding him guilty of “discrimination” for denying two men a “wedding” cake because of his Christian faith, in a state where such ceremonies had not yet been legalized. Phillips perseveres in his fight against an egregious denial of his religious freedom.

7. A grandmother and florist in Washington state, Barronelle Stutzman, has appealed a lower court ruling that she violated state “sexual orientation” discrimination law when she turned down a wedding floral order for two men in 2013. She did so because of her faith in Jesus Christ. She has also filed a counter suit against the state of Washington in a U.S. District Court. The expected legal fees and fines could ruin Stutzman financially.

6. Because he spoke out about the health risks of homosexual behavior, and a hospital’s inappropriate promotion of “LGBT” activities, Dr. Paul Church has been expelled from the medical staff of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston where he has practiced for 28 years. It’s a tragic triumph of the “LGBT” agenda prevailing over fact and sound science. Despite the 10-year battle, Dr. Church did not back down from the truth. A urologist with a stellar medical background, Dr. Church has served on the Harvard Medical School faculty for many years.

5. Former owners of the bakery Sweet Cakes by Melissa, Aaron and Melissa Klein, this week paid a fine of $135,000 ordered by the state of Oregon Department of Labor, owed to two women who requested a cake for their “wedding.” Aaron declined because of his Christian faith. After a vicious media campaign, months of protests and harassing calls and emails, the business was forced to close. The Kleins have five children. 

The Daily Signal found a pattern of possible collusion between Oregon state officials and a large homosexual group, Basic Rights Oregon. A state official put a gag order on the couple, yet the Kleins have declared they will not be silenced, thereby losing not just religious freedom but freedom of speech.

4. The voters of Houston had the last say on special rights based on “LGBT” behaviors when they turned down the so-called “equal rights ordinance” in November, 61 to 39 percent. A broad coalition of churches, including many Hispanic and black congregations, joined to advocate against the measure, which would have allowed men in women’s restrooms.

3. The Center for Medical Progress launched possibly the most daring and effective pro-life campaign ever by releasing a series of undercover videos showing the grisly truth about Planned Parenthood: These clinics are apparently proudly trafficking in human baby body parts. It’s not obscene enough that unborn humans die in these clinics, but their remains are then dissected and sold for “research.” Planned Parenthood issued a series of usual denials, along with “the sky is not blue” and “the pope is not Catholic.” They will not ultimately be able to lie their way out of this one. CMP and its leader David Daleiden are being sued by abortion supporters and subjected to a trumped-up investigation by HHS. This important effort needs our prayers.

2. Even after the U.S Supreme Court spoke the “last word” on marriage in June – that Jesus Christ misunderstood and two men really can nuptialize sodomy – millions of Americans are not buying it. One of those is County Clerk Kim Davis, who bravely went to jail just for wanting her name to be omitted from same-sex licenses. A Democratic Kentucky governor was just not progressive enough to allow that, but the new conservative, Republican governor is – and he promised Kim Davis’ name will not appear on those licenses.

1. Even as Americans are being fined, losing jobs, losing businesses and getting harassing emails and phone calls, these situations pale beside incidents of Christian persecution throughout the globe, increasing in severity in the Middle East. 

As we hear about torture and rape, and learn about a video proudly launched by ISIS where Christian men kneel on a beach before being beheaded, our hearts should be heavy and our prayers desperate for these saints of the faith. God’s loving arms surely wait to receive them in heaven.

Their valor sets the example as we enter 2016. If Americans cannot retain religious liberty and freedom of speech, under daily threat by the “progressive” left, we face physical persecution in the not-distant future.

It’s time to rise, put on the full armor of God and contend earnestly for our faith, our families and our country.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/top-10-acts-of-christian-courage-in-2015/#k46Ry6p7b2RORFsD.99

ISIS PLOTTING TO SLAUGHTER THOUSANDS IN 'FINAL BATTLE'

ISIS plotting 'to slaughter THOUSANDS' in 2016 in bid to spark huge FINAL BATTLE with West

ISIS is planning to massacre thousands of civilians in public places around the world in 2016 as it desperately seeks to draw the west into a titanic "final battle".

By JASON TAYLOR

PUBLISHED: 13:27, Wed, Dec 30, 2015 | UPDATED: 18:03, Wed, Dec 30, 2015

(Express) The sick terror group will activate hundreds of sleeper cells in "dozens of countries" in an unprecedented bid to destabilise western governments and spark a huge military retaliation in the Middle East.

The shock claim, from one of the world's leading authorities on the death cult, comes amid fears of a New Year's Eve terror plot in London and other major world cities.

Islamic State has carried out more than 50 attacks in 18 countries that have killed 1,100 people and injured 1,700 since it declared its caliphate in 2014.

And next year will see a huge increase in both the number and scale of major terror attacks, according to Dr Theodore Karasik, a Gulf-based analyst of regional geo-political affairs who has extensively studied ISIS's behaviour.

He warned: "ISIS’s media operation is taunting its enemy to come to fight their Final Battle.

"But first, it wants to show its global reach with zeal...from cells, to lone wolves, to bedroom jihadists – to target landmarks and crowds in dozens of countries across the world."

REUTERS

ISIS is plotting to lure western governments into a 'final battle' in the Middle East

Dr Karasik added: "There are close to 40 ISIS affiliates globally with millions of adherents and believers around the world. The New Year may ring in with disturbing terror attacks.

"ISIS is an airborne disease and still remains robust as the movement enters into a new combative and aggressive phase.

"Many of us see the change of year as 'turning over a new leaf' and ISIS may do the same.

"The level of ISIS’s destructiveness, to force confrontations across the world, indicates that 2016 is likely to be more chaotic than 2015.

"The threat is real, and the requirement for international, regional, and local cooperation is truly necessary and will be tested again and again in perhaps unexpected places."

The warnings come as the west is on heightened alert after last month's terror attacks in Paris, in which 130 people were killed and hundreds wounded.

Earlier this week ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi released an audio message boasting that his forces were "doing well" and urging his followers to "be confident God will grant us victory".

The message from the ISIS chief, the first in nearly a year, referred to the formation of a Saudi-led coalition of 34 Muslim nations against Isis, which was announced on December 15.

Baghdadi called for the overthrow of the Saudi government and promised his forces would soon advance on Israel.

"You will never find comfort in Palestine, Jews," he said. "Palestine will not be your land or your home, but it will be a graveyard for you."

He also taunted America for not sending troops to Syria and Iraq. "They do not dare to come, because their hearts are full of fear from the Mujahidin," he said.

Dr Karasik believes Baghdadi will now accelerate his campaign of terror.

He added: "He is following the script announced in 2014 to expand in the Levant into the upper tier of the Arabian Peninsula by 2019.

"ISIS still run rampant and firmly believe in their stated goals.

"They want to destabilize Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Gulf states. The messaging is clear: ISIS is continuing to challenge its enemies near and far.

"Baghdadi taunts America and its allies who are afraid to put boots on the ground against ISIS to fight because of what waits in Dabiq and Ghouta, which is a reference to what the leader describes as the Final Battle.

"This type of language plays well with ISIS’ audience, wherever they may be."

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/630316/ISIS-secret-plot-world-masterplan-2016-final-battle

My comments: Who is more SICK, ISIS or the godless, Socialist, Secular Humanist West that Refuses to Destroy them. It is a toss-up. They are both of the Devil.

OBAMA TO ENSHRINING MUSLIMS AS A PROTECTED CLASS

THE OTHER RUSH

ENSHRINING MUSLIMS AS A PROTECTED CLASS

Exclusive: Erik Rush explains 'cognitive dissonance' resulting from today's Islamophilia

While it might be no surprise, that which our esteemed affirmative-action Attorney General Loretta Lynch is apparently unable to do by decree, radicals in the Democratic Party are attempting to do through legislation. One may recall that Lynch recently threatened to prosecute anyone who advocated violent action against Muslims in the United States as a response to escalating acts of violence by Muslims.

A group of Democratic lawmakers want to take Lynch’s initiative a step further. In a measure similar to laws passed in some European nations, House Resolution 569 is a bill that seeks to criminalize “violence, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims in the United States.” The Resolution, submitted on Dec. 17, is currently on its way to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

We’ve been telling Americans for some time that the enshrining of Muslims as a protected class is coming, and measures such as this are efforts to that end.

Now, one might argue that H.R. 569 is an outrageous and blatantly unconstitutional proposal sponsored by the worst of the socialist cabal in the Democratic Party, and they’d be right. A cautionary note, however: The unpredictability and capriciousness of sellouts among Republican lawmakers have facilitated all manner of malignant schemes enacted through Democratic legislation.

Remember – these are the same people who got Obamacare passed.

Recently, certain prominent GOP lawmakers came out in defense of Muslims after commentators and Republican candidates made rather blunt, critical statements about followers of Islam. This is in spite of the fact that the aforementioned statements were made in response to the increase in violence on the part of Muslims. If this inconsistency gives rise to cognitive dissonance, I would assure the reader that this is perfectly normal.

Like the elusive biological catalysts that prompt swarming insects and spawning salmon, the world’s Muslims are currently engaged in one of their episodic campaigns to gain supremacy within the known world. In our modern technological age, this means the entire globe. They are being facilitated by Western socialist benefactors who are using them in their own political designs.

Not only have we seen millions of Muslims streaming from their squalid, Third World toilets into developed nations, but we have also witnessed the abject arrogance and sense of entitlement amongst even the most destitute, unskilled and uneducated among them. The West is expected to admit these miscreants as honored royalty, simply because they are Islamic.

The international press has given fairly wide coverage to the chaos generated by Muslims coming into Europe from the Middle East and Africa. Vandalizing public and private properties given over to shelter them, intimidating locals, dumping garbage in streets and protesting such things as a lack of free Internet and dietary accommodation by their hosts – all of these have become regular fare. More than 800,000 have entered Greece alone, and in Italy, violent clashes have erupted between Italian citizens and Muslim “refugees.”

On the French island of Corsica, hundreds took to the streets earlier this week to protest the influx of these thoroughly ungracious invaders. Despite a ban on demonstrations imposed in the regional capital, protesters carrying the Corsican flag marched and shouted anti-Muslim slogans.

As a result of this refugee invasion (which, as we established earlier, was orchestrated by Western leftist and Islamic leaders), anti-immigrant factions are forming across Europe. While these groups are characterized by much of the Western press as bigoted troglodytes, their widespread coverage clearly indicates that the underlying problem does not lie in the intolerance of native populations. Outrage on the part of Europeans is no more indicative of their being closeted bigots than Superior, Wisconsin, Mayor Bruce Hagen’s recent public reference to Barack Hussein Obama’s role as a Muslim bent on destroying America. These responses are byproducts of the evidence at hand.

In America, criticism of the globally advancing Muslim horde is seized upon as “controversial” by the press and the Obama administration, and we are admonished to deny the threat they pose and unreservedly accommodate them.

This week, WND’s Joseph Farah designated the irrational deference to Islam we see among Americans as “Islamophilia Syndrome,” likening this to “Stockholm Syndrome,” which references a pattern of behavior noted among the victims of a protracted 1973 bank robbery in Sweden. My book “Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal – America’s Racial Obsession” detailed, among other phenomena, the irrational deference to black Americans that has been inculcated into the American population at large.

The parallel between Islamophilia and Negrophilia in this context is that both are contrivances of the political left – aspects of social engineering imposed upon Americans and calculated to bring about a resulting benefit to the left’s agenda.

A recent interview given to the Hollywood Reporter by black actor Samuel L. Jackson was very telling with regard to the insidious psychological devices in play here; I’m sure Jackson himself had no idea of just how revelatory one of his statements was.

On hearing about the December murders committed by Islamists in San Bernadino, Jackson said he had wished the killers had been white rather than Muslim because, with terror attacks now being committed regularly by Muslims on our soil, they have “become the new young black men.”

One wonders: Does this apparent show of solidarity mean Jackson believes that Muslims, like young black men, have a legitimate beef with America, and therefore justifiable reasons for acting out antisocially? Or rather, does it mean that our society’s concern over the actions of Muslims is as irrational as its concern over the actions of young black men – despite the fact that the actions of both Muslims and young black men have been demonstrably problematic?

Neither of these propositions are themselves rational, but both possess traits typical of the divisive train of thought employed by the left, and illustrate how readily they can be adopted by the individual, regardless of race, education, or economic status.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/enshrining-muslims-as-a-protected-class/#6pGA7DGE61gHrWBZ.99

My comments: Obama and the "Left" want to Enshrine Muslims because they are both Anti-Christ--Both against God and His Word--Both agaisnt the Foundations of America and her Constitution.

OBAMA EXECUTIVE ACTION SKYROCKETS FOREIGN WORK PERMITS

THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY

EXECUTIVE ACTION SKYROCKETS FOREIGN WORK PERMITS

'Obama has gone the Full Monty to bust the immigration system'

Published: 17 hours ago

(BREITBART) — President Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security wants to give white-collar work-permits to a huge new group of foreign college-graduates, despite the large number of American graduates now stuck in lower-wage jobs, and struggling to pay off college debts.

The proposed new regulation, due to be published Dec. 31, will dramatically up the annual inflow of foreign college-grads allowed to take jobs in the United States — and will also make each foreign graduate much cheaper for U.S. employers to hire than many U.S.-born college grads.

“Obama has gone the Full Monty to bust the immigration system,” says immigration lawyer John Miano. “What is going on is he is effectively giving Green Cards to people on H-1B visas who are unable to get Green Cards due to the [annual] quotas… it could be over 100,000.”

Read the full story ›

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/executive-action-skyrockets-foreign-work-permits/#px45V4PAuqLjrouC.99

My comments: Part of Obama's TRANSFORMATION is to so DILUTE America with Immigrants that she No Longer has Identity with the Nation as Founded. 

HOMELAND INSECURITY

ISIS WANNABE PLANNED NEW YEAR'S MACHETE ATTACK

Ex-con Muslim convert planned to target diners at New York restaurant

Published: 16 mins ago

(NBC) Federal officials in Rochester, New York, have arrested and charged a local man who was allegedly plotting a New Year’s Eve machete attack on diners at a local restaurant in the name of ISIS.

Emanuel Lutchman, 25, an ex-con Muslim convert with mental issues, was charged with attempting to provide material support to the terrorist group, federal prosecutors said.

The FBI says he had pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, wanted to leave to U.S. to live in the caliphate, and was in contact with a reputed ISIS member in Syria — who urged him to kill non-Muslims on the holiday.

Read the full story ›

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/isis-wannabe-planned-new-years-machete-attack/#9dXesaueBgX7B8YL.99

IGNORANT PASTOR TAKES CHRISTIANS TO TASK FOR OWNING GUNS

PASTOR TAKES CHRISTIANS TO TASK FOR OWNING GUNS

'At no time did Jesus use deadly force'

Cheryl Chumley

Rob Schenck, a pastor who chairs the Evangelical Church Alliance, sent a strong message about gun control to fellow Christians, telling them in no uncertain terms in a Washington Post opinion piece those who profess a belief in Jesus should not own firearms.

His piece was bluntly titled, “I’m an evangelical preacher. You can’t be pro-life and pro-gun.” And that’s pretty much how the message went.

Yet other pastors say differently.

As Carl Gallups, author of “Be Thou Prepared: Equipping the Church for Persecution and Times of Trouble” and pastor of Hickory Hammock Baptist Church in Milton, Florida, said in an email to WND: “Christians not only have a right to defend themselves, but we also have a biblical responsibility to do so under normal, everyday circumstances,” even if those forms of defense include guns.

“Be Thou Prepared” warns of the imminent Christian persecution coming to the United States and explains the role of faith in times of trouble – get your copy of this important book at the WND Superstore!

But Schenck was steadfast in his view.

He first spoke of gun rights’ groups that advocate for even Christians to own guns, and said “for most of my adult life, I agreed” and “I agreed that we had a God-given right to defend ourselves.”

But then the scenes of gun violence changed his mind, he said.

“The gospel begins with God’s love for every human and calls on Christians to be more Christ-like,” he wrote, in the newspaper. “At no time did Jesus use deadly force. Although he once allowed his disciples to defend themselves with ‘a sword,’ that permission came with a limitation on the number of weapons they could possess.”

Get the hottest, most important news stories on the Internet – delivered FREE to your inbox as soon as they break! Take just 30 seconds and sign up for WND’s Email News Alerts!

Schenck said he can understand those who want to buy guns, “especially after terrorist attacks,” but made clear: Christians ought not do this if they want to stay in line with biblical teachings.

But as Breitart pointed, Schenck’s view is conflicted, by both his own admission and a passage of Luke where Jesus says, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”

So the news outlet’s assessment?

The biblical mandate for armed self-defense – especially in church! Get “Shooting Back” today!

“So in the midst of a contention that Christians have no right to defend themselves with a gun, Schenck admits that Christ ‘once allowed his disciples to defend themselves with a sword’ and also suggests Christ posited one as the limit on the number of swords that could be owned,” Breitbart’s Awr Hawkins writes. “In other words, Schenck’s own proof text betrays him.”

Schenck also wrote in his column of the need to dismiss much of what the National Rifle Association advocates.

Would you be prepared to defend yourself and other innocents in a surprise attack? Find out what one courageous churchgoer did to protect others in the DVD: “Shooting Back: The Right and Duty of Self-Defense”

“I disagree with my community’s wholesale embrace of the idea that anyone should be able to buy a gun,” he said. “For one thing, our commitment to the sanctity of human life demands that we err on the side of reducing threats to human life. And our belief in the basic sinfulness of humankind should make us skeptical of the NRA’s slogan, ‘the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.’ The Bible indicates that we are all bad guys sometimes.”

All you ever needed to know about guns and gun rights – right from the WND Superstore

His column comes at the same time a mother of four children was forced to confront three armed home invaders in Ohio. The family’s lives were in danger until the mother grabbed her gun and opened fire on the intruders, ultimately killing one.

As Breitbart noted: “Would Schenck rather have seen the mother unarmed and left to the whims of the three invaders? What about the children?”

Gallups asked similarly, in his emailed statement.

He said: “Whether or not an individual Christian wants to own and/or carry a firearm is certainly their own choice. I do not advocate that every Christian arm themselves. However, to say the Bible or Jesus does not give us that choice is simply not doing justice to a contextual understanding of the scriptures.”

Gallups went on: “A Christian who says, ‘The Bible does not allow us to arm ourselves,’ I would ask this question: If a gang of thugs broke into your home tonight with the intent of destroying your life and brutalizing your small children, would you meet them at the door with milk and cookies and ‘turn the other cheek,’ or would you defend your little ones with your life and a weapon if you had one? I think the answer should be obvious. I beg Christians to not let radical political correctness to get the best of them in this issue. If God’s word forbid God’s people from defending themselves, Christians and Jews would have been exterminated 2,000 years ago.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/pastor-takes-christians-to-task-for-owning-guns/#r2hYAUsHhQQ3CrRY.99

My comments: The apostle Paul tells us that a person who does not Provide for his Relatives  and especially for his own Family, has Denied the Faith and is Worse than an Unbeliever. Certainly this applies to a person who Refuses to Protect his Relatives and his Family from Harm.