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your comments or call us. Unexplainably, we do not receive all our
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of Jesus Christ and of the biblical Christian faith. While all of
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guidelines to using our
material. |
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| Rick
Warren Embarks on Followup to Purpose Driven
Life |
by Discern The
Times
Megachurch pastor Rick Warren is
working on his next book - the follow up to the bestselling
Purpose Driven Life (PDL), which launched the Southern
California preacher into national
prominence.
Megachurch pastor Rick Warren is
working on his next book--the follow up to the bestselling
PDL, which launched the Southern California preacher into
national prominence.
"I'm in book writing mode right
now," Warren reported in a broadcast to his church members
Thursday. "I've gone back into hibernation to write the follow
up to PDL now, eight years later. It's going to be called The
Hope of the World, and my plan is to release that on Easter
Sunday--our 30th anniversary--next year."
Warren had
announced during the 2009 Purpose Driven Network Summit in May
that he was going to take some time off soon to work on his
next book, which will be about the Church and its role in
today's times. Continue ... |
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| Mystical Practices Lead
Episcopalian Priest into Interspirituality |
As we reported two years ago, Ann Holmes Redding
was an Episcopal priest who came forth, announcing that while
practicing spiritual formation exercises, she had been visited
by "Jesus" who led her to become a Muslim while remaining
Christian. Later we reported that she was eventually defrocked by
the Episcopalian church because of her claims. In a recent ABC interview, Holmes Redding talks about the mystical
practices (Sufism), which gave her the experience that led her
to become Muslim. see interview Holmes Redding said that becoming Muslim has made her a
better Christian. This echoes the sentiments of mystic and
panentheist Thomas Merton.
As Lighthouse Trails has often pointed out, the "fruit"
of contemplative practices is interspirituality. Those who
enter mystical states through mantra-type meditation will
ultimately embrace the view that God is in all religions and
in all people. We believe this happens because the mystical
realm entered is a realm of familiar spirits that draws
practitioners away from the Gospel and into an interspiritual
belief system that negates the view that Jesus Christ is the
only path to God and salvation. Ann Holmes Redding is a
perfect example of what happens when someone begins to embrace
contemplative spiritual formation - the same spiritual
formation that is heartily endorsed and promoted by major
Christian figures (Richard Foster, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels,
Leonard Sweet, etc.)
Related News:
US Priest Who Became a "Christian Muslim" is
Defrocked
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| Media
Misleading on Jews Evicting Arabs from
Jerusalem |
| WorldNetDaily
Aaron Klein |
JERUSALEM--The U.S. and international media are rife with
misleading stories of club-wielding Israeli police evicting
Palestinians from homes in Jerusalem, failing to provide
proper background information while painting a picture of
Jewish expansionist activity that could not be further from
the truth.
A BBC article entitled, "Palestinians
evicted from Jerusalem," tells of Israeli police who evicted
nine Palestinian families living in two houses in "occupied
East Jerusalem."
"Jewish settlers moved into the houses
almost immediately. The U.S. has urged Israel to abandon plans
for a building project in the area," reported the British
outlet.
An AFP report, "Israel evicts Palestinians from
Jerusalem homes," begins with a scene of intimidating Jews
removing peaceful Arabs from their apartments.
"Israeli
riot police wielding clubs kicked out two Palestinian families
from their homes in occupied east Jerusalem on Sunday, defying
international protests over Jewish settlement activity in the
area," reported AFP.
"I was born in this house and so
were my children," Maher Hanoun, one of the evictees, was
quoted as stating. "Now we are on the streets. We have become
refugees."
Reuters reported that Israeli police
"evicted two Palestinian families on Sunday from homes in Arab
East Jerusalem, and Jews moved in, despite pressure from
Israel's main ally, the United States, to freeze
settlements."
Scores of other news outlets featured
similar pieces. Most of the articles focused almost
exclusively on international condemnation of the Israeli
moves. The pieces did not provide much background on just why
these Arabs were being evicted other than one sentence in each
article stating an Israeli court ruled the Arabs should be
removed.
Most of the pieces did not cite the
justification for the court ruling, with the exception of
Reuters, which wrongly claimed the decision was based solely
on "19th century documents."
Now, let's reveal what is
really happening. Click here to continue reading
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| Central
California Farm House Meeting - How it Went? |
On Sunday July 26th, Ray Yungen and Warren Smith spoke in
a central California farm warehouse to a group of about 150
people. The following email was sent last week by a couple who
attended the meeting.
My husband and I (who live about 4 hours away
from Reedley) attended the meeting. It was fantastic! ... It
was a time of instruction, fellowship and total blessing.
The hosts were just super people. And, it was so great to
have a potluck dinner where you could sit around and get to
know one another. Warren's and Ray's message was crucial for
our time -- and very good. Thank you again for the huge part
that you play in publishing these important authors. And we
always look forward to getting your newsletter. Thank you
for your willingness to stand up and be "watchmen on the
wall." We don't have enough of this in the Church today.
God bless you,
L & K |
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| Why
Compromise in Christian Publishing Costs in the Long
Run |
"Why compromise costs in the long run
Exclusive: Jim
Fletcher argues publishers can't leave truth to pursue
manna"
By Jim Fletcher
WorldNetDaily
With attendance down significantly at the
Christian Booksellers' Association trade show last week, I
want to examine some reasons for the decline in Christian
retail---without focusing on the much bemoaned economy.
Discussing the real reasons for that decline, however,
can't be done in polite company.
The production and
sale of Christian books assumes that the publishers, trade
organizations and sales channels pull in the same direction
philosophically. That would mean, of course, that
fundamentally, a person working in the Christian book industry
would embrace the teachings of the Bible. The Christian
Booksellers Association operated on this philosophy for many
years.
In the 1990s, however, there was a shift in
philosophy. Publishers, stores and distributors began to
realize the vast potential for making money. As time went on,
to appeal to the broadest possible audience, works began to
creep in that were decidedly not aligned with the Bible.
I remember years ago walking onto the floor of a CBA
convention and seeing Health Communications' booth. They were
rolling out the first of the wildly successful "Chicken Soup"
books. In the first volume, I remember reading an essay that
discussed the "Golden Buddha" inside us.
I don't have
a Golden Buddha inside me, and neither do orthodox Christians.
So I wrote to a CBA representative, saying basically,
"Hey, you'll never guess who I saw at CBA. You are probably
not aware of this."
They were aware of it. The
representative sent me a letter, then his lawyer sent me a
letter. Both explained they had to allow Health Communications
to display. Click here to read this entire
article.
Related Stories:
A list of Christian publishers publishing
contemplative/emerging material
Baker Book publishing goes
contemplative
Christian publishers that are NOT promoting
contemplative/emerging spirituality |
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| Israel
and Prophetic Proof |
| by The Berean Call |
Israel is the major topic of Bible prophecy, mentioned
more than 2,900 times, nearly twice as many times as her
Messiah. Without Israel there would be no Messiah and no
salvation for anyone, Jew or Gentile. The first mention of His
coming is in God's rebuke of the guilty parties involved in
man's fall in Eden: the serpent (an identity that Satan
retains from Genesis to Revelation) and Adam and Eve. The
Bible account is not myth but history. In many places around
the world, archaeologists continue to find ancient
representations of three figures appearing together: a woman,
a serpent, and a tree.
God foretells a long conflict
between the serpent and the Messiah and the latter's ultimate
triumph that would occur in a way Satan could never have
imagined. An old hymn tells it beautifully:
In weakness
like defeat,
He won the victor's crown;
Trod
all our foes beneath His feet
By being trodden down.
He Satan's power laid low;
Made sin, He sin
o'er threw;
Bowed to the grave, destroyed it so,
And death, by dying, slew.
God's declaration
to the three guilty parties is simple and to the point. To the
serpent He said, "I will put enmity between thee [serpent] and
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed [the Messiah]; it
[the woman's seed] shall bruise thy head [a death blow], and
thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gn 3:15). Read more of Israel and Prophetic Proof. |
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| State
of the Nation from Kjos Ministries |
by Kjos Ministries
Kjos Ministries is reporting
on two important issues: Obama's Health Care Plan and the
Obama administration's plans for a UN curriculum. The
following from Kjos:
Article #1: "Obama
Administration To Impose Liberal UN
Curriculum"
On July 24, 2009, the U.S
Department of Education (DOE) announced that the "centerpiece
of the Obama administration's education reform efforts" in its
"$4.35 billion Race to the Top," will include "adopting
internationally benchmarked education standards." These will
be national standards, said the press release, keyed to
international standards and will be incentivized to the states
with federal "stimulus" dollars.
By the term
"education standards" DOE means content standards; meaning
curriculum-the content schools must teach. By "national
education standards" DOE means that schools in all 50 states
will teach the same content. This will create a de facto
federal curriculum The Department of Education will
financially reward those states that teach what DOE wants
taught. The Department can be expected to insist that the
values taught in the national curriculum conform to the very
liberal ideology of the Obama administration.
Click here to read
more.
Article #2: "America's Affordable
Health Choices Act of 2009"
Some of the
Horrors in this Healthcare Bill
Three lists (similar
but from different sources) of sections most dangerous to your
health, privacy and freedom:
List 1. Horrors in the
New Healthcare Bill. Compiled by Robert Moon, Macon County
Conservative Examiner July 24, 2009.
PG 29, Lines 4-16:
Directly rations health care for the elderly.
PG 30,
Sec 123: Establishes a government committee that decides what
treatments/benefits you get.
PG 42: The Health Choices
Commissioner will choose your benefits for you.
PG 50,
Section 152: Extends benefits and coverage to illegal
immigrants.
PG 58: The creation of a national ID health
card and a comprehensive federal database containing streaming
data on every American's personal financial records.
PG 59: The federal government accesses your bank
accounts for mandatory funds transfers.
PG 65, Sec 164:
Creates special, federally-subsidized coverage for Unions and
"Community Organizing" groups.
PG 84 Sec 203 HC bill -
Dictates the benefits packages of all private health insurance
plans.
PG 85, Line 7: Limits what private insurers can
offer (rationed care)....
Pg 95, Lines 8-18: The
mandatory use of ACORN and Americorps for signing up Americans
to government insurance.
PG 85, Line 7: Imposes more
limits on coverage (rationing).
PG 102, Lines 12-18:
Mandates Medicare for all who fit criteria (removes all
choice).
PG 124, Lines 24-25: Bans companies from suing
the federal government, bans the entire judicial system from
hearing any cases on the legitimacy of this blatantly
unconstitutional socialist health care takeover (no judicial
review allowed whatsoever).
PG 127, Lines 1-16:
Instructs doctors/AMA on what salaries they are allowed to
make.
PG 145, Line 15-17: Requires all employers to
enroll all new employees in the government system (no choice
whatsoever).
PG 126, Lines 22-25: Requires employers to
independently provide insurance for part-time workers, whether
they can afford it or not (no choice).
PG 149, Lines
16-24: Imposes an 8% payroll tax penalty for any employer
(making over $400k) who fails to force his employees onto
government insurance....
PG 167, Lines 18-23: Imposes
2.5% income tax penalty on any privately-insured individual
who fails to get "adequate" private insurance.
PG 170,
Lines 1-3: Stipulates that all non-resident aliens pay nothing
(we foot the bill).
PG 195: Federal officers will have
full access to every citizen's most private
records....
Pg 241, Line 6-8: Mandates that all doctors
be paid the same, regardless of specialty.
PG 253, Line
10-18: Imposes federally-determined price tag for the worth of
every doctor's time and services.
PG 265, Sec 1131:
Imposes controls on productivity for private health care
companies....
PG 272, Sec. 1145: Cancer treatment
rationing.
PG 280, Sec 1151: Imposes penalties and
fines on private hospitals for "preventable" visits.
PG
298, Lines 9-11: Imposes penalties and fines on private
hospitals for readmissions after initial treatment (fix it on
the first try or suffer the consequences)....
PG 321,
Line 2-13: Pretends to give hospitals the choice to go
fully-federal, but only if local "community" groups (ACORN)
approve.
PG 335, Line 16-25, Pg 336-339: Imposes more
rationing of services.
PG 341, Lines 3-9: Creates the
federal power to arbitrarily disqualify HMOs, forcing people
onto government care at random.
PG 354, Sec 1177 -
Rationing of care for special needs people.
PG 379, Sec
1191: Creates new Telehealth bureaucracy (nanny state health
care by phone).
PG 425, Lines 4-12: Creates mandatory
end of life consultation.
PG 425, Lines 17-19:
Mandatory government instruction and consultation on living
wills, durable power of attorney, etc.
PG 429, Lines
10-12: Empowers the federal government to order end-of-life
plans through something called, "advanced care
consultation."...
PG 430, Lines 11-15: Puts the federal
government in complete control of what care you receive at the
end of your life. Click here to continue. |
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| Christian Resistance -
1944 |
LTRP Note:
The following is an excerpt from
Diet Eman's book Things We Couldn't Say (LTPC).
Diet was a young woman in the Christian resistance movement in
Holland during WWII. Today, at 90, Diet continues telling
groups about her experience.
Watergoor, 1944
(chapter 10)
by Diet Eman
In February of
1944, under the name Willie van Daalen--"Willie" was short for
Wilhelmina, the name of our queen--I moved my base of
operations to the home of Aalt and Alie Lozeman, a beautiful
small farm just west of Nijkerk, Gelderland, on a quiet
two-lane road that led to Bunschoten and Spakenburg. The farm
itself we called "Watergoor." It had a very long sandy
driveway; tall trees stood a short distance away from the
house, and there was a beautiful hedge of bushes alongside. It
was a wonderful place, not fancy at all but always loving--a
place that became not only a base of operations but a home for
me.
With the generosity of the Lozemans, that house
was open to anyone--shot-down pilots or onderduikers or
Jews--anyone needing a place to hide. During that time, Aalt
and Alie risked their lives continuously because the Germans
had said that anyone aiding enemy flyers would be shot on the
spot. But Aalt and Alie always told me, "Whoever you bring
here--if you vouch for them--those people may sleep
here."
Aalt and Alie taught their two young children
how to talk about all visitors: they never mentioned names of
people in the house to those young kids. Farmers call their
neighbors the buurvrouw, the neighbor woman, and the buurman, the neighbor man; when they use those terms,
there is no need for names. So those little children, Frits
and Rietje, two and three years old, always spoke of Uncle Ben
and his wife Marie, for example, as the buurman and buurvrouw.
That way, if they were ever with others who didn't know that
Aalt and Alie were hiding people on the farm, no one would
suspect anything: the children were merely speaking of the
neighbors.
Aiding downed pilots was especially
dangerous, but we believed that if Allied pilots were risking
their lives for us by flying bombing missions, the least we
could do would be to see that they didn't fall into the hands
of the enemy when their planes were shot down. After all,
those pilots could have been sitting at home safely on the
other side of the ocean. But they were trying to help us.
Those downed pilots would often hide in haystacks or
barns unbeknownst to the farmer; once morning came, they would
gamble on communicating with the farmer who came out to do his
chores. Most of the people in that area would certainly know
some member of the Resistance and knew how to contact a member
of our group. We gave those pilots civilian clothing and hid
them; then we handed them over to another Resistance group,
who could get them to Portugal (a neutral country), where
another group would help them on their journey back to England
or Allied territory. Once we had delivered them, our part was
finished. We had no idea what would happen to them; but we
hoped, of course, that they would escape successfully.
One night, when Hein was at Watergoor and we were
hiding some pilots, Hein's brother Henk happened to stop by.
Hein had already told those pilots that his name was Pete (you
never gave your real name). So when Henk came in, those pilots
took one look at his face and couldn't believe their eyes. "If
this is 'Pete,'" one of them said, pointing at Hein, "then
this guy is 'Repeat.'"
Aalt and Alie kept a radio,
which we listened to almost every night. The BBC always
carried the news we wanted to hear, but in addition it often
relayed messages to the Underground. In the middle of the
broadcast we'd hear some odd phrase such as "the apples are
green," a message meant for specific listeners somewhere in
occupied Europe. Three or four weeks after those pilots had
laughed about Henk's resemblance to Hein, we were listening to
the BBC broadcast one night, when suddenly we heard, "Regards
to Pete and Repeat." We immediately thanked the Lord that
those men had made it back to England safely.
People
were coming and going all the time at the Lozemans' farm. But
in addition to those who stayed for just a little while, Aalt
and Alie were hiding Uncle Ben and his wife, the Jewish couple
who had simply walked away from their own deportation more
than a year earlier. All of the time Uncle Ben was in hiding
at Aalt and Alie's, he kept working at falsifying the
documents we would bring him. His wife learned to spin and
knit; and she peeled potatoes and worked on the pears during
canning time. Everyone helped out at Aalt and Alie's, and
there were always people in hiding, sneaking in and sneaking
out again.
Uncle Ben and Tante Marie had lots of work
to do in that house, which was good, but they sometimes got on
each other's nerves. Of course, most couples in that kind of
cramped situation for two or three years--never seeing other
people, locked up in a little room--would almost strangle each
other in the end.
One day, while Uncle Ben was working
hard at all of those documents and Marie was knitting and
peeling, I brought him more things to do, and I found him very
desperate. Click to continue ... |
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| Gay
Marriage: Backlash Against Anglican Leader
Expected |
| by Apprising Ministries
[T]here's a very dark and threatening
same-sex storm right now approaching hurricane force, and
which is currently only slightly off the coast of the
mainstream evangelical community. You need to realize that the
egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent
Church--morphing into Emergence Christianity-(EC)--is right
now working to make affirming homosexuality an issue within
your own mainstream evangelical church.
A case in point
would be the following from EC leader Tony Jones. I've pointed
out before that Jones just happens to be among those in the EC
who are going to make this happen because mainstream
evangelicalism is seemingly completely bereft of leaders with
the discernment--and the courage--to confront this growing gay
lobby, which arrived within its walls via the Trojan Horse of
the EC. It's my personal opinion that's why Emerging Church
Guru Brian McLaren originally called for his 5 year moratorium concerning
homosexuality. Click here to read more. |
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Lighthouse Trails New Catalog |
Lighthouse Trails Publishing's new product
catalog is back from press. It is posted now online at: www.lighthousetrails.com/2009catalog.pdf. Contents:2009 New ReleasesEmerging Church
Contemplative
Apologetic
Biographies
Apologetics
Yoga
Remembering the
Holocaust
Falling Sparrow Biographies
Children &
Family
Book/DVD Sets
Music |
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Featured Resources
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Contemplative Spirituality: A belief system that
uses ancient mystical practices to induce altered states of consciousness
(the silence) and is rooted in mysticism and the occult but often wrapped
in Christian terminology. The premise of contemplative spirituality
is pantheistic (God is all) and panentheistic (God is in all). Common
terms used for this movement are "spiritual formation," "the
silence," "the stillness," "ancient-wisdom,"
"spiritual disciplines," and many others.
Spiritual Formation: A movement that has provided a platform and a channel through which contemplative prayer is entering the church. Find spiritual formation being used, and in nearly every case you will find contemplative spirituality. In fact, contemplative spirituality is the heartbeat of the spiritual formation movement. |
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