The Corner Stone
You can't help but love Peter. He was the most loveable of the disciples; bold, candid, human. His impulsive devotion is frequently portrayed. As Peter's protestations of loyalty are the loudest, so his rejection of the Lord is the most explicit.
NEW BRIEFING PACK by Chuck Missler
Inheritance and Rewards
Inheritance and Rewards is the next briefing pack in Chuck's The Kingdom, Power and Glory series.
Inheritance came to the firstborn son by virtue of his birth. Whether he actually secured it depended upon his obedience and the father's choice. Inheritance was subject to condition and obedience. The Abrahamic Inheritance was based on Divine Oath, conditioned on obedience. Inheritances could be forfeited. The Exodus Generation was promised an inheritance, but failed to obtain it at Kadesh-Barnea. Israel was God's "firstborn son", yet only 2 of over 2 million took possession of their inheritance. Even Moses was excluded due to his disobedience. Esau, sold his inheritance for a bowl of pottage.
We have been promised an inheritance in the Kingdom to come. But is there more that is required of us than just our acceptance? Does behavior in this life really influence our future?
Available in these formats:
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PULLING OUT OF IRAQ AND FIGHTING OPIUM IN AFGHANISTAN - (Print)
US troops pulled out of major Iraqi cities on Monday, handing over
responsibility for security to the US-trained Iraqi forces. The withdrawal was
celebrated by parades and fireworks, but many in the US and Iraq wonder with
the Iraqi forces are ready to fight the insurgency on their own. In the
meanwhile, Afghanistan faces another deeply rooted problem; the opium trade.
IRAQ:
Thousands of US soldiers left Baghdad and other Iraqi cities by
Tuesday morning at midnight, officially pulling out by June 30th as outlined by
the Status of Forces agreement signed last November. Tuesday was celebrated with
a full military parade and declared "National Sovereignty Day," by
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Maliki stood up for Iraq and encouraged his people saying, "Those who
think that Iraqis are unable to defend their country are committing a fatal
mistake."
U.S. Commanding General Ray Odierno told Fox News, "The Iraqi people
should be very proud of the dedication, progress, and sacrifice of the Iraqi
security forces and the government of Iraq."
The insurgents also celebrated the pullout with a car bombing in the northern
city of Kirkuk. At least 20 people died and more were injured, in one of
several acts of severe violence committed as the June 30th withdrawal date
approached. The Iraqi people may celebrate the triumph of taking charge of
their own country's security, but there is still fear that on al-Qaida and
remnants of Saddam Hussein's Baath party will take advantage of the US absence
to overwhelm the Iraqi forces.
The US has handed the cities into the hands of the Iraqis, but US troops have
not abandoned Iraq entirely. Some US soldiers will remain in order to advise
and train Iraqi security forces. The Iraqi government still wants US forces to
operate in rural areas and near the border for now. The June 30th pullout is
the first of several steps to have US forces completely out of Iraq by the end
of December 2011.
AFGHANISTAN:
In the meanwhile, the US is still battling the Taliban on several
fronts in Afghanistan. There are more ways to fight the Taliban, though, than
just bombs and guns. Afghanistan produces 93 percent of the world's opium
supply, and the Taliban feeds off of money from the opium trade. The US and
Britain have both supported the policy of eradication – going in and
destroying the poppy crops that fuel the industry. However, the US has decided
to change tactics, and is giving up on eradication. Instead, the US wants to
encourage farmers to plant alternative crops.
Afghanistan's farmers grow the poppy out of necessity rather than desire. There
is a lot of danger on the roads, and transporting crops to market can be a
life-and-death situation. The men who purchase poppy crops, however, will come
to a farmer's land and collect the crop there, keeping the farmer at home where
he can keep his family protected. Most Afghanis are Muslims, and drugs like
heroin are against their religion, but when it comes down to feeding their
families, many see opium as their only real option.
The US has decided to change tactics and work on helping farmers choose to
raise crops other than the poppy. The US formerly pumped money into eradication
- destroying opium crops to prevent them from going into the market. It has
become clear that this policy isn't working. There is massive corruption in the
Afghani law enforcement, and too often those farmers who can pay to have their
opium crops protected are passed over for eradication. The smaller, poorer
farmers are getting their crops destroyed. The injustice and failure of
democracy is pushing many people towards support of the Taliban. In the
meanwhile, the Taliban isn't losing any money; they were still getting hundreds
of millions of dollars from the opium trade.
Richard C. Holbrooke, the US special representative for Afghanistan and
Pakistan, spoke at a Group of Eight summit dedicated to Afghanistan, saying he
sees eradication as "a waste of money." He said it "might
destroy some acreage, but it didn't reduce the amount of money the Taliban got
by one dollar".
He added: "The farmers are not our enemy, they're just growing a crop to
make a living. It's the drug system. So the US policy was driving people into
the hands of the Taliban."
The new policy will also include putting money into improving the rule of law
in Afghanistan and interrupting the drug markets and drug convoys. The heroin
that gets shipped into Russia, Europe and Asia from Afghanistan will kill about
100,000 people this year.
• Car Bomb Ends Party Mood In Iraq - Times Online
• 4 Us Soldiers Killed During Iraq Cities Pullout - New York Post
• US Completes Pullout of Combat Forces From Iraq Cities - Fox News
• Britain To Continue Poppy Eradication In Afghanistan Despite US Reversal - Telegraph.co.uk
• New Course for Antidrug Efforts in Afghanistan - The New York Times
• U.S. Makes Big Shift In Afghanistan Drug Policy - AP
FREEDOM AIN'T FREE - (Print)
We Americans have been taught from childhood about our rights, and we enjoy a
glorious freedom and self-rule that we can easily take for granted. We don't
have to hold our Bible studies in secret for fear of the government. We don't
have to worry about being imprisoned for months or years without facing
charges. We accept our freedoms as a normal way of life, easily forgetting that
millions of people in other parts of the world do not enjoy the independence
that we do.
As we approach and celebrate Independence Day in America, it is appropriate
that we spend some time reflecting on our freedoms.
Throughout world history, the power-hungry have constantly fought to
overpower and dominate others, whether overtly or through sneaky
politicking. Freedom - whether political, religious, or
spiritual - is wonderful to enjoy, but at the cost of great
sacrifice and vigilant protection. In America, we are the heirs of
great sacrifices made to give us a heritage of freedom. Let us guard and
protect this inheritance, and not squander it like ungrateful children. To keep
our freedoms, we need to appreciate the cost. We need to be willing to
understand the sacrifice ourselves, so that we have the same legacy to hand our
children:
On Freedom:
"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will." – Frederick Douglass
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." - Thomas Paine
"A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you." – Ramsey Clark
"You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free." - Clarence Darrow [That is, even if you don't like what your neighbor believes in, it's still vital to protect his freedom.]
"So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men." - Voltaire
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." - Wendell Phillips
"Freedom is never an achieved state; like electricity, we've got to keep generating it or the lights go out." - Wayne LaPierre
"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." - Somerset Maugham
"The land of the free will cease to be when it's no longer the home of the brave."- Rick Gaber
"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned -- this is the sum of good government." – Thomas Jefferson
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." – Samuel Adams
"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value." - Thomas Paine
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." - Galatians 5:1
"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." – John 8:36
When something is rare, it has more value, which is why gold and
diamonds are valued more than sand. Freedom is growing rarer again
– but it must be sought after, dug up, and cherished like the treasure it
is. We have readers from around the world – many of which value freedom
way beyond those of us who have an abundance of it.
Remember – "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much
required" - Luke 12:48
• Prelude To Tyranny: Twilight's Last Gleaming - Koinonia House
• The Impending Storm - Koinonia House
• Twilight's Last Gleaming (2009) - Koinonia House
MESSIANIC JEW WINS 'KOSHER' COURT BATTLE - (Print)
After a three-year battle, a Messianic Jew is getting her bakery's kashrut
certificate reinstated. Israel's Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Pnina
Conforty's religious beliefs did not automatically make her bakery unkosher, to
the disgust of the Ashdod chief rabbi.
Messianic Jews are a group prone to be misunderstood by the non-Christian
Jewish community as well as by non-Jewish Christians. They are
therefore a marginalized group. Yet, "Jews for Jesus" are spiritually
the descendants of Jesus' disciples. After all, Jesus was a Jew, who taught and
fulfilled prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures, and his close followers
were all Jews who recognized him as their long-awaited Messiah. Two
thousand years later, being a believer in the Messiah is still not easy in
many Jewish communities, especially in Israel. Despite the difficulties
it causes, Jews are still finding the love of God through Yeshua.
Pnina Conforty, a Yemenite Jew, ran a thriving bakery in the city of Gan Yavne
until her belief in Jesus was made public. Her bakery was picketed, and it was
made known around the city that she was a "missionary." The Gan Yavne
chief rabbi revoked Conforty's kashrut certificate, which meant that the food
sold at her bakery could no longer be considered kosher. Conforty didn't fight
it. Instead, she moved to Ashdod where she opened another bakery in 2006.
Soon after Conforty opened her new bakery, though, the anti-missionary groups
began showing up to picket her bakery again. Ashdod's chief rabbi Rabbi Yosef
Sheinen had Conforty's kashrut certification revoked. Sheinen's logic was that
Jews for Jesus could not be trusted to abide strictly by kashrut laws.
Conforty petitioned the High Court of Justice about the situation, and Sheinen
and the Chief Rabbinate compromised and decided that Conforty could have her
kashrut certificate reinstated if she agreed to abide by extra conditions,
including giving the keys to her bakery to a kashrut supervisor and hiring a
worker approved by Sheinen. Conforty was also told she could not proselytize on
her property.
Conforty rejected these conditions, which went far beyond anything that secular
Jews have to abide by, and the case went to court. On Monday, Israel's Supreme
Court ruled that Conforty's belief in Jesus as the Messiah had nothing to do
with food preparation, and did not make her bakery unkosher.
Fear of Idol Worship:
The strict law-keeping Jews of Jesus' day were horrified by Jesus' claims to be
the Son of God. The Pharisees constantly wanted to stone Jesus over it (John
8:58-59). To an observant religious Jew, worshiping Jesus is the same as
idol worship, and that is the reason Jews fear Christian efforts to convert
them. The LORD is very serious about the sin of idolatry. The
Northern Kingdom was destroyed because of idolatry, and the Southern Kingdom
was sent into captivity because of it. Religious Jews do not want to make that
mistake again.
Yet, the Old Testament is full of Jesus. Jesus himself spent seven miles
walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a good two hours, demonstrating from the
Scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer. "And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself." -Luke 24:25-27
Maybe he pointed out Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22. Maybe he showed them how the
Messiah's death fulfilled the sacrificial system, and provided the blood as
God's ultimate Passover lamb. Perhaps he quoted Micah 5:2 or Zechariah 9:9.
Maybe he showed them that the Messiah would be God's Son through Psalm 2:7-12.
It would have been wonderful to hear his seven-mile sermon on the suffering
Messiah in the Scriptures.
Coming to know Jesus as Messiah is an amazing revelation for Jews who believe.
Jesus did not come to the gentiles. He came to the Jews. In Matthew 15, Jesus
told the Canaanite woman, a gentile, "I am not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew 15:24) Of course, he came to save
the whole world (John 3:16), and even in the Old Testament it was
prophesied that Israel, that the Messiah, would be a light to the gentiles
(Isaiah 49:6). But it all began with the Jews. It is therefore a most
natural thing for a Jew to decide to follow Yeshua Ha Meshiach.
But just as Jesus said it would, it is a decision that brings with it
great controversy, even among family members (Matthew 10:35-38). Conforty is
not alone in her experiences, in the harassment she's received for her
faith. Yet, God is still working in the hearts of human beings, both Jews
and gentiles, and He is still faithful to His friend Abraham whose children the
Jews are.
Serving God From Love:
Conforty came to believe in Jesus as Messiah while working for a
Christian family in Ohio.
"God arranged it that I arrived at a place where there were Christians
who love Israel more than most Jews do. Their love and faith were so different
from the religion I learned at home that was based on fear. I was never taught
to serve God out of love until then. They taught me that Yeshua is the
messiah."
"I was on the verge of divorce and I prayed to God. I said to him, 'If
Yeshua is messiah then you have to bring my husband back to me and make peace
between us. No more than 10 minutes passed before my husband came to me and
accepted the faith."
Our Bible studies regularly bring out types and
prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament. To get
started in learning about the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in Jesus of
Nazareth, please see the Koinonia House materials listed in the links
below.
• Court Declares Jew For Jesus 'Kosher' - The Jerusalem Post
• Messianic Jews In Prison Complain Food's Not Kosher - Winston-Salem Journal
• Bakery Owned By Jew For Jesus Gets Kashrut Back - JTA
• The Feasts of Israel - Koinonia House
• The Unexpected King - Koinonia House
• Footprints of the Messiah MP3 Download - Koinonia House Store
• Session 10: Hebrews 9 - Koinonia House
Conservative Teachers To Confront NEA On Abortion - June 30, 2009
Conservative teachers within the NEA will call for the union to drop its support
of abortion. The National Education Association will convene for their national
meeting in San Diego July 1-6. Jeralee Smith, one of the co-founders of the NEA
Conservative Educators Caucus, says one of the items her group has placed on the
agenda is abortion.
OneNewsNow
Ahmadinejad Still The Winner, Says Partial Recount - June 29, 2009
In an attempt to placate protesters, Iran conducted a partial recount Monday of
votes cast in its disputed presidential election, and the hard-line president
asked for an investigation into the shooting death of a young woman who has
become a potent symbol of the opposition's struggle.
The regime's standoff with the West over its crackdown on demonstrators sharply
escalated Sunday when Iran announced it had detained nine local employees of the
British Embassy in Teheran. Both Britain and the European Union condemned what
they called "harassment and intimidation."
The Jerusalem Post
Ethiopian Church Will Not Display The Ark of the Covenant - June 29, 2009
There was considerable confusion last week when the leader of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church apparently told an Italian news agency about the possible
public display of the Ark of the Covenant – the box holding the Ten
Commandments – and then the prescribed time passed with no word.
However, there was no equivocation in an e-mail received by WND from the
webmaster of a church website in response to an inquiry about the truth of the
matter. "It is not going to happen so the world has to live with curiosity,"
said the statement, signed only "Webmaster" in response to the WND inquiry.
WorldNetDaily
US Takes N Korea's Violent Rhetoric Lightly - June 25, 2009
US officials are closely monitoring the situation in North Korea, but said
Thursday there are "no signs of an imminent long-range launch" of a long-range
missile headed toward Hawaii. North Korea has vowed to enlarge its nuclear
arsenal and threatened the US with "annihilation." But senior US officials are
putting the ramped up rhetoric as part of a "continuing North Korea bluster"
designed to coincide with the 59th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean
War.
Fox News
Ancient Christian Hideout Found in Israel? - June 24, 2009
A 2,000-year-old underground chamber has been discovered in Israel's Jordan
Valley. The largest human-made cave in Israel, the 1-acre (0.4-hectare) space
is thought to have begun as a quarry. In subsequent centuries it may have
served as a monastery, hideout for persecuted Christians, or Roman army base,
experts say.
National Geographic News
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