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ANSWER THE CALL
All Christians, not just clergy or monks, are called to be saints. The main task of bishops, pastors, deacons, evangelists and teachers isn't just to lead worship services and teach doctrine (although that's important too!), it's to equip the saints to offer service, to do the work of ministry (diakonia in Greek) to build up the Body of Christ, the Church (Ephesians 4:12), the Ark of our Salvation. That's why we're Building the ARC.
Ever since Christ established the Church, it has been compared to the Ark: see Hebrews 11:7. The water of the Great Flood has its antitype in the water of baptism, which saves us just like Noah and his family were saved from the Flood by being in the Ark. The Apostle Peter wrote that -
"God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built. In it, few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you - not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:20-21).
Back then, most of the people laughed at Noah building the Ark and went about their ordinary business / busyness, not thinking this was a matter of life or death. YOU have a 70% probability that you'll need at least home healthcare: over 2/3 of retired people will spend on average about 3 years disabled before we depart this life. This is not something to laugh at or ignore, it's a real risk that people need to prepare for before it happens. We need to build the ARC... [read more...]
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If 5% of the people who see this would give $5 per month (just 17¢ per day!) – two cups of coffee with your favorite friend at your favorite coffee shop – we could cover our operating expenses and do much more in spreading the word, serving and providing accessible housing for the disabled. My wife and I left our careers over 30 years ago to serve in Russia as missionaries: we're now "semi-retired" – we've put on a new set of semi tires and keep on trucking! We live on our retirement income and volunteer our time: we receive no financial support from Agape Restoration Society. Our websites and ministry are funded by us and just a few friends. ...thanks, friends!
SINGAPORE'S YOUNGEST SURVIVING PREEMIE IS NOW FIVE… AND THRIVING
from: LiveAction News
(2 Feb.) A premature baby girl from Singapore, born at 22 weeks, is now five years old. This is a miraculous milestone for her, as she is also the only known surviving child to be born so early in gestation in the country.
Dr Tan Pih Lin at the department of neonatology at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital stated, "Chelsea [Kiew] is the only survivor at 22 weeks gestation in Singapore, which makes it an extremely rare and unique case." Weighing just 1lb 12oz at birth, Chelsea stayed in the hospital for about five months to become stronger and overcome health obstacles.
Chelsea’s mother, Madam Lin Hsiao Chi, recalled that her labor with Chelsea began unexpectedly at home. "I was petrified. But when I heard her crying, at least I knew she was alive," Lin described. Her husband, Raymond Kiew, helped deliver Chelsea with assistance from emergency medical staff over the phone... [read more...]
COMMENTARY: This article indicates how wrong it is to abort or kill a premature baby, because the earliest survival week for preemies keeps getting lower. Also, a condition that is untreatable today might be treatable in five or ten years. Give life a chance!
CANADA DELAYS EUTHANASIA FOR PEOPLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS
from: BioEdge.org
(1 Feb.) For a second year in a row, Canada’s federal government is going to delay opening euthanasia to people whose only condition is a mental illness. The expansion in eligibility was due to begin on March 17. But a report from a joint parliamentary committee has declared that the country is ill-prepared for this change.
A majority of the members of the committee argued that euthanasia for mental illness should not be made available until the federal and provincial health and justice ministers believe that "based on recommendations from their respective departments and in consultation with their provincial and territorial counterparts and with Indigenous peoples, that it can be safely and adequately provided."
"The system needs to be ready," acknowledged Mark Holland, the federal health minister. "We need to get it right." Canada’s debate has attracted world-wide attention. Even the editorial board of the Washington Post, a bellwether for progressive thinking, urged the Canadians to put on the brakes... [read more...]
COMMENTARY: Mental illness can have many definitions: are depression, or anxiety, or hypochondria forms of mental illness that permits us to euthanize these people? The issue is that materialism evaluates people for their intellectual and/or physical abilities, not as full-fledged persons created in God's image and loved by Him.
OCCUPIED UKRAINE: "DISAPPEARED" GREEK CATHOLIC PRIESTS IN RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION PRISONS?
from: Forum 18 News Service
Hebrews 13:3 – "Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them..."
(2 Feb.) One of the two Greek Catholic priests seized by Russia's National Guard (Rosgvardiya) in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Berdyansk in November 2022 appears to have been transferred illegally to Russia. Fr Ivan Levytsky is being held in an Investigation Prison in Russia's Rostov Region, Evhen Zakharov of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group told Forum 18. Fr Bohdan Heleta is being held in an Investigation Prison in Simferopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.
The Donetsk Exarchate of the Greek Catholic Church says that it can confirm only that the two priests are in Russian captivity. "The exact location is not known - there is different information, but it is unconfirmed," the Exarchate told Forum 18. "The fathers are constantly included in the exchange lists [for prisoners held by Russia and Ukraine], but so far without results..." [read more...]
COMMENTARY: The mass deportation of populations, whether ordinary civilians or clergy, is a war crime. Stalin murdered and deported millions of Ukrainians 90 years ago and move Russians into Ukraine, which created today's Russian majority in cities of Donbas.
SCHOOLS OFTEN IGNORE FEDERAL RULES ON RESTRAINT AND SECLUSION
from: Disability Scoop
(30 Jan.) Photos show blood splattered across a small bare-walled room in a North Carolina school where a second grader repeatedly punched himself in the face in the fall of 2019, according to the child’s mom.
His mother, Michelle Staten, said her son, who has autism and other conditions, reacted as many children with disabilities would when he was confined to the seclusion room at Buckhorn Creek Elementary. "I still feel a lot of guilt about it as a parent," said Staten, who sent the photos to the federal government in a 2022 complaint letter. "My child was traumatized."
Federal law requires school districts like Wake County to tell the U.S. Department of Education every time they physically restrain or seclude a student. But the district, one of the largest in the nation, with nearly 160,000 children and more than 190 schools, reported for nearly a decade, starting in 2011, that it had zero incidents of restraint or seclusion, according to federal data. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: Laws that exist on the books but are not enforced are worse than not having such laws, because people are deceived into thinking that something is being done about the problem. We've struggled with this deceptive neglect with our own family.
EXPERTS PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF THE OCCUPIERS' CRIMES AGAINST RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES AND VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine
(29 Jan) On January 24th, a press conference titled "Nothing Sacred: War Crimes of Russian Occupiers against Religious Communities and Clergymen" took place in Kyiv. Experts presented evidence of religious persecution in the occupied territories and violations of International Humanitarian Law. Speakers at the conference:
Vyacheslav Likhachov explained how religious persecution has been a part of a consistent system of practices in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and contemporary Russia.
Viktor Yelensky added that Russia cannot be a defender of traditional values, given its internal issues such as crime rates, suicides, and alcoholism. He stated that the current Russia is an inherent enemy of freedom of conscience.
Ruslan Khalikov presented data from the "Religion in Fire" project regarding the destruction of religious structures during the war. He mentioned that religious buildings often become unintended targets due to the indiscriminate nature of Russian shelling... [read more...]
COMMENTARY: Please also see the YOUTUBE VIDEO "How & Why Does the Russian Church Support the War?" by Sister Vassa Larin, an Orthodox monastic.
SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY INTRODUCES BILL TO STOP GOVERNMENT FROM USING ABORTED BABIES FOR RESEARCH
from: LifeNews.com
(1 Feb.) Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) in introducing the Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act.
The bill would prohibit federal departments, agencies and offices from conducting, funding or approving research involving human fetal tissue obtained through an induced abortion. It would not prohibit the development of new, high-efficiency cell lines, as long as those lines do not derive from fetal tissue researchers gain access to because of an abortion.
"It’s unconscionable that our government would use American taxpayer dollars to fund research that exploits or depends on the taking of innocent life. If the Biden administration won’t stop this immorality, Congress should," said Kennedy.... [read more...]
COMMENTARY: It's high time for Americans to realize that taking the life of an unborn human baby is murder, and that doing so for the sake of profitable medical treatments is even worse.
New Book: A First-Century View of Yeshua, the Messiah
Here's the Big News (drumroll)! My book A First-Century View of Yeshua, the Messiah is being published on Amazon! From the Epigraph:
How did we get here? Our understanding of Yeshua, the Messiah, is filtered through centuries of retelling, revising, and projecting our current worldview back twenty centuries ago, resulting in layers of anachronisms.
What went wrong? Why do we see so much animosity between Christians and Jews? Originally, the followers of Yeshua were just considered another sect of Judaism, along with Herodians, Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and Zealots. The animosity arose mainly in the fifth century C.E. in the writings of Jerome and Augustine, as you will see in the conclusion of this book. And where do we go from here?
Get it at www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTFT9DMQ as a regular Kindle eBook for $7.99, or for $0 if you subscribe to Kindle Direct. You can roll over the cover to zoom in, and also read a sample on my Amazon Kindle page (this link).
Or get it as a paperback from Amazon.com beginning on Feb. 6 for $15.99 – just search for it by title at www.Amazon.com. If you get either the Amazon eBook or the paperback and like it, please be sure to write a nice review on the Amazon page: this will help me a lot!
I've also ordered 20 "author's copies," so if you live in the U.S. and want one, I can autograph one and send it to you for $16. If so, please email me your mailing address. They will arrive here around Feb. 11, then I can begin sending them.
The two Amazon versions have the footnotes at the back of the book, instead of at the bottom of the screen in my online version. Other than that, the versions are nearly identical. You can still read it online for free at www.Agape-Biblia.org/First-Century-View.htm – the Amazon versions have this same link on the title page, so people can read it online. This way, the Amazon versions with an audience in the millions should drive traffic to my websites.
Get this article on our ARC-News blog at blogspot.com, or download it as a PDF from HERE, and share it at your church!
A Personal Note:
One of our "Morning Prayers and Readings" members is Simon from Tanzania. He founded an orphanage and pre-primary/primary school for AIDS orphans in the town of Bunda, northwest Tanzania, and now has 50 students. Please take a good look at his brochure Vision-Complex-Kipeperushi.pdf: print it, share it, and consider sponsoring an orphan!
Please remember to pray for Christians in Secularized Countries, and for...
Your fellow-servants,
Bob & Cheryl
p.s. Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff. – Frank Zappa
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