Go Les Go!

Rev Les Isaac: ‘I get bored if I’m in church too much. I need to be out there’

27 March 2023By Sam Hailes

As Street Pastors celebrates its 20th anniversary, founder Rev Les Isaac OBE says it’s time for the Church to get up out of the pews and work together. PC

Kaduna.

 Terrorists kill 27 Christians in Kaduna State, Nigeria

• Morning Star News | Tue 28 Mar 2023. 

  Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists killed 27 Christians in two attacks this month in Kaduna state, Nigeria, local sources said. CT

Well Bish - Please See My Answer Below!

 (Photo: Getty/iStock)

A senior Church of England bishop has raised serious concerns about new election laws that he believes could adversely impact "the poorest and the most marginalised."

The Bishop of St Albans, Alan Smith, has spoken out against new regulations that mean voters will have to bring photo ID with them when they come to the polling stations. The new rules come into force at local elections in May.

Bishop Smith, who convenes the CofE bishops sitting in the UK's House of Lords, said: "All the evidence suggests that this is likely adversely to affect the poorest and the most marginalised.

"If you're struggling to make ends meet, and you're working long hours, to have to go and get another form of identity if you haven't got one readily at hand...it's much more likely to mean that people may say, 'It's just too difficult.'

"We already have a problem getting people out to the ballot boxes, so why make it more difficult?" CT.

Blogger: as you pick through your daily copy of The Guardian or similar - you will obviously have gained precious little actual knowledge about the election frauds which have been regularly taking place in parliamentary constituencies. Once you have bothered to verify these - interestingly often amongst specific, non-Christian, ethnic groups - you will no doubt want to change your tune. Or maybe not.

Why, why, why should there not be a simple proof of identity to prevent electoral fraud? Your waffle has most emphatically failed to answer this vital question!

Second Verse in The Bible.

 

Quite.

 

Does This Group Have No Concept of What Evil Means?

'Trans Day of Vengeance' rally to be held after Nashville Christian school shooting.Activists 'reject any connection' to Covenant School shooter

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter

.

Trans activists and their supporters rally in support of transgenderism on the steps of New York City Hall, October 24, 2018, in New York City. The group gathered to speak out against the Trump administration's stance on there being two sexes and not innumerable genders. Last week, The New York Times reported on an unreleased administration memo that proposes a strict biological definition of sex based on biology. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

An LGBT advocacy group still plans to hold a "Trans Day of Vengeance" this weekend even though it's drawing criticism in light of the mass shooting Monday at a Nashville Christian school perpetrated by a trans-identified biological female.

The Trans Radical Activist Network released a statement Tuesday indicating that its "Trans Day of Vengeance," scheduled to take place in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., Saturday, will move forward as planned.

The event will occur just five days after Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old female who identifies as male, opened fire at The Covenant School in Nashville, killing three children and three adults before being killed by police. The school is affiliated with the Covenant Presbyterian Church.

The event was planned before the shooting and the group stressed that it was "horrified at the acts of violence committed at the Covenant school."

"We are outraged by this tragedy — we grieve for Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, William Kinney, Cynthia Peak, Katherine Koonce, and Mike Hill," the organization stated, referring to the victims of the attack. "We also reject any connection between that horrific event and ours," meaning the "Trans Day of Vengeance." CP.

The group argues that "vengeance" means "fighting back with vehemence." 

Birdie.

 

How Can Christians Ever Vote Democrat?

House Democrats block resolution condemning violence against churches, pro-life pregnancy centers.

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter

.

U.S. Capitol | Unsplash/Joshua Sukoff

Congressional Democrats have blocked a resolution that would have condemned the violence directed at churches and pro-life organizations by pro-abortion activists in recent months.

On Tuesday, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., introduced House Resolution 1233, which would "[express] the sense of the House of Representatives condemning the recent attacks on pro-life facilities, groups, and churches." CP.

Unimaginably Evil.

 https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/03/25/meth-smoking-satanist-vicar-convicted-paedophilia-zoophilia/

Total Greed and Shame of Our Supermarkets.

 https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/21805557/supermarkets-price-essentials-rod-liddle/

Blogger: I was in Aldi yesterday - horrified to see that a tub of plain salt has now DOUBLED in price in a matter of months.

This STINKS of extreme, unjustifiable sharkery! It is the equivalent of stealing from customers which may well extend over many HUNDREDS of items.

It Makes Great Reading.

 https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1752883/brexit-cptpp-uk-join-trade-indo-pacific

Hawk Report.

HAWK REPORT from Tassie shares that the Creation Discovery Centre has secured a magnificent working model of a Bacterial flagellum from Vance Nelson in Canada. The flagellum is a type of tail found on bacteria which help them to move through liquid and while they are often regarded as one of the simplest creatures, the structure and system that drives the flagellum is the most efficient motor known to man. It even has recognizable features of a motor such as a drive shaft, stator, and motor. The model highlights these parts and how they need to be intricately arranged to work. How could chance molecules come together to form a spinning motor that can function at up to one hundred thousand revolutions per minute? The better answer of course is to acknowledge the incredible workmanship of the master designer Jesus Christ.

Creation Research.

Prayer Corner.

Please pray for: Mrs Morgan. Gareth, Anne, Daniel, James, Gareth (most URGENT!), Peter, Pat, Pat, Marcus, Maureen, Joe, Lindsay, Pauline and Brian.

Blessings to all who do pray for these and their relatives.

Many thanks.

 

Attack On Indian Church.

Mob attacks Catholic church in India amid tribal clashes, causes thousands in damages.

By Nicole Alcindor, CP Reporter

.

A religious cross is captured through some ornamental railings in the Fort Kochi area in the state of Kerala in South India. | Getty Images

A mob of hundreds of villagers vandalized a Catholic church in the Chhattisgarh state of India on Monday as tensions continue to rise between the area’s indigenous people who follow an animist religion and Christians.   

Villagers armed with wooden sticks and iron rods barged into Sacred Heart Church at Edka village on Jan. 2, in the southern region of Narayanpur district, according to the Catholic non-profit news agency Union of Catholic Asia News. 

The mob broke the church’s windows and damaged the altar, crucifix, multiple pieces of furniture and statues. The villagers also vandalized a Marian grotto and a presbytery. 

UCA News quotes parish priest Father Jomon Devasia to report that the total damages from the church attack are likely to cost roughly 250,000 Indian rupees ($3,016), which includes about 50,000 Indian rupees allegedly stolen by the mob.

“The mob destroyed everything, the church and the presbytery,” Devasia stated. CP.

Samaritan's Purse Again To The Fore.

  

 

 

Samaritan’s Purse sending relief after tornadoes kill at least 26 in Miss., Ala.

By Anugrah Kumar

After a devastating series of tornadoes swept across Mississippi and northern Alabama Friday night, leaving a 100-mile path of destruction in their wake and at least 26 dead, the humanitarian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse said supplies and equipment were en route to help residents in the affected areas. CP.

The Lord will create a new thing on earth— the woman will return to the man.”

 Odd. Meaning?

Maybe this will help:

https://www.studylight.org/language-studies/difficult-sayings.html?article=437

1 Corinthians 10.

 

Birdies.

 

Please Pardon My Smirk.

The Guardian says sorry for slavery links and sets up £10m reparation fund.

Guardian owner The Scott Trust to launch 10-year programme of ‘restorative justice’

ByJames Warrington28 March 2023 • 7:50pm

The Guardian has apologised for historic links to slavery and set up a £10m reparation fund after a three-year investigation into itself.

The Scott Trust, which owns Guardian Media Group, plans to launch a decade-long programme of “restorative justice” to make up for the role the newspaper’s founders played in the transatlantic slave trade.

This will include donating millions of pounds to communities harmed by the business interests of the Guardian’s 19th-century founders. The donations will be funded from The Scott Trust’s £1.3bn endowment.

It comes after an investigation commissioned by the trust found that the paper’s founder and the vast majority of his financial backers had links to slavery, mainly through the textiles industry. DT.

Blogger: Gotta wonder where the £10million appeared from. Thought The Grauniad was always broke?

Ofsted: A Turn For The Worse? - Indubitably!

'Ofsted seems to have taken a turn for the worse': Inspector quits watchdog as he blasts 'toxic' inspection teams for placing 'awful pressure' on schools - amid backlash following suicide of headteacher.

• Headteacher Andy Webster: 'Ofsted seems to have taken a turn for the worse'
• Ofsted chief vows to carry on with inspections despite backlash from teacher 
• For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or go to samaritans.org

By ELLY BLAKE

PUBLISHED: 10:25, 28 March 2023. Mail.

Great Misrepresentations, Pip.

Jaw-droppingly disrespectful, the new Great Expectations is wilfully ignorant of the truth.

What does Steven Knight think he’s playing at in the latest BBC adaptation of a Dickens classic? ALLISON PEARSON. DT. 

'Not even the great Olivia Colman can rescue the BBC's Woke Desecrations': CHRISTOPHER STEVENS blasts 'imbecilic' re-imagining of Great Expectations - which sees Miss Havisham as an opium addict - as a 'joyless travesty' in scathing ONE-STAR review. Mail.

Er ... Probably.

 

Thought-Provoking.

 PAUL MORLAND

28 March 2023 • 

Before 1914, the world lived in the era of the Great Powers. After 1945, we had the Cold War and the two superpowers. Then, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, we had the unipolar era of Western hegemony – one that we are now told is coming to an end.

A quarter of the way into 2023, the phrase of the year so far seems to be “multi-polarity”. Where once America bestrode the globe, able to intervene in the air and on the ground everywhere from Somalia to Kosovo to Iraq, the rules of the game have changed. With the Iraq invasion ending in failure and a panicked withdrawal from Afghanistan, the West looks considerably less hegemonic. New powers are on the rise, and the meeting last week between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin marked a coming together of those rising forces in their opposition to the West.

That, at least, has been the prevailing narrative. There is no doubt that the West has experienced setbacks. But those are nothing new; the Cold War was not lost despite stalemate in Korea and embarrassment in Vietnam. As for the return of Russia and the re-emergence of China, the narrative of a new Cold War and a multipolar world is lacking a crucial element: demography.

Human numbers – particularly of young people – are a crucial and often overlooked determinant of world affairs. And demographically, neither the Bear nor the Dragon is in good shape.

The Russians have had too few children to replace themselves since the days of Khrushchev. Putin’s efforts to get the birth rate up have had limited and, it would appear, merely temporary effects. If Russia has not aged as much as some other countries, it is not because of a fresh blush of surging youth but because too many of its late-middle aged, particularly men, die of alcoholism and despair.

Life expectancy in Russia is comparable with that in India and Egypt, but whereas people in these countries are living much longer than they used to, Russians have seen 60 years of stagnation. Meanwhile, the Kremlin finds itself ruling a country short of young men. Too few were born 20 to 30 years ago, and this demographic weakness has been amplified as many have fled the war.

This has deprived Putin of cannon fodder, but it also means that even fewer Russian babies are going to be born in the years to come, storing up problems for the economy and draining Moscow of its potential military manpower for decades. Hundreds of thousands of men will not be fathering Russian children because they are either seeing the crisis out in Tbilisi or dead in the fields of Ukraine.

China, meanwhile, is suffering the calamitous consequences of its One Child policy. Imposed iniquitously and lifted too late to make a difference, its legacy is a population – and in particular a young population – that is already falling, and is likely to halve by the end of the century.

Beijing has already lost top spot in the demographic league table to India, whose population is now bigger and has decades of growth ahead of it. There will still be plenty of young men to send to whatever battles the Communist Party decides to pick, but China’s manpower advantage is set to shrivel. And with an ageing population struggling to keep the lights on, it will not conjure up much enthusiasm for foreign adventures.

This is not to say that all is demographically well in the West. Fertility rates everywhere are below what they need to be. But if it chooses, the West can still offer a lifestyle attractive enough to draw vast numbers of immigrants to work in its industries and nurse in its hospitals. Immigration is at best a temporary fix to demographic weakness and it may be disliked by some, but at least for the likes of the US, the UK and Germany it remains an option. By contrast, few now wish to go to Russia, and even if they wanted to go to China (or were wanted), they would be a drop in the ocean.

China and Russia, individually or together, still have great nuisance potential. The damage wreaked by Putin’s soldiers in Ukraine is testimony to that. But as the West girds itself to confront the challenge, it should take comfort from the soft demographic underbelly of its opponents. The new Cold War may already be over. DT.

Our Policing Stinks - Here's Why.

The crisis afflicting the police isn’t ‘institutional’ racism or misogyny.

Bad apples and processes need to be cleared out, but the public’s main priority is the fight against crime

PHILIP JOHNSTON21 March 2023 • 9:30pm

Policing is in crisis, though not because it is institutionally racist, homophobic or misogynistic, as Louise Casey put it in her searing report on the Met this week. The crisis stems from a growing sense among the public that the police no longer share their priorities, which are to stop crime happening and investigate it promptly and effectively when it does.

One of the more startling, if unsurprising, observations in the Casey report was that frontline policing was no longer a priority. Yet this has been the essence of the contract between police and the public since the time of Robert Peel, who told the Met’s first recruits in 1829: “The principal object to be attained is the prevention of crime”.

It is questionable whether that remains the case. There is a growing perception that the police no longer really know what is expected of them. The 1999 Macpherson inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence murder exposed antediluvian attitudes to race in a rapidly diversifying capital city and undermined officers’ confidence in how to police non-white areas.

The Met has tried ever since to put systems in place to address this, only to be told a quarter of a century later that it is still “institutionally racist”. This term is not only unhelpful but inaccurate. The fact that there are some people in the force with racist attitudes does not make it institutionally so. It is a term too readily bandied about.

This crisis of identity is not confined to the Met and nor is it all the fault of police officers, who are often responding to perceived political pressure to focus more on what nasty people say on Twitter than what bad people do on the streets.

Policing was once relatively straightforward, but has become fiendishly complex, politically contentious and risk-averse, not least because officers are so easily hung out to dry when they get things wrong. They are often dealing with the dregs of society in difficult circumstances from which most of us would run a mile, so they are bound to foul up occasionally.

I remember Doreen Lawrence, the mother of a murdered son, telling a Commons select committee a few years ago that “a majority of people are law-abiding and want to be treated with respect”. She added: “A crime is a crime and it doesn’t matter who commits it but it should be properly investigated.” That seemed to sum up what most of us think, so why is it so difficult to achieve?

Part of the answer lies in the testimony to the Casey review from serving frontline officers who complained about “initiative-itis”.

“There is no long-term thinking… the Met substitutes action with activity,” said one. Another said: “The goal is always about perception, optics and being seen to do something.”

Casey said the problem with the Met was its culture and yet there have been no shortage of attempts to change it, albeit “with little evidence of sustained or coherent implementation or follow-up”. It is not true that the Met, or other forces, do not recognise the importance of cultural change: the problem is they often think of little else.

Whereas the demands of frontline policing should be the number one focus for the Met’s senior management, instead it has been allowed to degrade. How has it come to this? Policing was one institution that proudly stood comparison with the very best in the world: predominantly unarmed, impartial, independent and comparatively incorruptible, despite bad apples. The police were a reflection of the very essence of Britishness. Not for us a Continental, military-style Carabinieri of whom the general populace walked in fear and distrust.

The good old bobby in his serge blue jacket and pointy hat summed us up nicely – as, by and large, a pretty safe and orderly nation, where the rule of law prevailed and was properly enforced. “Your police are wonderful” used to be the refrain of American tourists. Maybe it still is, but less so than before.

There is, of course, always a danger of mythologising the past. For all Casey’s ferocity, police today are models of propriety in comparison to 30 or 40 years ago. Their behaviour has had to improve. But somewhere along the way they lost a sense of direction, providing neither the avuncular on-the-beat presence of an earlier age of police fiction, Dixon of Dock Green, nor the tough guy, get-the-results attitude of The Sweeney. Policing is unquestionably cleaner but, for good or ill, far more rules-based.

Recruitment and vetting evidently need addressing given the presence in the ranks of people like Wayne Couzens, the killer of Sarah Everard. The misogyny allegation is serious and yet nearly one third of officers are women and the Met was led by a woman until recently. But what is needed above all is good front-line officers with the skills, empathy and experience to cope with the job and yet many forces are hollowed out, with middle ranks leaving in droves.

But while internal structures matter, it is losing the connection with the people that is the greatest threat to policing by consent. The complaint about today’s policing is less about taking a bung or fabricating evidence, even if both still go on, but of losing touch with the essential Peelian principle that “the police are the public and the public are the police”.

If you are burgled and no one investigates, if gangs and drug pushers operate in your neighbourhood with impunity, or if your police station has closed down and officers on foot patrol are rarely, if ever, seen, then that contract is broken, even if police themselves say they are too bogged down in red tape and often required to be an arm of the social services to fight crime.

This is hardly the first crisis policing has faced, but it is arguably the most dangerous because so many reforms have already been introduced, from new standards units to direct intervention, league tables, performance indicators, an ill-fated attempt to regionalise county forces and more centralisation.

Yet none of these addressed the popular demand for the reassurance and order provided by visible policing. The criticism in the Casey review may have grabbed the headlines, but it leaves open the fundamental question: what do we expect the police to do? It has been 60 years since a Royal Commission tried to answer that. Another is long overdue. DT.

Resilience.

The resilience of an intercessor – Part 1.

By Austen C. Ukachi

12 March 2023   |   The Nigerian Guardian.

Pastor Austen C. Ukachi

“They said, ‘we will replace the broken bricks of our ruins with finished stone, and replant the felled sycamore-fig trees with cedars.”’ (Isaiah 9:10 NLT)

Resilience is the quality of being able to bounce back from adversity, defeat or hardship. Resilience should be the biblical norm for Christians because the Bible says we shall through much tribulation enter the kingdom. Again, Proverb 24:10 says: “If you faint when under pressure, you have need of courage.” (Proverbs 24:10 TPT)

Godly resilience enables us to be undeterred from our mission, regardless of the opposition. A resilient Christian does not give up in the face of adversity. He will always find a way around any obstacle that gets in his way and refuse to be stopped when it comes to achieving what he wants out of life.

An intercessor should be resilient; he should never give up or falter when situations are not favourable. He realises that we are in an imperfect world where there are lots of challenges and where men yield themselves to evil practices and try to frustrate the plans of God. He believes that the victory of evil people is only temporary because no one can thwart the purposes of God. Therefore, the intercessor forges ahead in faith.

From the human standpoint, the presidential elections have come and gone, but from God’s perspective, it is not yet over. At least in the mind of those who lost, especially the ‘Obidients,’ it is not yet over. A battle may have been lost, but the war for righteousness, honesty, and transparency is still on. Isaiah 9:10 describes the resolve of a people to rebuild from scratch what has been ruined. “They said: “we will replace the broken bricks of our ruins with finished stone, and replant the felled sycamore-fig trees with cedars.” (Isaiah 9:10 NLT). The results of the past elections should not deter us from praying. We must resolve to persist in prayers for Nigeria until a new nation is born.

Proverbs 24:16 could be seen as the theme verse for the resilient: “Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.”

Samson showed resilience when the odds were against him. When the Philistines arrested him, they shaved his hair, plucked out his eyes, chained him and confined him to prison. They thought that Samson was completely finished, but he began to regain strength when his hair began to grow again. Judges 16:22 states: “However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.” Once his hair began to grow again, he prayed to God for renewed strength, and God answered him. Then he braced himself up for revenge. “And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars, which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said: “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the Lords and all the people who were in it. So, the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life,” Judges 16:28-30 NKJV.

I urge those who feel disappointed at the results of the last national election to remain calm and not relent in prayers. We should borrow a leaf from the resilience of Samson. The election results should not make us give up on hope and on our vision to see Nigeria transformed.

• Contact:pastoracukachi@gmail.com

Paul O'Grady Has Died Suddenly.

I held no brief for Paul O' Grady. In this time of mourning, I do seem to be in something of a minority.

I do however, lament every single one - good or bad - of those who die suddenly; there are so many who had planned to neatly tie up the ending of their lives and suddenly, are unable to do so.

Amongst this group are a number who were fully intending to 'put matters right' with God. Time ran out for them!

Only, yesterday, I posted these words: Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 

How many have died in that short period and met tragedy? Was Paul one such? We are certainly never promised tomorrow. 

Countless people give God no thought whatsoever. Tragically, both groups are pitching directly into a godless eternity. This is not me threatening the unsaved - rather, it is a warning of an appalling future which really does not have to be.

The godless churches of today have long since 'abolished Hell' - and will pay a terrible price for ensuring that fewer people will find salvation as a direct consequence of their apostasy.

With a heavy - and admittedly doubting heart - I pray that Paul had fully repented of all of his sins and that he had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour as ALL are surely required to do.

Without that there truly is no heaven - Hell beckons.

As Christians it is our job to warn and lead the unhearing back onto a heavenly path - this is called The Great Commission. Christians - that is, sinners saved by the Grace of God - want the rest of sinners to be able to join them in Paradise. This is the most important job entrusted to His people. Incidentally, the members of so-called churches which do not follow The Great Commission are also in tremendous trouble. 

God will not be mocked!

Brexit Coup.

 https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/1751174/brexit-britain-vanguard-uk-office-manchester-jobs

Please, Please, Please.

More than 600 of UK's worst criminals could be blocked from prison release every year under new bill to scupper parole bids of dangerous offenders.

The new Victims and Prisoners bill would give the UK Justice Secretary Dominic Raab a veto to automatically block the release of the worst offenders. Mail.

Lamentations 2: 31 - 33. A limited time of hope amongst the darkness.

 31 For no one is cast off

    by the Lord forever.
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
    so great is his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
    or grief to anyone.

Blogger: God desires neither to punish nor to condemn. This, however, this is written after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

He had given repeated warnings to Israel to both behave well by respecting God and to ignore the voices of their wretched false prophets. He had made very clear what the consequences would be for Jerusalem and still they defied Him!

God kept His promise consequently, Jerusalem was invaded and ravaged. That is what God will permit - His promises are never empty threats.

So much for ancient Israel. 

Let us consider the Western World today. (Most of the Eastern World is already under the thrall of false religions.)

Our Christian nations have side-lined God in their efforts to please the godless.

Meanwhile, so many of the 'religious leaders and teachers' have decided that their opinions are far more important than anything that God might think. They have polluted the minds of the population and their congregations. Few are those who honour God. Happily, we do have our own remnant. 

The ungodly are failing to prepare for the Return of The Lord. Modern society mirrors that time when the fall of Jerusalem was imminent.

Never has society been more polluted.

This Blogger is of the firm belief that the Judgement of God on our world is imminent.

We are not in The End Times - we are at the very last gasp of End Times.

Repent. Repent. Repent! 

The time is short! The compassion of God may still be accessed as these verses make very clear.

Find an evangelical church to help you. Give a very wide berth to all of the surrender-monkey churches who defy the Scriptures.

For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

II Corinthians 6:2 NKJV