C. Aaron Russell's Blog
September 25, 2015
Why do you weep, Oh Israel
Why do you weep, Oh Israel
Your tears fall on dry ground
The stones do not hear your wailing
Rocks cannot comfort your sorrow
I am not far away from you
Though your eyes cannot see me now
Your faith will sense that I am here
Walls cannot hold all that I am
Can you contain a father’s love
Only his child may comprehend
Do not weep for me Israel
I live in the holy of you
February 13, 2015
Racial reconciliation in the pews
The Ministry of Reconciliation
EDWARD GILBREATH (Charisma News)
…For the last year, I’ve traveled around the nation speaking to Christian groups about the importance of diversity and racial reconciliation in the body of Christ. I speak primarily about the church’s black-white divide, which typically has meant addressing white audiences about the things they fail to see about our relationships across racial lines. But everyone knows the issue is much bigger than black and white, and we do the kingdom of God a disservice when we freeze the discussion there.
The reality is that we live in desperately polarized times. Everybody’s fed up. And everybody goes on the Internet or talk radio to let you hear about it.
White folks are tired of black folks playing the race card. Black folks are tired of waiting for white folks to “get it.” American-born Latinos are tired of being judged and treated as if they were illegal. And illegal immigrants are tired of being exploited for their labor and then told, “We don’t want you in this country!”
These are complex issues that we shouldn’t take lightly. But as a church we need to be willing to move beyond conventional wisdom and take the time to apply kingdom wisdom…(read full article at Charisma News)
February 6, 2015
Christianity does sound crazy, until it doesn’t
Atheists Are Right That Christianity Sounds Absurd, but I Believe in It
From an outside observer’s standpoint, Christianity is kind of absurd.
Think about it. We believe in an invisible man who lived over 2,000 years ago in a series of backwater towns in the Middle East, was killed by some religious zealots, and then was magically raised from the dead three days later, after which he floated up into the sky and disappeared, thus becoming the invisible man we now believe in and pin all our hopes to. Oh, and on top of that, we believe in other invisible beings: angels and demons—who are all around us, helping and influencing us. Meanwhile, another invisible Spirit (the Holy Spirit) is constantly at work behind the scenes around the earth, keeping the whole thing straight and intervening whenever He can.
When put that way, even I think it sounds crazy… How then can I, as a rational, intelligent human being, actually believe in invisible men and spirits?..
But then something happened, and this is where everything changed for me. I experienced God…(read full story at Charisma News)
January 23, 2015
History repeating itself: Christian family’s story of persecution during WWI
The Unfinished War against Christianity
New book by Joe David
According to the press release, author Joe David will discuss the unfinished war of the radical Muslims against the Christians during a Women’s National Democratic Club (WNDC) luncheon, Thursday, February 26, 2015, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“So much of what we are told about Islam needs to be re-evaluated from an historical perspective,” the author of The Infidels said. “What we are witnessing today in the Middle East is not new; instead, it is a repeat of what has happened many times before since 630 AD. Despite what propagandist say, Islam isn’t a religion of peace.”
David whose family were Assyrian Christians were among the many victims of the “race murders” (i.e., genocide) during World War I. Because they were prominent Christians, they were the first to be murdered by the Muslim Turks during the purge of the Middle East. “I will always remember my mother’s bullet wound below her left breast, which I first saw as a child,” he said. “It is my reminder of the horror she witnessed when she was a young girl in Persia.”
David will connect her story to the relevant aspects of history that led to the massacre of millions of Christians during World War I. “It wasn’t easy writing The Infidels,” David admits. “To tell my mother’s story I had to reconstruct the past and confront a minefield of emotions that I had spent most of my life avoiding.”
The Infidels is David’s sixth book. It is about the often overlooked war in Northwestern Persia, when the Muslim Turks, with the blessings of the Germans, began to savagely massacre millions of Christians during a jihad, declared to cleanse the Ottoman Empire of “infidels.”
January 9, 2015
Best hits tribute to Anraé Crouch, now with the Lord at 72
Click here for a selection of Andrae Crouch’s best hits on Youtube, posted by Fitz Houston
Remembering Andrae Crouch, Dead at 72
The gospel music legend combined Saturday night with Sunday morning.
Robert Darden (Christianity Today)
On the stage of Waco Hall, I was worried that the world was about to come to an end way too soon and I just wasn’t ready. In 1972, I saw—for the first time—Andrae Crouch and the Disciples performing “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power,” “Soon and Very Soon,” “My Tribute,” “Through It All,” and “Bless His Holy Name.” I was both mesmerized and a little frightened.
I had been a fan of black gospel music since childhood. But as a freshman at Baylor University, I knew that this was something different. I just knew. And it was something different for Jesus Rock (the term “contemporary Christian music” or CCM wasn’t in wide usage back then).
Crouch was an innovator, a path-finder, a precursor in an industry noted for its conservative, often derivative approach to popular music. He combined gospel and rock, flavored it with jazz and calypso as the mood struck him and the song called for it, and is even one of the founders of what is now called “praise and worship” music. He took risks with his art and was very, very funky when he wanted to be. Tonight he died at age 72 from complications from Saturday’s heart attack.
Amy Grant may have made CCM popular; Andrae made it sound great…(continue reading at Christianity Today)
December 31, 2014
Finding Jesus: CT’s top 10 amazing testimonies of 2014
Here are the Christian conversion stories that CT readers shared most.
Joshua Wood (Christianity Today)
10)
God’s Hot Pursuit of an Armed Bank Robber
After I surrendered to the FBI, I surrendered to the Holy Spirit.
9)
The Atheist’s Dilemma
I tried to face down an overwhelming body of evidence, as well as the living God.
8)
Beyond Buddha to Beloved
How I became the first-ever Christian in my family lineage.
7) How God Became Jesus—and How I Came to Faith in Him
Bart Ehrman’s narrative suggests the more educated you are, the less likely you are to believe. My life proves otherwise.
6) Pro Football Was My God
Until a half-naked man showed up at my locker.
5) How a French Atheist Becomes a Theologian
Inside my own revolution.
4) How I Escaped the Mormon Temple
After being in the LDS Church for 30 years, I began reading the New Testament. What was there shocked me.
3) Christ Called Me Off the Minaret
Through investigations, dreams, and visions, Jesus asked me to forsake my Muslim family.
2) Fox News’ Highly Reluctant Jesus Follower
Of all people surprised that I became an evangelical Christian, I’m the most surprised.
1) My Train Wreck Conversion
As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.
December 22, 2014
Unbroken movie: hope, despair, redemption
By Rusty Wright
When Louie Zamperini boarded a World War II bomber in late May, 1943, unforeseen dangers awaited the Olympic runner and war hero. He later said he’d prefer suicide to repeating his castaway and POW ordeals.
His inspiring story – told in the bestselling book, Unbroken (Laura Hillenbrand, 2010), and now in a film (by Angelina Jolie, opening Christmas Day) – enthralls.
Zamperini, who died last July at age 97, became close friends with director and co-producer Jolie, who earlier emphasized her “huge responsibility to get [the film] right because I love him so much and because he’s helped me so much in my life.”
The movie adroitly captures part of Louie’s fascinating journey from victim to victor – and eventually – to forgiver.
Run like mad
As author Hillenbrand notes, during his youth, chronic thievery gave Louie running experience. He became a track star, competing in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. A favorite Berlin souvenir was a “Do Not Disturb” sign, swiped from sprinter Jesse Owens.
On a WW II rescue mission, engine problems crashed his plane into the Pacific, stranding him on a rubber raft with two other survivors.
Adrift
Over 47 days, they drifted 2,000 miles amid blistering sun, parched throats, empty stomachs, and circling sharks. When a Japanese bomber strafed them, the men scrambled overboard to hide from bullets, only to fight off sharks. One airman perished at sea.
Louie – not a religious person – prayed that if God would save him, he would follow and serve Him for life. After one such prayer, rain quenched their thirst. After another came a Japanese boat, and POW hell.
POW hell
Japanese doctors used Louie for medical experiments. Sadistic guards stole rations and beat prisoners. One especially despised guard, nicknamed the Bird, made Louie his special target of abuse.
The War Department declared Louie dead. At war’s end, a journalist interviewing liberated POWs remarked, “Zamperini’s dead.” The emaciated Louie had to convince the writer he was the famous athlete. “Zamperini comes back from dead” read the Los Angeles Times headline.
Bird-hunting nightmares
The film touches only briefly on Louie’s postwar years. Hillenbrand fills in “the rest of the story.”
Re-entry brought: Joyous family reunion. Marriage. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, rage, alcohol abuse. Nightmares involving the Bird, about whose murder he obsessed.
Once, Louie dreamt he was strangling the Bird. He awoke to find himself strangling his screaming, pregnant wife, Cynthia. She eventually moved out.
But a 1949 Billy Graham outreach in Los Angeles inspired her. A reluctant Louie joined her at a subsequent Graham meeting.
Graham spoke about a woman caught in adultery and slated for death by stoning. Jesus invited any accuser who reckoned himself sinless to cast the first stone. Everyone departed. “I do not condemn you, either,” Jesus told the woman. “Go. From now on sin no more.”
Louie wanted nothing of personal faith and walked out. However, he returned the next evening – persistent wife! – but began to exit again during Graham’s invitation to faith.
New Life
Suddenly Louie recalled his promise on the raft, If you will save me, I will serve you forever. He turned to walk toward Graham, and toward a new life of faith.
The next day, he began voraciously reading the Bible, discovering inner peace and confidence in divine love that he believed had preserved him.
His marriage was restored. He told his story nationwide. He returned to Japan, not to murder the Bird and his captors but to offer forgiveness.
The Bird refused to meet with him, so Louie wrote him, saying in part, “The post-war nightmares caused my life to crumble, but thanks to a confrontation with God … I committed my life to Christ. Love replaced the hate I had for you. Christ said, ‘Forgive your enemies and pray for them.’ … I also forgave you and now would hope that you would also become a Christian.”
Delinquent, track star, war hero, castaway, prisoner, troubled veteran, redeemed peacemaker. This movie pays homage to Louie’s incredible story. Go, and be inspired.
Rated PG-13 (USA) “for war violence including intense sequences of brutality, and for brief language.”
www.UnbrokenFilm.com International release dates
Rusty Wright is an author and lecturer who has spoken on six continents. He holds Bachelor of Science (psychology) and Master of Theology degrees from Duke and Oxford universities, respectively. www.RustyWright.com
December 18, 2014
Porn not just destroying marriages but replacing them
Study: Men Who Use Porn Are Less Likely to Get Married, May Be Contributing to Decline in Marriage in the US
BY MICHAEL GRYBOSKI , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
Men who use pornography are less likely to get married, according to a study published last month that shows the easy accessability of porn on the Internet has become a substitute for seeking a marriage partner among men ages 18 to 35.
Authored by Michael Malcolm of the University of West Chester, Pennsylvania, and George Naufal of Timberlake Consultants, the paper, which was published by The Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, found that “Substitutes for marital sexual gratification may impact the decision to marry.”
“We investigate the effect of Internet usage, and of pornography consumption specifically, on the marital status of young men,” reads the abstract. “We show that increased Internet usage is negatively associated with marriage formation…
Patrick A. Trueman, president of the anti-pornography group Morality in Media, said in a statement that the IZA paper showed how porn can harm society.
“Pornography is a marriage killer and thus it has monumental negative ramifications for society’s future,” said Trueman. “Research has shown for some time that porn use in marriage destroys the marital bond, but now we can see that porn use destroys even the desire to get married…” (read full article at the Christian Post)
December 16, 2014
Taliban terrorists slaughter 130, mostly children, in Pakistan school
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
Death toll rises to 130 in Taliban-led attack on Pakistan school
(AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
An ongoing Taliban-led assault Tuesday on a Pakistan military-run school has left at least 130 people dead, mostly children and teenagers in grades 1-10, officials say, in the worst attack to hit the country in years.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the assault in the northwestern city of Peshawar and rushed to the area to show his support for the victims.
The horrific attack, carried out by a relatively small number of militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban group, a Pakistani militant group trying to overthrow the government, also sent dozens of wounded flooding into local hospitals as terrified parents searched for their children.
“My son was in uniform in the morning. He is in a casket now,” wailed one parent, Tahir Ali, as he came to the hospital to collect the body of his 14-year-old son Abdullah. “My son was my dream. My dream has been killed.”
Pervez Khattak, the chief minister of the province where the attack is underway, said scores of those killed were mostly “children”…(continue reading at Fox News)
December 15, 2014
Australia Terrorist Standoff Continues; Hostages Forced to Hold Islamic Flag
Photo: AP
BY ANUGRAH KUMAR , CHRISTIAN POST CONTRIBUTOR
Five of an unknown number of hostages being held by an unidentified armed assailant inside a central Sydney cafe managed to escape Monday morning. The motive of the hostage-taker remains unclear but two people have been seen holding up a flag with Arabic writing on it inside the cafe.
Three people came running out of the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in downtown Sydney area about six hours after the seize began, while two more, both women and wearing aprons, sprinted out through a fire exit and into the arms of heavily-armed SWAT team police Monday morning, ABC News reports.
“The first thing we will do is make sure they are OK and then we will work with these people to find out some more information,” New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn was quoted as saying. “Our No. 1 aim is to resolve this incident peacefully.”
Police were in the process of negotiating with the hostage-taker.
The motive behind the attack remains unclear, but a black Islamic flag with Arabic writing has earlier been seen in the store window…(continue reading at the Christian Post)
