Disapearing Males

What are they not telling us? this is going into our drinking water!

World Watch Mutual Faith

This month's WorldWatch comes to you from Keith & Heidi Hershey when they spent some time at MFM's Springs of Life children center in Beirut, Lebanon. This center reaches out to over 60 kids a day and is just blocks away from the new Middle East Mission Center that we will be purchasing in just a few weeks!
At the new center we will be able to reach OVER 200 KIDS! Thats over 100 new families we will be reaching with the love of Jesus in the this war-torn nation. For more information, go to mutualfaith.org

Our laurels must grow among His olives in Gethsemane.

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." --Romans 8:37

We go to Christ for forgiveness, and then too often look to the law for power to fight our sins. Paul thus rebukes us, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Take your sins to Christ's cross, for the old man can only be crucified there: we are crucified with Him. The only weapon to fight sin with is the spear which pierced the side of Jesus. To give an illustration--you want to overcome an angry temper, how do you go to work? It is very possible you have never tried the right way of going to Jesus with it. How did I get salvation? I came to Jesus just as I was, and I trusted Him to save me. I must kill my angry temper in the same way? It is the only way in which I can ever kill it. I must go to the cross with it, and say to Jesus, "Lord, I trust Thee to deliver me from it." This is the only way to give it a death-blow. Are you covetous? Do you feel the world entangle you? You may struggle against this evil so long as you please, but if it be your besetting sin, you will never be delivered from it in any way but by the blood of Jesus. Take it to Christ. Tell Him, "Lord, I have trusted Thee, and Thy name is Jesus, for Thou dost save Thy people from their sins; Lord, this is one of my sins; save me from it!" Ordinances are nothing without Christ as a means of mortification. Your prayers, and your repentance's, and your tears--the whole of them put together--are worth nothing apart from Him. "None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good;" or helpless saints either. You must be conquerors through Him who hath loved you, if conquerors at all. Our laurels must grow among His olives in Gethsemane.

Our God Reigns Here

Music Our God Reigns Here By John Waller

1 Samuel 12:14
If you fear the LORD and serve Him and obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the LORD your God.
1 Samuel 12:13-15
2 Chronicles 14:2
[ Asa Reigns in Judah ] Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God,
Psalm 47:8
God reigns over the nations;God sits on His holy throne.
Psalm 47:7-9
Isaiah 52:7
How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things,Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, “ Your God reigns!”
Isaiah 52:6-8
Revelation 19:6
And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!
Revelation 19:5-7

Easter Thank You Jesus

"I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint." --Psalm 22:14

Did earth or heaven ever behold a sadder spectacle of woe! In soul and body, our Lord felt Himself to be weak as water poured upon the ground. The placing of the cross in its socket had shaken Him with great violence, had strained all the ligaments, pained every nerve, and more or less dislocated all His bones. Burdened with His own weight, the august sufferer felt the strain increasing every moment of those six long hours. His sense of faintness and general weakness were overpowering; while to His own consciousness He became nothing but a mass of misery and swooning sickness. When Daniel saw the great vision, he thus describes his sensations, "There remained no strength in me, for my vigour was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength:" how much more faint must have been our greater Prophet when He saw the dread vision of the wrath of God, and felt it in His own soul! To us, sensations such as our Lord endured would have been insupportable, and kind unconsciousness would have come to our rescue; but in His case, He was wounded, and felt the sword; He drained the cup and tasted every drop.

"O King of Grief! (a title strange, yet true To Thee of all kings only due) O King of Wounds! how shall I grieve for Thee, Who in all grief preventest me!"

As we kneel before our now ascended Saviour's throne, let us remember well the way by which He prepared it as a throne of grace for us; let us in spirit drink of His cup, that we may be strengthened for our hour of heaviness whenever it may come. In His natural body every member suffered, and so must it be in the spiritual; but as out of all His griefs and woes His body came forth uninjured to glory and power, even so shall His mystical body come through the furnace with not so much as the smell of fire upon it.

"Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins." --Psalm 25:18

It is well for us when prayers about our sorrows are linked with pleas concerning our sins--when, being under God's hand, we are not wholly taken up with our pain, but remember our offenses against God. It is well, also, to take both sorrow and sin to the same place. It was to God that David carried his sorrow: it was to God that David confessed his sin. Observe, then, we must take our sorrows to God. Even your little sorrows you may roll upon God, for He counteth the hairs of your head; and your great sorrows you may commit to Him, for He holdeth the ocean in the hollow of His hand. Go to Him, whatever your present trouble may be, and you shall find Him able and willing to relieve you. But we must take our sins to God too. We must carry them to the cross, that the blood may fall upon them, to purge away their guilt, and to destroy their defiling power.

The special lesson of the text is this:--that we are to go to the Lord with sorrows and with sins in the right spirit. Note that all David asks concerning his sorrow is, "Look upon mine affliction and my pain;" but the next petition is vastly more express, definite, decided, plain--"Forgive all my sins" Many sufferers would have put it, "Remove my affliction and my pain, and look at my sins." But David does not say so; he cries, "Lord, as for my affliction and my pain, I will not dictate to Thy wisdom. Lord, look at them, I will leave them to Thee, I should be glad to have my pain removed, but do as Thou wilt; but as for my sins, Lord, I know what I want with them; I must have them forgiven; I cannot endure to lie under their curse for a moment." A Christian counts sorrow lighter in the scale than sin; he can bear that his troubles should continue, but he cannot support the burden of his transgressions.

C. H. Spurgeon

" Psalm 23" Israel Houghton

Invitation to Change these Childrens lives?

"The Invitation" Trailer from Radar Multimedia on Vimeo.

Song of Steven Curtis Chapman in the White House

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Right now ask the Lord how you can experience more love for Him. Ask Him to reveal anything in your life that you are not thankful for, anything that is blocking your hearts’ flow of Love to Him.

… Be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:18b – 20)

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
(1stThessalonians 5:18)

"As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you." --John 15:9

As the Father loves the Son, in the same manner Jesus loves His people. What is that divine method? He loved Him without beginning, and thus Jesus loves His members. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." You can trace the beginning of human affection; you can easily find the beginning of your love to Christ, but His love to us is a stream whose source is hidden in eternity. God the Father loves Jesus without any change. Christian, take this for your comfort, that there is no change in Jesus Christ's love to those who rest in Him. Yesterday you were on Tabor's top, and you said, "He loves me:" to-day you are in the valley of humiliation, but He loves you still the same. On the hill Mizar, and among the Hermons, you heard His voice, which spake so sweetly with the turtle-notes of love; and now on the sea, or even in the sea, when all His waves and billows go over you, His heart is faithful to His ancient choice. The Father loves the Son without any end, and thus does the Son love His people. Saint, thou needed not fear the loosing of the silver cord, for His love for thee will never cease. Rest confident that even down to the grave Christ will go with you, and that up again from it He will be your guide to the celestial hills. Moreover, the Father loves the Son without any measure, and the same immeasurable love the Son bestows upon His chosen ones. The whole heart of Christ is dedicated to His people. He "loved us and gave Himself for us." His is a love which passeth knowledge. Ah! we have indeed an immutable Savior, a precious Savior, one who loves without measure, without change, without beginning, and without end, even as the Father loves Him! There is much food here for those who know how to digest it. May the Holy Ghost lead us into its marrow and fatness!
C.H. Spurgeon

Tel Aviv Israel celebrates its 100th birthday

Founded in 1909, this year Tel Aviv celebrates its 100th birthday- a full year of celebrations, activities, and on-going fun. Happy birthday Tel Aviv!
Travel To Israel Vacation to Tel Aviv?

Heaven and Hell

A holy man was having a conversation with God one day and
said, "God, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like."

God led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.

In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished.

They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful. But because the handle was longer than their arms; they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.

God said, "You have seen Hell."

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one.

There was the large round table with the large pot of stew, which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons; here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The holy man said, "I don't understand."

"It is simple," said God...
"It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves."

Success Will Follow Thee! Follow Thee?

Matt 22:36-40

36 Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like it You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

Changes that Heal Learning to bond

Changes that Heal

Learning to bond

In order to grow emotionally
and spiritually, we have to bond with others. Learning to bond requires the
ingredients to life: grace, truth and practiced over time. Learning to bond
challenges our old ways of doing and thinking: “To get something you never
had, you have to do something you have never done.” Learning to bond
requires us to be vulnerable and allow the needy side of ourselves to be shown
to others. We have to let down our defenses and allow ourselves to be
relationally dependent on others. We have to open up and take a risk to the
possibility of being hurt. The following is a list of bonding skills that can
be learned and developed.

Challenge your distorted thinking

Our “old maps” keep us from
learning the new direction of where we need to go. Doing the things we have
always done causes us to repeat where we have been already. The Bible says
“Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). It
is only with grace and truth over time, we learn our way.

Realize the need

When life is not working, we
have to ask ourselves: why? Recognizing and admitting that we have symptoms to
not bonding and barriers to bonding, gives us insight. The theme of the Bible
teaches relationship with God and the Body of Christ is needed for us to grow.
Realizing the need is the beginning to growth.

Recognize defenses

Learn to recognize the
patterns in how you are operating with others and take responsibility for your
own growth. Be the change instead of repeating old behavior: “Oh, there I go
again, taking a positive and turning it into a negative with someone who is
trying to love me. I will try and let them matter to me this time.”

Move towards others

It is wonderful when others
accept us and show us love. Bonding takes being open and proactive. Do your
best to reach out to others for help and support.

Take risks

Our old ways of thinking and
the resistance to truth, keeps us from opening new doors of relationships.
Without risk, we cannot grow, learn, or love.

Be vulnerable

Humility and vulnerability
are absolutely necessary for bonding to develop at a deep level. Vulnerability
is a skill that opens up the heart for love to take root. When you can admit
your hurts and loneliness, and ask for help and support, a new dynamic will set
in motion that will transform your personality and your life.

Soften your heart

When you begin to open your
lonely heart, your needy, and dependent feelings begin to surface. Even though
uncomfortable, these are the beginnings to the softening of our heart. Allowing
the tenderness of your heart to resurface, will give opportunity for
relationship and bonding to develop and grow.

Be empathic

Empathy is the ability to
share in another s thoughts, emotions, and needs. Empathizing with others and
identifying with their loss and pain, softens your own heart and gets you in
touch with our own hurt and loneliness.

Get in touch with your anger

Often times, people will
avoid bonding because they fear their anger at the very one whom they love and
need. It is natural to feel anger to the one you need. Because of our sinful
nature, we resent feeling dependent on God and others.

Pray and meditate

Ask God to reveal your heart
so you can see your true self. Ask God to unravel the problems of your
inability to attach with others. “ For He will deliver the needy who cry out:
the afflicted who have no one to help” (Psalms 72:12).

Rely on the Holy Spirit

When we come to the place
when we are troubled, we confess our inability and ask Him to help us. “The
Spirit helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26).

Say yes to life

When we are lonely and
isolated, we are saying no to relationship. Sometimes we choose to hide behind
our walls of denial, or stay too busy for relationships. When we make excuses
and avoid intimacy, we are saying no to bonding and no to life. The task of
bonding to others and God is one of saying yes to life. When we have realized
and confessed our need, taken a risk and make ourselves vulnerable, we are
saying yes to life. When we start accepting invitations as they present
themselves, we say yes to love. It may mean giving a different answer in safe
contexts when you are asked, “How are you doing?”

Conclusion

By looking at the past we
can acknowledge our reluctance for relationship. Looking at the present, we can
evaluate who is available to increase our relationships. What steps can you
take with those people to produce better attachments? How can you make time,
change your schedule, and lifestyle to increase your quality of relationships?
What difficulties do you envision encountering as you begin to challenge your
isolation? What will you do to overcome these obstacles?

Ezekiel 2 3

Ezekiel 2

Ezekiel Sent to Rebellious Israel

So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking.

¹ And He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.” ² Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me. ³ And He said to me: “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. ⁴ For they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’ ⁵ As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse—for they are a rebellious house—yet they will know that a prophet has been among them.
⁶ “And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house. ⁷ You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. ⁸ But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”
⁹ Now when I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me; and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. ¹⁰ Then He spread it before me; and there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe.

Ezekiel 3

¹ Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” ² So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll.
³ And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.
⁴ Then He said to me: “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. ⁵ For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, ⁶ not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. ⁷ But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. ⁸ Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. ⁹ Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”
¹⁰ Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. ¹¹ And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.”
¹² Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice: “Blessed is the glory of the LORD from His place!” ¹³ I also heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, and a great thunderous noise. ¹⁴ So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me. ¹⁵ Then I came to the captives at Tel Abib, who dwelt by the River Chebar; and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

Ezekiel Is a Watchman

¹⁶ Now it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹⁷ “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: ¹⁸ When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. ¹⁹ Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
²⁰ “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. ²¹ Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.”
²² Then the hand of the LORD was upon me there, and He said to me, “Arise, go out into the plain, and there I shall talk with you.”
²³ So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, like the glory which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face. ²⁴ Then the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and spoke with me and said to me: “Go, shut yourself inside your house. ²⁵ And you, O son of man, surely they will put ropes on you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them. ²⁶ I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and not be one to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷ But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

Trokosi Slave Rescue

TROKOSI--the practice of some but not all traditional shrines in West Africa in which a human being, usually a young virgin, is forced into ritual servitude to pay for alleged crimes of family members or ancestors (almost always male), or for the priest to lift certain curses placed upon her or her family at the shrine. She is acclaimed to be a "wife of the gods," but those forced into such servitude usually feel they are slaves of the priests, who often use them sexually, treat them harshly and inhumanely, force them to worship and serve the shrine idols, and force them to work hard without compensation and sometimes with barely enough food to keep them alive.Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world today,surpassing drug dealing and illegal arms trade.Experts on slavery estimate that 17 million children worldwide are held in conditions amounting to slavery. Most are in India, Pakistan,where parents drowning in poverty and debt sell their children into labor. In other regions like West Africa, (Ghana) child-traffickers arrive in villages and buy the children -- as young as 4 or 5 years old -- from parents. Some of the families know what awaits their children. Others fall for promises that the children will be educated or get jobs that will allow them to send money home.Children are held in forms of slavery all over the world, and there are examples of children smuggled into the United States to work as prostitutes. Unicef estimates that 200,000 children are enslaved by cross-border smuggling rings in West and Central Africa larger number are held in bondage in their own countries. These children work agriculture, sweatshops, fishing and domestic service, or as prostitutes.