Behold, I Come Quickly

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Emotion reading technology could soon be used by police

By Cara McGoogan, 10 May 2017

Emotion reading technology could soon be used by police after a Russian firm created a tool that can identify people in a crowd and tell if they are angry, stressed or nervous.
The software, created by NTechLab, can monitor citizens for suspicious behaviour by tracking identity, age, gender and current emotional state. It could be used to pre-emptively stop criminals and potential terrorists.
"The recognition gives a new level of security in the street because in a couple of seconds you can identify terrorists or criminals or killers," said Alexander Kabakov, NTechLab chief executive.
The emotion recognition tool is a new part of NTechLab's facial recognition software, which made the headlines last year when it was used to power the FindFace app that can track down anyone on Russian social network VKontakte from a photo.
The identification app claims to have reconnected long-lost friends and family members, as well as helped police solve two cold cases and identify criminals. Read More

Japan blacklists companies violating labor laws to prevent suicide

To prevent suicides, Japan blacklists companies violating labor laws

12 May, 2017

The Japanese government has for the first time announced a list of over 300 businesses nationwide that have broken labor laws. Officials want to protect employees from abuse and prevent "karoshi," or death by overwork.
The list includes major companies such as advertising agency Dentsu and electronics maker Panasonic, who are blamed for illegal overtime. A local unit of Japan Post, a subsidiary of Japan Post Holdings is accused of failing to report work-related injuries.
Companies that abuse workers have been called “black” by the local media. The problem intensified when a young worker at Dentsu committed suicide in 2015. The death was recognized as “karoshi,” encouraging Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to push for labor reforms.
The list, which now has 334 companies, will be updated monthly. The term “karoshi” was introduced in the 1970s and is still dominating the national headlines.
According to Reuters quoting Japanese officials, not all companies under investigation are included in the list. The names of companies are only disclosed when the ministry decides doing so would help encourage compliance and would be for the public good.
In March, Abe’s government proposed steps capping overtime and introducing better pay for part-time workers.
Experts have said that the measures, which could be introduced by 2019, will damage companies, already facing a labor shortage due to a rapidly aging population. Lawyers and activists have said the measures are not enough to protect workers.
The country has one of the highest life expectancies in the world, at 83.3 years, as well as the highest suicide rates. Last year, the number of suicides dropped below 22,000 for the first time in 22 years.
Japanese national broadcaster NHK has calculated that suicides cost the economy $4 billion a year. RT

A cholera outbreak in Yemen has claimed the lives of 115 people while some 8,500 others are suffering from the infection

15 May, 2017

A cholera outbreak in Yemen has claimed the lives of 115 people while some 8,500 others are suffering from the infection, medics say. A state of emergency has been declared in the capital Sana’a.

The Yemeni Health Ministry has called on humanitarian organizations and other aid donors to help stop the epidemic and avert an "unprecedented disaster," Reuters reported.

The outbreak of the waterborne disease is the second Yemen has suffered in less than a year.

“We now are facing a serious outbreak of cholera,” Director of Operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross Dominik Stillhart told a news conference in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Sunday.

Citing figures compiled by Yemen’s Health Ministry, he reported that 115 people had died of cholera between April 27 and Saturday. This is a dramatic jump from the death toll of 51 cited by the World Health Organization earlier on Thursday, marking a rapidly worsening situation. More

Britain has reached new heights of secularization, with almost half of Britons now identifying as non-religious, a new study reveals.

Losing my religion? Secular Brits now outnumber Christians, but Islam & Hinduism growing

17 May, 2017

Britain has reached new heights of secularization, with almost half of Britons now identifying as non-religious, a new study reveals.

According to ‘The “No Religion” Population of Britain’ report by Stephen Bullivant, professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, non-religious people, known as ‘nones’, account for 48.6 percent of Britain’s population.

Although there has been an overall trend towards secularization in Britain, the figures also show record numbers of people from non-Christian faiths, such as Islam and Hinduism.

The number of British people identifying as Christian dropped from 55 percent to 43 percent between 1983 and 2015. By contrast, non-Christian believers such as Muslims and Hindus quadrupled.

“The rise of the non-religious is arguably the story of British religious history over the past half-century or so,” Bullivant said.

“Looking at the long-term pattern, the non-religious share of the population has shown strong growth over our whole period,” the report states.

“The year 2009 was the first in which nones outnumbered all Christians put together.

“With the single exception of 2011, this pattern has held ever after. In two years, 2009 and 2013, nones formed a majority of the adult British population.”

However, the research, carried out with data from the annual British Social Attitudes survey and the biennial European Social Survey, also highlights how the falling number of worshipers with the Church of England seems to have stabilized.

Bullivant said patriotism might be driving this trend, as Christianity and Englishness tend to be conflated.

“People see Christianity as an expression of Englishness. There has been more rhetoric around Britain being a Christian nation,” he said, according to the Times.

“I suspect a larger proportion of people who do say they are Anglican tend to be patriotic.”

In 1983, the number of Anglicans accounted for 40 percent of Britain’s population. This dropped to 16.3 percent in 2009 before it slid back up to 17.1 in 2015.

The research also shows a spike in the number of ‘nonverts’, namely people who have been brought up believing in a certain religion, but who have turned to be non-religious.

Most ‘nonverts’ – more than six in 10 – are Christians, mainly Anglican and Catholic.

According to the report, most ‘nones’ have been brought up in Christian households; overall, a mere 2 percent of ‘nones’ have been raised in non-Christian homes.

The rate of people converting to non-religion was recorded as 14 percent for Jews, 10 percent for Muslims and Sikhs, and 6 percent for Hindus.

Bullivant pointed out how non-religion has stopped being an exclusive middle-class feature.
“It used to be middle-class people, who had gone to university, who were more likely to step out of their parents’ religiosity,” he said, as cited in the Guardian.

“As having no religion has become the norm, vast swaths of working-class people are now also identifying as nones.” RT

Despite the lowest unemployment rate in more than four decades, real wages in the UK fell at their fastest rate in the first quarter of the year since 2014.

17 May, 2017 by RT

Despite the lowest unemployment rate in more than four decades, real wages in the UK fell at their fastest rate in the first quarter of the year since 2014.

According to the Office for National Statistics, wages excluding bonuses rose by 2.1 percent year-on-year which was the weakest increase since July 2016 and below analyst expectations.

Salaries were not keeping pace with inflation which was 2.3 percent in February and March, and 2.7 percent in April. Inflation was driven higher by the falling value of the pound since the Brexit vote.

“If the disparity between pay and price growth continues to increase as we predict, household spending is likely to slow further, weakening overall economic activity,” Suren Thiru, head of economics at the British Chambers of Commerce was cited as saying by the Guardian.

Despite the weak wage growth, there are signs of continued strength in the UK labor market. More

Second bigger global cyber attack already underway

WannaCry XXL? 2nd even bigger global cyber attack already underway

18 May, 2017

As the world reels from the WannaCry ransomware attack, it’s now emerged that a second, potentially larger attack, is already under way. It seems the widespread proliferation of military-grade cyberweapons has ushered in a new era of digital crime.

Cyber bandits have again deployed both the EternalBlue and DoublePulsar exploits developed and used by the NSA which were released by the ShadowBrokers hackers back in April.

“Initial statistics suggest that this attack may be larger in scale than WannaCry, affecting hundreds of thousands of PCs and servers worldwide: because this attack shuts down SMB networking to prevent further infections with other malware (including the WannaCry worm) via that same vulnerability, it may have in fact limited the spread of last week's WannaCry infection,” wrote a security researcher

who goes by the alias Kafeine at cybersecurity company Proofpoint.

This latest attack uses the two exploits to install the cryptocurrency miner Adylkuzz over corporate Local Area and wireless networks but, rather curiously, may actually have helped slow the spread of WannaCry.

However, in an apparent case of “picking your poison,” the Adylkuzz miner dramatically slows PC and server performance as it extracts cryptocurrency but it does not lock users out of their machines and data, as WannaCry did. More

The One Belt-One Road initiative may shift the global balance of power once and for all

Adam Garrie

World leaders, including Russia’s President Putin have been attending meetings in Beijing as part of the ‘One Belt–One Road’ initiatives launched by China in 2013.

The ambitious project aims to set up transport and trade corridors that will help connect East-Asia, Eurasia and Europe, using both rail and maritime links.

China’s goals represent the most ambitious project to re-define the logistical and financial nature of world-trade since the creation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995.

Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the meetings saying,

“Spanning thousands of miles and years, the ancient silk routes embody the spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit.
The Silk Road spirit has become a great heritage of human civilisation”.

Russia is keenly interested in using this project to facilitate energy trade between Russia and its eastern partners including China, Mongolia, Japan and Korea.

President Putin called One Belt-One Road, named for China’s ancient silk road, a “Civilization project for the future”.

He went on to state,

“We cannot resolve modern challenges by using old approaches. We need new ideas. We need to abandon all stereotypes.
We should set a role model for the global community of how we can work together, develop together, based on equality and respect for national sovereignty based on international law and the United Nations principles”.

Turkey’s President Erdogan meanwhile said that the project would “pave the way in a new era”.

The projects logistics are immense and any project of this size will not come to fruition in a day. This is especially true as the countries leading the project seek cooperation and consent. Intimation and domination, hallmarks of western economic imperialism, are off the table.

President Xi made this abundantly clear. The Chinese President said,

“We have no intentions to meddle in the internal affairs of other countries via bringing our social system and the development model, or by imposing our will (on other states)”.

However, the political implications are clear. While the leaders of China, Russia, India, Turkey, Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia,Vietnam, Myanmar and others gathered in Beijing, the leaders of the United States and Europe’s largest economies were notably absent. Instead, these countries sent minor officials. More

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Jesus, the foundation of our faith

In Romans 6:23, the Bible tells us: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

We only have eternal life through Jesus Christ. That means our eternal life is not dependent on us belonging to a certain denomination or any kind of membership. Our eternal life depends only on Jesus Christ our Lord.

In John 17:3, Jesus is praying to His Father, and says: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

So, eternal life is: 1) knowing the Father, the only true God, and 2) knowing Jesus His son.

So, who is Jesus? We will take a look at the bible because our eternal life depends on knowing who He is.

In John 10:36, Jesus says to the Pharisees: "Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?"

So from Christ's own words we know He is the Son of God.

John 5:18 tells us: "'Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God."

In this verse Christ is making himself equal with His Father based on his Sonship.

Now, if Jesus claims Sonship from the Father, are there other son's of God?

Luke 3:38 tells us that Adam was called the son of God by creation (Genesis 5): "Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God."

1 John 3: 1 tells us that we become son's of God by redemption or adoption: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us now, because it knew him not.

But John 3:16 tells us that Christ is the only begotten of the Father: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Who is He begotten of? John 1:14 gives us the answer: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

Did Christ come out from God? Jesus himself tell us in John 16:27: "For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God."

If Christ was begotten, when was He begotten? Micah 5: 2 refers about Christ in prophecy and tell us: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."

Proverbs 8:22-30 clarifies this text: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth;
While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth.
When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment; when he appointed the foundations of the earth;
Then I was by him, as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.'

Proverbs 8 is talking about wisdom. Who is the wisdom of God? In 1 Corinthians 1:24 the Bible tells us: "But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."

So, Christ is the wisdom of God, in other words it is He who is speaking in Proverbs 8.

What about Proverbs 30:4. In Proverbs 30:4 the Bible tells us: "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?'

Solomon identifies the relationship between a Father and a Son at the creation.

So, Christ here has confirmed that by the time creation took place, He was already a Son, He was already begotten of His Father.

Now, one of the many things that Christ inherited was His Father's name. Hebrews 1:4 says: "Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they."

Christ inherited the character and authority of His Father.

In John 5:26 Christ tells us there: "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself."

So, the same eternal life the Father has, He has given to His Son because He is the only begotten of His Father and therefore Christ is equal in divine nature with the Father.

Colossians 2:9 says, speaking of Christ: "For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."

In Christ dwells all the divinity and equality of His Father based on His Sonship. That makes Him the only Being in the whole universe who is fully equal to His Father in nature.

Now, we have a testimony from the Father himself in Matthew 3:17 at the baptism of Christ: "And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

And a second testimony from the Father himself In Matthew 17:5 this time on the Mount of Transfiguration: "While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."

And what was the Father revelation? That Jesus is His beloved Son. Why was important to repeat it? Because only through His Son there is eternal life.

Now, do you think satan would stay idle with the truth that the Father said twice regarding His Son? Of course not.

In Matthew 4:3 says: "And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread."

In Matthew 4:6 he says the same thing again: "And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.'

Here the tempter is trying to persuade Jesus to unbelief (doubt) by questioning His Sonship. He contradicts twice what the Father said about His Son. So, the devil's theology is to deny the fact that Jesus is the Son of God.

In the book This Day with God, p. 128 we read: "Angels were expelled from heaven because they would not work in harmony with God.   They fell from their high estate because they wanted to be exalted. They had come to exalt themselves and they forgot that their beauty of person and of character came from the Lord Jesus. This fact the [fallen] angels would obscure, that Christ was the only begotten Son of God, and they came to consider that they were not to consult Christ.'

Satan has always tried to obscure and hide the fact that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God.

So, what does the Koran say about the Son of God? Let's take a look:

“1 Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; 2 Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;
3    He begetteth not, nor is He begotten;
4    And there is none like unto Him.” Sura 112

Those who follow the Koran don't believe the fact that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God.

What about the New Age theology? The book "The new age movement and the biblical worldview" p. 60 states: "The worldview of new agers compels them to say that Jesus is no more God than anyone else."

In other words, Jesus is not the real Son of God. He is God in the same way that you are god. Just as the serpent told Eve in the garden: "you shall be as gods", that same lie keep resonating to this day. So, new age philosophy is the antagonist of Islam regarding the fact that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God.

What about closer to home? In the book 'Understanding the Trinity' p. 97 we find the following statement: “The Father–Son relationship in the Godhead should be understood in a metaphorical sense, not in a literal sense”.

This quote is basically saying: God does not have a real Son. Jesus, the only begotten of the Father, is just a metaphor. The Father-Son relationship is not real.

Satan is definitely busy trying to obscure and hide God's truth for this day!

What about a quote from the Adventist Review of Seventh day Adventist church, October 31,1996 p.12. It says the following: "A plan of salvation was encompassed in the covenant made by the Three Persons of the Godhead, who possessed the attributes of Deity equally. In order to eradicate sin and rebellion from the universe and to restore harmony and peace, one of the divine Beings accepted, and entered into the role of the Father, another the role of the Son. The remaining divine Being, the Holy Spirit, was also to participate in effecting the plan of salvation."

Jesus taking the role of a Son? What about the bible saying that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God? Was He lying when He said that? Was Jesus only pretending to be a Son? Is satan trying to hide the truth that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God by clever and sophisticated ways? Certainly!

Now, take this next bible verse into your heart because sadly prophecy is being fulfilled right now just like Paul said to young Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:1: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils."

What a worse scenario than to think that we are in the faith, when in reality we have departed from it when we accept the doctrines of devils. In other words we are deceiving ourselves.

And this is from the SOP in Signs of the Times, May 30, 1895 part 3 : "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son," not a son by creation, as were the angels, nor a son by adoption, as is the forgiven sinner, but a Son begotten in the express image of the Father's person”

Does this quote sound like bible truth or role playing? Also, in Adventist Review, Jan. 6, 1994 we find the following statement: "Adventist beliefs have changed over the years under the impact of ‘present truth’. Most startling is the teaching regarding Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord...... Likewise, the Trinitarian understanding of God, now part of our fundamental beliefs, was not generally held by the early Adventists."

Have we departed from the faith? Indeed, we have!

Ministry magazine, October 1993 says: “Most of the founders of Seventh-day Adventism would not be able to join the church today if they had to subscribe to the denomination's fundamental beliefs.”

In other words, the SDA's pioneers would be denied membership if they were alive today!

But, what about independent ministries? We quote from Vance Ferrell's book entitle "Defending the Godhead" p. 17: “Christ has always been the Son of God; and there never was a time when He emerged from the Father. That statement appears to solve all the problems about Christ’s Sonship.”

Is this statement biblical? Certainly not as we already saw it plainly in the bible. If Christ is not a begotten Son, then how can He be a Son?

We conclude with the words of Christ in Matthew 16:15-18. Please, pay close attention to the words and meditate on them: "He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."

Was Peter referring to Jesus being the Son of God metaphorically or literally? Literally, because we confirmed it in John 16 when Jesus said: "They have believed that I came out from Thee (His Father)."

So, as we can see, satan will pervert and attack the foundation of our faith which is Jesus Christ to take away from us His life. But if we stand on the promise of Jesus, "the gates of hell shall not prevail agains it".

What decision are we going to make today? Are we going to believe what He said in His word or are we going to mock Him like the leaders of Israel when He was hanging on the cross (Matthew 27:40)? Are we going to speak the same language of satan himself when he was tempting Christ in the wilderness: "If you are the Son of God…."?

May God help us to share this evidence with others so Christ can come soon and finish the misery in this world. Luis

Friday, May 5, 2017

My grace is sufficient for you

The intercession of Christ in man's behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross. By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven. We must by faith enter within the veil, “whither the forerunner is for us entered.” Hebrews 6:20. There the light from the cross of Calvary is reflected. There we may gain a clearer insight into the mysteries of redemption. The salvation of man is accomplished at an infinite expense to heaven; the sacrifice made is equal to the broadest demands of the broken law of God. Jesus has opened the way to the Father's throne, and through His mediation the sincere desire of all who come to Him in faith may be presented before God.

“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13. If those who hide and excuse their faults could see how Satan exults over them, how he taunts Christ and holy angels with their course, they would make haste to confess their sins and to put them away. Through defects in the character, Satan works to gain control of the whole mind, and he knows that if these defects are cherished, he will succeed. Therefore he is constantly seeking to deceive the followers of Christ with his fatal sophistry that it is impossible for them to overcome. But Jesus pleads in their behalf His wounded hands, His bruised body; and He declares to all who would follow Him: “My grace is sufficient for thee.” 2 Corinthians 12:9. “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:29, 30. Let none, then, regard their defects as incurable. God will give faith and grace to overcome them. Great Controversy p. 489

The greatest of these is love

1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

²And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

³And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

⁴Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

⁵Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

⁶Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

⁷Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

⁸Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

⁹For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

¹⁰But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

¹¹When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

¹²For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

¹³And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 1 Corinthians 13

Note: I can know all the theological things, I can know all the SOP quotes, I can know everything, I can go to church because it make sense and decide to be faithful and obedient in the church but without Jesus in me, that love is meaningless (death works).

Impatience brings the enemy of God and man into your family and drives out the angels of God

Angels of God are watching over us. Upon this earth there are thousands and tens of thousands of heavenly messengers commissioned by the Father to prevent Satan from obtaining any advantage over those who refuse to walk in the path of evil. And these angels who guard God's children on earth are in communication with the Father in heaven. “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones,” Christ said; “for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10).

Scarcely any of us realize that angels are about us; and these precious angels, who minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, are saving from us many, many temptations and difficulties. The whole family of heaven is interested in the families here below; and how thankful we should be for this interest manifested for us day and night.

Words spoken in our homes which are impatient and unkind, angels hear; and do you want to find in the books of heaven a record of the impatient and passionate words you have uttered in your family? Impatience brings the enemy of God and man into your family and drives out the angels of God. If you are abiding in Christ, and Christ in you, you cannot speak angry words.

Fathers and mothers, I beseech you for Christ's sake, to be kind, tender, and patient in your homes. Then light and sunshine will enter your homes, and you will feel that bright beams from the Sun of Righteousness are indeed shining into your hearts.

It is the absence of the graces of God's Spirit that leaves the home in a dark, unhappy condition. Your home should be a blessed sanctuary where God can come in, and where His holy angels can minister unto you. If impatience and unkindness are manifested one to another, angels cannot be attracted to your home; but where love and peace abide, these heavenly ones love to come and bring still more of the holy influence of the home above. In heavenly Places p. 99

Isn't faith enough?

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:3-11

Thursday, May 4, 2017

The largest megachurch in the world

May 01, 2017 · By Matthew Bell

If the building didn’t have a giant cross out front, it could easily be mistaken for a sports arena.

But this is Yoido Full Gospel Church, a Pentecostal congregation belonging to the Korean Assemblies of God — a household name in South Korea. The institution is also known as the largest megachurch in the world, with a congregation approaching 800,000 people, according to church officials.

Protestant megachurches, defined as those with at least 2,000 people in attendance every week, don't just operate all across the United States. This is a global phenomenon.

Successful megachurches are operating in South America, Africa and Asia as well. And yet, no city has more of them than Seoul. The South Korean capital has 17 megachurches in all.

Still, Protestant evangelical leaders in South Korea are facing a new challenge. Their public image has taken a hit in recent years due to a series of scandals, and the era of boundless growth for their congregations appears to have come to an end.

Sunday services at Yoido Full Gospel Church start at 7 a.m. and run the whole day, until 7 p.m. They’re not in the same building at the same time, but officials say nearly 200,000 people attend worship services every week at the main church in Yeouido, an island in central Seoul that sits in the Han River.

Yeouido Island is also where the South Korean National Assembly building is located, along with several big media companies.

The scene inside the main sanctuary of the Full Gospel Church is impressive. There are seats for about 15,000 worshippers. Giant video screens carry simultaneous translations of parts of the service in Chinese, Japanese and English. Audio headsets are available with translations from the original Korean into numerous other languages. The choir has about 120 vocalists decked out in white robes and backed up by a full orchestra.

Talking with members of the congregation on the main steps outside of the church, several people echo a sense of awe. They say they can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit at Full Gospel Church, and that’s what keeps them coming back.

At certain times during the service, people in the pews close their eyes, raise up their hands and even speak in tongues, creating a real revival atmosphere.

“When I was in my 20s, I went to another church. But it was kind of superficial,” says Lee Chong-sook, a 55-year-old attending Sunday morning service with her husband, their two young-adult children, and Lee’s sister-in-law.

“When I first walked past this church and I heard the preaching, I started to cry. It touched my soul. I felt joy and I felt healed from pain and sorrow,” Lee says.

The message from the pulpit would sound familiar to a lot of Christian evangelicals in the US. It’s about a strict interpretation of the Bible, with a focus on the power of prayer and positive thinking. More

A desperate push for a cashless society

Pope Francis has warned against religious fanaticism and appealed for dialogue to battle violence

Pope Francis has warned against religious fanaticism and appealed for dialogue to battle violence during an open-air mass for Egypt's Catholic community.

The mass of peace on Saturday was attended by some 15,000 Egyptians and wrapped up a two-day visit by the Pope aimed at improving ties between Muslims and Christians.

"Peace be with you," the 80-year-old Francis said in Arabic as he started his homily at a heavily guarded military stadium in the capital, Cairo.

Continuing in Italian, he said: "True faith leads us to protect the rights of others with the same zeal and enthusiasm with which we defend our own."

He urged worshippers to be good and merciful to fellow Egyptians and said, "the only fanaticism believers can have is that of charity".

"Any other fanaticism does not come from God and is not pleasing to him."

Francis' visit - coming after the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) killed dozens of worshippers in a series of Church bombings earlier this month - gave Egypt's embattled Christian community an occasion to be joyful.

It was the first visit by Francis to Cairo but the second by a Catholic pope.

The crowds arrived early for the mass, waving Egyptian and Vatican flags and braving intense security measures to welcome the Pope, who toured the sun-drenched stadium in a golf cart to the sound of hymns performed by a choir and orchestra.

Security was tight; helicopter gunships circled the perimeter of the stadium and armoured military vehicles patrolled the streets of Cairo.

It was, said Coptic Catholic engineer Maged Francis, a "historic occasion". Aljazeera

Lady of Fatima is coming to the United Nations

Our Lady of Fatima. Credit: Ricardo Perna / Shutterstock.

By Maggie Maslak

New York City, N.Y., May 1, 2017 / 06:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- One day before the May 13 celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions, a statue of Our Lady of Fatima will be visiting the United Nations.

May 12 will mark the second time this particular statue has been to the United Nations, the first being in 1952.

Among the presenters at the May 12 United Nations event is Johnnette Benkovic, founder and president of EWTN’s Women of Grace.

“As she [Our Lady] came to the world through her apparitions to the shepherd children, the 100th anniversary of which will be celebrated the following day, she ‘comes again’ to remind the people of the world that the message is the same – that peace and hope and solidarity are possible through Heaven’s plan,” Benkovic told CNA.

On May 13, 1917, three shepherd children named Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco saw a vision of Our Lady of Fatima who was dressed in white and holding a rosary. These apparitions lasted through October of the same year, and brought messages of prayer, repentance, and reparation.

The apparitions were declared of “supernatural character” by the Catholic Church in 1930, and a shrine was erected near the original apparition site in Fatima. Since then, thousands of pilgrims have made their prayerful journeys to Fatima, including three popes: Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI.

During Pope Francis’ upcoming anniversary pilgrimage to Fatima, he will canonize two of the Fatima visionaries, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, on May 13. CNA

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

The Knights of Malta elected a new leader in Rome

The Knights of Malta elected a new leader in Rome on Saturday in a bid to end a bitter internal feud that led to Pope Francis’ personal intervention in the ancient Catholic chivalric order.

Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto was named lieutenant of the Grand Master, which means he will serve a one-year term instead of the customary life-long term of a full Grand Master.

The 72-year-old Italian was chosen from 12 candidates by the order’s council in a secret ballot held at its grand 14th century Magistral Villa with panoramic views overlooking the Tiber River.

Dressed in traditional black robes with a white Maltese cross, 56 electors celebrated Mass in at the Church of St Mary of the Priory inside the villa’s sprawling gardens early on Saturday before marching solemnly to the villa to cast their ballot. Telegraph

Monday, May 1, 2017

How Mainstream Media Insults the Public’s Intelligence on Vaccines

April 24, 2017 by Martha Rosenberg

There is a bitter war going on, and it’s not over Trumpcare or immigration: It is about vaccines.

Mainstream media and medical groups, typically funded or backed by Big Pharma, cast parents who are skeptical about vaccines as conspiracy theorists whose backward beliefs put the public at risk.

Vaccine skeptics cast vaccine promoters as paid shills, hired by Big Pharma to cover up documented vaccine-related injuries.

In mainstream and progressive media coverage (Mother Jones, Alternet, Huffington Post, Truthout, Progressive, The Nation) there is zero tolerance for critical debate about vaccine safety. Question why the hepatitis B vaccine is routinely given to babies at birth—for a disease mainly transmitted through sex and I.V. drug use—and you’re labeled “anti-science.”

Suggest that some vaccines, including those such as the highly promoted HPV Gardasil and Cervarix (both of which have been linked to adverse reactions and death) are not exactly “life-saving,” and you might as well yell “bring back polio.”

The media routinely discredits parents of vaccine-injured children, accusing them of not knowing anything about medicine (except raising their own challenged child of course) and of "imagining" or even causing their child's deficits.

Progressive news sites that would never defend corporate media coverage of Monsanto or GMOs drink the vaccines-are-safe Kool-Aid. Last month, Jezebel ran this headline: "Robert De Niro and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Call Vaccines Dangerous, Which They Are Not." In a 2015 article, the Atlantic sneered that "Vaccines Are Profitable, So What?" And the Daily Beast has gone so far as to praise Paul Offit, perhaps the nation’s most extreme vaccine promoter.

One wants to ask these progressive sites: Do you really think Pharma has never steered us wrong, just for the sake of profit? What about all the drugs that had to be pulled from the market, after Pharma insisted they were safe? Drugs like Vioxx, Baycol, Trovan, Meridia, Seldane, Hismanal, Darvon, Raxar, Redux, Mylotarg, Lotronex, Propulsid, phenylpropanolamine (PPA), Prexige, phenacetin, Oraflex, Omniflox, Posicor, Serzone and Duract?

The fact is vaccines are not all safe. That’s why the National Vaccine Injury Compensation (VICP) program, established to provide monetary compensation to victims of vaccine injuries, exists.

The VICP website states:

Most people who get vaccines have no serious problems. In very rare cases, a vaccine can cause a serious problem, such as a severe allergic reaction. In these instances, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) may provide financial compensation to individuals who file a petition and are found to have been injured by a VICP-covered vaccine.

Even the very pro-Pharma Forbes reports: "It's true that there have been 24,000 reports of adverse events with Gardasil" and "106 deaths." But the author of the Forbes article rationalizes: "There have also been 60,000 reports of adverse events with the mumps, measles, and rubella vaccine, and 26,000 following vaccination with . . . Prevnar, for pneumococcus bacteria."

We ask: Do two wrongs make a right, Forbes?

The CDC maintains a Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) where people can see for themselves the adverse effects and deaths related to a particular vaccine. A search for people who have died from the measles vaccines MEA, MER, MM, MMR or MMRV revealed 416 deaths. Last summer, the mainstream science outlet

EurekaAlert submitted that reading VAERS info “may not build public trust or adherence.”

That is an understatement. More

"Reduce children's exposure to wireless" states the The Cyprus Government

Monsanto’s Cancer-Causing Herbicide Detected In Organic Foods

Michelle Toole

Think you can avoid glyphosate by buying organic? Think again. A new investigation by Tropical Traditions reveals that many products in the organic grain market in the U.S. contain glyphosate residue at levels almost the same as conventional grains.

You and your loved ones likely ingested Monsanto’s cancer-causing herbicide with breakfast this morning and the FDA couldn’t care less.

The FDA is demonstrating their incompetence yet again by completely ignoring a critical report that shows how ubiquitous Monsanto’s carcinogenic Roundup has truly become.

According to the report released by the Alliance for Natural Health USA, detectable levels of glyphosate, the chief ingredient in Roundup, were found in numerous breakfast food items. Glyphosate, which has been linked to cancer by the World Health Organization, was found in bread products, cereals and coffee creamers.

What is really concerning, and exemplifies the need for an immediate ban on the carcinogenic herbicide, is that some of the highest levels of the toxic chemical were found in organic foods, such as eggs and breads. The organic eggs tested were especially tainted with glyphosate, far exceeding regulatory standards.

Microbe Infotech Laboratories, founded by former Monsanto scientist Bruce Hemming, conducted the testing. For 25 years, Microbe has been well-respected and is the go-to lab for glyphosate testing by food companies and consumer groups.

The report confirms what many have feared for a long time. Glyphosate is making its way into our food in ways that we may not realize. For example, last year a separate study found 75% of rain and air samples tested positive for Monsanto’s cancer-causing poison. What kind of ramifications do you think this will have for those growing organic gardens? (via march against monsanto)

“The fact that it is showing up in foods like eggs and coffee creamer, which don’t directly contact the herbicide, shows that it’s being passed on by animals who ingest it in their feed,” said Gretchen DuBeau, executive director of ANH-USA. “This is contrary to everything that regulators and industry scientists have been telling the public.”

Why Should We be Concerned about Glyphosate?

Glyphosate is in 80% of our food supply in the U.S., and some scientists believe it may well be the most toxic chemical ever approved for commercial use. Glyphosate is now linked to kidney disease, antibiotic resistant bacteria, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, depression, ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, multiple sclerosis, cancer, cachexia, infertility, and developmental malformations. It destroys the microbiome of humans and plants, which is the root cause of many modern diseases.(health impact news) HHL

Walking for 10 minutes is more energizing than 50 mg of caffeine

Christopher Bergland Apr 21, 2017

We all know the feeling of craving an afternoon pick-me-up. Regardless of how much sleep you’ve gotten the night before—afternoon is a time of day when our hormonal and circadian rhythms seem hardwired to take a siesta or power nap. Obviously, for anyone who is chronically sleep deprived, the need for a midday jolt of energy to stay alert and keep chugging along at work or school is going to be more pronounced. Unfortunately, consuming caffeine in the afternoon can create a vicious cycle of making it less likely you'll sleep well that night, which will cause you to crave caffeine the following afternoon...and so on, and so on.

But there is good news: The latest empirical evidence suggests that 10 minutes of walking or climbing a few flights of stairs is actually a more effective way to boost your energy and vigor than consuming 50 milligrams of caffeine.

This first-of-its-kind study on the energizing benefits of small doses of physical activity compared to caffeine was conducted by Patrick O’Connor and Derek Randolph from the Department of Kinesiology (Exercise Science Programs) at the University of Georgia and published in the Journal of Physiology & Behavior.

Randolph and O’Connor were curious to see if a brief bout of exercise or consuming a 50 mg caffeine tablet—which is roughly the equivalent of a can of soda, cup of tea, or shot of espresso—provided more of an energy boost for chronically sleep deprived adults (18-23 years of age) who frequently used caffeine to improve their afternoon alertness.

The researchers state, “The acute energizing effect of exercise and caffeine has never been examined in a single study of adults with chronic sleep deprivation but evidence from a study of this type could help individuals choose between these two common alertness-enhancing options.” More specifically, the researchers found that the energizing effect of 10 minutes of low-to-moderate intensity exercise was greater than 50 mg caffeine for study participants who were sleeping less than 45 hours per week (under 6½ hours per night).

While designing the parameters of this study, O'Connor wanted to simulate typical physical activity hurdles encountered by people who work in an office. The researchers chose stair climbing as a form of physical activity because most office workers have access to a stairwell in which someone can casually slip away from his or her desk and squeeze in a quick workout without needing to change into athletic gear or shower before returning to work. Additionally, in terms of creating a daily habit, taking a quick break from staring at your computer screen to walk some stairs can become an afternoon routine that isn’t dependent on weather conditions.

Although this study doesn’t address sleep hygiene directly, experts agree that consuming caffeine in the afternoon can disrupt evening sleep patterns and exacerbate insomnia. The American Sleep Association (ASA) tip sheet states, “The effects of caffeine may last for several hours after ingestion. Caffeine can fragment sleep, and cause difficulty initiating sleep. If you drink caffeine, use it only before noon. Remember that soda and tea contain caffeine as well.” (Sleep hygiene is defined as, “habits and practices that are conducive to sleeping well on a regular basis and having full daytime alertness.”)

The win-win of taking an afternoon walk or climbing some stairs to boost energy instead of reaching for a caffeinated beverage is that low-to-moderate intensity exercise will improve your physical and psychological well-being in the short and long term, as well as help you sleep better at night.

If you are experiencing an afternoon energy lull as you read this, remember: Substituting a 10-minute dose of low-to-moderate intensity exercise instead of an afternoon shot of caffeine is the perfect midday energizer. Brief bouts of exercise can help break the vicious cycle of caffeine-induced sleep deprivation while countering the overall detriments of sedentarism and sitting too much during the day.

References

Derek D. Randolph, Patrick J. O'Connor. Stair walking is more energizing than low dose caffeine in sleep deprived young women, Physiology & Behavior (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.03.013

Psychology Today

The food you eat directly affects your brain

Food is the best medicine. All your cells, bones, signaling molecules, and tissues are built from what you eat. For example, dietary fats are the building blocks of brain tissue and help balance hormones, and muscles are built from protein. Different vitamins and minerals are used to create energy and send electrical impulses along neurons so that we can move, think, and feel. A nourishing diet is the best strategy against depression.

The food we eat affects both our human and microbial cells. Numerous studies have shown that food changes the collection of trillions of beneficial bacteria in our guts, called the microbiome (1). In the name of convenience, flavor, or simply habit, so many of us consume inflammatory foods on a daily basis that increase intestinal permeability (leaky gut), harm the microbiome, and create chronic inflammation that can lead to depression.

Many studies have shown that people who eat an anti-inflammatory diet have significantly lower risks of depression (2-5). A recent study that tracked about 6,500 women over 12 years showed that women eating an anti-inflammatory diet had a 20% lower risk of developing depression than their peers (6). These anti-inflammatory diets consist of healthy fats, vitamins and antioxidants, and plenty of high-quality protein. On the other hand, many foods in the Standard American Diet (SAD) create chronic inflammation. These five inflammatory foods are the most frequent offenders I see when treating patients for depression:

Gluten

By now almost everyone has heard of gluten, the glue-like protein found in wheat. Grains like barley, rye, and contaminated oatmeal contain proteins that may be recognized by your body as gluten. Gluten and gluten-like proteins are some of the most inflammatory foods you can eat.

Many people think that gluten doesn’t affect them since they didn’t test positive for Celiac Disease. However, there are often false negatives on these tests because they don’t test for the full range of gluten proteins. Whether or not you have a diagnosed sensitivity to gluten, it isn’t doing you any favors, as it is almost exclusively present in processed foods.

Gluten drives inflammation by irritating the gut and gut microbes as well as intestinal tissues. This protein causes gut cells to produce a compound called zonulin, leading to intestinal permeability (or leaky gut). Gluten, which is a sticky protein, can also interfere with digestion by clumping together food particles. A recent study showed that gluten caused inflammation in gut cells of healthy volunteers, suggesting that gluten may cause adverse effects that can lead to depression in everyone (7).

Gluten consumption has been linked to depression, seizures, headaches, anxiety, nerve damage, and ADHD-like symptoms (8-10). Gluten has been linked to over 200 conditions, with neurotoxicity topping the list.

I’ve seen amazing recoveries from people who ditched the gluten – including myself. Gluten-free diets have helped people heal from too many seemingly hopeless diagnoses, like depression, to count!

Dairy

Believe me: I understand that dairy can be deeply pleasurable. Growing up in an Italian family, many of my fondest memories involve cheese, ice cream, ricotta, and yogurt. Science supports our attachment to dairy. On a molecular level, dairy contains morphine-like compounds which engage our opiate receptors and create mild dairy addiction (11).

A number of studies have shown that casein, a protein found in dairy products, can drive inflammation. Casein has been linked to several psychiatric conditions, ranging from schizophrenia to depression. Dairy may not be a problem for everyone, and some people can tolerate certain types of dairy, like raw milk. Fortunately, grassfed ghee is a wonderful substitute for butter.

If you’re suffering from symptoms of depression or anxiety, it’s worth eliminating dairy for 30 days and seeing how you feel. Some people are able to re-introduce dairy after a month off with no problems, while others totally lose their taste for it and even vomit when trying it again!

GMOs

Genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) have become a staple in the Standard American Diet. Beyond being a population-wide experiment in manipulating nature’s design, these foods, by definition, have been heavily treated with pesticides and herbicides. Since these chemicals have been designed to kill, it make sense that they’re quite toxic to our own human and microbial cells. Indeed, studies have shown that the common pesticide Roundup (glyphosate) causes cancer.

Alarmingly, these chemicals have been found in fetuses and breast milk, showing that the toxins used in modern farming are harming generations to come. Roundup is toxic to fetal cells and can lead to birth defects. This toxicant disrupts our microbiome, messing with the production of essential amino acids like tryptophan, absorption of minerals, and detoxification in the liver.

In addition to Roundup, the primary herbicide sprayed on GMOs like soy, GMOs also carry a variety of other toxicants that may be even more harmful in combination than alone. As even non-GMO foods can be contaminated with pesticides, I advise my clients, especially those suffering from depression, to eat organic.

Think eating organic is too expensive? Our Vital Mind Reset community support director, Shauna, has written an excellent article about eating healthy on food stamps!

Sugar and Artificial Sugar

Americans love sugar. The average American eats a staggering 164 pounds of sugar per year (12,13). Think about that for a moment. Even worse, sugar is highly addictive – the more we eat, the more we want.

Our bodies were not designed to handle the blood sugar and insulin roller coaster that many of us are on. Here’s how it goes: when you eat sugar, whether it’s in an obvious form like soda or a non-obvious form like pasta, your blood sugar increases quickly. This fast increase then spikes insulin. When insulin removes blood sugar, you then have a blood sugar crash, and cortisol comes in to compensate and try to move sugar out of storage and back into the bloodstream. This process, often called reactive hypoglycemia, is responsible for carb and sugar cravings (since your brain needs steady sugar to function), which leads to anxiety, headaches, irritability, and ultimately depression.

Overall, high blood sugar causes inflammation, which is one of the most significant risk factors for depression. Balancing blood sugar is one of the most effective treatments for depression and anxiety.

Sugar messes with our brain health in three main ways. First, sugar creates inflammation, often by spiking insulin and harming our gut microbiome. Next, sugar derails hormones, ultimately increasing levels of the stress hormone cortisol and disrupting the balance of sex hormones. Finally, sugar starves the brain and damages important structures in our bodies, like cell membranes and blood vessels (14). All this can lead to depression.

Because of all the research showing how harmful sugar is (15-18), food manufacturers have gotten creative with its naming. Don’t be fooled by code names like cane sugar, crystalline fructose, maltodextrin, high-fructose corn syrup – it’s all sugar.

It’s tempting to swap out sugar for artificial sweeteners. Artificial sugars, like aspartame and sucralose, are ‘zero calorie’ because they cannot be digested by the human body. But these chemicals don’t just pass through your body with no effect. Artificial sugars confuse hormones and change your microbiome. A high-profile scientific article showed that artificial sugar consumption leads to metabolic syndromes like insulin resistance and diabetes (19). Choose sweeteners that your body recognizes, like honey.

Vegetable Oils

The Standard American Diet contains large amounts of unhealthy fats, mostly in the form of commercial vegetable oils. Many processed foods, ranging from store-bought cookies to salad dressing, contain these oils. Vegetable oils include safflower oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, and canola oil. These oils are considered ‘processed’ because many high-heat and high-pressure steps, as well as chemical solvents, are required to create them. Further, many of these oils are made from GMOs.

For example, have you ever seen a canola plant? Canola oil, which has been touted as “heart healthy,” is derived from the Canadian rapeseed plant. Recognizing that “rape oil” was not a good marketing tactic, this invention was given a new name as a combination of “Canada” and “ola,” which means oil. Today, it is genetically modified by Monsanto to withstand saturation with Roundup herbicide (20, 21).

In short, our bodies do not recognize vegetable oils, especially when they’re heated and distorted. Consuming vegetable oils sounds the alarm of inflammation. Processed vegetable oils have been linked to thyroid dysfunction, cardiovascular diseases (22), nutrient deficiencies, cancer (23), and psychiatric disorders like depression (24, 25).

So what do I eat?!

I recommend that people give themselves 2-4 weeks to kick the sugar, gluten, and dairy habit. In this time, you can try non-GMO foods and healthier fats like olive oil and lard. People are amazed by how good they feel and how quickly their tastes change.

It’s can be overwhelming to try to overhauling your diet, and we’ve been led to seek quick and easy fixes. As someone who’s radically changed her diet and outlook on eating, I assure you that the deep commitment to yourself and your health is worth it. When you remove these inflammatory foods, you can more easily tap into your intuition to properly nourish yourself.

References

13.https://bamboocorefitness.com/not-so-sweet-the-average-american-consumes-150-170-pounds-of-sugar-each-year/

Kelly Brogan MD