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…as part of a deal to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates  U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering press statements before an official dinner in Jerusalem on May 22, 2017. Annexation still on the table, Netanyahu says, but the U.S. asked Israel to ‘temporarily postpone’ applying sovereignty to parts of West Bank in order to advance the peace agreement Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached a historic peace deal on Thursday that will lead to full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two Middle Eastern nations in an agreement that U.S. President Donald Trump helped broker. Under the agreement, Israel has agreed to suspend applying sovereignty to areas of the West Bank that it has bee...

Step of faith Have you ever took a step of FAITH when you didn’t know what the outcome would be? What helped you to make the decision?What happened as a result of your action? Read this testimony and be blessed. Several years ago, I visited northern Nigeria and was about to stay with a friend of a friend.  As I stepped through the door, the Lord told me not to stay.  I should go to the motor park.  The motor park in Nigeria is a station where you go to if you are travelling out to other destinations such as villages, cities etc.  It was late afternoon, and I got into a car travelling to a village I never knew existed.  I remember getting there around 8 pm. It was very dark. There was no light in the village except lit lanterns.  I looked for a churc...

I sit in near darkness at noon. Outside is an orange sherbert sky. We go outside mid-morning to take photos. To remember the strangeness that we hope isn’t a new normal. To record the upside down. To note the unbelievable: it feels like the sun didn’t rise. Friends implore social media to pray: “We are evacuating, but we’re okay.” “John got up at 3 am to drive to the house to dig trenches around the property, hoping the ditches will deter the flames from reaching the house.” “Pray for my parent’s home. They are safe, but the fire is really close now.” I join with my friends in praying. For the wildfires to subside. For protection and peace. For hope and light to fill our hearts. For a cure for Covid. For my heart to stay connected to Jesus. For help for the hurting and the broken, the wear...

Mary Ann Mendoza was scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night. President Donald Trump greets Mary Ann Mendoza during an event on border security in the Oval Office of the White House, March 15, 2019. Mary Ann Mendoza, a mother who had been scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, was dropped from the program after she urged her Twitter followers to read a thread from an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist. Hours before her scheduled appearance at the convention, Mendoza shared a months-long thread posted by a feed called WarNuse that includes multiple anti-Semitic slanders, including arguing that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious forgery that claims Jews control the world, is not a fabrication. “Do yourself a favor an...

Jerry Falwell Jr with wife Becki. Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., who was recently suspended after posting an inappropriate vacation photo on Instagram, released a statement revealing that he has suffered from depression for years because a former family friend has been threatening to expose an affair he had with Falwell’s wife, Becki. “I’m just tired of it…it’s just got to end,” Falwell told the Washington Examiner’s “Secrets” division. Falwell revealed that Becki’s affair happened with a young man whom they befriended while they were on a vacation eight years ago in Miami, Florida. The young man, identified as Giancarlo Granda, was working at the hotel they were staying, and the couple was “impressed by his initiative in suggesting a local real estate opportunity.” The Fa...

In July, a man accused of blasphemy was shot dead in a courtroom in the northwestern city of Peshawar Asif Pervaiz, 37, who has been in custody since 2013, given the death penalty for sending ‘blasphemous’ text messages. Islamabad, Pakistan – A court within the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore has sentenced a Christian man to death for having committed “blasphemy”, his lawyer says, in the latest case of Pakistan’s strict religious laws being applied against minorities. Asif Pervaiz, 37, has been in custody since 2013 when he was accused of sending “blasphemous” text messages to a former supervisor at work, lawyer Saif-ul-Malook told Al Jazeera. The court rejected his testimony wherein he denied the charges and sentenced him to death on Tuesda...

Lieutenant general Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of Sudan holds up a pen before signing a peace deal with rebel groups on August 31. Peace deals include bold pledges on religious freedom. But much work remains for the transitional government after three decades under Bashir’s strict sharia. In signing successive peace deals with entrenched rebel movements last week, Sudan drew upon the legacy of Thomas Jefferson. “The constitution should be based on the principle of ‘separation of religion and state,’” read the text of an agreement between the North African nation’s joint military-civilian transitional council and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM–N). “The state shall not establish an official religion.” The declaration of principles further cements Sudan’s efforts to undo the 30-...

Father, empty me of myself.  I want to hear Your voice. Father, empty me of myself, I want to love with Your heart.  I want nothing to get in the way. Father, empty me of myself.  Let me forget me–to love like You love. In the slowing, let me seek You.  In the memory of children’s voices, hugs and conflicts, laughter and tears, let me find You. Show me what it means to serve. Photo: Abigail Camp Father, hide me from the enemy and keep my heart pure.  Search me to discern what in me pulls away from You. Let nothing come between us, Father.  Let Your Spirit be my breath, my beating heart, my mind.  Let every thought be Yours. There is freedom in deciding whether or not to be my own.  There is freedom in belonging to You.  There is freedom in ...

China Fines Man for Holding Online Bible Study It’s becoming increasingly difficult for Christians to practice their faith in Communist China as persecution escalates against the faithful. Now authorities are targeting online Bible studies. International Christian Concern (ICC) reports that on Aug. 11, a Christian man in China’s Yunnan province received a notice of administrative punishment from the local Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau (ERAB). The bureau accused him of hosting illegal religious education training online. According to the Chinese Christian Fellowship of Righteousness, one of their members, brother Zhang Wenli, was fined a hefty 20,000 RMB (approximately $2,870 USD), issued by the Lincang City Linxiang District ERAB, for his unauthorized activities. The noti...

Sami Herscu Sami was born in 1915 to a Jewish family in Romania. His father was killed in WWI when Sami was just 4 years old. His mother, who couldn’t provide for her 4 children alone, sent Sami, by train, on his own with only a small suitcase, to another town to learn a trade. Sami, who was only 9 yrs. Old, suffered from great loneliness and cried a lot. The owner of the place where he stayed sent Sami to Bucharest. Because Sami had no address to go to and didn’t know how to ask for help, he lived in the streets and worked on odd jobs, eating from the food thrown away in the marketplace. Later on, Sami would tell his story and relate that even though he was alone, he knew Someone up above was watching him and cared for him. “For he shall give his angels charge over thee,...