Autor: Ângelo Medrado

Pr. Batista, Avivado, Bacharel em Teologia, PhDr. Pedagogo Holístico docente Restaurador, Reverendo pela International Minystry of Restoration - USA - Autor dos Livros: A Maçonaria e o Cristianismo, O Cristão e a Maçonaria, A Religião do Anticristo, Vendas Alto Nível com Análise Transacional, Comportamento Gerencial.
Casado, 4 filhos, 6 netos, 2 bisnetos.

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Accused Pastor in Kashmir, India Given Reprieve

 

Police fail to find evidence of fraudulent conversion; converts urged to return to Islam.

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COLUMN

The Winans Family Sparks Revival at Whitney Houston’s Funeral

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LIVING

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OPINIONS

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By Compass Direct News

February 19, 2012|8:20 pm

NEW DELHI – A court has ordered the Jammu and Kashmir state government to temporarily halt criminal proceedings against a pastor accused of bribing Muslimyouths to convert to Christianity.

The state’s High Court on Feb. 11 halted proceedings in the police complaint of "promotion of religious enmity by conversions" against the Rev. Chander Mani Khanna of the Church of North India denomination. Responding to a petition by the pastor to quash the complaint, the court issued notices to top officials of the state’s police department and interior ministry because investigators have not been able to formulate charges even though the case was registered last Oct. 29, Pastor Khanna told Compass by phone.

Pastor Khanna, who retired on Jan. 16 from All Saints Church in Kashmir Valley’s Srinagar city, seemed relieved.

"After I was released on bail, the court had asked me not to leave the state, but with this stay order I can at least travel out," he said.

The pastor, who remained in jail for more than 40 days until he was released on bail last Dec. 1, added that the court asked the government to file its response by March 14, and then it will set the date for the next hearing. Police have not been able to gather evidence of "conversion by allurement" against Pastor Khanna.

The pastor added that real victory will be achieved when he is allowed to return to Kashmir, in the Muslim-majority region of the state.

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"We do not want to retaliate," he said. "We want to promote the spirit of acceptance, accommodation and tolerance and be salt to the community in Kashmir for the betterment of the whole country."

Kashmir’s sharia (Islamic law) court, which has no legal authority in India, in December found Pastor Khanna, the Rev. Jim Borst, a Dutch Catholic missionary and Gayoor Messah, a Christian worker, guilty of "luring the valley Muslims to Christianity" and ordered them to leave the state. The court, headed by Kashmir Grand Mufti Bashir-ud-din Ahmad, also "directed" the state government to take over the management of all Christian schools in the region.

Muslim leaders had been rallying against Christians after a video posted on YouTube last October showed the baptism of formerly Muslim youths at All Saints Church. The sharia court summoned Pastor Khanna and held a hearing before announcing its verdict against the three pastors.

Reconversions

Life has been extremely difficult for Kashmir’s Christians since the sharia court’s verdict, said a Christian worker who fled the region last month along with 15 others.

Muslim clergy, he told Compass, claim to have converted 155 Christians back to Islam.

"But I don’t believe that," added the source, who said he fled fearing police would force him to speak against Pastor Khanna. "I have spoken to some of them, and they said they neither denounced their faith, and nor did they embrace Islam. Out of fear, they listened to the ‘advice’ while remaining non-committal."

Local online news portal Kashmirwatch.com late last month reported that an Islamic seminary in north Kashmir was working with 115 converts to bring them back to Islam.

"We are collecting details," it quoted a seminary official as saying. "We would try to catch them all and persuade them to revert to Islam."

Local Christians say the sharia court has formed area committees to prevent conversions and reconvert Christians. Committee members are visiting Christians’ homes and allegedly pressuring them and their families to return to Islam.

Kashmirwatch.com reported that over 20,000 Kashmiri Muslims had converted to Christianity since separatist militancy erupted in Kashmir in the 1990s. According to a September 2002 report in Christian media in the United States, it reported, the number of "neo-Christians" was 15,000.

"The conversions are likely to have surged past 20,000, with over a dozen Christian missions and churches based in the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland operating in the state," the news portal stated.

Local Christians said the report in the U.S. media was not accurate.

Support from Separatists

While most Muslim leaders have turned against Christians and the state government is apparently unconcerned about their safety, a highly influential separatist group has spoken out for Christians.

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, head of a faction of the Hurriyat Conference separatist political front, has reportedly said his group does not support the sharia court’s fatwa calling for the expulsion of a few Christian workers from the state.

"Banishing someone is no solution," the Kashmir Times quoted him as saying. "As Muslims, it is our responsibility to ensure that we reach out to our youth and create awareness about Islam."

The 82-year-old leader also acknowledged the contribution Christians have made to Kashmir.

"They are part and parcel of the society," he reportedly said. "It is our duty to protect them. Kashmiris cannot ignore the contributions of Christian missionary schools towards the educational system in the Valley. Unfortunately, Kashmiri Muslims have not been able to build an educational institution like those by the Christian missionary schools despite all available resources."

A fact-finding team, which included a senior official of the National Commission for Minorities, visited Kashmir from Nov. 29 to Dec. 2 last year. It learned that some extremist groups and other vested interests had been trying to use the issue of conversion in their confrontation with the state government, political parties and moderate Islamic groups. They were "looking to score political points against each other, and any excuse was good enough to foment trouble," the fact-finding team reported.

The state government apparently sided with the extremists to preempt any unrest, local residents told the fact-finding team.

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Estudos

AS ATITUDES DE UM SERVO.

 

Em nossa caminhada diária, Deus quer sempre nos dar o melhor.Muitas vezes perdermos as bençãos por impaciência e murmurações.

Precisamos deixar nossas preocupações de lado e CONFIAR na sua direção.
A direção que um dia Ele sonhou para nós !

( Pra. Bianca de Oliveira – Pastora na Igreja do Evangelho Quadrangular ).

“Então, os discípulos dos profetas que estavam em Jericó se chegaram a Eliseu e lhe disseram: Sabes que o SENHOR, hoje, tomará o teu senhor, elevando-o por sobre a tua cabeça? Respondeu ele: Também eu o sei; calai-vos. Disse-lhe, pois, Elias: Fica-te aqui, porque o SENHOR me enviou ao Jordão. Mas ele disse: Tão certo como vive o SENHOR e vive a tua alma, não te deixarei. E, assim, ambos foram juntos. Foram cinqüenta homens dos discípulos dos profetas e pararam a certa distância deles; eles ambos pararam junto ao Jordão. Então, Elias tomou o seu manto, enrolou-o e feriu as águas, as quais se dividiram para os dois lados; e passaram ambos em seco. Havendo eles passado, Elias disse a Eliseu: Pede-me o que queres que eu te faça, antes que seja tomado de ti. Disse Eliseu: Peço-te que me toque por herança porção dobrada do teu espírito. Tornou-lhe Elias: Dura coisa pediste. Todavia, se me vires quando for tomado de ti, assim se te fará; porém, se não me vires, não se fará”. (2 Reis cap.2 vers.5 á 10).

Na história de Eliseu e Elias. Cada um dos filhos dos profetas teve a oportunidade de estar no lugar de Eliseu. De igual modo, muitos de nós temos oportunidades que, por vezes, só reconhecemos quando se vão. Pode paracer que você não está ganhando nada com determinado relacionamento, que você é o único a investir nele. Contudo, talvez chegue o dia em que você receba de volta, em porção dobrada, a recompensa por todo o seu investimento.

Assim como Eliseu era inperpelado por objetores por servir a Elias, você também pode ser por “filhos de profetas”.

Nunca se esqueça disto: A atitude de servo é um chamado sublime, não um desperdício. O único modo como podemos encontrar nossa verdadeira identidade é servindo. Deus não nos chamou para sermos servidos, mas para servir. Observe que é exatamente isso que nos ensina (Mateus cap.20 vers.28): “Porque até o Filho do Homem não veio para ser servido, mas para servir e dar a sua vida para salvar muita gente”.

A única forma de descobrir quem somos é “lavando os pés” do nosso próximo. Observe que em (João cap.13 vers.4,5) diz: “Então se levantou, tirou a sua capa, pegou uma toalha e amarrou na cintura. Em seguida pôs água numa bacia e começou a lavar os pés dos discípulos e a enxugá-los com a toalha”.  Quando percebemos que há um propósito para nossa vida, conseguimos desvendar nossa verdadeira identidade.

 

Você pode buscar o sucesso à maneira do mundo ou à maneira de Deus. Tudo o que precisa fazer é escolher. A razão por que muitos de nós não acreditamos, na verdade, desistiram no meio do caminho, assim como os filhos dos profetas.

tradutores-da-biblia

Na Bíblia é mencionado um grupo de pessoas que decidiu deixar de seguir Jesus. Você pode imaginar que alguém que andou com Jesus por mais de 3 anos, sofreu com Ele perseguições por ser Seu discípulo e ceou com Ele simplesmente dê as costas ao Mestre ??? Você consegue imaginar as desculpas e mentiras dessas pessoas para justificar sua decisão ???

Então, Jesus se voltou para os 12 discípulos e perguntou: “Quereis vós também retirar-vos?”

Se acontecer de você se encontrar nessa situação, você também desistirá ???

Na passagem de (2 Reis cap.2 vers.5 á 10) citada no começo desta matéria de mensagem e estudo, vemos que os filhos dos profetas não conseguiram comprometer-se. Eles não assumiram o risco de fazer uma promessa ou firmar uma aliança. Logo, continuaram a ser simplesmente filhos de profetas, bem por fora, mas vazios por dentro – longe do propósito de Deus para a vida deles.

Diante de um caixão, certamente já dissemos: “Se eu pudesse dar-lhe anos de minha vida para que você vivesse mais, eu lhe daria”.  Na verdade, você pode, mas literalmente. Por exemplo, tido pai que se investe em um filho “vive” por seu intermédio após a morte. Ou seja, o mundo continua desfrutando de sua presença e dos frutos de sua vida.

É como se Eliseu estivesse afirmando: “Mestre, tudo o que quero é ser você em dobro”. E Elias, por sua vez, respondendo: “ Então, pegue minha capa quando ela cair do céu”.

Ao entregar sua capa a Eliseu, Elias passou a “viver” por intermédio de Eliseu após sua morte. Por causa da intimidade do relacionamento entre eles e da obediência de Eliseu, o favor, a excelência e as impressões do mestre tiveram prosseguimento de forma ainda mais poderosa e de geração em geração.

Por meio da sinergia de relacionamentos, Deus quer proporcionar-lhe a multiplicação – filhos, favor, e sucesso. Ele quer levá-lo, também, a multiplicar a vida de seu mestre e a multiplicar a sua, fazendo com que, posteriormente, você se torne o mestre de alguém. No entanto, o Senhor não confiará essa pessoa a quem não se submeter o outro.

QUE DEUS TE ABENÇOE…

045

Rev. Ângelo Medrado, Bacharel em Teologia, Doutor em Novo Testamento, referendado pela International Ministry Of Restoration-USA e Multiuniversidade Cristocêntrica é presidente do site Primeira Igreja Virtual do Brasil e da Igreja Batista da Restauração de Vidas em Brasília DF., é, ex-maçon, autor de diversos livros entre eles: Maçonaria e Cristianismo, O cristão e a Maçonaria, A Religião do antiCristo, Vendas alto nível, com análise transacional e Comportamento Gerencial.

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Kevin Costner Eulogy at Whitney Houston Funeral: ‘Church Was Our Private Bond’ (VIDEO)

 

February 18, 2012|3:48 pm

Kevin Costner offered a touching speech at Whitney Houston’s funeral today, talking about the Baptist Church upbringings both of them had, as well as obstacles they had to overcome to work together and make worldwide blockbuster "The Bodyguard."

Costner was among a host of celebrities attending, including Alicia Keys and Stevie Wonder. However, Aretha Franklin, who was scheduled to sing at the funeral, was unable to attend.

Costner started his address by explaining how one of Houston’s most well-known hits, "I Will Always Love You," almost never came to be. He revealed how another song, "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted," was going to be used in "The Bodyguard."

"What becomes of our broken hearts? Whitney returns home today, to the place where it all began," Costner said. "I ask that we dry our tears, suspend our sorrow, just long enough to remember the sweet miracle that was Whitney. We can’t forget Cissy and Bobbi Kristina sit among us. Your mother and I had a lot in common. A lot of people are thinking, really? You’re a boy, she’s a girl; she’s black, you’re white. I heard you like to sing, but our girl could really sing."

Kevin Costner gave a touching eulogy at Whitney Houston's funeral February 18, 2012.

(Photo: Reuters/Phil McCarten)

Kevin Costner gave a touching eulogy at Whitney Houston’s funeral February 18, 2012.

However, he then went on to explain what they held in common. He revealed that they both grew up in the Baptist Church, and continued to hold the church very close to their hearts.

"We both grew up in the Baptist church. It wasn’t as big as this. My grandmother played the piano and she led the choir. Her two daughters sang in it. My earliest memories are tied to that church in Paramount."

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"Church was what we knew, it was our private bond," he said.

He also told how he would often get in trouble growing up in church with his friends. He explained Houston’s "favorite" story of his, about how he and his friends would sneak into the church kitchen to finish the cups of "grape juice." However, Costner then added how he was caught by his dad and dragged out, to the laughter of the congregants.

He then spoke about Houston’s time growing up in church, "I can see her in my mind here, running around as a skinny little girl. I can also see her in trouble." He added how he imagined she would try and talk her way out of the trouble she was in, and how her mother Cissy would have none of it.

Whitney Houston bows after performing "I Didn't Know My Own Strength" at the 2009 American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California November 22, 2009.

(Photo: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni)

Whitney Houston bows after performing "I Didn’t Know My Own Strength" at the 2009 American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California November 22, 2009.

Costner then went on to talk about how their massive blockbusting movie "The Bodyguard" came to be. He spoke about Houston being the "perfect choice." However, he added how many initially had reservations at Houston taking on the main role. For one it would be her first acting role, also he explained how they were forced to postpone the movie a year to wait for her to come off her tour, which was "a lot for the studio to accept."

However, even though many had doubts, Costner was sure that she was the right choice. When Houston had to take part in a screen test, Costner recalled telling her not to be nervous and that he’d hold her hand every step of the way.

He explained that she could have fallen down and started speaking "in tongues" and she would’ve passed the screen test for the flick. Costner insisted he would have pushed her through no matter what. He explained how prior to the screen test Houston disappeared for a long period, for what he believed was a time for prayer.

He then joked how she changed the make-up the studio had put on her, to the kind she was more used to while giving her singing performances. However, the new make-up was much thicker and melted off as she took part in the screen test in front of the hot lights. That joke had the congregation in fits of laughter as they continued to reminisce about the much-loved singer.

SEE VIDEO OF KEVIN COSTNER’S TOUCHING EULOGY AT WHITNEY HOUSTON’S FUNERAL

SEE VIDEO OF ALICIA KEYS SINGING AT WHITNEY HOUSTON’S FUNERAL

SEE VIDEO OF STEVIE WONDER SINGING AT WHITNEY HOUSTON’S FUNERAL

Her make-up incident didn’t matter though, as he explained that she was the only one who could’ve played the role at that time. He admitted that anyone could have played his role, but that Houston made the film what it was.

"You weren’t just pretty, you were as beautiful as a woman could be," he said. "I was your pretend bodyguard not too long ago, and now you’re gone."

SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON’S HIT "I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU" HERE

SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON’S HIT "THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL" HERE

SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON’S HIT "I’M EVERY WOMAN" HERE

SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON’S HIT "I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY" HERE

SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON’S HIT "IT’S NOT RIGHT BUT IT’S OK" HERE

SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON’S FINAL PERFORMANCE BEFORE DEATH

SEE VIDEO OF WHITNEY HOUSTON & BOBBI KRISTINA BROWN PERFORMING "MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE"

SEE VIDEO OF LL COOL J’S PRAYER FOR WHITNEY HOUSTON ON GRAMMYS 2012