A case of Nurture overcoming Nature

Lasting celebrity marriages

Is this Liuzhi Church in Zhejiang biggest in China?

By Tom Philips, Liushi, Zhejiang province 

The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America. 

It is said to be China's biggest church and on Easter Sunday thousands of worshippers will flock to this Asian mega-temple to pledge their allegiance - not to the Communist Party, but to the Cross. 

The 5,000-caoacityLiushi Church, which boasts more than twice as many seats as Westminister Abbey and a 206 ft crucifix that can be seen for miles around, opened last year with one theologian declaring it a "miracle that such a small town was able to build such a grand church". 

The £8 million building is also one of the most visible symbols of Communist China's breakneck conversion as it evolves into one of the largest Christian congregations on earth. 

"It is a wonderful thing to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It gives us great confidence," beamed Jin Hongxin, a 40-year-old visitor who was admiring the golden cross above Liushi's altar in the lead up to Holy Week. 

"If everyone in China believed in Jesus then we would have no more need for police stations. There would be no more bad people and therefore no more crime," she added.

Officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.

Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao's death in 1976 signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution.

Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to become not just the world's number one economy but also its most numerous Christian nation."By my calculations, China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon," said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.

 "It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change."

China's Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life. 

Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that the number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline.

By 2030, China's total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted.

"Mao thought he could eliminate religion. He thought he had accomplished this," Prof Yang said. "It's ironic –  the Communists didn't. They actually failed completely. "

Like  many  Chinese churches, the church in the town of Liushi, 200 miles south of Shanghai in Zhejiang province, had had a turbulent history.It was founded in 1886 after William Edward Soothill, a Yorkshire-born missionary and future Oxford University professor, began evangelizing local communities.

But by the late 1950s, as the region was engulfed by Mao's violent anti-Christian campaigns, it was forced to close.Liushi remained shut throughout the decade of the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966, as places of worship were destroyed across the country.

Since it reopened in 1978 its congregation has gone from strength to strength as part of China's officially sanctioned Christian church - along with thousands of others that have accepted Communist Party oversight in return for being allowed to worship.

Today it had 2,600 regular churchgoers and holds up to 70 baptisms each year, according to Shi Xiaoli, it's 27-year -old preacher. The Parish's revival reached a crescendo last year with the opening of its new 1,500 ft mega-church, reputedly the biggest in mainland China.

"Our old church was small and hard to find," said Ms. Shi. "There wasn't room in the old building for all the followers, especially at Christmas and at Easter. The new one is big and eye-catching. "

The Liushi church is not alone. From Yunnan province I China's balmy southwest to Liaoning in its industrial northeast, congregations are booming and more Chinese are thought to attend Sunday Services each week than do Christians across the whole of Europe. 

A recent study found that online searches for the words "Christian Congregation" and "Jesus" far outnumbered those for "The Communist Party" and "Xi Jinping", China's president.

Among China's Protestants ARE ALSO MANY MILLIONS WHO WORSHIP AT ILLEGAL UNDERGROUND "HOUSE CHURCHES", which hold unsupervised services - often in people's homes - in an attempt to evade the prying eyes of the Communist Party. Such churches are mostly behind China's embryonic missionary movement - a reversal of roles after the country was for centuries the target of foreign missionaries. Now it is starting to send its own missionaries abroad, notably into North Korea, in search of souls. 

"We want to help and it is easier for us than for British, South Korean or American missionaries," said one underground church leader in north China who asked not to be named. 

The new spread of Christianity has the Communist Party scratching its head.

"The child suddenly grew up and the parents don't know how to deal with the adult," the preacher, who is from China's illegal house-church movement said. 

Some officials argue that religious groups can provide social services the government cannot, while simultaneously helping reverse a growing moral crisis in a land where cash, not Communism, has now become king.

They appear to agree with David Cameron, the British prime minister, who said last week that Christianity could help boost Britain's "spiritual, physical and moral" state. 

Ms Shi, Liushi's preacher, who is careful to describe her church as "patriotic", said: "We have two motivations: one is our gospel mission and the other is serving society. Christianity can also play a role in maintaining peace and stability in society. With God, people can do as they please."

Yet others within China's leadership worry about how the religious landscape might shape its political future, and it's possible impact on the Communist Party's grip on power, despite the clause in the country's 1982  constitution that guarantees citizens the right to engage in "normal religious activities". 

As a result, a close watch is still kept on churchgoers, and preachers are routinely monitored to ensure their sermons do not diverge from what the Party considers acceptable.

In Liushi church, a closed circuit television camera hangs from the ceiling directly in front of the lectern. 

"They want the pastor to preach in a Communist way. They want to train people to practice in a Communist way," said the house-church preacher, who said state churches often shunned potentially subversive sections of the Bible. The Old Testament book in which the exiled Daniel refuses to obey orders to worship the king rather than his own god is seen as "very dangerous", the preacher said. 

Such fears may not be entirely unwarranted. Christians' growing power was on show earlier this month when thousands flocked to defend a church in Wenzhou, a city known as the "Jerusalem of the East", after the government threats to demolish it. Faced with the congregation's very public show of resistance, officials appear to have backed away from their plans, negotiating a compromise with church leaders. 

"They do not trust the church, but they have to tolerate or accept it because of the growth there," said the church leader. "The number of Christians is growing - they cannot fight it. They do not want the 70 million Christians to be their enemy." 

The underground church leader said many government officials viewed religion as "a sickness" that needed curing, and Prof Yang agreed there was a potential threat. The Communist Party was "still not sure if Christianity would become an opposition political force" and feared it could be used by "Western forces to overthrow the Communist political system", he said. 

Churches were likely to face an increasingly "intense" struggle over coming decade as the Communist Party sought to stifle Christianity's rise, he predicted. 

"There are people in the government who are trying to control the church. I think they are making the last attempt to do that. 

Opening your car after losing key

Latest on Hamas rockets into Israel

ESCALATION: 130+ ROCKETS FIRED AT ISRAEL SINCE MIDNIGHT. IDF CALLING UP 40,000 RESERVISTS FOR POSSIBLE INVASION OF GAZA. HERE ARE THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS. 

Please pray without ceasing.

By Joel C. Rosenberg

(Washington, D.C., July 8, 2014) -- The security situation in southern Israel is deteriorating rapidly. We need to be praying without ceasing. 

Last month, Palestinian extremists kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenage boys. Then, a few days ago, Jewish extremists kidnapped and murdered an Arab teenage boy, apparently burning him alive. Meanwhile, Palestinian extremists in Gaza began firing rockets at Jewish and Arab civilians in southern Israel. 

• More than 220 rockets have been fired at Israel by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza since July 1st. 

• Since midnight, more than 130 rockets were fired at Israel. (Three have been fired just while I was writing this update.) 

• At one point, they were coming in at about one per minute. (fortunately, Israel’s “Iron Dome” system is shooting down many of them.) 

• The Israeli Air Force is striking Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza, and this morning Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government authorized “Operative Protective Edge” to ratchet up attacks on the terrorists in Gaza. The IDF is calling up 40,000 reservists for a possible massive ground invasion of Gaza. 

Please pray: 

• for the Lord to restore calm on the Israeli/Gaza border 

• for Palestinian leaders and security forces to move decisively to arrest those committing these war crimes, firing at innocent civilians 

• for Israeli leaders to have wisdom to know how best to protect their citizens (hopefully an invasion of Gaza won't be needed) 

• for safety for Israelis and Palestinians caught in the crossfire 

• for the Lord to comfort people on both sides, reveal His Word to them, and draw them to Himself 

This morning, Lynn and I learned about an app called “Red Alert.” We both installed it on our iPhones. It alerts us every time a rocket is fired at Israel. It also tells us what city or town is being targeted. We’re using it to pray for Israelis and Palestinians each time the alert goes off. It’s a free app, and you can get it on iTunes. You can find a link on the blog. I’d encourage you to download it and use it to pray every time the siren sounds. Please let other people know about this and encourage them to download the app and use it to pray.

Graphene 100 times stronger than steel

July 9th, 2014
Graphene is pure carbon in the form of a very thin, nearly transparent sheet, one atom thick. It is remarkably strong for its very low weight (100 times stronger than steel )and it conducts heat and electricity with great efficiency. While scientists had theorized about graphene for decades, it was first produced in the lab in 2004.
Graphene is the future. Plain and simple.
It's 200 times stronger than steel, thinner than a sheet of paper, and more conductive than copper.
And that's not all...
Researchers the world over are using it for critical advances in a variety of industries. Graphene makes:

• Solar – 50x-100x more efficient
• Semiconductors – 50x-100x faster
• Aircraft – 70% lighter

We're talking batteries that charge 10x faster and store 10x more power...
Phones and computer displays that bend and fold...
And even the potential to make people and things completely invisible.
Indeed, the Huffington Post notes graphene will “change the world.”
It's so vital to our future that it's been named a "supply critical mineral" and a "strategic mineral" by the United States and the European Union.
Yet only a few companies around the world have access to mineral resource that is required to make graphene. And 70% of supply is controlled by China.

So the setup is perfect for any non-Chinese supply to become an extremely lucrative investment, just like rare earths a few years ago.

Twelve calendar months of Australian scenery

Your dormant accounts in peril

Australia Seizes 360M From Dormant Bank Accounts And All 50 U.S. States Are Doing This Too

By Michael Snyder, on June 12th, 2014

 

     

Do you have a bank account that you don't actively use or a safe deposit box that you have not checked on for a while?  If so, you might want to see if the government has grabbed your money.  This sounds absolutely crazy, but it is true.  All over the world, governments are shortening the time periods required before they can seize "dormant bank accounts" and "unclaimed property".  For example, as you will read about below, just last year the government of Australia seized a whopping 360 million dollars from dormant bank accounts.  And this kind of thing is going on all over America as well.  In fact, all 50 statesactually pay private contractors to locate bank accounts and unclaimed property that can be seized.  In some states, no effort will be made to contact you when your property is confiscated.  And in most states, the seized property permanently become the property of the state government after a certain waiting period has elapsed.  So please don't put money or property into a bank somewhere and just let it sit there.  If you do, the government may come along and grab it right out from under your nose.

In this day and age, broke governments all over the globe are searching for "creative ways" to raise revenues.  In Australia for example, the time period required before the federal government could seize a dormant bank account was reduced from seven to three years, and this resulted in an unprecedented windfall for the Australian government over the past 12 months...

The federal government has seized a record $360 million from household bank accounts that have been dormant for just three years, prompting outrage in some quarters amid complaints that pensioners and retirees have lost deposits.

Figures from the Australian Security and Investments Commission (ASIC) show almost $360 million was collected from 80,000 inactive accounts in the year to May under new rules introduced by Labor. The new rules lowered the threshold at which the government is allowed to snatch funds from accounts that remain idle from seven years to three years.

The rule change has delivered the government a massive bonanza with the money collected in the year to May more than the total collected in the past five decades combined.

Most Americans are not going to be too concerned about this because it is happening on the other side of the planet.

But did you know that this is happening all over the U.S. as well?

For instance, the waiting period in the state of California used to be fifteen years.

Now it is just three years.

And when California grabs your money they don't just sit around waiting for you to come and claim it.  Instead, it gets dumped directly into the general fund and spent.

If you do not believe that California does this, just check out the following information that comes directly from the official website of the California State Controller's Office...

The State acquires unclaimed property through California's Unclaimed Property Law, which requires "holders" such as corporations, business associations, financial institutions, and insurance companies to annually report and deliver property to the Controller's Office after there has been no customer contact for three years. Often the owner forgets that the account exists, or moves and does not leave a forwarding address or the forwarding order expires. In some cases, the owner dies and the heirs have no knowledge of the property.

And it is not just bank accounts and safe deposit boxes that are covered by California law.  The reality is that a vast array of different kinds of "unclaimed property" are covered...

The most common types of Unclaimed Property are:

Bank accounts and safe deposit box contents

Stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and dividends

Uncashed cashier's checks or money orders

Certificates of deposit

Matured or terminated insurance policies

Estates

Mineral interests and royalty payments, trust funds, and escrow accounts.

And when a state government grabs your property, the consequences can be absolutely devastating.  The following is an excerpt from an ABC news report from a few years ago...

San Francisco resident Carla Ruff's safe-deposit box was drilled, seized, and turned over to the state of California, marked "owner unknown."

"I was appalled," Ruff said. "I felt violated."

Unknown? Carla's name was right on documents in the box at the Noe Valley Bank of America location. So was her address -- a house about six blocks from the bank. Carla had a checking account at the bank, too -- still does -- and receives regular statements. Plus, she has receipts showing she's the kind of person who paid her box rental fee. And yet, she says nobody ever notified her.

"They are zealously uncovering accounts that are not unclaimed," Ruff said.

To make matters worse, Ruff discovered the loss when she went to her box to retrieve important paperwork she needed because her husband was dying. Those papers had been shredded.

And that's not all. Her great-grandmother's precious natural pearls and other jewelry had been auctioned off. They were sold for just $1,800, even though they were appraised for $82,500.

And some states are even more aggressive than the state of California in going after bank accounts.

In a recent article, Simon Black noted that the state of Georgia can go after "dormant bank accounts" after just one year of inactivity...

In fact, each of the 50 states has its own regulations pertaining to the seizure of dormant accounts. And the grand prize goes to… the great state of Georgia!

Georgia’s Disposition of Unclaimed Properties Act sets the threshold as low as one year.

In other words, if you have a checking account in Georgia that you haven’t touched in twelve months, the state government is going to grab it.

So much for setting aside money for a rainy day and having the discipline to never touch it.

As economic conditions get even worse, the temptation for governments all over the planet to grab private bank accounts is going to become even greater.

We all remember what happened in Cyprus.  When the global financial Ponzi scheme finally collapses, politicians all over the world are going to be looking for an easy way to raise cash.  And our bank accounts may be one of the first things that they decide to confiscate.

So please don't keep all of your eggs in one basket, and check on all of your accounts in regular intervals.

In this day and age, it pays to be diligent.

A New Lord Prayer

The Lord's Prayer - written by a 15 yr. old School kid - USA TODAY....

 WRITTEN BY A 15 yr. OLD SCHOOL KID who got an A+ for this entry (TOTALLY AWESOME)!

 The Lord's Prayer  Is not allowed in most

 Public schools in America anymore

 Because the word 'God' is mentioned.....

                                                

 Now I sit me down in school

 Where praying is against the rule

 For this great nation under God

 Finds mention of Him very odd.

 If scripture now the class recites,

 It violates the Bill of Rights.

 And anytime my head I bow

 Becomes a Federal matter now.

 Our hair can be purple, orange or green,

 That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.

 The law is specific, the law is precise.

 Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.

 For praying in a public hall

 Might offend someone with no faith at all.

 In silence alone we must meditate,

 God's name is prohibited by the United States.

 We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,

 And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks...

 Guns are allowed, but Not the Bible.

 To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

 We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,

 And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.

 It's 'inappropriate' to teach right from wrong,

 We're taught that such 'judgments' do not belong..

 We can get our condoms and birth controls,

 Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles...

 But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,

 No word of God must reach this crowd.

 It's scary here I must confess,

 When chaos reigns the school's a mess.

 So, Lord, this silent plea I make:

 Should I be shot; My soul please take! Amen

Creatures attacking People