GRACE WORDS

By Edward White of ACLJ With growing frequency we are seeing the  persecution  and mass murder of Christians in Africa and the Middle East by radical Muslims, in particular, ISIS and Boko Haram, who are aligned. Christians who refuse to convert to Islam or pay a special tax (jizya) and acknowledge their subjugation to Muslims are being beheaded, crucified, shot, and burned alive. Female Christians are being raped, forced to convert to Islam, and placed into slavery. Christian Churches are being burned to the ground. The primary reason for this persecution is religion, the religion of the persecutor and the religion of the persecuted. For the radical Muslim, Christianity is one of the obstacles to the creation of the  Islamic State , the implementation of Sharia law, and, ultimately, the apocalypse. Unfortunately, the systematic killing of Christians by Muslims is not new. April 24, 2015, marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the Islamic Ottoman Empire’s ...

by Julius King Kwedhi " ...Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. " ( John 16:2 NKJV ) These Words of Jesus go on echoing loud and louder, and their sound amplified down the ages, becoming more clearer as the veil is removed with the dawn of each new dispensation, according to the prophetic timeline of Heaven, culminating towards the greater and most glorious Day of the most glorious return of the Lord Jesus. The latest global events need no prophet or a son of one to clearly understand that indeed we are living in the dispensation that Jesus prophesied was coming when He boldly proclaimed,  "...Yes, the time is coming..." Indeed the time is here. That time is now. We need look no further. It is not limited to a privileged few to know that Islam is not a religion of peace. Nor is it out of our reach to know the heinous and barbaric acts they carry out in the world today - especially in the name of ISIS. ...

by Julius King Kwedhi "The thief does not come, except to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10 MEV)   Yesterday I stumbled, as it were, upon an article on suicide, and I thought I should send out my views on suicide, stemming from my conversations with friends in Christ. The story of suicide is a story of lost hope and dreams, and a defeated faith. It is a story of a battle lost against Satan who has only one mission: to kill, still and destroy. It is a story of a life that has lost direction and instead followed a lie - the lie of the Devil. Don't forget the second part of that Mighty Scripture,  "I am came that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."  Does suicide take or give life? Whose work is it? It's Satan's work of course. Jesus came to give life, not death, to the Christian. He came to give us life in full. Very true, the Christian ...

by Rachel Ndangi "But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. " (Hebrews 5:14 NKJV) As children if God, we have to grow up and make it a point where we know God for ourselves. The knowledge of the Lord is revealed to us in His Word. And the more we spend time with him, not merely time  at  church, but times spent  with  Him, the more we will  know  Him. We must learn to spend time in the Word of God and in prayer. The Word of God is spiritual and spiritual things are spiritually discerned. We must exercise our spiritual senses to discern good from evil, as the book of Hebrews tells us. When we do so then can we truly stop following strange voices and winds of doctrines taught by demons. They will tell you this  “You are not in the spirit. Spiritual things are spiritual discerned, you will not understand because it's not your calling”...

by Rachel Ndangi "Hold on to instruction; don’t let go. Guard it, for it is your life." (Proverbs 4:13 HCSB) What then gives me the guarantee of knowing Jesus? This is the question we ended with last time. From here on we proceed. The first step to knowing God is to believe the Gospel of salvation in Jesus and become truly Born Again. And then you must receive the Holy Spirit of Jesus. He is the One Who helps every true believer in Christ Jesus to get to truly know Jesus. Jesus has called us His friends. As such we should endeavour to build this friendship. It is a conscious decision that is made in order to grow closer to the Lord. When we have to build any kind of relationship with anybody, we visit them on purpose. We call them on purpose. We send to them text messages on purpose. Plus, we also talk to them on purpose. You don't just lock yourself up indoors and wish that somehow you will grow closer with your next door neighbour, to whom you never...

by Dr. R.C. Sproul It was Bonaventure who offered the thought: “In order that we may be able to extol and glorify God, and in order that we may advance to the knowledge of God, we must transfer to the divine that which pertains to the creature . . . nearly all creatures possess certain noble characteristics which furnish a source for our understanding of God, e.g., the lion possesses fortitude; the lamb, meekness; the rock, solidity; the serpent, prudence—hence it is necessary that many names be transferred to God.” John Calvin agreed with these sentiments. “There is not an atom of the universe in which you cannot see some brilliant sparks at least of His glory.” The earth, nature that surrounds us, the world—everything is full of God. Nature is a glorious theater, a spectacular sound-and-light show of the beauty of God. But nature is not God. To worship the whole or any part of nature is idolatry. To confuse God and nature is to fall into pantheism, an intolerable monism that...

by Jill Martin Rische April 12, 2015   www.olivetreeviews.org Note from Jan :  Barack Obama likes to re-write history. Jill Martin Rische is not just an apologist -- she is also an historian. Obama has insulted Christians more than once, the worst in recent months at the prayer event in February, but again at the Easter breakfast a few days ago.  Obama's "Crusades" remarks in February crossed a line in boldness, offensiveness, and historical inaccuracy. As Todd Starnes says, "Have you noticed that whenever there's a Muslim holiday, he never takes that opportunity to criticize or critique the Muslim faith or Muslims in general? But whenever there's a Christian holiday, he doesn't hold back.  He tells it like he thinks it is."  I asked Jill to set the record straight. Learn more about Jill, who is the daughter of the late Dr. Walter Martin, at  www.waltermartin.com.  She is part of the communications' team here at Olive Tree Mi...

by Julius King Kwedhi “Be happy in your confidence, be patient in trouble, and pray continually.” Romans 12:12 (GW) Patience implies humility. It is staying  willingly  under pressure or such conditions for a given period of time. And for us to overcome all these hard and often difficult phases we need “patience”. Patience is a fruit that the Holy Spirit of our Lord Jesus works and produces in us, His Christian children. The word patience or patient, in the Bible, is translated from the Greek word  hupomenō  (reads –  hoop-om-en'-o ) (Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Definitions, 1890) which is a conjunction of two words: hupo  – A primary preposition;  under , that is, (with the genitive) of place ( beneath ), or with verbs (the agency or means,  through ); (with the accusative) of place (whither [ underneath ] or where [ below ]) or time (when [ at ]) :  - among, by, from, in, of, under, with. In compounds it retains the same genitive ap...

by Julius King Kwedhi "As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name, The Holy One of Israel." Isaiah 47:4 ( NKJV ) The death of Jesus Christ on the Cross defies logic, not by avoiding it but by triumphing over it. What He did on the Cross doesn't make sense to us. How can a judge die on behalf of the convict? For that matter, how can He against whom we have sinned, take upon Himself our sins, pay the hefty price we needed to pay, acquit us and then justify us solely on the basis of our placing our trust and faith in Him? And this justification happens when we believe and completely trust that what Jesus did is our only hope out if this hopeless life experience. Christ's death on the Cross was an act of absolute justice and the wrath of God's judgement was satisfied. Satisfied. Selah. Satisfied. When He was lifted up, all judgement we deserved was thrust upon Him, and all of heaven turned aside for another glimpse of Him, heaven could not bear - our...

by Julius King Kwedhi “Be happy in your confidence, be patient in trouble, and pray continually.” Romans 12:12 (GW) The idea of patience is likened to that of an elastic band. You can take an elastic band and stretch it so hard till it reaches the point where it stretches no longer. That point is called “the elastic limit.” The elasticity of the band allows it to stretch and to return again to its original form and shape when released from the stretch. However, when it is stretched till it reaches its elastic limit it does not continue stretching any further. If the force applied equals to or is less than the force that the band can put up with (although the band might not return to its original form and shape again), the band will not break. But if after reaching this point the stretching still continues, and the force applied in stretching is far greater than the force that the band can put up with, when it reaches its limit, the band “ snaps ” and then breaks apart. H...

by Julius King Kwedhi God wants you, not what you have. You have, literally speaking, nothing to give Him. He has got everything to give you. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. But we try to put on make-up for God, thinking we can offer Him our beauty, in order for Him to accept us in the beloved. Or we try to work out for Him, so we can build strong muscles, thinking God is looking for men with strong muscles to join His army. God has never asked for strong men. He strengthens those He calls. He never asked for beauty pageants. He beautifies those He calls. He doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. Simply put, we have nothing to offer God that will cause Him to make us right with Himself. Many people try the charity way, to match up with or beat Mother Theresa’s record, thinking that humanitarian work will win God’s favour. But He never asked us to be champions of humanitarian work in order for us to be made right with Him. On the contrary, w...