Who Represents True Islam? Moderates or Extremists? - Clint Roberts

There’s a fight brewing among the cultural left. These people usually agree with each other, especially on important issues. But they’re fighting over Islam. Maybe you heard Bill Maher and Sam Harris duking it out with Ben Affleck[1] a few months ago. More recently, Maher mixed it up with Howard Dean[2] over the same issue. And just what is that issue?

In short, Islam has a big problem. It seems to reproduce the worst kinds of radicals and extremists. It appears more prone to this than any other major world religion. Wherever you find a predominance of Muslims, the seed of dangerous extremism is usually taking root.

A typical day in the news includes reports of murderous Muslims killing civilians in cruel ways. This happens with ghastly consistency. We’re pummeled by the unbroken media coverage of this apparently global disease. Many have the unfair but understandable impression that Islam is a religion of death. To one degree or another they see all Muslims as wild-eyed barbarians.

The Two Sides of the Islam Debate

This is what has liberals bickering with each other. Some “leftists” don’t like any religious people of any sort. They see this violence as another reason we should all be secular. For them, the problem is Islam itself. A greater number on the left want to maintain the politically correct stance. President Obama appears to be in this second group. They seek to separate extremists from Islam entirely. For them, Islam is a religion of peace and love with no connection to the ongoing violence. They say that it’s crazy extremists, falsely claiming to be Muslims, who are responsible.

To read more click HERE. 

What ISIS Can Never Defeat - Vernon Brewer

GOD HAS NOT FORGOTTEN IRAQ

“You can look at the situation in Iraq and see pain, or you can look at it and see hope,” said Jeremy, one of our relief partners in Iraq. The words echoed in my head over and over and over.

On our first day in Iraq, we spent most of the day delivering food supplies and Bibles and now we’re meeting together to work on future outreach strategies.

To read the remainder of the story, please click HERE.

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Vernon Brewer

Committed husband, father, and grandfather. Try to live my life in a way that will outlive me and last for eternity. President and CEO of @world_help. Loyal@RedSox fan.

Don’t Follow Your Heart - Jon Bloom

“Follow your heart” is a creed embraced by billions of people. It’s a statement of faith in one of the great pop cultural myths of the Western world; a gospel proclaimed in many of our stories, movies, and songs.

Essentially, it’s a belief that your heart is a compass inside of you that will direct you to your own true north if you just have the courage to follow it. It says that your heart is a true guide that will lead you to true happiness if you just have the courage to listen to it. The creed says that you are lost and your heart will save you.

This creed can sound so simple and beautiful and liberating. For lost people it’s a tempting gospel to believe.

Is This the Leader You Want to Follow?

The “follow your heart” creed certainly isn’t found in the Bible. The Bible actually thinks our hearts have a disease: “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus, the Great Physician, lists the grim symptoms of this disease: “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19). This is not leadership material.

Until you consider that your heart has sociopathic tendencies. Think about it for a moment. What does your heart tell you?

Please don’t answer. Your heart has likely said things today that you would not wish to repeat. I know mine has. My heart tells me that all of reality ought to serve my desires. My heart likes to think the best of me and worst of others — unless those others happen to think well of me, then they are wonderful people. But if they don’t think well of me, or even if they just disagree with me, well then, something is wrong with them. And while my heart is pondering my virtues and others’ errors, it can suddenly find some immoral or horribly angry thought very attractive.

The truth is, no one lies to us more than our own hearts. No one. If our hearts are compasses, they are Jack Sparrow compasses. They don’t tell us the truth, they just tell us what we want. If our hearts are guides, they are Gothels. They are not benevolent, they are pathologically selfish. In fact, if we do what our hearts tell us to do we will pervert and impoverish every desire, every beauty, every person, every wonder, and every joy. Our hearts want to consume these things for our own self-glory and self-indulgence.

No, our hearts will not save us. We need to be saved from our hearts.

This Is the Leader You Want to Follow

To read more click HERE

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Jon Bloom is president of Desiring God and author of Not by Sight (2013) andThings Not Seen (July 2015). He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife, Pam, their five children, and one naughty dog.