I love a mystery. I enjoy a baffling exceptionally well-written mystery.

Authentic Christianity is an inexplicable mystery to many people. That is because Christ is a mystery. Because of our intimate personal relationship with Him we are a mystery to the world. Those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ will not and cannot be expected to understand the true Christian until they, too, have a saving knowledge of Him.

A. W. Tozer got to the heart of this mystery when he wrote that Christians are crazy in Roots of Righteousness:

"A real Christian is an odd number anyway. He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen, talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another, empties himself in order to be full, admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, goes down in order to get up, is strong when he is weakest, richest when he is poorest, and happiest when he feels worst. He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows that which passes knowledge."

Christians are meant to be different, and we are in good company.

Can you imagine Christ in all His glorious riches actually dwelling through His Spirit in our lives right now? Gods goal is to make us in all respects just like Christ. God is at work. He is sovereign. He is busy changing lives and the way He does it is a mystery.

TELL ME A MYSTERY

The apostle Paul even said that Christ is Gods mystery (Col. 2:2). The good news we share with the world is the mystery of Christ. (Col. 4:3).

Paul uses the word mystery not as we do in our day, but in the context of his day and age. The word mystery in the Scriptures is a secret, a truth undiscoverable, except by divine revelation. It is a fact that cannot be understood in detail without divine help. It cannot be known by natural abilities and mental powers. It was a truth that was hidden in the counsels of God down through the ages and generations until God in His grace chose to make it known to mankind by divine revelation. The apostle Paul says, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints (Col. 1:26). It was concealed from angels and men until God revealed it. The only way of knowing this mystery is through a self-revelation of God to man. God revealed a great mystery to the apostle Paul. God made it visible or known to man.

If Paul has in mind the heathen use of mystery whose secrets were kept confined in a strict narrow circle of initiated members of their society, then he tells us that the Christian mystery in Christ is just the opposite because it is fully declared and proclaimed in the open to every one in the world. God has revealed His deep secret to all mankind by means of His special revelation. There are no secrets with God. He has fully revealed Himself in Christ. The deep mystery is that God has granted free admission of all Gentiles on equal terms with the Jewish believers to all the privileges of the covenant. God has now told His secret to all His saints. Gods riches are no longer limited by national ties. God has done this according to the riches of His grace.

The context of this great passage on Gods mystery in Christ is the church as the body of Christ (Col. 1:24). For some it is strange to say that the apostle can rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. The apostle had learned the joy in Christ in times of suffering (Phil. 4:4). In fact, verse 24 is a great outburst of thanksgiving to God for the privilege of suffering on behalf of His body.

There is a sense of purpose in his experience. I am filling up in my turn the left-overs of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh. Genuine Christians are strange, indeed.

Does Pauls suffering have any atoning value for his sins? No. Do our sorrows have any atoning value for our sins? No, of course not. We do not come adding any virtue or merit to the completed work of Christ. Christs work of atonement for sin is complete. It was completed when Christ declared from the cross, It is finished! We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

The Christians suffering is on a different level from that endured by Christ on the cross. Punishment for sin is not in view here. The sufferings of Christ alone have atoning value for the sinner. Ours do not. It is part of our stewardship. We suffer troubles, afflictions, tribulations and persecutions because of our identification with Christ (Matt. 5:10-12). The afflictions of the church are also the afflictions of Christ (Acts 9:4-5). The person who persecutes the church persecutes Christ. When believers suffer, Christ suffers.

It is this stewardship as a member of the family of God that he was made a minister on behalf of the church. God assigned him the task of fully proclaiming Gods message to the known world. The call of God was to preach without reserve the whole gospel of God to the ends of the earth. Paul now proceeds to tell us about that great responsibility that was thrust upon him and every Christian minister (Col. 1:25).

THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST IN YOU

In Jesus Christ are summed up everything we can know about God and His eternal purposes. In Christ we see the riches of Gods glory, wisdom and grace (Rom. 9:23; 11:33; Eph. 1:7, 18; 2:7; 3:16; Phil. 4:19).

Christ is a mystery

The gospel is a mystery of mysteries. Christ is Himself the grand mystery of redemption. It is the majestic secret of God with us. It is the glorious manifestation of Gods dealings with mankind. The Holy Spirit takes the revealed Word of God and illumines us individually. We are made gloriously wealthy by this mystery.

C. H. Spurgeon said:

"Each separate individual must have Christ revealed to him and in him by the work of the Holy Spirit, or else he will remain in darkness even in the midst of the gospel day. Blessed and happy are they to whom the Lord has laid open the divine secret which prophets and kings could not discover, which angels desired to look into.

Without controversy, said the apostle Paul, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh. The Lord Jesus is crowned with glory as of the Only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He is the brightness of the Fathers glory. We have unsearchable riches in Christ because in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

As Spurgeon noted: Oh, the riches of the grace of God which it has pleased the Father to impart unto us in Christ Jesus! Christ is the mystery, the riches, and the glory. He is all this . . . He is all this among us poor Gentiles . . . and we are made heirs of God. . . . All things are ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The essence of the mystery is Christ Himself in His person. It is Christ in all His glorious riches actually dwelling through His Spirit in the inner lives of His believers.

The incarnation of Christ is a mystery

The incarnation of Christ is a deep mystery. It was born in the unsearchable wise mind of God. The idea of Immanuel, God with us was conceived in the omnipotent omniscient mind of God. Every regenerated mind delights in this vital union between God and man.

The apostle Paul tells us another mystery. Let the quotable Spurgeon say it for us. Our Lords person is at this day constituted in the same manner. He is still God and man; still He can sympathize with our manhood to the full, for He is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; and yet He can help us without limit, seeing He is equal with the Father. Though manifestly divine, yet Jesus is none the less human; though truly man, He is none the less divine, and this is the door of hope to us, a fountain of consolation which never ceases to flow.

Very God very man. God incarnate became a vicarious substitute for sin and died and rose again.

The death of Christ is a mystery

Since the incarnation is a great mystery we are ever mindful of the great mystery of His death. That the Son of God should die as a substitute for our sins is quite beyond us. He humbled Himself and became a servant, and died as our substitute on a cross. He bore our terrible load of sin on the cross that we might never bear the Fathers righteous wrath. He took the cup of wrath that we ought to have drunk forever and drained it dry. He bore our punishment in His death. He redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Moreover, He has made everything right and safe for us with God the Father by making an end of sin and an everlasting righteousness on our behalf with the Father. The finished work of Jesus Christ is a grand mystery. Jesus Christ is all my righteousness. He is all my salvation and all my desire.

The resurrection and ascension of Christ is a grand mystery

On the other hand since He is the second person of the Godhead, the Son of God, the eternal Word of God, should we be in the least surprised that He should rise from the dead?

Jesus Christ is the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18). He overcame death and passed to His sovereign throne at the right hand of the Father in heaven where He reigns as the living Lord. He has overcome death. He is alive!

Since you are a believer you have been raised up with Christ, therefore keep on constantly seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Because of the new birth Christ now lives in me. This is the greatest miracle of all. Christ in me is the most certain thing in my personal experience (1 Cor. 6:19-20; Eph. 3:16-17).

A total change took place in our outlook when we came into personal contact with Jesus Christ. There was a time when we were alienated from God and we were dead in trespasses and sin. We began and ended each day without any serious thought about God and His will for our lives. He was not important to us. We were hostile toward God. But something happened in our lives. Now we are reconciled to God. Now He is our most valued person. Something happened within us. Something changed our attitude toward Jesus Christ. In the moment we believed on Jesus Christ our whole life changed. God is in the business of changing lives and He does it when we repent of our sins and believe on Christ as our Savior. What happened? We were born again. A spiritual birth took place and Christ came within you and the Holy Spirit made you His temple. If you need your life changed that is where you must begin. It begins when you open your heart to Christ and receive Him as Lord.

Every believer has stamped in him, Made in Christ. That means there are no cheap imitations of Christians. The crowning work of redemption is conforming the believer into the image of Christ (Gal. 4:1).

The greatest miracle is Christ in you

Christ in you, the hope of glory. The grandest mystery of all Paul tells us is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in me creates the hope of glory.

A. T. Robertson stresses the idea of the preposition en here is in not among. The context requires that we understand the phrase as referring to an inner subjective experience. The mystery long hidden is not a diffusion of Christ among the Gentiles. It is the indwelling of Christ in His people, both Jewish and Gentile. The declared hope of glory of both is Christ in you. Paul has in mind the indwelling Christ in the heart of every believer. Though among you makes good sense, it is more probable in you or within (cf. Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; Gal. 4:19; Eph. 3:17). It is the personal experience of the living presence of Christ in the individual life of the believer that is the mystery of mysteries.

Ephesians 3:17 tells us Christ dwells in your hearts. The central fact of an intimate personal relationship with Christ is this great truth of Christ in you. This indwelling constitutes the hope of glory for every believer. Jesus is the glory of God, and He shines in our hearts so that we see the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:6, 16; 1 Jn. 3:2-3).

The Christian has experienced the superior light and knowledge of Jesus Christ and all other religious experiences and claims of the Gnostics and secret mystery religions fade into nothing when compared to the inward knowledge of an intimate love relationship with Him.

The first Adam headed up the human race and stood for us, and fell for us, and we fell in him. How marvelous that the second Adam took up within Himself all His people and stood for us and kept the covenant with God the Father so that now every blessing of that new covenant is infallibly secure to all who are risen in Him.

Whatever Christ is His people are in Him. They are crucified in Him, they were dead in Him, they were buried in Him, they were risen in Him; in Him they live eternally, in Him they sit gloriously at the right hand of God, who has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In Him we are accepted in the beloved, both now and forever; and this, I say, is the essence of the gospel; he who does not preach Christ, preaches no gospel. . . . Christ Himself is the life, soul, substance, and essence of the mystery of the gospel of God (Spurgeon).

Anything short of Jesus Christ will leave you short of salvation. You have to reach Christ, and touch Christ and nothing short of this will save you.

Jesus gives us Himself. To have Christ is to have eternal life. He does not merely give us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption etc., but He is made of God all these things to us. He is our life. Therefore, we cannot do without Him.

The Christian experience heightens every individual power we have. Keep in mind the person in whom Christ begins to possess does not cease to be himself. He does not become a robot. This is not some pantheistic philosophy Paul is teaching.

Christ in me means that He is bearing me along from within. His motive-power carries me on giving my whole life a wonderful sense of Gods presence. It gives me life with an endless song in my heart.

This blessed union with Christ is a vital union with God. The more a person is in Christ the more he is in God. To be united with Christ is to be united with the God who raised Him (Rom. 8:11; Col. 2:12). The heart of Pauls fellowship with Christ is found in his certainty that God was in Christ. The believer is risen with Christ through faith of the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. The apostle John says, Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3).

It is Christ in you or within you that gives us the riches of His glory. The mystery is the indwelling Christ in Gentiles. It was not a mystery to the Jewish people that the Messiah should come and dwell among His people. That was their great hope. However, that the Messiah of Israel should dwell among the non-Jews was an entirely new revelation of the purposes of God. Christ freely given to the Gentiles is the mystery. Christ now indwells in His people, regardless of whether they are Jewish or non-Jewish.

Christ in you

Christ in you accepted by faith alone means Christ possessed. When Christ is in you the law has nothing more to say to you. It can no longer condemn you because God has declared you acquitted. You have been justified by faith in Christ.

Christ in you means Christ experienced in all His power. Christ in you fills your life with His holy presence and power. That which the law can never do, Christ does by indwelling in you.

Christ in you is His sovereign rule in your life. Christ in you is Christs scepter from the center of your being over every facet of your personality. Christ in you is His power bringing every thought into captivity to Himself. Christ in you means the imperial sovereignty of Jesus Christ over your life. We find our freedom by being in submission to His sovereign hand over our lives.

Christ in you means His filling you with His wonderful presence. Christ in you transforms your person until you become like Christ.

When Christ enters into our lives and we yield to His presence He transforms, elevates us to His likeness. The apostle Paul declared, I live, yet not I, Christ lives in me. When Christ enters in He sanctifies us, and sets us apart for His glory.

Christ in you means He enters into us and becomes our life.

Christ in you means His power in you. We were without spiritual strength until Christ came into our lives. We were dead in trespasses and sins. Now our spiritual victory is guaranteed.

Christ in you means we are spiritually rich. We were in spiritual poverty until Christ came in and now we have all the riches of Christ Jesus. We are now rich because He is rich.

Christ in you means honor and glory. He glorifies the place where He dwells even for a moment. If Christ comes into your heart His whole court comes with Him! Rejoice for you have Him as a holy guest. People who value and love Him cannot be happy without Him.

OUR HOPE OF GLORY

The indwelling Christ is the ground for the expectation of glory both now and the future. Christ in you, the hope of glory. The word glory points to the great consummation in Gods eternal purpose, and is a comprehensive word for Gods glorious presence with His people.

The wealth of glory for the believer is this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ. Our ground of hope is Christ in you.

M. R. Vincent says, The full glory of the inheritance was a hope, to be realized when Christ should appear. Glory refers to the glory of the mystery; hence the glory consummated at Christs coming the glory which shall be revealed.

The glorified saints around the throne of God have no higher source of joy than the saints on earth. They have no higher theme or song of praise to the Father. They are only happier because their discovery of these things is more complete and are now freed from all earthly hindrances and limitations that interrupt our enjoyment in our present state.

Christ alone is our foundation for the blessed hope in the future, or eschatological glory. The fact that we now have Christ in us is the pledge of final glory when Christ returns. This glory is yet future. We will share in the yet future full manifestation of Gods glory in Christ.

Jesus Christ focuses our minds and desires on that which is above in heaven and the eternal future. Christ in you gets eternity into the picture. He gets our minds off our past through the forgiveness of our sins and into the present as He lives within us and into the future as we concentrate on our blessed hope in Him alone. Christ in you energizes the present and gives us a song to sing. Lord Jesus, will I see You today? Even so, come!

Paul wrote in Colossians 3:4, When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory.

The apostle Paul prayed that this great truth would become a reality for the believers in the church at Ephesus. He prayed, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19). That will take your breath away! When Christ in you offers all of those glorious benefits why in the world do people go turning to new age movements, secret mystery religions, occults and cults seeking the most recent religious fad?

If you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior He wants to settled down and make Himself permanently at home in your heart. He wants to settle down in your inner man that is, the personal, rational self, the moral that has experienced spiritual renewal by the Spirit of God. He is talking about the very core of your inner spiritual being. That is the place where He is at work forming you in the image of Christ.

It is there Paul tells us Christ dwells in your hearts through faith. Christ wants to settle down in a dwelling, to dwell fixedly in a place, to live in a home. He wants to settle down and feel completely at home as a permanent dwelling place in your heart.

Do you make Christ feel at home? Do you invite Him in as a permanent resident? Does He feel comfortable in your heart? Are there two masters trying to be sovereign in your life? Do you give Christ the free reign of your life? Do you have any junk closets where He is forbidden to enter? Are there any secret hideouts in your heart? Can you honestly drag everything in your heart out in the glaring holy light of the Son?

But Paul is not through. He says in a great doxology, Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen (Eph. 3:20-21).

Literally Paul writes, But to Him [God] who is able above all things to do exceedingly above . . . It is exceeding some number or measure, over and above, more than necessary and is intensified by adding the idea of exhaustlessness and above. The apostle Paul has in mind something that is beyond all things. It is superabundantly and over and above anything he can imagine. Now to our God who is able to do exceedingly beyond all things, superabundantly and over and above all things, exceeding all things beyond all things, we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. What a great God and Savior we worship!

Our weakness is connected to Gods omnipotence and omniscience. God is able!

The amazing thing is the best is yet to come! These are words of hope and confident assurance of the believers future. The apostle John wrote of that final glory in 1 John 3:1-3.

What glory is ours, glory unspeakable!

We shall have glorified bodies just like the resurrected body of Christ when He appears in glory. He who has come to live in our hearts, and reigns as our bosoms Lord, makes us glorious by His coming, declared Spurgeon. When Christ comes to reign He brings countless blessings with Him. Just think of it. He who went to the cross for me will never be ashamed of me: He who gave me Himself will give me all heaven and more: He that opened His very heart to find blood and water to wash me in, how shall He keep back even His kingdom from me? O sweet Lord Jesus, thou art indeed to us the hope, pledge, the guarantee of glory.

The Lord Jesus Christ entered into a covenant with God the Father to bring His people home to glory. He who pledged to bring every sheep of His flock safe to His Fathers right hand will not fail. He has never failed one of His covenant promises. He never will.

Christ in you is glory. In having Christ, you have glory. Christs glory and your glory are wrapped up together. If Christ were to lose you it would be a great loss to Him. If I can perish with Christ in me He will lose His honor. His glory is gone if one soul who has put their trust in Him for eternal life is ever cast away. As sure as the Lord God lives, Christ in you means you in glory with Him for all eternity. This is the most astounding truth taught in the Bible. Christ in you.

SOME ABIDING PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Christ in me is a prophet teaching me His way, giving me His direction so I can proclaim His message with clarity and boldness. To whom God willed to make known is the result of Gods grace, through no merit of the saints, making it known. God says, Now that you know all my deep secrets in Christ, go into the entire world and tell them. Instead of piously keeping them to yourself, or your select group, go out and tell the secret to everyone who will listen. Only Christians can understand the mystery because it is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Christ in me is my High Priest interceding and giving me immediate access to God so I can go directly into His presence with my petitions on your behalf.

Christ is me is a king demanding my loyalty as I bow in worship only to Him as my Lord and Master and as His servant I go out to serve.

Don't be ashamed for one moment of the fact that Christ in you is your hope of glory.

This is the greatest mystery of the universe that God of the Jewish people would take up residence in Gentile men and women. The idea of salvation of the Gentiles was nothing new. The prophets spoke of it and the poets wrote of it in the Psalms. But the idea that He would tabernacle Himself in a Gentile was something wholly new. That is the mystery of Christ in you the hope of glory.

Christ in Wil Pounds! Christ in the Quechuas. Christ in the Jivaro. Christ in the Chinese. Christ in the Japanese, the Russians, the African. Christ in me! That is my hope of glory and I pray that it is yours, too. It is the only hope for the world in which we live. Do you have that hope? Do you share that same expectation of glory with God in Christ? Do you have Christ dwelling within your heart? Do you have Christ in you? You can begin right now.

Title: Colossians 1:27 Christ in You, the Hope of Glory

Part Two in the Series on Christ in You the Hope of Glory is Colossians 1:28-29 Our Goal in Life and Ministry

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2007. Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author's written consent.

Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations taken from the NASB."

Wil is a graduate of William Carey College, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He has pastored in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S, and served for over 20 years as missionary in Ecuador and Honduras. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry head in over 100 countries for ten years. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters. He currently serves as a Baptist missionary, pastor and teaches seminary extension courses in Honduras.

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CP U.S.

Franklin Graham: World Unraveling Sign From God That Jesus Is Coming

BY STOYAN ZAIMOV , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER

February 19, 2016|8:00 am

(PHOTO: REUTERS/ALLISON SHELLEY)

Franklin Graham, head of international relief organization Samaritan's Purse, visits one of the organization's cholera treatment centers in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, January 8, 2011.

Evangelical preacher the Rev. Franklin Graham has said that international news headlines indicate the world is unraveling, and urged people to trust Jesus Christ, who is going to one day "wipe the slate clean."

"While the United States is focused on its own politics, the world is unraveling. The danger signals are everywhere. Beheadings, rapes, murders, bombings are taking place every day across North Africa through the Middle East, all the way to the borders of India," Graham wrote Thursday on his

"The U.S. military is deploying fighter aircraft to Finland to counter Russia's moves in that region; China is deploying missiles on an artificial island they have built in the south China sea over the objections of the international community; and North Korea has successfully test fired a long-range missile that has the potential of eventually reaching America with a nuclear bomb," he noted of some of the international news developments in recent times.

The son of famous evangelist Billy Graham, who heads Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse, said that all of the global political and economic instability shows that the only hope for the world is "Almighty God."

"One day He is going to wipe the slate clean and 'create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind,' (Isaiah 65:17). For those who have trusted His Son Jesus Christ by faith, there is an eternal future with Him to look forward to," he continued.

Graham has been outspoken about world issues, such as the ongoing persecution and genocide of Christians in the Middle East at the hands of the Islamic State terror group, and has urged President Obama to recognize the severity of the issue.

"Mass murder, crucifixions, beheadings, enslavement, rape, destruction of churches, theft of lands and wealth, and forcible conversion to Islam — all are horrors that Christians in the Middle East are experiencing," Graham said back in December, insisting that Obama officially recognize the treatment of Christians as a genocide.

"ISIS doesn't want to co-exist with Christians — it wants to eliminate them," he added. "This is genocide against Christians, and their lives do matter."

Graham has been highly vocal about the 2016 presidential elections as well.

While Graham has not endorsed a candidate, he has warned Christians that they might "lose this country" unless they get out and vote.

"America is being stripped of biblical heritage," Graham said last week while speaking at the State House in Columbia, South Carolina, encouraging believers to "vote for candidates who stand for biblical truth and biblical principles, and are willing to live them."

"I want to get to as many Christians as I can to vote in the next election," he added, speaking of his Decision America Tour.

"Our country is going in the wrong direction. And I think some of the politicians that are running have tapped into the anger and the frustration in this country. And I want Christians to know that their vote does count and we've taken God out of government, schools and everything else and we need to get God back into it," Graham insisted.

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WND

FOX NEWS HOST SEES DIRE FUTURE FOR EVANGELICALS

Warns liberals 'sanctioning discrimination against Christians'

Published: 7 hours ago. Updated: 02/26/2016 at 8:28 AM

Christianity is under attack in America.

Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro said during a speech in Tennessee that Christians are in danger of losing their rights because the liberal mindset of modern times is all things anti-Christian are A-OK.

Speaking to a crowd at the NRB International Media Convention in Nashville, Pirro said, Western Journalism reported: Americans can’t rely on their First Amendment rights to protect them as the Founding Fathers intended any longer.

“Although it seems that the protections that we have in the Constitution are protections that no one can take away from us,” she said, “I want to tell you that they’re already being taken away.”

Blame liberalism, she said.

“The irony of today’s liberalism that is accepting of anything and everything is that it is sanctioning discrimination against Christians,” Pirro said.

Pirro told those in the audience in the media they ought to “defend free speech” and step up coverage of issues that show Christianity is under attack.

She also warned evangelical Christians in particular face a First Amendment hit and that the time may come when this group of people are no longer able to speak freely on matters of faith, Western Journalism reported.

“[The First Amendment is] the cornerstone of this nation,” Pirro said. “Your being offended is not an excuse [to take] my free speech.”

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CHARISMANEWS

Science Proves Your Brain Recognizes the Reality of God, Researchers Say

2:30PM EST 2/17/2016 JESSILYN JUSTICE

Your brain is hardwired to believe in God, researchers say. (Flickr/Creative Commons)

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Join us on our podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.

Even if you were never taught to believe in God, your brain could still recognize His existence. Such is the premise of Romans 1, and a roundtable discussion set to air on National Geographic.

According to National Geographic, fascinating new research has uncovered the possibility that believing in God may be hardwired in our brains.

"Psychologists and anthropologists deemed that children left to their own devices would have some conception of God. Some attribute this to our innate sense of detecting patterns in the world (as to discern predators or prey in nature), while others propagate the notion of a 'supersense'—or a cognitive tendency to infer hidden forces in the world working for good or ill," says Shaheen E. Lakhan, who holds several doctorate degrees, including an M.D.

Lakhan's statements back up those of Andrew Newberg, who actively researches "neurotheology."

Newberg conducted several brain studies, evaluating what happens when a person prays or meditates.

After eight weeks of prayer, "They had improvements of about 10 or 15 percent."

"This is only after eight weeks at 12 minutes a day, so you can imagine what happens in people who are deeply religious and spiritual and are doing these practices for hours a day for years and years," he told NPR.

Newberg detailed some of his findings in How God Changes Your Brain, Why We Believe What We Believe, and Why God Won't Go Away.

"People frequently meditate or pray as a way of keeping themselves calm during procedures. We know for sure that meditation and prayer help reduce depression, anxiety and blood pressure. They basically alter the physiology of the person and, in most cases, in positive ways. This happens certainly in the moment. But people have also found that a lot of these effects are persistent," Newberg says.

And for those who actively reject faith, some still cannot deny the presence of God.

In a piece for the Washington Post, atheist Elizabeth King writes that she cannot shake the idea of God's existence.

"The idea of God pesters me and makes me think that maybe I'm not as devoted to my beliefs as I'd like to think I am and would like to be. Maybe I'm still subconsciously afraid of hell and want to go to heaven when I die. It's confusing and frustrating to feel the presence of something you don't believe in. This is compounded by the fact that the God character most often shows up when I'm already frustrated," King writes.

Neurotheologian Newberg says this is because science does back the reality of religious experiences.

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BREAKINGISRAELNEWS

Is Nibiru Coming and Bringing Messiah In Its Wake?

By Rivkah Lambert Adler February 22, 2016 , 9:30 am

“Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.”

Psalms 126:2 (The Israel Bible™)

(Photo: Graphicstock)

When Breaking Israel News first reported on an apocalyptic scenario involving a mysterious star or planet whose tail is expected to result in extensive damage to Earth’s land masses and death to millions, the story was met with plenty of skepticism.

Since then, however, the connection between the planet Nibiru – also known as Planet X – and End of Days has been discussed with increasingly seriousness by a wide range of Jewish scholars.

To date, the biggest name associated with this story is Rav Moshe Sternbuch, a very prominent rabbi in Jerusalem. Although he did not verify an apocalyptic scenario, he did tell his student, Rabbi Daniel Travis, that there are big changes coming to the world. He also explained that the appearance of a star at the End of Days is plainly spoken of in the Zohar, Judaism’s primary mystical text.
A translation of Rabbi Sternbuch’s Zohar reference is available on a new blog Tracking Nibiru, maintained by the End of Days blogger Tomer Devorah. Excerpts from the relevant passage read:

At that time Melech Hamoshiach (Messiah the King) will awaken and go out from Gan Eden (Garden of Eden), from the place called Kan Tzippor, and will be revealed in the Galil (Galilee)…. A star will arise from the East side, flaming with all colors, and seven other stars will go around this star and make a war with it on all sides three times a day for 70 days, and all the people of the world will see.

In a video filmed on February 14, Travis recounts his conversation with Sternbuch and translates the extended passage from the Zohar. Although sections of the passage are obscure, Travis said, “We should at least know that we’re not in simple times. We see many of the signs of Moshiach (Messiah) already happened.”

Continuing with his commentary on the passage, Travis teaches that the person who is alive in the time of the Messiah is both to be pitied and envied. “Hashem (God) is going to look at the world at the time when Moshiach is supposed to come and see that nobody is worthy. He’s going to have to bring tremendous yissurim (trials) onto the world in order that Moshiach should come.”

Travis continues translating the passage from the Zohar. “It’s going to be a test in emunah (faith in God). Happy is the person who is going to be in the time of Moshiach. Whoever holds onto emunah is going to see unbelievable things.”

Travis translates the words of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, 2nd century sage and author of the Zohar. “The task is to remain in emunah during this time. We’re going to see things happening that we don’t have any way of understanding. It’s going to be things that are beyond belief. It’s going to make the Exodus from Egypt look like nothing. Every day it’s going to be worse and we’re going to forget what it was like the day before. Whoever has emunah at this time will merit to see the end.”

Travis assures his audience that Jerusalem and the Land of Israel will be safe. He quotes a verse from Psalms 126:2. “‘Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.’ Why will we laugh? It’s going to be a totally different world. Definitely big things are brewing and we have to be ready for that.”

(Travis' assurance that Jerusalem and the Land of Israel will be safe is not how the book of Zechariah describes the situation in Jerusalem and Israel. Jesus does eventually save it but not until after severe suffering. See below. Note this is from the Old Testament. Ed

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem as trembling door-posts to all the nations round about, and in Judea there shall be a siege against Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will make Jerusalem a trodden stone to all the nations: every one that tramples on it shall utterly mock at it, and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against it.

I will cut off the false prophets and the evil spirit from the land. And it shall come to pass, if a man will yet prophesy, that his father and his mother which gave birth to him shall say to him, Thou shalt not live; for thou has spoken lies in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother who gave him birth shall bind him as he is prophesying.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision when he prophesies; and they shall clothe themselves with a garment of hair, because they have lied.

And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts thereof shall be cut off and perish; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and I will try them as silver is tried, and I will prove them as gold is proved: they shall call upon my name, and I will hear them, and say, This is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

And I will gather all the Gentiles to Jerusalem to war, and the city shall be taken, and the houses plundered, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, but the rest of my people shall not be utterly cut off from the city.” Zechariah 12:2-3, 13:2-4, 13:8-9, 14:10)

A day later, Bible Codes expert Rabbi Mattiyahu Glazerson released a video about Nibiru. The table used in both videos comes from the Book of Deuteronomy. In this video, Glazerson points out Bible Codes for “threat of a star” which crosses with the Hebrew word shaveet (comet). These Codes are found in close proximity, an indication of the strength of their relationship. Glazerson also found the word Nibiru.

Linking all this to today, Glazerson points out Messiah son of Joseph and Messiah son of David and 5776, the current Hebrew year. Glazerson points to the Code referring to the year after Shemita as one of the signs that Messiah is on the way. Putting the pieces together, Glazerson states, “Everything indicates that great things are going to happen.”

In a second video, Glazerson points out a reference to the month of March and the corresponding Hebrew month of Adar Bet and affirms that this all fits with the passage from the Zohar about the star. In leap years, which occur seven times every 19 years in the Hebrew calendar, an additional month of Adar, called Adar Alef is added. In a leap year, the “regular” month of Adar is referred to as Adar Bet.

A third rabbinic voice to speak openly about Nibiru is Rabbi Yuval Ovadia, a maker of spiritual films. In a radio interview on February 17, Ovadia shared his findings that Planet X was well-known and spoken about openly approximately 40 years ago. He claims to have many newspaper articles about the existence of Nibiru from that time.

“And then,” Ovadia claims, “it went down. NASA put it in a complete silence. They didn’t talk about it. And it was like just out there for [anyone believing] in mysticism and stuff like that, but as far as science, it’s completely vanished, as if it did not exist and even they started to, you know, spread around ‘It’s not true. It’s not there.’”

Nibiru has consistently been debunked by scientists and journalists, most recently in Joel Achenbach’s story in the Washington Post.

The date most frequently associated with Nibiru is March 26, 2016. In a matter of weeks, the entire world will know whether or not Nibiru exists and whether or not it represents a Messianic advancement.

***

WND

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN

HEZBOLLAH CHANGING TUNE ON ISRAEL'S EXISTENCE?

Chief endorses 'resistance' but says it's not 'reality' to want to eliminate

Published: February 26, 2016

F. MICHAEL MALOOF

Jerusalem at night in CIA image

WASHINGTON – Despite repeated Western worries Hezbollah, along with its sponsor, Iran, seeks Israel’s destruction, a little-noticed recent comment by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah suggests otherwise, according to a new report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

“If there is now a consensus in Israel on this characterization of the resistance in Lebanon, does it mean that Hezbollah is opening a front and wants to eliminate Israel from existence?” Nasrallah asked in a Feb. 16 speech. “The reality now is not so.”

The notion likely isn’t limited just to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

Iran also may be sending that public signal, given its influence over its Lebanese proxy, analysts believe.

Nasrallah’s statement shows that his group will maintain a line of resistance to neighboring Israel but won’t be threatening its existence.

The shift doesn’t necessarily mean threats involving the protection of Lebanon have vanished, but as one Middle East observer suggested to G2Bulletin, it could mean that Hezbollah has no intention of initiating any action along the Lebanese and Syrian border areas.

This observer said that Hezbollah has its hands full resisting the Islamic State while backing the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad. In so doing, it has taken on major casualties, costing the resistance group serious fighter casualties at great expense.

Hezbollah and Iran both telegraphed this new, more pragmatic approach following what is now believed to have been the killing by the Israeli Defense Forces of the Lebanese Druze Samir Kuntar last December in Jaramana, south of Damascus, Syria.

The IDF allegedly hit him with air-to-ground missiles fired from its warplanes, which possibly were just outside Syria, onto a building, collapsing it and killing all inside, including Kuntar.

The killing of Kuntar, who was a close operative of Hezbollah and Iran, then raised concern on what the response would be from them.

Where a quick reaction from artillery fire back into Israel would have been expected from Hezbollah, there was none.

A year earlier, there was similar concern after Israel on Jan. 18, 2015, launched an airstrike in Quneitra in the Syrian Golan Heights, killing six Hezbollah members and a general of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Daily Mail

The phoenix rises! The Northern Lights take on the form of the legendary bird over Iceland

• Incredible photographs of the aurora borealis over Iceland show the moment they formed the outline of a phoenix

• The lights formed a near perfect shape of the fire-breathing creature which was common in ancient mythology

• Hallgrimur P Helgason said the key to photographing the spectacle was avoiding light pollution and using no flash

By COREY CHARLTON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 06:28 EST, 23 February 2016 | UPDATED: 09:40 EST, 23 February 2016

These incredible photographs of the aurora borealis captured the moment the lights formed the outline of a phoenix - the giant fire-eating bird common in many ancient mythologies.

With outstretched wings and a striking bird-shaped profile, the image - captured by photographer Hallgrimur P Helgason - wowed stargazers in Kaldarsel.

Mr Helgason, 64, said that the bird showed up in the night sky an hour after he got there and started snapping.

He said: 'It's really a thrill shooting the aurora, especially when they are so playful like they were that night. I have to admit that I always get an adrenalin kick when the lights burst out like that - that particular shot was the top one of the night.'

He uses a camera and tripod to photograph the lights, and advises snapping in the dark away from city light pollution and never using a flash.

He said the Northern Lights were mainly showing in green and yellow colours when he was shooting that night but also sported red and blue, suggesting the aurora was strong.

The incredible photograph, taken of the northern lights in Iceland, took the remarkable form of the mythological phoenix bird7

The animal shape formed among the famous lights was captured by photographer Hallgrimur P Helgason

FARS NEWS AGENCY

Breaking Records: Vladimir Putin’s Popularity in Syria is Unparalleled

Tue Feb 23, 2016

TEHRAN (FNA)- Russian President Vladimir Putin is extremely popular in the Syrian capital. The president’s rating has even exceeded the popularity of the long-standing ally of Damascus - the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, Spanish newspaper El Pais wrote.

In the city streets of Damascus there are portraits and souvenirs of Vladimir Putin everywhere. The president can be seen on billboards, his portraits are hanging along the streets on office buildings and kiosks, the newspaper wrote.

“Since September last year, when, with the support of the Russian air force the Syrian Army won several major victories against the terrorists of Daesh, the ranking of the Russian leader went up and even eclipsed the glory of the leader of Hezbollah.”

Currently, Putin’s admiration can be seen in the whole of the capital especially near the central Umayyad mosque bazaars where shop vendors are selling enormous collection of badges, key chains, mugs and t-shirts with the image of the president.

According to the Spanish publication in some schools in Damascus, Russian is being offered as the first foreign language and Russian military officers who in their spare time walk around the city are met with cries of ‘Welcome Russia!’

Against the background of such a powerful support for Moscow's actions the population loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad has turned a deaf ear to the international press reports about how Russian airstrikes are allegedly killing civilians.

“Syrians perceive these reports as Western propaganda aimed at splitting their country,” El Pais noted.

Similarly, the Russian language can be heard in Syrian military establishments and it should not come as a surprise because the army is currently headed by people who were educated in Russia.The ‘Putin effect’ has affected the morale of the soldiers in general but everyone knows that the immediate fighting against the terrorists is being conducted by the Syrian soldiers themselves, the publication concluded.

***

RT

'Washington is telling Ankara: NATO will not rescue you in Syria’

Published time: 23 Feb, 2016 12:11

Edited time: 24 Feb, 2016 18:05

By adopting terms for a cessation of hostilities together with Russia, the US showed Turkey it is not going to support Ankara’s efforts to send troops into Syria and NATO won’t come to rescue them later, former US diplomat Jim Jatras told RT.

RT: How confident can we be that this new agreement will hold?

Jim Jatras: I am not real confident, but it is the best thing we have got going right now. Look, nothing like this would be happening and there would not even be a chance of a viable ceasefire if it was not for the Russian air campaign in Syria and the advances made by the Syrian Army, with Russian support, which has essentially forced the various terrorist groups supported by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and - let’s be honest about it - by the United States, into a very precarious position where they are essentially suing for peace.

Whether that will hold up, whether they can really agree on who is really a terrorist aside from Al-Nusra and ISIS, we’ll have to see. There are many other pitfalls that could come up, for example, things like provocations that the Syrian Army is ‘violating the ceasefire,’ when instead it is being staged by one of the rebel groups. We have a long way to go here, but at least this is a possible path to a negotiated settlement.

RT: The US State Department said the cessation of hostilities is for all sides and that includes the Turkish shelling of Kurds inside Syria. What's your take on that? Will Turkey comply?

JJ: It is difficult. If you look at the text of the agreement, it does not specifically mention Turkey or Saudi Arabia, although I suppose you could infer them for mention of the ‘US-led coalition,’ which of course they are not really members [of]. Turkey is really concerned about the Kurds and they are supporting various other terrorist groups in Syria. I think one reason this agreement came about between the United States and Russia is because the Turks and the Saudis for the last few weeks have been making a lot of noise about their willingness to intervene on the ground in Syria to save – let’s face it - their terrorist assets there, but only if the Americans led the way. We made it clear that the Americans are not going to lead the way and their bluff has essentially been called and that is one reason why we are at this juncture today.

RT: What action could be taken against Turkey if they violate the ceasefire?

JJ: Enforcing [the ceasefire] is going to be extremely difficult. However, if Turkey were to send its forces into Syria, this would be completely illegal; they would be subject to reprisals from the Syrian Army and Russian air support. Washington has made it clear to Ankara that “you guys are on your own and if you are stupid enough to send your forces into Syria and you get hit by the Russians, don’t expect NATO to come to the rescue.”

RT: The White House spokesperson has said there may be some setbacks in implementing the plan. What was he referring to? What possible hurdles might they be facing?

JJ: There are numerous things. Who are the terrorist groups? What provocations could take place? Where is the enforcement mechanism here? There is a long way to go here and even assuming the best of will - which in Syria is a pretty big assumption to make - there are a lot of things that could go wrong here. I think that is one reason why the military option from Damascus with Moscow’s support needs to stay on the table.

RT: The Syrian Army has been making a lot of gains recently strengthening Assad's position in the country. What does this ceasefire mean for them?

JJ: If there are any genuine opposition groups, any groups that are genuinely Syrians - because you have to remember a lot of these fighters are foreigners who are willing to enter into a political process with Damascus. Meanwhile the Syrian Army is making gains against ISIS. There is now a reason to think that the Syrian Army could start advancing towards Raqqa. Nothing in this agreement is going to stop them from doing that and it seems to me that they will be able to put even more resources into the struggle against ISIS and Al-Nusra.

RT: How much sway do you think Russia might have over Syria here?

JJ: I think the Russians obviously do have some influence with the Syrians, but it is one of a genuine partnership. I do not consider the Syrian government to be just another faction on the ground; it’s the legitimate government of Syria. That is why I tend to dismiss this kind of talk about: “Well, there is a transition and maybe Assad will go and so forth.” It should be clear to everybody that Assad will stay and we will see some kind of perhaps restructuring of the Syrian state, maybe some kind of autonomy for the Kurds or other groups within Syria, but I don’t think we can doubt that the government is going to stay in place and that Assad will stay there.

***

Zero Hedge

French President Threatens To "Suspend" Nations That Elect "Far-Right" Polticians

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/21/2016 20:31 -0500

Last month, we documented the burgeoning spat between Brussels and Poland over the latter’s move to approve new laws that allow the conservative (and eurosceptic) Law and Justice (PiS) government to name the chiefs of public TV and radio, and select judges for Poland's constitutional court.

In response to a bloc-wide backlash, Polish minister Zbigniew Ziobro sent a letter to EU commissioner Gunther Oettinger in which Ziobro dismissed criticism of the new laws as “silly.”

Oettinger earlier suggested that Poland be put under supervision for possible violations of democratic principles and after the Polish Wprost weekly ran a cover depicting Angela Merkel, Jean Claude-Juncker, and other eurocrats as Nazis who “want to supervise Poland again,” Brussels hit back by launching a review of the country’s new media laws. Under the “rule of law” mechanism, the EU Commission can compel member states to change measures that pose “a systematic threat” to democracy.

But that’s not all. According to comments from French President Francois Hollande on Friday, Europe could move to “suspend” countries in which far-right governments rise to power.

“French President Francois Hollande warned Friday that an EU member state could be sanctioned if the extreme-right came to power there -- and could even be suspended from the bloc,” AFP reports.

"A country can be suspended from the European Union," the President told France Inter radio.

“Human rights watchdog the Council of Europe last week expressed concern at legislative changes proposed by Poland's new right-wing government that have been described both at home and abroad as unconstitutional and undemocratic,” AFP goes on to say, adding that “similar concerns have been expressed about Hungary's right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban.”

"When the freedom of the media is in danger, when constitutions and human rights are under attack, Europe must not just be a safety net. It must put in place procedures to suspend (countries) -- it can go that far," Hollande said.

"Checks," he said, are necessary on Poland.

There are a couple of things to note here. First, it's not at all clear why it should be up to France how another country's citizens vote. Indeed, there's something terribly ironic about the idea of punishing a country for their voting preferences in the name of democracy. There's certainly nothing democratic about telling entire countries who they're allowed to elect.

Second, Hollande's comments seem to reflect fears that the worsening refugee crisis has led to a revival of nationalism in Europe. Between the growing support for PEGIDA, which staged bloc-wide rallies earlier this month)...

France: General Piquemal arrested at banned PEGIDA rally in Calais

...and the popularity of groups like the "Soldiers of Odin" in Finland...

...it's clear that the far-right is indeed staging a comeback. One wonders how many nations Hollande and Brussels are prepared to "suspend."Or perhaps it's the other way around. Given the shifting sentiment, perhaps the far-right will "suspend" the bloc's Francois Hollandes for failing to keep Western Europe secure in the face of myriad threats to the bloc's territorial inegrity and cultural heritage.

***

SPEISA

Norwegian government: We will abandon international law if Sweden collapses

Norway is ready to abandon the Geneva Convention if Sweden collapses. The border will be closed by force, and Swedish refugees will be rejected without the possibility to seek asylum. "We are prepared for the worst," says Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

There is such an imminent danger that the Schengen agreement, and the asylum system in Sweden will break down, that Norway must have an emergency legislation in place in case it happens, believes Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg. Therefore, she has crafted a law that will allow for Norwegian authorities to reject asylum seekers who do not come directly from a conflict area.

This means that asylum seekers who want to come to Norway from Russia, but also from the other Nordic countries, will be denied the right to seek asylum, which otherwise is anchored in the UN Refugee Convention.

"It is a force majeure proposal which we will have in the event that it all breaks down, that the flow (of refugees) just comes, and they all end up in Norway, because we are at the top of Europe. Norway is the end point, is not it," says Erna Solberg in an interview with Berlingske.

The legislation will soon be presented to the Parliament, where it is expected to meet broad support, like the government's other tightenings of the asylum policies lately.

According to Berlingske, the Norwegian government has been heavily criticized by several commentators. The Bar Association in Norway, says it is a clear violation of Norway's so-called "international obligations", since it is contrary to the Geneva Convention to reject Swedes seeking asylum, without examining their asylum applications.

But Solberg defends the policy.

- We must take certain steps to prepare for the worst of scenarios, said the Norwegian Prime Minister to Berlingske.

The Danish government rejects introducing a similar proposal in Denmark, but follows the Norwegian emergency law 'very carefully'.

***

InvestmentWatch

Falling like dominoes: Now Holland wants its OWN referendum on quitting EU.

Submitted by IWB, on February 24th, 2016

DUTCH voters have demanded their own in/out referendum on EU membership amid fears in Brussels the whole 28-country bloc is under threat. In a new opinion poll in the Netherlands, a majority of voters said they backed the country having its own in/out referendum on EU membership similar to the UK’s. More than half (53 per cent) supported an in/out vote with 44 per cent opposed and four per cent unsure.

Commenting on the poll, Ukip’s deputy leader Paul Nuttall said: “This is no surprise. More and more people from across the EU are realising they are part of a political construct that’s failing, with more and more people now realising they would be better off out.”

Dutch demands for a wider EU referendum came as Serbia’s prime minister Aleksandar Vucic also voiced disillusionment with Brussels. Speaking at a conference in London yesterday, he said: “The EU that all of us [Balkan countries] are aspiring to, it has lost its magic power.”

With Britons due to decide on June 23 whether to exit the EU or remain tied to Brussels, there are growing signs other voters across the continent are craving their own chance to leave the crisis-stricken union.

In a new opinion poll in the Netherlands, a majority of voters said they backed the country having its own in/out referendum on EU membership, similar to the UK vote.

And Czech Republic prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka has warned if Britons do decide to leave the EU, a ‘Czexit’ could follow.

In the Dutch poll, more than half (53 per cent) supported an in/out vote with 44 per cent opposed and four per cent unsure.

In the survey, conducted by pollster and entrepreneur Maurice de Hond, voters were also asked how they would vote in such an in/out referendum.

Only slightly more (44 per cent) wanted to remain in the EU than those who said they would opt to leave the bloc (43 per cent), while 13 per cent said they ‘didn’t know’.Interestingly, more Dutch voters (48 per cent) said they didn’t want Britain to exit the EU this summer than wanted their own country to stay in the bloc.

***

RT

Schengen will ‘break down’ in 10 days if no solution to migrant crisis found – EU commissioner

Published time: 25 Feb, 2016 19:22

Edited time: 25 Feb, 2016 19:27

There are only ten days left for European Union officials to significantly reduce the flow of migrants and asylum-seekers into the EU from Turkey, or the Schengen system is at risk of total collapse, according to the EU’s migration commissioner.

“In the next 10 days, we need tangible and clear results on the ground. Otherwise there is a risk that the whole system will completely break down,” Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, told the media on Thursday.

The senior EU official's warning came after a Thursday meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers in Brussels, where the officials had gathered to once again try to find a solution to the current migrant crisis.

On arriving for the meeting, Avramopoulos called it a “critical moment, the moment to deliver.”

“Time is not with us anymore. There are only 10 days left till March 7,” he pointed out, referring to a special summit on the mgration crisis that European Union leaders will hold with Turkey.

***

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ASLEEP AS SOCIALIST MECCA OF VENEZUELA COLLAPSES – POLICE BEAT PROTESTERS IN THE STREET

Throughout the night regime militaries roamed the streets shooting at people and storming apartment buildings

Jim Hoft | Gateway Pundit - FEBRUARY 25, 2016 0 The game changed in Socialist Venezuela this week.

Troops of the Maduro regime tried to violently stop a reporter of @NTN24 during protests in Petare.

tAccording to the International Monetary Fund, Venezuela’s economy is in meltdown.

The economy shrank 10 percent in 2015 and is expected to contract an additional 6 percent this year thanks to failed Socialist policies. Inflation is at 720 percent.

Now there are riots and the police are beating and shooting protesters in the street.

Protests continued in Petare, Venezuela over lack of water. Regime soldiers arrived and fired buckshot on the crowd.

Protesters threw stones at the regime soldiers.

Caracas Chronicles reported on the rioting and violence:

Dear International Editor:

Listen and understand. The game changed in Venezuela last night.What had been a slow-motion unravelling that had stretched out over many years went kinetic all of a sudden.

What we have this morning is no longer the Venezuela story you thought you understood.

Throughout last night, panicked people told their stories of state-sponsored paramilitaries onmotorcycles roaming middle class neighborhoods, shooting at people and storming into apartment buildings, shooting at anyone who seemed like he might be protesting.

People continue to be arrested merely for protesting, and a long established local Human Rights NGO makes an urgent plea for an investigation into widespread reports of torture of detainees. There are now dozens of serious human right abuses: National Guardsmen shooting tear gas canisters directly into residential buildings. We have videos of soldiers shooting civilians on the street.

And that’s just what came out in real time, over Twitter and YouTube, before any real investigation is carried out. Online media is next, a city of 645,000 inhabitants has been taken off the internet amid mounting repression, and this blog itself has been the object of a Facebook “block” campaign.

What we saw were not “street clashes”, what we saw is a state-hatched offensive to suppress and terrorize its opponents.

***

***

Ancient Origins

Spanish Leak Reveals Hidden Chamber in Tutankhamun Tomb is Full of Treasures

APRILHOLLOWAY

22 FEBRUARY, 2016 - 17:41

The Tourism Minister of Egypt Hisham Zaazou may have slipped up during a recent visit to Spain when he revealed startling information about the investigations into a hidden chamber in Tutankhamun’s tomb ahead of official press announcements due to take place in April. Zaazou said that the hidden chamber has been found to be full of treasures and will be the ‘Big Bang’ of the 21 st century.

According to the Spanish National daily newspaper, ABC, Zaazou made the sensational claims during a visit to Spain a few weeks ago.

"We do not know if the burial chamber is Nefertiti or another woman, but it is full of treasures," said Zaazou [via ABC] … “It will be a ‘Big Bang’, the discovery of the 21st Century".

Investigations in Tutankhamun’s Tomb

The Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt launched high-tech analyses within the boy king’s tomb on November 4 after initial infrared scans of the walls of Tutankhamun’s tomb detected an area of greater heat, pointing to the presence of a hidden chamber.

The scans were designed to test out the theory by archaeologist Nicholas Reeves that the tomb of Tutankhamun contains two hidden chambers and that one of them is the final resting place of Queen Nefertiti. According to the Minister, the scans showed a 90 per cent likelihood that there was something behind the walls.

Nicholas Reeves first suspected hidden chambers in Tutankhamun’s tomb following a detailed examination of the Factum Arte scans of the artistic works on the walls of the tomb. Reeves noticed fissures that he thought indicated the presence of two sealed doors in the tomb’s north and west walls.

Scans of the north wall of King Tutankhamun's burial chamber have revealed features beneath the intricately decorated plaster (highlighted) a researcher believes may be a hidden door, possibly to the burial chamber of Nefertiti. Credit: Factum Arte.

What lies within the secret chamber?

According to Reeves, King Tutankhamun’s tomb was unfinished when he died unexpectedly as a teenager in 1332 BC. Consequently, he was hastily buried in the tomb of Queen Nefertiti, the principal wife of Akhenaten, who is believed to have fathered Tutankhamun with another wife. Reeves believes that Tutankhamun’s tomb displaced part of Nefertiti's tomb and assumed some of her burial goods and space.

However, Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities al-Damati believes otherwise. According to Agence France Press, Damati believes that any mummy buried in Tutankhamun’s tomb would be more likely to be Kiya, a wife of the pharaoh Akhenaten.

During his visit, Zaazou said there was also a theory that the chamber would be completely empty. However, he asserted that this has now been proven false. “It is not empty. It is full of treasures,” the minister said [via ABC]. “It will be an historic moment.”

Image showing the location of the two chambers from Dr. Reeves report. The upcoming radar scan will search for their existence. ( Daily Mail )

Nile Magazine has questioned why Hisham Zaazou would abandon protocol to reveal such massive news prior to the official press announcements, which are due to take place in April.

“Of course, a cynical person could be forgiven for wondering why, in a government that is a stickler for protocol, the Tourism Minister was revealing such massive news rather than the Minister for Antiquities. It does seem remarkable that Mr. Zaazou has been so loose-lipped. Or could it be that the Minister is largely bluffing, hoping for a much-needed tourism boost?” questions Nile Magazine.

“However it is curious that the British Egyptologist who started all this, Nicholas Reeves, is currently in Luxor. Thankfully we don't have to wait all that long to find out. April will be here before we know it.”

Featured image: The stone sarcophagus containing the mummy of King Tut is seen in his underground tomb. Credit: Nasser Nuri.

***

Science Alert

Devlin Gandy

Scientists have found a mysterious boiling river straight out of Amazonian legend

Truth really is stranger than fiction.

FIONA MACDONALD

18 FEB 2016

For centuries, Peruvian locals have talked about a river in the Amazon that burns so hot it can kill. According to legend, Spanish conquistadors foolishly ventured into the rainforest in search of gold, and the few men that returned told stories of poisoned water, man-eating snakes, and a river that boiled from below.

For Peruvian geoscientist, Andrés Ruzo, the myth had fascinated him since childhood. But it wasn't until he was completing his PhD project on geothermal energy potential in Peru that he began to question whether the river could actually be real.

According to the experts he spoke to, the answer was a unanimous "no" - after all, hot rivers do exist, but they're generally associated with volcanoes, and there are no volcanoes in that part of the country.

But when Ruzo went home over the holidays and asked his family where the myth had come from, his mother told him that the river didn't just exist, she and his aunt had actually swum in it before.

It sounded pretty ridiculous, but in 2011, Ruzo took a chance and hiked into the Amazon rainforest with his aunt, and saw the famed river with his own eyes.

Much to his disbelief, it was steaming hot. "When I saw this, I immediately grabbed for my thermometer," said Ruzo in a TED talk back in 2014. "The average temperature in the river was 86 degrees Celsius, not quite boiling but definitely close enough ... It's not a legend."

The most puzzling part was the sheer size of it. Hot springs aren't uncommon, and thermal pools get to these temperatures in other parts of the world, but nothing even comes close to the scope of the river - it's up to 25 metres wide and six metres deep, and runs burning hot for an incredible 6.24 km.

Add that to the fact that the river is 700 km from the closest volcanic system, and the temperature just didn't make any sense. In fact, it's the only river of its kind anywhere in the world.

With the permission of the Shaman, Ruzo has spent the past five years studying the river, its surrounding ecosystem, and its water in the lab, in the hopes of figuring out what's going on.

Devlin Gandy

To be clear, Ruzo obviously wasn't the first to discover the river, and as suggested by its indigenous name -Shanay-timpishka, which means "boiled with the heat of the Sun" - he also wasn't the first to wonder what made it so hot.

But his research - backed in part by a National Geographic Young Explorers grant - is finally revealing some of its secrets. It turns out, it's not the Sun that boils the water, but fault-fed hot springs.

Imagine Earth like a human body, with fault lines and cracks running through it like arteries. These 'Earth arteries' are filled with hot water, and when they come to the surface, we see geothermal manifestations - like the boiling river.

Chemical analysis has revealed that the water in the river originally fell as rain. Ruzo now hypothesises that this happens far upstream - perhaps as far away as in the Andes - and along its journey seeps down into the ground, where it's heated up by Earth's geothermal energy. It eventually emerges in the Amazon, at the boiling river.

This means the system is part of an enormous hydrothermal system, the likes of which haven't been seen anywhere else on the planet.

Even more exciting, Ruzo has worked with biologists Spencer Wells and Jonathan Eisen to sequence the genomes of the microbes living in and around the river, and discovered brand new species that are able to survive the heat.

Of course, as fascinating as the river is, it can also be deadly. The water gets so hot that Ruzo has regularly seen animals fall in and slowly start boil to death.

Still, people do actually swim in the river, as his mother claimed, but only after heavy rainfalls when it's diluted with cold water. More often, the water is used to make tea and for cooking.

Ruzo will now continue to study the river and its source. But his main focus now is how to protect the river and its surrounding land - while his results are ready for publication, he's refusing to release many of them until the Peruvian government will guarantee they'll put appropriate conservation measures in place.

"In the middle of my PhD, I realised, this river is a natural wonder," Ruzo told Maddie Stone over at Gizmodo. "And it's not going to be around unless we do something about it."

He's just released a book called The Boiling River on his adventures, and is hoping that by spreading the news about the unique system, people might take on the cause themselves and decide that the site significant enough to save from loggers and developers.

"I don’t like the concept of one person leading this charge - I think it’s about building a community on an international scale," said Ruzo. "The planet’s gotten small, and natural wonders like this are few and far between.

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Natural News

Chronically ill woman ditches four of her seven medications just ONE week after changing her diet!

Friday, February 19, 2016 by: Julie Wilson staff writer
(NaturalNews) When it comes to America's food industry, profit trumps public health all day, every day. Whoever can sell the lowest quality food for the highest price wins, which is why Big Food companies like Kellogg's, Kraft, General Mills and a few others, hold a monopoly on our food supply. Junk-food junkie turned nutrition and health coach, Kelly Hayford, knows this all too well, which is why she wrote a book exposing our "fake-food culture."

If it's Not Food...Don't Eat It! describes how toxic chemical additives found in most processed foods affect our weight and overall health. The following is a snippet from her book:

When Betty first came to me she was in constant pain. She was taking seven different medications, had severe osteoarthritis, could barely walk, and had to catheterize herself daily. She had heard that making certain dietary changes could be beneficial to her health, and that there were natural herbs and supplements that might be helpful as well.

But she didn't know much about it and because her condition was so severe, she doubted that such an approach could actually do anything for her. In addition, her healthcare plan did not cover such expenses. Betty came to me only because the price of her medications was increasing to a level she could no longer afford, and her persistent friend had insisted.

Replacing medications with healthy food

Upon reviewing her food diary, a requirement for all incoming clients, I asked Betty if any of her doctors had ever inquired about her diet or given her any dietary guidelines. She told me that none had ever asked. Her food diary revealed a Standard American Diet (SAD). It looked like something an average American might be eating, and that was the problem.

Betty was skeptical about my recommendations at first, but I kept encouraging her to give them a try. "Trust me," I would say, "the results will convince you." Out of desperation she reluctantly followed my advice, and was delighted, when in just a few short weeks, she was able to go off four of her medications, became virtually pain-free, could walk without using her walker, had lost a few pounds, and was generally beginning to feel much better. In addition, Betty's latest cholesterol test results were below what they had been when she was taking cholesterol-lowering medication.

What did Betty do to achieve such dramatic improvements in her health in such a short period of time? It might surprise you to know that Betty didn't cut or count calories or carbohydrates or fat, go on a special diet, deprive herself of favorite foods, take a special pill or herbal formula, undergo hypnosis, or start an intensive workout program.

Taking chemicals out of your diet

She simply made the switch from the low-quality, chemical-laden processed food brands she had been eating for years to higher quality, additive-free natural food brands of the same foods. She also began to include a small amount of whole, fresh, natural foods, primarily a couple of fresh fruits or vegetables, into her diet each day.

How can this be so? This is so because the most popular brands of processed, packaged chemical-laden foods (pseudofoods) so widely consumed today are injurious to the body. In fact, poor eating habits characterized by the regular consumption of these fake foods, saturated with refined sugar, sodium, unhealthy fats, and toxic chemicals, are the greatest weapon of mass destruction the world has ever known. Not a weapon in the usual sense, but a weapon nonetheless, as a result of the devastation it is causing, as Betty was experiencing. But Betty isn't the only one suffering.

As a result of the regular consumption of low-quality nutrient-deficient food, our nation has recently entered into the beginning stages of a major health crisis; a health crisis of such magnitude that it has the potential to change life in America as we know it.

This poor eating syndrome is the most insidious kind of weapon of mass destruction because, aside from the obvious diet-related conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, few people realize that it is the root cause of all chronic dis-ease. I use the term dis-ease as it encompasses not only established diseases, but any symptoms or conditions people experience that cause their bodies or minds to become ill at ease.

The standard American diet

In America between 1980-1997, the average per capita consumption of major food commodities per person, per year included:

- 111 lbs. red meat - 580 lbs. dairy products

- 29 lbs. ice cream - 53 gallons soft drinks

- 66 lbs. fats and oils - 39 gallons alcohol

- 150 lbs. wheat - 24 gallons coffee

- 154 lbs. sugar

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Natural News

Turmeric able to "smart kill" cancer cells... chemotherapy now OBSOLETE

alNews) Turmeric has long been one of the most prized spices from the East, but its benefits extend far beyond the wonderful flavor and color it lends to many recipes. The health-promoting properties of turmeric have been known for millennia, but only recently has it been discovered that the bright orange spice is also a powerful ally in preventing and curing cancer.

It's been cultivated for more than 5,000 years in the tropics of Asia, where the brown-skinned root with the bright-orange flesh has been valued for the treatment of a number of conditions including "toothache, chest pain, urinary tract infection, flatulence, jaundice, menstrual discomforts, bruises, hemorrhage, and colic."

The spice made its way to the West through Arab trade routes during the 13th century and has become popular throughout the world. Turmeric is now grown in tropical regions such as India, the Philippines and the Caribbean, and is probably best known as one of the fundamental ingredients of curry dishes.

It has more recently been discovered that turmeric has the potential to replace chemotherapy and radiation in the treatment of certain cancers – and it has been proven to prevent and fight virtually every type of cancer

From TheTruthAboutCancer.com:

Turmeric's active ingredient is an extracted compound called curcumin. Studies have shown that curcumin helps prevent several forms of cancer including breast, lung, stomach, liver, and colon because of its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It stops the development of cancer by interfering with the cellular signaling aspects of the chronic disease.

Curcumin's nearly miraculous "smart kill" properties work to inhibit the growth of tumors and the spread of cancer in fundamental ways at the cellular level. It has the laboratory-proven capability to inhibit a particular cancer-promoting enzyme (COX-2), impede blood supply to cancer cells, induce tumor-suppressing genes, stop metastasis (the spread of cancer throughout the body's organs), kill lymphoma cells and prevent the regrowth of cancer stem cells.

The ability to target cancer stem cells is one of curcumin's most powerful anti-cancer properties, as a recent study revealed.

From GreenMedInfo.com:

[T]he study describes the wide range of molecular mechanisms presently identified by which curcumin attacks cancer stem cells (CSCs), which are the minority subpopulation of self-renewing cells within a tumor colony, and which alone are capable of producing all the other cells within a tumor, making them the most lethal, tumoriogenic of all cells within most if not all cancers. Because CSCs are resistant to chemotherapy, radiation, and may even be provoked towards increased invasiveness through surgical intervention, they are widely believed to be responsible for tumor recurrence and the failure of conventional treatment.

It can only be hoped that the FDA and Big Pharma don't find a way to outlaw curcumin, since it seems to have as much promise as marijuana as a cancer preventative and cure. That statement is made only partly in jest because, as always, if a potential cure for a disease can be found in Nature, the pharmaceutical drug makers have no use for it since it cuts into their profit margins.

When natural cures and preventatives are proven to have merit, the drug industry will typically go to great lengths to denounce and prevent their use, or at least find ways to synthesize and patent them so that they can be sold to the public for enormous profits, whether their versions are safe and effective or not – and often the pharmaceutical versions are neither.

So it's a good idea to begin introducing turmeric into your diet now (if you haven't already) – and it happens to be a very versatile spice.

Curries wouldn't be the same without turmeric – it's one of the main spices found in most variations of the dish and provides its distinctive color and taste – but it's also a fantastic ingredient that can be used in many other recipes, including soups, meats, rice dishes, and stews. It's also great with eggs, potatoes and even smoothies. In addition, you can also pair it with black pepper, which helps make curcumin more effective.

The amazing spice turmeric is yet another proof that Mother Nature provides us with everything we need...

Sources:
GreenMedInfo.com
TheTruthAboutCancer.com
TheKitchn.com
Turmeric.NaturalNews.com
Science.NaturalNews.com

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Until next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions

“For he hath given me certain knowledge of the things that are, namely, to know how the world was made, and the operation of the elements: The beginning, ending, and midst of the times: the alterations of the turning of the sun, and the change of seasons: The circuits of years, and the positions of stars: The natures of living creatures, and the furies of wild beasts: the violence of winds, and the reasonings of men: the diversities of plants and the virtues of roots: And all such things as are either secret or manifest, them I know.”

(Wisdom 8:17-21)