IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT THE PRAYER ROOM WEBSTREAM

 IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT THE PRAYER ROOM WEBSTREAM
Making the 24/7 Prayer Room webstream freely available to the whole world

Thank you for your subscription to the Prayer Room webstream. Since launching the 24/7 webstream tens of thousands have joined us in prayer and worship and many have been blessed and healed and delivered. Your subscription has greatly helped support this ministry as well as the singers and musicians at IHOP–KC, the media and tech team behind the scenes, and the technical costs. I want to thank you for helping us in this ministry over the last months and years.

I have some exciting news to announce to you. Starting on January 1, 2010, we are making the 24/7 Prayer Room webstream freely available to the whole world.

Since the recent move of the Holy Spirit and the spiritual awakening here at IHOP–KC, we have been joined online by viewers from over 180 nations. In a season when we are freely receiving the blessing of the Lord, we desire to freely give it away to bless the nations.

The IHOP–KC leadership team believes it is time to make the Prayer Room webstream available to anyone who wants it worldwide. This change is not without significant cost for bandwidth, equipment, and website maintenance. We are contacting you first to inform you of the implications of this change. You will begin to see changes and improvements to the Prayer Room webstream and we want you to understand them.

We ask you to consider continuing to support us financially in this new move. Starting January 1, 2010, your subscription will no longer be necessary. The webstream will be available without charge. However, we are asking that you continue to give the same amount as your subscription as a donation. In other words, would you agree to make a tax-deductible donation, beginning January 1, equal to the amount of your current subscription? There is no action required on your part if you are happy with this transition.
 
Your continued giving will allow us to keep the webstream going 24/7 and to reach more people in more nations than ever before. However, if you do not want to make a tax-deductible donation, please click here to cancel your subscription.

Whatever you decide, you will still have access to the 24/7 webstream just as you always have. But from January 1, the whole world will have access as well. Additionally, you may consider partnering with us at an even greater level, since our bandwidth costs will greatly increase as many more will join us live. Please click here to find out more information on ways you can partner with IHOP–KC.
 
If you have any questions, please email us at webstream@ihop.org or call 816.285.9370 or 816.763.0200 x.8010.

Until He comes,
Mike Bickle

A SUMMARY OF THE NEWS AND HOW IT AFFECTS YOU
Beginning January 1, 2010, the 24/7 Prayer Room webstream will be available without charge to the world.
By making it freely available we need to raise $150,000 a month to meet our costs.
You can make a tax-deductible donation beginning January 1, 2010, in the amount of your subscription.
No action on your part is required if you are happy with this transition.
If you want to cancel your subscription, please click here.
More than ever before, your donation will help keep the 24/7 webstream up and running for the rest of the world.
No matter what, you will still have access to the 24/7 webstream just as you always have.
Additionally, over the next 12 months, we have plans to increase the content and functionality of what will now be called “IHOP TV.”
If you have any questions, please email us at webstream@ihop.org or call 816.285.9370 or 816.763.0200 x.8010.

Please Keep The Loux Family in Your Prayers…

The founder of Josiah Fund, Derek Loux, was killed in a tragic car accident, early morning, December 23, 2009. Derek was the inspiration for both the Josiah Fund and the Orphan Justice Center in Kansas City, Missouri.  Derek provoked many with the message of the Father’s love and the call to adoption. Derek and his wife Renee have adopted 8 children, 3 with special needs, as well as having two biological children. Their vision was to see a place where orphans could be raised in a loving environment where Christ was the center. That vision must continue! Please give generously to the Josiah Fund to support the Loux family and their continuing work. Bless you!

   

Reconciling What We Feel and What We Know

Randy Bohlender said it best, so I have copied and pasted below the entire article. If you want to share your comments with Randy on his blog click here. I have changed nothing and take no credit…its the right thing to say in times like these!

Posted on December 23, 2009 by randybohlender

My Blackberry began to buzz at 5:03am.  Derek Loux was in a car accident somewhere in Nebraska.  Would we pray? After a number of back and forth text messages, at 7:42am I got the message that has sat in my gut like a rock for the past eight hours:  “He’s gone.”

Derek leaves a beautiful wife, Renee, and ten children, two biological daughters, five girls adopted from the Marshall Islands, and three sons adopted from the Ukraine.   They are quite possibly the most beautiful assembly of human beings I have ever seen.

Derek was a powerful musician, singer and songwriter…but it was his message of adoption that rocked most of us to our core – and then he had the audacity to live out his own message right on front of us, daring us to do the same.

Our community is reeling from this loss.  While we yearn to be strong for Renee and the kids, inwardly we ache with the realization that Derek is no longer with us.  Every human life is valuable…but who Derek was and what he was doing in the realm of rescue and adoption of the most disadvantaged made him shine like a star.  He had a winsome way of making a crowd laugh one moment and cringe the next.  His words might strike a chord of conviction, but his spirit always left you wanting to hear more.

Mid morning, I got another text from someone who was trying to process the whole sovereignty issue i light of losing Derek.   “Randy – does Satan steal peoples’ lives or does God let them go?” they asked.  This led to a few more text messages and finally a phone call, where we processed together how we felt about proclaiming God to be all knowing and all powerful in a world where such things happen.

There is a haunting verse found in Psalm 116 that always comes to mind in times like this.  “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints…”. How can something so terribly wrong, so terribly painful, be precious in the sight of the Lord?  I think it has something to do with perspective – one that He has and yet does not expect us to easily embrace.

In the light of Derek’s true life expectancy – eternity – his time here on earth would always be negligible, whether forty years or a hundred and four.   Place those time periods on the line of eternity and they’re almost impossible to find.   Derek existed in God’s master plan before he walked the earth, before he played his first chord, before he preached his first sermon.  Derek has passed on, but only from earth.  Humans are immortal beings – only the body dies.    In light of the fact that Derek will live forever, does the end point of his earthly internship, be it at forty, fifty or ninety, really make a lot of difference?  In a sense no…but of course it does.

It matters to us that Derek’s wife is now facing life as a young widow.  It matters to us that those children will forever divide time into the years with Daddy and without.  It matters to us that Derek will not walk those beautiful girls down the aisle or toss another football to those boys.  It matters to us….and it matters to God. Even though His eternal perspective allows Him to see the whole and real of Derek’s life, He feels the hurt in our hearts and the hearts of the family.

Some have said “This is an injustice….”.  Others have tried hard to stick to the company line, saying “God is sovereign.  His leadership is perfect.”    This is one of those times when I think the most theologically correct thing to say would be “This really stinks.”

It does stink…but it does not define us.

We all yearn to say “Jesus, your leadership is perfect.” When things stink as badly as this does, we hope to be able to say the right things that give Him glory, even in our pain…but if you’re not there yet, I think God fully understands.

The words I long to hear from my children are often the simplest.   “Yes, Dad.“  In those words, I hear “We trust you.“  I don’t necessarily hear “We like it, Dad!” or “Great call, Pop!”.  When I ask if they want ice cream and they say “Yes, Dad!” it’s a far different thing than when I call them in from playing football to clean their rooms.  In those moments,  when they don’t want to submit yet find a “Yes, Dad” in their hearts, I know that they are living in right relationship with me.

The ultimate test of our acknowledgement of Jesus’ perfect leadership is not when things go well.  It is when things go wrong….and yet God loves us so much that our test will not take place today.  He’s giving us a moment.  A moment to grieve, to wonder, and to vent if we have to.

He knows that only through the pain and wondering can we come to a place to truly call His leadership perfect.

For more information on the project so dear to Derek’s heart, go to The Josiah Fund

Not My Normal Post…But It Caught My Eye

America’s Cheapest Health Foods

 By David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding – Posted on Tue, Dec 01, 2009, 12:10 pm PST

Eat This, Not That
by David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding a Yahoo! Health Expert for Nutrition

Eating well has never been so expensive. Over the past two years, the cost of vegetables, meat, fruit, and other high-nutrition, low-calorie foods has increased by an average of 19.5 percent. But junk foods? Their prices have actually decreased slightly, by 1.8 percent. Our economic outlook isn’t only making it harder to make ends meet—it’s making it harder to make the two ends of our belts meet. In fact, researchers recently estimated the cost of a diet based on high-calorie foods versus one based on healthy, low-calorie foods. The high-calorie diet you could eat for $3.52 a day. The low-cal diet? A whopping $36.32 per diem.

That sounds pretty bad—unless you factor in the long-term costs of bad eating habits. Overweight people are 25 percent more likely to be hospitalized for heart disease than slim people. Their hospital stays are 16 percent longer. Their risk of high blood pressure is 44 percent higher; the risk of developing kidney cancer is 42 percent higher; the risk of high cholesterol, 33 percent higher. And those numbers only get worse if you’re obese.

In the end, your best bet is to eat the healthiest, most nutrition-packed food your money can buy. Fortunately, Eat This, Not That! 2010, serves up an indispensable list of smart, healthy swaps that you can buy for less than their equally healthy, more expensive equivalents. So instead of saving money buying junk food, you can save money buying healthy food. Now that’s a deal.

BEST BREAKFAST FOOD
Eat This!
Eggs
$1.63/dozen

Not That!
Cereal
$4.50/box

The best breakfasts for all-day productivity are high in protein and low in refined carbohydrates, so even if there were no price difference, eggs would be a much better choice over a bowl of cereal (especially if it’s one of the sickly sweet varieties). That said, there is a substantial price difference. Say you can scrounge five bowls from one box–that’s 90 cents a meal (without the milk). A dozen eggs, though, makes six meals–each for an average of 27 cents. When you think of it that way–by eating cereal over eggs, you’re spending three times the amount of money on a meal–the choice is that much easier. Plus, all cereals aren’t created equal anyway; find out how they compare in this slideshow of The Best and Worst Cereals.

BONUS TIP: Eggs should be an essential inclusion in your daily diet. Discover The New American Diet and see how everything you know about food and dieting is likely to be wrong!

BEST COOKING OIL

Eat This!

Canola Oil

$0.96/lb

Not That!

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

$5.92/lb

Save the pricey olive oil for dressing salads or drizzling lightly over grilled vegetables. Canola’s neutral flavor is great for cooking, and it happens to have an even better ratio of monounsaturated to saturated fat than the vaunted extra virgin. Olive can cost as much as a dollar per ounce, while high-end canola costs about 25 cents. Or, if you buy an average of each, you’ll save over $5 a pound on canola.

Bonus tip: Learn thousands more useful cooking tips like this with the all-new kitchen survival guide: Cook This, Not That!

BEST BROWN-BAGGED FRUIT

Eat This!

Banana

$0.61/lb

Not That!

Red Delicious Apple

$1.21/lb

If you bring your lunch to work every day, it’s smart to toss a fruit in the lunch sack. But which one’s most worthy of your hard-earned money? An apple will give you 14 percent of your day’s Vitamin C and 4 grams of fiber, but a banana, at half the price per pound, offers more Vitamin C and just 1 less gram of fiber. To instantly improve your diet with more tips like these, memorize this list of The Best Healthy Foods in America.

BEST BERRY

Eat This!

Frozen Blueberries

$0.22/oz

Not That!

Fresh Blueberries

$0.91/oz

The price of fresh fruits out of season is significantly higher than when they’re in season, due to transportation costs. And if you want to get your money’s worth, you’ll need to eat them within three days of buying, so they don’t spoil. One cup of frozen blueberries gives you just as much fiber as the raw variety, and a handful fewer calories. While fresh blueberries offer 18 percent more Vitamin C, that difference isn’t worth the extra cost.

BEST SNACK VEGGIE

Eat This!

Carrots

$0.80/lb

Not That!

Celery

$0.78/lb

If you’re looking for a super healthy, low-calorie snack, you’ll get more of a nutritional punch from carrots than celery, at practically the same cost per pound. One serving of carrots has twice as much fiber as celery–and 43 times as much Vitamin A!

Bonus Tip: For even more smart-eating tips, check out the new Eat This, Not That! Iphone app. It’s the no-thought weight loss solution that fits in the palm of your hand.

BEST POULTRY

Eat This!

Chicken Leg

$1.43/lb

Not That!

Chicken Breast

$2.36/lb

Eat This, Not That! developed a matrix where we compare all major cuts of beef, pork, poultry and alternative meats through a rigorous equation to assess their core nutritional value. The criteria? High protein-to-fat ratio; density of 10 essential nutrients commonly found in proteins; and low saturated fat concentrations and cholesterol levels. Light chicken meat won out handily over all other cuts, with chicken breast being the best you could buy. But for an almost equally healthy chicken alternative, a dark chicken leg will save you 89 cents a pound—and it scored higher in nutritional value than all cuts of beef except for kidney and liver.

One more thought: You can also opt for a frozen chicken breast, which contains almost identical nutrients at half the price as the fresh breast. In our Eat This, Not That! taste tests, we found it nearly impossible to tell the difference between fresh and frozen.

BEST PORK

Eat This!

Pork Chops

$3.10/lb

Not That!

Ham

$3.36/lb

It’s a little strange to us that ham is one of the least nutritious types of pork you can eat, but it’s a little more expensive than chops–the second most nutritious. While you’re only saving pennies per pound by opting for loin chops over ham, you’ll benefit hugely from the extra nutrients, and more healthful protein-to-fat ratio.

BEST BEEF

Eat This!

Round Roast

$3.90/lb

Not That!

Sirloin Steak

$4.99/lb

When it comes to protein-to-fat ratio and density of 10 essential nutrients commonly found in protein, Eat This, Not That! found that round roast scores slightly better than sirloin. The prices, however, differ significantly: choose the round, and save nearly a dollar a pound.

BEST FISH

Eat This!

Farmed Catfish

$2.52/lb

Not That!

Pacific Halibut

$4/lb

You know you should be eating more fish, but do you know which kind is healthiest? Eat This, Not That! also analyzed a dozen of the most popular fish choices and ranked them from first to worst. Our favorite sea creatures are rich in omega-3s; relatively low in mercury, PCBs, and dioxins; have decently high protein content; and are ecologically sustainable. With these qualifications in mind, both the Pacific Halibut and Farmed Catfish rank well. But opt for the Catfish, and you’ll save an average of $1.50 a pound.

For more great tips like these, sign up for your FREE Eat This Not That newsletter! It delivers tons of useful weight-loss and money-saving information straight to your inbox!

————

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Get more nutrition, health, and fitness secrets from Men’s Health: Subscribe today with this special offer and save 50% off the cover price.

 

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Tele-Evangelist Oral Roberts Dies at Age 91

Healing Evangelist Oral Roberts Dies at Age 91 By Ken Walker
Oral Roberts, 91, died today of

Healing Evangelist Oral Roberts Dies at 91

complications from pneumonia.

Oral Roberts, the legendary evangelist who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential Christian leaders of the 20th century, died today in Newport Beach, Calif., due to complications from pneumonia. He was 91.

The evangelist and founder of Oral Roberts University (ORU) died just days after he had been hospitalized near his California home because of a fall. His son, Richard, and daughter, Roberta, were by his side at the time of his death.

“Thecfamily was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of our dear chancellor, Oral Roberts,” said ORU President Mark Rutland. “Chancellor Roberts was one of the brilliant spiritual lights of the 20th century and a giant of the Christian faith. At the core of his legacy is a great university that bears his name. Like millions worldwide, I am mourning his passing and am grateful for his visionary life and contributions.”

Born Jan. 24, 1918, north of Ada, Oklahoma, Roberts survived a raging flu epidemic that wiped out more Americans than World War I. Before his life ended, he had written more than 120 books, pioneered American television evangelism, bolstered belief in divine healing and founded his trademark university.

“He’s one of the most significant figures in American religious history,” said Pentecostal historian Vinson Synan. “I think he planted the seeds publicly of what became the charismatic renewal after 1960 because the American public first saw Pentecostalism in their living rooms through his televised tent crusades.”

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Dinosaur Soft Tissue Finally Makes News

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by Brian Thomas, M.S. *

Although creation-based organizations have reported for over a decade on the technical scientific journal articles published about soft tissue found inside dinosaur remains, mainstream media outlets have largely been silent on the subject. But a recent segment that aired on CBS’s 60 Minutes finally broke the news to a broader audience. The soft tissue issue may be gaining more traction, and even “may be changing the whole dino ballgame,” according to correspondent Lesley Stahl.¹

The program is currently viewable online at the CBS website. In a field test demonstration to determine whether a dinosaur fossil was real bone, and not bone replaced by minerals, Stahl touched her tongue to it. It stuck like Velcro. She then asked paleontologist Mary Schweitzer, “This is 80 million years old and it can do that?” “Yes,” Schweitzer said confidently.

In demonstrating that dinosaur bones still somehow contained soft, bendable tissues after all these eons, Schweitzer and her former mentor Jack Horner have been subjected to “one of the biggest controversies paleontology has seen in years.”¹

This resulted from Schweitzer’s unexpected discovery in 2000 of “elastic, like living tissue” from inside the femur of a recently excavated Tyrannosaurus fossil nicknamed “B. rex.” 60 Minutes reported, “It looked like the soft tissue she would have expected to find if it had been modern bone. This was impossible. This bone was 68 million years old!” The report replayed some of the original video of the tissues taken in 2000. “They were there. Things that looked suspiciously like flexible, transparent blood vessels.”¹

Stahl stated that “being a fossil, there should have been nothing left. But there was.” Thus, “blood vessels, and even what seemed to be intact cells, pose a radical challenge to the existing rules of science―that organic material can’t possibly survive even a million years, let alone 68 million.”¹

But it is not some arbitrary “rule of science” that dictates that flesh usually rots quickly. It is extremely well established by common observation, as well as by decades of easily repeatable experiments, such as those measuring protein decay that occurs in mere days.² Instead, the “science” being challenged is perhaps the deep-time evolutionary dogma that remains widely held despite contradictory evidence.³

When Schweitzer’s work was originally published in the journal Science, it was greeted with more than just skepticism.⁴ Her laboratory was suspected of accidentally contaminating the samples, or worse. But her original findings were firmly established when her team—after taking great pains to prevent contamination or spoiling of specimens from the field to the lab—found even more soft dinosaur tissue, this time in another species, that was verified by a third party.⁵

Viewing “80-million-year-old” hadrosaur tissue through a microscope, Stahl asked, “Is that a blood vessel?” Schweitzer replied, “This is a blood vessel. Do you see the branches right there? And look at all of them.”¹ But even with the evidence in front of their eyes, and despite their own incredulity, the two still accepted the story that organic remnants that should have rotted long ago had somehow been preserved for longer than many current species have supposedly existed on earth.

By removing the unscientific interpretive filter of “millions of years” placed on it, the conundrum created by this soft evidence evaporates. If these dinosaurs were buried during a recent and major watery catastrophe, then the discovery of their still-soft tissues is much easier to explain.⁶

References

1. B-Rex. 60 Minutes. Aired on CBS November 15, 2009. Accessed online on November 19, 2009.
2. Bada, J. L., X. S. Wang, and H. Hamilton. 1999. Preservation of key biomolecules in the fossil record: current knowledge and future challenges. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 354 (1379): 77-87.
3. Humphries, D. R. 2005. Evidence for a Young World. Acts & Facts. 34 (6).
4. These include Schweitzer, M. H. et al. 2005. Soft-Tissue Vessels and Cellular Preservation in Tyrannosaurus rex. Science. 307 (5717): 1952; Schweitzer, M. H. et al. 2007. Analysis of Soft Tissue from Tyrannosaurus rex Suggest the Presence of Protein. Science. 316 (5822): 277; Asara, J. M. et al. 2007. Protein Sequences from Mastodon and Tyrannosaurus Rex Revealed by Mass Spectrometry. Science. 316 (5822): 280.
5. Schweitzer, M. H. et al. 2009. Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the Campanian Hadrosaur B. Canadensis. Science. 324 (5927): 626-631.
6. Thomas, B. Dinosaur Soft Tissues: They’re Real! ICR News. Posted on icr.org August 11, 2009, accessed December 1, 2009. 

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on December 2, 2009.

Paul was a tent maker. He didn’t ask for gifts. Shouldn’t I follow his example?

“Paul was a tent maker. He didn’t ask for gifts. Shouldn’t I follow his example?”

The apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 9:14, “so also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.” He explains that God set up a system of financial support for His workers. He also writes that even though he had the right to be supported by the Corinthians, he chose to make tents. This was an exception, however, to Paul’s normal method of ministry.

Paul wanted to make sure that the Corinthians to whom he preached had no reason to question his motives. He chose to live on a smaller salary and take less from the Corinthians in order to validate his character, his faith and his ministry. With the Corinthian church Paul may have supplemented his income by sewing canvas, but he did rely on gifts from supporters.

Many times in the New Testament (Philippians 4:10- 16; 2 Corinthians 8:1-5) we see that the churches gave sacrificially to support Paul’s work. He commended them for their support and reminded them of the eternal profit of their gifts. “Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account” (Philippians 4:17).

This great missionary willingly received financial support from other Christians and churches, and he asked for support. “When I go to Spain…I hope to have you assist me on my journey” (Romans 15:24). The original language in this verse confirms Paul’s request for money. John also made reference to support: “For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth” (3 John 7,8).

In examining Scripture it is clear that Paul was a support- raising missionary, and his part-time job in Corinth was a special exception to God’s financial plan for His full-time workers. The lifestyle of supported ministry that he was called to was little different than the models followed by both Levites of the Old Testament and Jesus Himself.

China Sentences House Church Leaders to Prison, Labor Camp

China Sentences House Church Leaders to Prison, Labor Camp

Bypassing the court system, China arbitrarily sentenced five more leaders of the Fushan Church in Linfen City, Shanxi Province, on Monday, this time to re-education labor camps for two years, according to China Aid Association (CAA).

A Chinese court last week sentenced five house church leaders to three to seven years in prison after they were arrested en route to Beijing to file a complaint about an attack on their church, according to the advocacy organization. The five leaders sentenced to labor camps this week were accused of “gathering people to disturb the public order” after they organized a prayer rally of 1,000 people the day after military police and others attacked their church members and building on Sept. 13.

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animoto – Zach’s Baptism November 20, 2009

more about "animoto – Zach’s Baptism November 20,…", posted with vodpod

Zach’s Baptism: November 20, 2009

more about "Zach’s Baptism: November 20, 2009", posted with vodpod