The UN Security Council has finally agreed to take action in Libya – but is it too little too late? Hopefully not. Hopefully a new Libya will help to bring about new relationships between the West and the Middle East.
Tag Archives: hopefully
Geneva celebrates John Calvin’s 500th birthday
About 500 worshipers yesterday attended the opening convocations for Calvin 500, the international Quincentenary celebration of the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth (July 10, 1509), at St. Pierre Cathedral in the old town of Geneva, reports Michael Ireland, chief correspondent, ASSIST News Service.
Beginning with a welcome by Mr. Guillaume Taylor from the St. Pierre Parish Council, the opening convocations, featured morning worship from Calvin’s time and a sermon on Philippians 3:8-12 by Dr. Sinclair Ferguson of the First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina.
The evening services featured Ugandan Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, much psalm singing, and a sermon by Dr. Bryan Chapell, President of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.
“Calvin is one of the most important thinkers in history,” said Calvin500 Executive Director Rev. David Hall, who also is pastor of Midway Presbyterian Church in America located in Powder Springs, GA, according to a media release.
“His ministry and writings left an indelible impression on the modern world, and especially Western culture. It would be hard to find a figure from history more worthy of remembering, if lasting impact for good is the standard,” said Hall.
“St. Pierre’s Cathedral in Geneva as unusually full for a morning worship service on July 5th, but admittedly a congregation that includes at least one archbishop, six seminary professors, twenty-four seminary professors, approximately 100 Reformed pastors from around the world and the author of over 300 books on Calvinist themes do not make up an ordinary congregation,'” said one attendee on a blog at the celebration website.
The writer stated: “As Dr. Ferguson noted, ‘Calvin would be surprised to see us here, and I am not sure he would have approved,’ however hopefully he would approved of the text.”
Another writer commented: “The evening was brought to a close with a truly wonderful exposition of Ephesians 1:3-6 by Bryan Chapell, a sermon which he called ‘In praise of predestination.’ With some memorable illustrations from Calvin and elsewhere, he carefully took us through the text urging us to see Paul’s commitment in showing us more of God’s Fatherhood than his sovereignty. God, he told us, is shouting: ‘I’ve been in love with you longer than the stars have been in sky or the fish have been in the sea.'”
Throughout the coming week, scholars and ministers will present lectures and sermons in these historic environs to celebrate the contributions of the Genevan reformer. The public is invited.
Report from the Christian Telegraph
IRAN: Video from the Frontline
With the crisis in Iran continuing following disputed elections, I thought it would be useful to post some video footage of what is taking place in Tehran and elsewhere in the country. With protests continuing, hopefully regime change may be a reality and the people of that country finally enjoy freedom.
CHINA: BOOKSTORE OWNER SENTENCED TO THREE YEARS IN PRISON
Shi Weihan also fined nearly $22,000; ‘illegal business’ printed Bibles for free distribution.
LOS ANGELES, June 10
(Compass Direct News) – A Beijing court today found Christian bookstore owner Shi Weihan guilty of “illegal business operation” and sentenced him to three years in prison and a 150,000 yuan (US$21,975) fine.
Sources said Shi’s store operated legally and sold only books for which he had obtained government permission, and that his Holy Spirit Trading Co. printed Bibles and Christian literature without authorization but only for free distribution to local house churches.
The 38-year-old Shi had been released on Jan. 4, 2008 due to insufficient evidence for the same vague charge of “illegal business operation,” but he was arrested again two month later, on March 19, and held virtually incommunicado. Contrary to Chinese law, authorities have denied all but a few visits from his lawyer and family, held him without charges for most of his time in jail, and initially withheld medication for his diabetes.
The court ruling appears to have allowed time that Shi has spent in jail to count toward his sentence, a source said, as his prison term was described as running from Nov. 28, 2007, when he was initially arrested, to Nov. 27, 2010.
Others in a printing company who stood trial with Shi appeared to have received similar sentences. A written judgment is expected within 15 days to allow time for an appeal to be filed, said Ray Sharpe, a friend of Shi.
“Absent an appeal, it is also possible that Shi could be allowed a sort of medical parole, due to his diabetic condition,” Sharpe said. “Hopefully, he could then be allowed to stay in a hospital under a sort of house arrest.”
He said that Shi did not yet know whether he would appeal, adding that the process could take up to a year.
Friends and business acquaintances of Shi have described him as a model citizen of China, saying that he has inspired them to love China by his patriotism and love for his homeland. They said he is known for selfless sacrifice on behalf of poor and disenfranchised rural Christians and minority children.
For much of his incarceration, Shi’s wife Zhang Jing and their two daughters, 12-year-old Shi Jia and 8-year-old Shi En Mei, have not known where he was being held. The family has been under nearly continual surveillance, limiting their ability to make contact with people who could assist them.
Sources said Zhang has worried about her husband’s condition and that she has taken on leadership duties at their church, where Public Security Bureau officials have intimidated the congregation with regular visits. Some members have left the church because of the intimidation, sources said, and Zhang is said to have suffered anxiety and stress that have led to depression.
Their two daughters have been ostracized at school for being the children of a prisoner, sources said.
Shi has lost more than 44 pounds since his second incarceration, they said, dropping to less than 130 pounds. The sources added that he has suffered from blisters because of unsanitary conditions in prison, as well as tinnitus that at times causes his ears to ring so loudly that he cannot sleep.
Chinese officials claim that the Nanjing Amity Printing Co. (Amity Press), the only government-approved Bible publisher, produces enough Bibles to meet the needs of the Chinese church, which various religious freedom organizations dispute. The groups complain that Amity prints a large share of its Bibles for export, and those sold domestically are not available to many Christians.
Report from Compass Direct News
PAKISTAN: LAHORE – Another Deadly Terrorist Attack
There was another terrible terrorist attack in Lahore, Pakistan, today. Terrorists have attacked a police training centre and killed some 20 people and injured another 90 from initial reports coming out of Pakistan.
Hopefully this attack will provoke the Pakistani government into seriously dealing with the Taliban and terrorists operating from within Pakistan. There seems to be a widely held view (including my own) that there are many within Pakistan supporting both the Taliban and terrorism – including a number of people with the Pakistan security forces.
BELOW: Some footage of the attack
THE STORY OF THE ENGLISH BAPTISTS: By John Carlile
I recently updated the http://particularbaptist.com web site by adding the book ‘The Story of the English Baptists,’ by John C. Carlile. The book can be found at the link below:
http://particularbaptist.com/library/englishbaptists_john-carlile.html
It is useful as a bit of an interesting introduction to English Baptist history even if you don’t agree with all of Carlile’s conclusions and comments. Hopefully it will still whet the appetite for further research into Particular Baptist history and teaching.
STATISTICS: particularbaptist.com
Since I have nothing much to ‘Blog on’ about tonight, I thought I might indulge in some more statistics. A few days back I wrote about 5 000 visitors at this Blog (which is now above 6 250 by the way), which got me to thinking about my main web site called particularbaptist.com (it used to be Aussie Outpost and before that NRBC – for Northlake’s Reformed Baptist Church).
Particularbaptist.com has been that name since July 2006, when I switched the site to a new hosting company and adopted the before mentioned domain name. The Aussie Outpost ‘brand (so to speak)’ had been established for some time and so the move to a new URL, name and domain would take some getting used to and the early stats showed this to be the case.
In July 2006 there were 333 hits on the site, with a total of 13 visits and 108 pages viewed. By the end of the year there had been 8 960 hits on the site, with a total of 643 visits and 3208 pages viewed. This was about what I would have expected given the changes and the effort involved in becoming re-established as particularbaptist.com.
Having looked at the statistics for the site a couple of days ago I was amazed at how strongly the site is now performing and it has encouraged me to continue with the work (I had been contemplating abandoning the project). All of those doubts that probably plague ‘webmasters’ were mine – is it worth the effort, is it at all useful and profitable to visitors, is it making a useful contribution, etc?
Anyhow, I have been encouraged to press on by the figures and have found that the statistics prove useful as that – encouragement. At times, that is very important – at least I think it is. So what are the latest figures?
Toward the end of September 2008 there had been 368 756 hits on the site, with a total of 35 979 visits and 233 571 pages viewed. All that in just over 2 years is simply amazing to me and above what I had expected by a long way. With the growth trend the site should have its 500 000th hit and 50 000th visit early in the new year and possibly a million hits by the end of 2009.
Isn’t the Internet incredible – so many visitors from all over the world?
I’ve started a statistics page on the site mainly for my own benefit (so I don’t have to wade through all of the figures over and over from the web host which is a bit complicated) and for supporters of the site at:
http://www.particularbaptist.com/stats.html
It’s all very simple on the statistics page at the moment and hopefully it will stay that way. I will be adding other bits of statistical trivia to the page over time, including a list of what countries the site has had visitors from. All very interesting.
The site’s homepage is pretty simple to find these days:
Random Thoughts 