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Pittsburgh Rabbi refuses to take bait from media, only blames shooter

The Rabbi of Tree of Life in Pittsburgh was pressed by several news outlets to assign blame to the shooting. The media outlets, hoping that the Rabbi might at least hint that the murders were the result of political rhetoric, were likely disappointed by his response. I applaud Rabbi Myers for standing firm on the true teachings of God, as prescribed in the Torah.

Washington Free Beacon, Paul Crookston –

Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers said Monday that only the shooter bears responsibility for the attack that killed 11 at the Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday.

CNN host Alisyn Camerota pressed Myers about whether the shooter chose to attack because of the influence of others.

“Do you blame anyone for what happened there at the Tree of Life, beyond the gunman?” Camerota asked.

“I don’t really foist blame upon any person,” Myers said. “Hate does not know religion, race, creed, political party. It’s not a political issue in any way, shape, or form. Hate does not know any of those things.”

“It exists in all people,” he said.

Camerota said that might be true but asked, “What lights the match of hate?”

Myers quoted the first book of the Bible, Genesis, to say that man’s sinfulness is an ancient problem.

“I think you’re raising one of those great questions that people far smarter than I can answer,” Myers said. “But I do recall this: if we look in the Bible after the story of the flood and Noah, God regretfully says to Noah, ‘I have learned that man from his youth is prone to evil,’ which is, you would think, a horrific thing for God to tell us.”

“The message I get from that is, yes, there is the possibility of hate in all people. But there is also the possibility of good,” he said.

In the wake of the attack, many in the media have blamed President Donald Trump for the attack, even though the suspected killer posted anti-Semitic material online calling Trump a “globalist” with too many Jewish associates.

Myers argued all people are capable of choosing good and he said his email inbox was full of people from “every religion, people just pouring out their hearts, giving their support.”

What the Bible Says About Forgiveness

CBN is carrying a timely article on forgiveness by Cathy Arrington. I thought you would find it useful, given the terrible stuff in the news today. –Brian

Forgiveness

We all appreciate being forgiven, but forgiving others, especially when they have wounded us, feels like a different thing. Emotions get involved. We decide they need to suffer for the hurt they’ve caused, and we delay offering forgiveness, sometimes for years, decades, or forever.

Getting Even Instead of Forgiving

When we hurt, we want the person who is the source or that wound to hurt as much as we do. But the Bible provides a different perspective.

“Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God, for he has said that he will repay those who deserve it. Don’t take the law into your own hands” (Romans 12:19TLB).

Forgiving Those Who Don’t Ask for Forgiveness

As Jesus suffered on the cross, he asked God to forgive those who wrongly condemned him to death. Often those who offend us never ask for our forgiveness or admit any wrong-doing. Forgiving these people is perhaps the hardest. But Jesus is our example for forgiving those who don’t appear to be sorry or ask to be forgiven.

“Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing” (Mark 11:25 NIV).

“The one who forgives an offense seeks love, but whoever repeats a matter separates close friends” (Proverbs 17:9 NET).

Forgiving Others

While it may seem forgiving others is to their advantage, you are really the one who benefits most. Unforgiveness breeds anger, and swallowed anger results in depression. When you choose to forgive others, you give yourself a gift. Once you decide to forgive, you can move on with your life instead of stagnating in hurt and resentment, and in forgiving, you mirror a forgiving God.

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6: 14-15NLT).

“Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others” (Colossians 3:13 NLT).

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32 NIV).

You can read the rest of the article here…

Middle School Satan-Worshipper’s Plot to Kill Stopped

Two middle school students in Florida–admitted Satan-worshippers–were arrested Tuesday after they concocted a “plot to kill students” via a variety of weapons, including a pizza cutter, police said.

The girls — ages 11 and 12 years old — “wanted to kill at least 15 people,” Bartown Police Chief Joe Hall said at a news conference Wednesday. The two “were waiting in the bathroom for (an) opportunity to find smaller kids that they could overpower to be their victims.”

Both girls were searched in a Bartow Middle School office, where a butcher knife was located on one of the students. Knives, scissors and a pizza cutter were also found, according to Fox 13.

The girls admitted to investigators that they were “Satan-worshippers.” The girls, Hall claimed, said “they were willing to drink blood, and possibly eat flesh.”

“As I sat there last night [and] watched these interviews, I do not believe this was a joke,” Hall said.

After the girls were taken into custody, authorities reportedly searched their houses and discovered more additional attack plans. A hand-drawn map of the school was allegedly discovered with the words, “Go to kill in bathroom,” written on top of it.

One of the text messages exchanged in a conversation found by authorities reportedly read: “We will leave body parts at the entrance and then we will kill ourselves.”

Dodger’s Pitcher Gives God Glory in Series

The Los Angeles Dodgers are playing the Boston Red Sox in the Major League Baseball’s World Series. Among the group of athletes is starting pitcher and outspoken Christian, Clayton Kershaw.

While speaking with CBN News, the thirty-year-old MLB player described how he has carried his Christian faith into the major leagues saying, “I think getting to play baseball and the blessing that it is to go play every day is a platform to incorporate yourself with a lot of other different people that think baseball’s cool. If you tell people you’re a follower of Christ, that you’re a Christian, it can resonate with people a little bit more just because of the platform you have.”

Kershaw explains that God continues to teach and guide him saying, “What God’s teaching me about my life … first and foremost, that He’s in control of it, which is sometimes hard for me to grasp. I think He’s really teaching me to let go of the reigns a little bit and just give Him complete access to my life.”

The star pitcher speaks of his devotion to God, stating “He’s all-powerful, He brings joy to my life, He brings pain and sorrow to my life, all for a purpose. Instead of trying to figure that out all on my own, on my timing, He’s teaching me that I’m on His timing.”

Regarded by many as one of the best pitchers in baseball, Kershaw has spent 11 years with the Dodgers. He upholds an ERA of 2.39 and 1.00 WHIP. In his spare time, he participates in Highland Park High School’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes Huddle, where he was once a student. He recalls the impact the FCA had on him beginning in his teenage years: “It really helped me grow and showed me that it’s a lifestyle. Jesus is your Savior, and you live for Him. Everything you do is for Him, and athletics are a part of that.”

Trump Admin: gender assigned at birth, male and female

Given the authentic Christians President Trumps has surrounded himself with, we shouldn’t be surprised that he is going where no President has ever gone before…

President Trump is continuing to dismantle Obama-era policies that promote transgender rights, this time by defining gender as a biological condition determined at birth. In other words, a human is either born a man or a woman.

Followers of Jesus are praising the move.

“For the Trump administration to stand firm to say that sex-based determination really is only gender-based, biologically male and female, is not only consistent with science but it’s consistent with the traditional definition that we’ve had as a country and understood as a country throughout our history,” said Jenna Ellis, director of Public Policy for the James Dobson Family Institute.

One man applauding the Trumps administration’s move is Walt Heyer. As a former transgender person, Heyer has experienced sex-change regret first hand.

“The surgery fixed nothing – it only masked and exacerbated deeper psychological problems,” Heyer wrote in The Daily Signal.

He applauds the Trump administration’s move to define transgender out of existence.

“As a former trans person, and as someone who daily receives stories of physical and emotional devastation wrought by trans ideology, I look forward to a federal definition of sex as being rooted in immutable biology, without the option of being self-selected,” he says. “The science is absolutely clear. Sex doesn’t change over time, even with hormones and surgery—and that’s a good thing.”

A report in the New York Times cites a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) memo seeking to establish a legal definition of gender under Title IX, the civil rights law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex.

HHS is proposing a person’s gender be defined by the genitalia they’re born with and can’t be changed.

LGBT activists are furious about the proposed change.

“Making clear that we will not stand to see the human rights of transgender people erased by this administration from federal law,” said Erica Sackin, of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “We have seen so many attacks by the Trump-Pence administration, against transgender people and it is not okay.”

The Obama administration loosened the legal concept of gender, recognizing it as an individual choice and not one determined at birth. That created a host of legal and moral challenges concerning access to bathrooms, dormitories, and single-sex programs that once were defined strictly by male or female.