Customs official banished to a remote area after being caught smuggling.

U.S. President, Donald Trump, on Friday, said he would send an army to topple his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro if he wanted to. Trump said this while speaking on Fox and Friends, a live talk show on Fox Television as he denied the U.S. involvement in an alleged recent coup attempt on Maduro. “We have […]

Trump clears air on alleged coup to overthrow Venezuela leader

The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in Kwara state has cried out over alleged plan by the All Progressive Party (APC) led state government to arrest some of its leaders on trumped up charges. The leading opposition party in the state made this known in a petitioned addressed to the Kwara state director of the Department of […]

The post Kwara PDP Petitions DSS Over Alleged Plan By APC Led State Govt To Clampdown On Its Leaders appeared first on Nigerian Pilot News.

In the global jostling amid the coronavirus crisis, Beijing is extending its influence while U.S. President Donald Trump continues to squander America's leadership role. The pandemic could mark the beginning of a new Chinese era.

The twelve apostles included "Simon, who is called Peter" (Matt. 10:2).

God can use your natural abilities as a basis for your spiritual service.

Peter is a good illustration of how God builds a spiritual leader. He begins with a person's natural traits and works from there. Natural traits alone don't make a spiritual leader—the person must also be gifted and called by the Holy Spirit to lead in the church and be a model of spiritual virtue. But often God endows future leaders with natural abilities that constitute the raw materials from which He builds spiritual ministries. That was certainly the case with Peter, who demonstrated the leadership qualities of inquisitiveness, initiative, and involvement.

Peter was always asking questions. In fact, the gospel records show he asked more questions than all the other disciples combined! People who aren't inquisitive don't make good leaders because they're not concerned about problems and solutions.

Initiative was another indicator of Peter's leadership potential. He not only asked questions, but also was often the first to respond when Jesus asked the questions (e.g., Matt. 16:15-16; Luke 8:45).

Also, Peter loved to be in the middle of the action, even when it got him into trouble. For example, we might criticize his lack of faith when he sank after walking on water, but remember, the rest of the disciples never even got out of the boat.

Peter was inquisitive, showed initiative, and sought to be involved. How about you? Are you inquisitive about God's truth? Do you take the initiative to learn about Him? Do you want to be involved in what He is doing? If so, you have the raw material for spiritual leadership. Continue to cultivate those qualities, allowing the Spirit to use you for God's glory.

Suggestions for Prayer

• Pray for your spiritual leaders.
• Ask God for opportunities to lead others in the way of righteousness. Use every opportunity to its fullest.

For Further Study

Read the following verses, noting the kinds of questions Peter asked: Matthew 15:15; 18:21; 19:27; Mark 13:2-4; John 21:20-22.

From Drawing Near by John MacArthur Copyright © 1993. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.

• The Study Bible (mobile app)
• Grace to You Sermons (mobile app)
• John MacArthur’s complete sermon archive
• The MacArthur Study Bible
• The complete MacArthur New Testament Commentary series

The twelve apostles included "Simon, who is called Peter" (Matt. 10:2).

Your present experiences contribute to your future leadership ability.

Stan Carder is a dear brother in Christ and one of the pastors on our church staff. Before coming to Grace Church he pastored a church in Montana. While there, he was riding one night in a truck that was involved in a very serious accident. Stan suffered a broken neck and other major injuries. As a result he underwent months of arduous and painful therapy.

That was one of the most difficult periods in Stan's life, yet God used it for a specific purpose. Today, as pastor of our special-ministries department, Stan ministers to more than 500 physically and mentally handicapped people. God needed a man with unique qualifications to show love to a group of very special people. He chose Stan and allowed him the necessary experiences to fit him for the task.

God doesn't always permit such serious situations, but He does lead each of us into life-changing experiences that heighten our effectiveness in ministry.

Peter had many such experiences. In Matthew 16:15-16, for example, God gave him special revelation about the deity of Christ. In Acts 10 God sent him to preach the gospel to Gentiles—something unheard of at the time because Jewish people resisted any interaction with Gentiles. Perhaps the most tragic experience of Peter's life was his denial of Christ. But even that only increased his love for Christ and his appreciation of God's grace. After His resurrection, Christ forgave him and restored him to ministry (John 21:15-19).

Peter's many experiences helped prepare him for the key role he was to play in the early church. Similarly, your experiences help prepare you for future ministry. So seek to discern God's hand in your circumstances and rejoice at the prospect of becoming a more effective Christian.

Suggestions for Prayer

Thank God for both the good and bad experiences you have, knowing that each of them is important to your spiritual growth (cf. James 1:2-4).

For Further Study

Read Acts 10, noting what Peter learned from his experience.

• What vision did Peter have?
• What was the point of the vision?

From Drawing Near by John MacArthur Copyright © 1993. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.

• The Study Bible (mobile app)
• Grace to You Sermons (mobile app)
• John MacArthur’s complete sermon archive
• The MacArthur Study Bible
• The complete MacArthur New Testament Commentary series

The twelve apostles included "Simon, who is called Peter" (Matt. 10:2).

Peter learned five lessons that every believer must also learn.

We have seen that God uses our experiences to mold us into more effective Christians and leaders. Using Peter as our example, let's briefly look at five lessons we can learn from our experiences: submission, restraint, humility, sacrifice, and love.

Leaders tend to be confident and aggressive, so they must learn to submit to authority. Jesus illustrated that by telling Peter to go fishing and look for a coin in the mouth of the first fish he caught (Matt. 17:24-27). He was to use that coin to pay their taxes. Peter was a citizen of God's Kingdom, but he needed an object lesson in submitting to governmental authorities.

When the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, Peter grabbed a sword and would have fought the entire group if Jesus hadn't restrained him. Peter needed to learn to entrust His life to the Father, just as Christ was doing.

Peter bragged that he would never leave or forsake Christ—but he did. Perhaps humility was the most painful lesson he had to learn.

Jesus told Peter that he would die as a martyr (John 21:18-19). From that day forward Peter knew his life was on the line, yet he was willing to make the necessary sacrifice and minister anyway.

Leaders tend to be task oriented and often are insensitive to people. Peter was that way, so Jesus demonstrated love by washing his feet and instructing him to do loving deeds for others (John 13:6-9, 34).

Submission, restraint, humility, sacrifice, and love should be characteristic of every believer—no matter what role he or she has within the Body of Christ. I pray they are characteristic of your life, and that you will constantly seek to grow in those graces as God continues His work in you.

Suggestions for Prayer

Spiritual lessons are sometimes painful to learn, but God is patient and gracious. Thank Him for His patience and thank Him also for Christ, who is the perfect example of what we should be.

For Further Study

Peter learned his lesson well. Read 1 Peter 2:13-18, 21-23; 4:8, 16; and 5:5. What can you learn from Peter's instructions on submission, restraint, love, sacrifice, and humility?

From Drawing Near by John MacArthur Copyright © 1993. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.

• The Study Bible (mobile app)
• Grace to You Sermons (mobile app)
• John MacArthur’s complete sermon archive
• The MacArthur Study Bible
• The complete MacArthur New Testament Commentary series

If Belarus was already in the grip of a public health crisis, its president looks hell-bent on turning COVID-19 into a catastrophe for the country. ......

“The United States has scaled back its role on the world stage, taken actions that...

(CNN)The United States has scaled back its role on the world stage, taken actions that are undermining efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic and left the international community without a traditional global leader, according to experts, diplomats and analysts. The US -- usually at the head of the table helping to coordinate in global crises -- has declined to take a seat at virtual international meetings convened by the World Health Organization and the European Union to coordinate work on potentially lifesaving vaccines. Former world leaders warn that the Trump administration risks alienating allies by politicizing the deadly pandemic with its push to punish China and have other...

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday pleaded with global leaders and families to ensure the protection of the world’s children, millions of whom he says are vulnerable to a myriad of threats as a result of the shutdown arising from the global coronavirus pandemic.  While children are at a significantly lower health risk […]

The post Global Leaders Must Prioritise Children’s Wellbeing amid Coronavirus Pandemic – UN appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Dorothy Tembo is Executive Director ad interim, International Trade Centre (ITC)

The post The Cost of Coronavirus in Africa: What Measures can Leaders Take? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The U.S. needs a more expansive strategy to maintain its lead in this field, and that means working closely with its allies, especially Japan.

As celebrities reveal details about their charitable giving during the COVID-19 pandemic, some feel it could be the start of a new attitude to donating ...

Global leaders marked 75 years since the end of World War II in Europe on Friday, urging citizens to draw inspiration from the historic victory ...

In the lead-up to the Truth Matters conference in October, we will be focusing our attention on the sufficiency, authority, and clarity of Scripture. Of our previous blog series, none better embodies that emphasis than Frequently Abused Verses. The following entry from that series originally appeared on April 10, 2017. -ed.

False teaching thrives in environments where it is unlikely to be questioned. Charlatans and heretics prey on uncritical minds, and work tirelessly to protect and preserve that gullibility. Their success depends on dismantling every challenge to their authority and accuracy.

John MacArthur describes why that problem is rampant in the modern church:

In a time like this of tolerance, listen, false teaching will always cry intolerance; it will always say you’re being divisive, you’re being unloving, you’re being ungracious, because it can only survive when it doesn’t get scrutinized. And so it cries against any intolerance. It cries against any examination, any scrutiny.

In recent decades, some of the most notorious charismatic church leaders have been doing just that. They continually warn their critics to back off or face the imminent danger of divine judgment. Claiming God’s stamp of approval, they wield Psalm 105:15 like a loaded gun: “Touch not [the Lord’s] anointed” (KJV).

And lest you think such a description to be hyperbole, the following clip from Benny Hinn is a spectacular example. 

Hinn’s handling of Psalm 105:15, as well as the story of Saul and David, is hopelessly wrong on too many levels to address in one blog post.

For example we could discuss how Hinn utterly fails to understand Judas’s role in God’s sovereign plan for the crucifixion, while woefully underestimating the deity of Christ. We could invalidate Hinn’s warnings against criticism by pointing out the time Paul rebuked Peter—or when Hinn has publicly rebuked Joel Osteen, among others. Then there’s the problem of Hinn basing his threats upon the extra-biblical revelation of another false teacher (Kenneth Copeland).

 What does it mean to “touch”?

But there is one simple, glaring error that explains all the other problems and exposes Hinn as the incompetent and unqualified Bible teacher that he is. When David says, “I will not stretch out my hand against [Saul], for he is the Lord’s anointed” (1 Samuel 24:10), he is explaining why he didn’t kill Saul, not why he didn’t criticize Saul. In fact, David was openly critical of Saul on numerous occasions. Moreover, 1 Samuel 24:10 is part of a larger discourse where David rebukes Saul face-to-face over his murderous scheming: “I have not sinned against you, though you are lying in wait for my life to take it. May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you” (1 Samuel 24:11–13). Even if Benny Hinn was “the Lord’s anointed”—he’s not—none of his critics are attempting to “touch” him in the sense described in 1 Samuel 24:10 (or Psalm 105:15; or 1 Chronicles 16:22).

Who are the anointed?

There is another fatal flaw in Hinn’s interpretation. He—and all those who follow this teaching—assume that only certain persons are “anointed.” They claim that pastors and self-appointed prophets and apostles have a unique anointing from God that immunizes them from criticism. But such a concept is foreign to Scripture. In short, the Bible teaches that all believers have an anointing from God.

In his first epistle, the apostle John explained what it means to be anointed as a New Testament believer. After warning his readers about antichrists who were coming to deceive them, John reminded them of their security because of Christ’s anointing:

These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. (1 John 2:26–27)

The anointing John refers to is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit—a reality for all true Christians. John MacArthur explains the context and meaning of “anointing” as it appears in 1 John:

The false teachers who threatened John’s readers employed the terms for knowledge and anointing to describe their religious experience. They arrogantly saw themselves as possessing an elevated and esoteric form of divine knowledge, and as the recipients of a special, secret, transcendent anointing. That led them to believe they were privy to truth that the uninitiated lacked. John’s response, which was both a rebuttal to the antichrists and a reassurance to the believers, was to assert that, in reality, all true Christians have an anointing from the Holy One.

Because believers have received that anointing, they have the true understanding of God that comes exclusively through Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6), “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). They do not need any secret, special, or transcendent understanding or esoteric insight. Anointing (chrisma) literally means “ointment” or “oil” (cf. Hebrews 1:9). In this text it refers figuratively to the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:21–22), who has taken up residency in believers at the behest of Jesus Christ, the Holy One (cf. Luke 4:34; Acts 3:14), and reveals through Scripture all they need to know (John 14:26; 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:9–10). ^[1] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: 1–3 John (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 2007), 102.

The anointing we have as believers reveals the truth and therefore exposes the lies of false teachers. How ironic that the “anointing” Benny Hinn evokes to extort and manipulate churchgoers is actually our warning system to expose the self-serving deception of wolves like him.   

MANSEHRA: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Mufti Kifayatullah, who received a warm welcome by his party workers on his release, has reiterated his earlier stance of a ‘respectable’ burial of patients died of Covid-19.“I am not afraid of jails and would never allow police and...

Donald Trump has not donned one. Emmanuel Macron boasted a small French flag on his. Slovakia’s president made a fashion statement by sporting a fuchsia-coloured one to match her outfit.As the world starts emerging from coronavirus lockdowns, political leaders are being closely scrutinised over their choice to wear a mask – or not – with many people questioning the seemingly mixed messages about the value of face coverings as infection barriers.Many Western governments counselled against face…

Indian government forces killed a top rebel commander and his aide in disputed Kashmir on Wednesday and shut down cellphone and mobile internet services during subsequent anti-India protests, officials and residents said.India’s security officials and some members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party called his death as a major victory against insurgents. The killing could spark more unrest in the region.Riyaz Naikoo, 35, was the chief of operations of the region’s largest indigenous rebel…

José Ramón Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) Central Committee, received on the morning of December 4, the general secretary of El Salvador’s Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), Medardo González Trejo, who is leading a delegation visiting Cuba on the invitation of the PCC.

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LONDON: Fifty Labour Party parliamentarians have told the new Labour leader Keir Starmer that his recent statement on Indian Occupied Kashmir after a meeting with Labour Friends of India is...

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LONDON: Fifty Labour Party parliamentarians have told the new Labour leader Keir Starmer that his recent statement on Indian Occupied Kashmir after a meeting with Labour Friends of India is...

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PARIS: Donald Trump has not donned one. Emmanuel Macron boasted a small French flag on his. Slovakia´s president made a fashion statement by sporting a fuchsia-coloured one to match her outfit.As the world starts emerging from coronavirus lockdowns, political leaders are being closely...

BERLIN: The world must draw lessons from the past and work together to beat the coronavirus pandemic, European leaders urged as the continent marked 75 years since the end of World War II in Europe. With parades and commemoration events cancelled or scaled down to contain the outbreak, Europe and...

Global leaders marked 75 years since the end of World War II in Europe Friday, urging citizens to draw inspiration from the historic victory as the world battles against the coronavirus pandemic.

Comprising 50% of our global employee population, engineers are behind many of HARMAN’s market-leading connected technologies and innovations. Our engineers work hard each and every day to connect the world through state-of-the-art products and...

NEW YORK AUTO SHOW – March 23, 2016 – HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated (NYSE:HAR), the premier connected technologies company for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, will join leading global automakers at the 2016 New York Auto Show...

As a leading technology company with applications across a range of industries including automotive, audio and enterprise technology, HARMAN has a strong focus on recognizing our talented in-house engineers, developers and designers who help bring ...

Dental students’ ability to critique team performance in dental school team clinics is a key component of dental education. The aim of this study was to determine if students’ perceptions of their team leaders’ openness of communication, cooperative decision making, and well-defined goals were positively related to the students’ improvement-oriented voice behavior and willingness to raise concerns in the clinical environment. This study used a voluntary 12-question survey, distributed via email to all 311 students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Dental Medicine after completion of the spring 2017 semester. Eighty-seven students responded, for a response rate of 28%. Responses were stratified by team, class year, and gender, and the quantitative distribution of answers to each question was correlated with each other. Team leader collaborative qualities, which included openness for communication, cooperative decision making, and well-defined goals, were found to have a significant positive relationship with students’ willingness to both raise concerns and make suggestions. Additionally, when measured by class year and gender, team differences in voice behavior assessment by students across the teams were found to be independent of class year, and no significant differences were found by gender. These results suggested that, to maintain high levels of communication, proper reporting of concerns, and a high standard of care, dental schools should encourage team leaders to enhance their capacity to present active collaborative behaviors in the school’s clinic. The study also highlighted potential opportunities for further study of faculty traits and development in the dental school team model.

The coordinated electrical activity of β-cells within the pancreatic islet drives oscillatory insulin secretion. A recent hypothesis postulates that specially equipped "hub" or "leader" cells within the β-cell network drive islet oscillations and that electrically silencing or optically ablating these cells suppresses coordinated electrical activity (and thus insulin secretion) in the rest of the islet. In this Perspective, we discuss this hypothesis in relation to established principles of electrophysiological theory. We conclude that whereas electrical coupling between β-cells is sufficient for the propagation of excitation across the islet, there is no obvious electrophysiological mechanism that explains how hyperpolarizing a hub cell results in widespread inhibition of islet electrical activity and disruption of their coordination. Thus, intraislet diffusible factors should perhaps be considered as an alternate mechanism.

Windsor’s tech community came together Friday to share all the ways they are making the most of the COVID-19 pandemic. During an online event, leaders of seven local tech companies explained how they are dealing with, and capitalizing on the current pandemic. From the ability to scan facial temperatures, checking your blood for COVID-19 immunity, […]

Consultancy firm Certified Artificial, which is offering to certify AI companies, has demonstrated its prowess by rating the expertise of Elon Musk and Henry Kissinger

AAP national executive member & spokesperson, Preeti Sharma Menon, filed a complaint with Mumbai and Kolkata police

The Rossoneri icon has sought to talk up the importance of defenders in any ambitious side, with those at Anfield having found one of real “quality”