Thursday, April 25, 2013

Boston Terror Suspects attended Mosque with Radical Ties

Mosque that Boston suspects attended has radical ties

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/23/boston-mosque-radicals/2101411/

Oren Dorell, USA TODAY 6:06 a.m. EDT April 24, 2013

Terror suspects, fugitives and radical speakers have passed
through the Cambridge mosque that the Tsarnaev brothers
are known to have visited.


  (Photo: Shakil Adil, AP)

Story Highlights

Cambridge mosque was founded in 1982 by students at MIT, Harvard
and other Boston-area schools.
Affiliated with Muslim American Society, which federal prosecutors

call an "overt arm" of Muslim Brotherhood.

More than half of the $15.5 million used to found the Boston mosque

came from Saudi sources


BOSTON — The mosque attended by the two brothers accused in the Boston Marathon double bombing has been associated with other terrorism suspects, has invited radical speakers to a sister mosque in Boston and is affiliated with a Muslim group that critics say nurses grievances that can lead to extremism.

Several people who attended the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Mass., have been investigated for Islamic terrorism, including a conviction of the mosque's first president, Abdulrahman Alamoudi, in connection with an assassination plot against a Saudi prince.

Its sister mosque in Boston, known as the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, has invited guests who have defended terrorism suspects. A former trustee appears in a series of videos in which he advocates treating gays as criminals, says husbands should sometimes beat their wives and calls on Allah (God) to kill Zionists and Jews, according to Americans for Peace and Tolerance, an interfaith group that has investigated the mosques.

The head of the group is among critics who say the two mosques teach a brand of Islamic thought that encourages grievances against the West, distrust of law enforcement and opposition to Western forms of government, dress and social values.

"We don't know where these boys were radicalized, but this mosque has a curriculum that radicalizes people. Other people have been radicalized there," said the head of the group, Charles Jacobs.

Yusufi Vali, executive director at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, insists his mosque does not spread radical ideology and cannot be blamed for the acts of a few worshipers.

"If there were really any worry about us being extreme," Vali said, U.S. law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and Departments of Justice and Homeland Security would not partner with the Muslim American Society and the Boston mosque in conducting monthly meetings that have been ongoing for four years, he said, in an apparent reference to U.S. government outreach programs in the Muslim community.

The Cambridge and Boston mosques, separated by the Charles River, are owned by the same entity but managed individually. The imam of the Cambridge mosque, Sheik Basyouny Nehela, is on the board of directors of the Boston mosque.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, attended the Cambridge mosque for services and are accused of setting two bombs that killed three people and injured at least 264 others at the April 15 Boston Marathon.

The FBI has not indicated that either mosque was involved in any criminal activity, but mosque attendees and officials have been implicated in terrorist activity:

• Alamoudi, who signed the articles of incorporation as the Cambridge mosque's president, was sentenced to 23 years in federal court in Alexandria, Va., in 2004 for his role as a facilitator in what federal prosecutors called a Libyan assassination plot against then-crown prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Abdullah is now the Saudi king.


Aafia Siddiqui is shown after her graduation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Photo: AP)

Aafia Siddiqui, who occasionally prayed at the Cambridge mosque, was arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 while in possession of cyanide canisters and plans for a chemical attack in New York City. She tried to grab a rifle while in detention and shot at military officers and FBI agents, for which she was convicted in New York in 2010 and is serving an 86-year sentence.


The 2009 booking photo of Tarek Mehanna, of Sudbury, Mass. (Photo: Sudbury Police Department via AP)

Tarek Mehanna, who worshiped at the Cambridge mosque, was sentenced in 2012 to 17 years in prison for conspiring to aid al-Qaeda. Mehanna had traveled to Yemen to seek terrorist training and plotted to use automatic weapons to shoot up a mall in the Boston suburbs, federal investigators in Boston alleged.

Ahmad Abousamra, the son of a former vice president of the Muslim American Society Boston Abdul-Badi Abousamra, was identified by the FBI as Mehanna's co-conspirator. He fled to Syria and is wanted by the FBI on charges of providing support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill Americans in a foreign country.

Jamal Badawi of Canada, a former trustee of the Islamic Society of Boston Trust, which owns both mosques, was named as a non-indicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorism trial in Texas over the funneling of money to Hamas, which is the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

What both mosques have in common is an affiliation with the Muslim American Society, an organization founded in 1993 that describes itself as an American Islamic revival movement. It has also been described by federal prosecutors in court as the "overt arm" of the Muslim Brotherhood, which calls for Islamic law and is the parent organization of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.


Critics say the Muslim American Society promotes a fraught relationship with the United States, expressed in part by the pattern discussed by Americans for Progress and Tolerance in which adherents are made to feel cut off from their home country and to identify with a global Islamist political community rather than with America.

Zhudi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, said the radical teachings often follow a theme of recitation of grievances that Islam has with the West, advocacy against U.S. foreign policy and terrorism prosecutions, and efforts "to evangelize Islam in order to improve Western society that is secularized," he says.

Jasser, a veteran of the U.S. Navy and author of the 2012 book A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot Fights to Save His Faith, says the teachings make some followers feel "like their national identity is completely absent and hollow, and that vacuum can be filled by (radical) Islamic ideology, which is supremacist and looks upon the West as evil."

The Cambridge mosque was founded in 1982 by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard and several other Boston-area schools, according to a profile by the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. Its members founded the sister mosque in Boston in 2009.

The leadership of the two mosques is intertwined, and the ideology they teach is the same, Jacobs said. Ilya Feoktistov, director of research at Americans for Peace and Tolerance, said much of the money to create the Boston mosque came not from local Muslims but from foreign sources.

More than half of the $15.5 million used to found the Boston mosque came from Saudi sources, Feoktistov said, who cites financial documents that Jacobs' group obtained when the mosque sued it for defamation. The lawsuit was later dropped.

Vali said that the vast majority of total donors were in the United States and that "no donations were accepted if the donor wanted to have any decision-making influence (even if benign)."

Vali characterized Americans for Peace and Tolerance and its founder, Jacobs, as anti-Muslim activists who spread "lies and half-truths in order to attack and marginalize much of the local Muslim community and many of its institutions."

"It's the new McCarthyism in full swing," he said.


Sheik Basyouny Nehela, the imam of the Cambridge mosque, which is located across the Charles River from Boston, is on the board of directors for the Muslim American Society of Boston, which runs the Boston mosque. The Tsarnaevs attended the Cambridge mosque.

A statement issued by the Cambridge mosque said the Tsarnaev brothers were "occasional visitors." The mosque's office manager, Nichole Mossalam, said neither brother expressed radical views. "They never exhibited any violent sentiments or behaviors. Otherwise, they would have been reported," Mossalam said.

The Cambridge mosque said Tsarnaev, 26, who died Thursday night in a shootout with police, "disagreed with the moderate American-Islamic theology" of the mosque. Tsarnaev challenged an imam who said in his sermon that it was appropriate to celebrate U.S. national holidays and was told to stop such outbursts, the mosque said in a statement.

Talal Eid, a Muslim chaplain at Brandeis University, said focusing on individual radicals that prayed in a building is unfair.

"In 2011, the two brothers were right under the nose of the FBI and they didn't find anything," Eid said, who never met the Tsarnaevs. "How do you want me as an imam to know enough to tell them they are not welcome here? How can I figure out those people have that kind of criminal intent?"

The Muslim American Society says on its website that it is independent of the Muslim Brotherhood. However, early Brotherhood literature is considered "the foundational texts for the intellectual component for Islamic work in America," the website states.

Jacobs says claims of moderate Islam do not square with the mosque's classic jihadi texts in its library and its hosting of radical speakers.

Jacobs said Ahmed Mansour, his co-director at Americans for Peace and Tolerance, found writings by Syed Qutb, the former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and other jihadi texts at the Cambridge mosque's library when Mansour went there in 2003. Qutb pioneered the radical violent ideology espoused by al-Qaeda.

Yusuf al Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader who espouses radical views in videos collected by Jacobs' group, was listed as a trustee on the Cambridge mosque's IRS filings until 2000, and on the mosque's website until 2003, when he addressed congregants via recorded video message to raise money for the Boston mosque, according to a screenshot of the announcement that Feoktistov provided.

Vali said Qaradawi was listed as an honorary trustee years ago only because his scholarship and high esteem in Muslim circles would help with fundraising.

Yasir Qadhi, who lectured at the Boston mosque in April 2009, has advocated replacing U.S. democracy with Islamic rule and called Christians "filthy" polytheists whose "life and prosperity … holds no value in the state of Jihad," according to a video obtained by Jacobs' group.

Vali said Qadhi was a guest of a non-profit organization that was renting space at the Boston mosque and has changed his views since that video was made.

Jacobs and others say it is not only renters who express sympathetic views for terrorists. Leaders of the Boston and Cambridge mosques, and invited guests, have advocated on behalf of convicted terrorists, urging followers to seek their release or lenient sentences.

Imam Abdullah Faaruuq, sometimes a spokesman for the Boston mosque, used Siddiqui's case to speak against the USA Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law passed under the George W. Bush administration. "After they're done with (Siddiqui), they are going to come to your door if they feel like it," he said, according to a video obtained by Americans for Peace and Tolerance.

Anwar Kazmi, a member of the Cambridge mosque's board of trustees, called for leniency for Mehanna and Siddiqui at a Boston rally in February 2012, in a video posted to YouTube. He characterized Siddiqui's 86-year sentence as excessive.

In an interview with USA TODAY, Kazmi insisted that the Cambridge mosque is moderate and condemns the marathon bombings. On Monday, the mosque e-mailed members to caution them that the FBI may question them and that they may want to seek representation.

"This kind of violence, terrorism, it's just completely contrary to the spirit of Islam," Kasmi said. "The words in the Quran say if anybody kills even a single human being without just cause, it's as if you've killed all of humanity." 

A new 'Hymn for Today' : "Let's Stand Together"


Here is my worship song for today. I hope that you enjoy singing it! Please feel free to share it as much as you want, but, as usual, please report its use to CCLI if you use it in your worship services.

Let’s Stand Together  5555 & Refrain
TUNE: Together

Let’s stand together,
Let’s all praise the Lord;
And let’s join in worship
Of the Living Word!
Oh, let’s stand together!
Let’s all praise the Lord.
And let’s join in worship
Of the Living Word!
Let’s stand together!
Let’s stand together
Let’s stand together,
And let’s all praise the Lord!

Let’s praise together,
Let’s all praise the Lord;
And praise Him forever,
The true Living Word!
Oh, let’s praise together!
Let’s all praise the Lord.
And praise Him forever,
The true Living Word!
Let’s stand together!
Let’s stand together
Let’s stand together,
And let’s all praise the Lord!
 © 2007 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

What a beautiful photograph!


Incandescent morning Photo by Kiredjian Joris
Thank you Kiredjian for this wonderful photograph, which demonstrates that you have soul as well as skill.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Islamic Fundamentalism is an Evil in Your Midst.

Jihad Will Not Be Wished Away
But willful blindness remains the order of the day.
By Andrew C. McCarthy

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/346145/jihad-will-not-be-wished-away



ANDREW C. MCCARTHY
‘Outlook: Islam.” So reads the personal webpage of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who ravaged Boston this week, along with his now-deceased brother and fellow jihadist, Tamerlan — namesake of a 14th-century Muslim warrior whose campaigns through Asia Minor are legendary for their brutalization of non-Muslims.

Brutalizing our own non-Muslim country has been the principal objective of jihadists for the last 20 years. This week marks a new and chilling chapter: the introduction on our shores of the tactics the self-styled mujahideen have used to great, gory effect for the past decade in Afghanistan and Iraq.

At a point in the race timed to achieve maximum carnage, the Tsarnaev brothers bombed the Boston Marathon with improvised explosive devices. IEDs are small but potent homemade bombs — crude explosives and unforgiving shrapnel encased in easily portable pressure cookers. The bombs are simple to make. They won’t kill thousands or even hundreds of people like hijacked planes or heavy chemical explosives will. But that’s not the objective. The goal is to instill terror into the flow of everyday life. IEDs are made for “soft” targets. They are easily camouflaged amid the traffic, the everyday debris, and the eight-year-old boys frolicking as they wait for Dad to cross the finish line.

Willful blindness remains the order of the day, as it has since the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993. It is freely conceded that, when the identities and thus the motivation of the Marathon terrorists were not known, it would have been irresponsible to dismiss any radical ideology as, potentially, the instigator. But in our politically correct, up-is-down culture, to suggest “Outlook: Islam” was unthinkable. So the most likely scenario — namely, that jihadists who have been at war with us for two decades had, yet again, attacked innocent civilians — became the least likely scenario in the minds of media pundits. Instead, they brazenly prayed (to Gaia, I’m sure) for white conservative culprits with Tea Party hats and Rush 24/7 subscriptions. As our Kevin D. Williamson quipped, the “literal Caucasians” they got were not quite what they had in mind.

To listen to the commentary was to assume that the jihad’s nimble post-9/11 shift from heavy bombs and airliner missiles to IEDs had never happened. Prior to 2009, much agitprop was made over the thousands of American troops killed and maimed by IEDs in Iraq — they signified, the Left told us, that George Bush had brought al-Qaeda to previously jihad-free Baghdad. So did IEDs at the Marathon mean the same jihad had now come to Boston? Perish the thought. Surely the Marathon bombing was the work of either the right-wing extremists Janet Napolitano has been warning us about since 2009, or those notoriously violent Catholics and Evangelicals that today’s Army equates with Hamas and Hezbollah.

But no: It was in fact the jihad that stubbornly refuses to be wished away. It will have to be defeated. It was never a molehill we were exaggerating into Mohammed’s mountain. After 1,400 years of aggression, we can safely say it is not anytime soon going to evolve into the ballyhooed “internal struggle for personal betterment” — not for the tens of millions of Muslims for whom Islamic supremacism is, quite simply, Islam.

So will we be roused to meet the challenge? Doesn’t seem like it. On Friday morning, the damning and utterly predictable details began pouring in the second the jihadists were identified — “Outlook: Islam”; a YouTube playlist called “Terrorists” that included the ditty, “I will dedicate my life to jihad”; a wife who abruptly converted to Islam and began dressing in what a neighbor called “the Islamic style”; an apparent reverence for the notorious sharia jurist Sheikh Feiz Mohammed. Yet the media commentary, even if it grudgingly mentions these things, internalizes none of them. “How shocking it is,” we’ve repeatedly heard, “that the brothers Tsarnaev want to mass-murder Americans. After all, they’re Chechen Muslims, and the Chechens’ beef is with the Russians, not us.”

Good grief. It is the Uighurs all over again. You’ll recall the Uighurs — they were a group of Turkic-speaking jihadists from the Xinjiang region of China, detained at Guantanamo Bay because they trained in Afghanistan with an al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist organization (the East Turkistan Islamic Movement). At least some of them fought against American forces. Nevertheless, we released them. Stroking its bloated chin, our government rationalized that they could not be enemy combatants because they weren’t our enemies — their beef was really with China, right? After all, Islam is a Religion of Peace and we’re very nice people, so why should we assume they might have a problem with us?

We are in a war driven by ideology. “Violent extremism,” which is the label the government and the commentariat prefer to put on our enemies, is not an ideology — it is the brutality that radical ideologies yield. Our enemies’ ideology is Islamic supremacism. To challenge and defeat an ideological movement, you have to understand and confront their vision of the world. Imposing your own assumptions and biases will not do. Islamic supremacists do not see a world of Westphalian nation-states. They do not distinguish between Russia and America the way they distinguish between Muslims and non-Muslims. Their ideology frames matters as Dar al-Islam versus Dar al-Harb: the realm of Islam in a fight to the death against the realm of war — which is everyone and everyplace else.

The fact that you think this is nuts, or that I’m nuts for saying it out loud, has nothing to do with whether they believe it. They do — and they don’t care, even a little, what you think.

You do not defeat an ideology by hoping it will change or disappear. You have to challenge it, to make it defend its baleful tenets in the light of day. You cannot protect yourself from its violent outbursts absent understanding its teaching, reluctantly accepting that its teaching will inevitably lead some Muslims to strike out savagely, and committing to a pro-active, intelligence-based counterterrorism strategy — one that scraps political correctness and ferrets out the jihadists before they strike.

Asked about his “outlook,” Dzhokhar Tsarnaev offered a pregnant response, “Islam,” that raises more questions than it answers. There are all kinds of Islam, including the supremacist kind that is far more widely held than we’re comfortable acknowledging. Until we get beyond that discomfort, until we are prepared to ask, “What Islam?” — and until we are prepared to treat Islamic supremacism as the pariah it should be — Boston’s hellish week will remain our recurring nightmare.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Latest edition of "The Voice Christian News & Views"

The latest edition of "The Voice Christian News & Views" is now available online. Check it out via this link.

Monday, April 22, 2013

A new 'Hymn for Today' : "Rejoice"




Rejoice   86 86
TUNE: Rejoice
Forever in Your rest, I pray,
Your peace is all to me:
Forever in Your rest I’ll stay,
Since You have set me free.
My life is all I have to give,
All else is naught to Thee:
My Saviour, take me as I am,
Then Yours I’ll ever be.
Forever raise in songs of praise,
My hands, my heart and voice:
Forever Yours, I’ll praise You,
Rejoice, my soul, rejoice!
      Rejoice, my soul, rejoice!
© 2006 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

Country Gospel from Chuck Longmayne


Check out these songs from songwriting duo Colin Gordon-Farleigh and Greg Scheer, sung by Nashville's Chuck Longmayne.




Sunday, April 21, 2013

Religious Tolerance

The question is, "Which god calls on you to kill in order to get to heaven, and which God calls on you to love your neighbour and acknowledge His Son, in order to get into heaven. I know which God I follow, and through whom, and it's got nothing to do with the moon-god.

New 'Hymn for Today' : "I'll See Jesus"



Here's my choice for today's "Hymn for Today." Although the words are new, the tune is both well-known and very beautiful. I hope that you will like it enough to share with your friends and use in your worship services. If you do that, please ensure that your church or school report its use to CCLI in the usual way.

I’ll See Jesus 6565 D
TUNE: Take Time to be Holy


One day I’ll see Jesus,
We’ll stand face to face;
I’ll offer my praises,
In thanks for His grace.
I’ll worship and thank Him
For His gracious love;
I’ll praise him for ever,
In Heaven above.

For all of life’s blessings,
My family and friends,
I’ll praise Him in glory,
Where life never ends.
I’ll praise Him as Shepherd,
As one of His sheep;
I’m saved by His grace, now
My soul He will keep.

Keep me and protect me,
For my sins atone;
All as one with Jesus,
Rest in Him alone,
Then one day in heaven,
Through His saving grace,
I’ll stand before Jesus,
With Him, face to face.
©
 2006 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

Saturday, April 20, 2013

"Hymn for Today" : "Won't You Come?"


Here is my choice for today's "Hymn for Today."  I hope that you will like it enough to share with your friends and use in your worship services.  Provided that you ensure that its use in your church or school is reported to CCLI in the usual way, you may reproduce this hymn both in hard copy or electronically, the only condition being that it is not used for profit in any manner. For more information regarding the hymns of Colin Gordon-Farleigh, please email me.

Won’t You Come?   8787
TUNE: Sanctum

I can hear the Saviour calling,
Calling gently, far and near;
I can hear the words so clearly,
“Won’t you come and shelter here?”

On my heart the words are falling,
Speaking gently to my soul;
Like the lambs, I hear my Shepherd,
“Won’t you come and be made whole?”

I will come to you, Lord Jesus,
To the shelter of your arm;
Where You go then I will follow,
Knowing that I’m safe from harm.

I can hear the words He’s saying,
Hear them clearly in my heart;
I am listening, I am listening,
Jesus loved me from the start.
© 2011 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

Best-Selling Meditation CD from Rev Colin

You can purchase this best-selling Meditation CD from the on-line shop at Sheer Joy Music.

Friday, April 19, 2013

A new 'Hymn for Today' : "Hear My Prayer"


Hear My Prayer    7676
TUNE: Cara
Lord Jesus in Your mercy,
through each and every day,
I’ll always praise and serve You,
please, hear me when I pray.
I’ll talk with You each morning,
and speak with You each night,
when You call me I‘ll answer,
help me to win the fight.
All that You ask me Saviour,
help me through every day;
and, most of all, my plea
is ‘Hear me when I pray.’
O, hear me Lord, and answer
according to Your word;
then may the Spirit prompt me,
when Your still voice I’ve heard.
© 2010 :  Colin Gordon-Farleigh

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

New song from Colin Gordon-Farleigh & Greg Scheer

Coming soon! The latest song from songwriting duo Greg Scheer and Colin Gordon-Farleigh, "Wild Horses (Beneath a Raging Moon)" tells the story of a meeting that leads to a shotgun wedding, and beyond. The great sound of Byron J. Bryce keeps your feet tapping to this one! Produced and Arranged at Song City Studios, Nashville by Dave Demay, this is one for your iPod library if you are a fan of real Country Music.

'Because of You' --- My Hymn Choice for Today


Because of You  10 9 10 9  D
TUNE: Open the Wells
Jesus, my Saviour, my life is Yours now,
Because of You Lord, I know the Way;
Because of all that You have done for me,
I know from sin’s hold I’m free today.
Because of His great gift of salvation,
Because of Him from sin I am free;
Pathway to glory stretches before us,
Jesus my Saviour has rescued me.
Because of You my future’s secure Lord,
You conquered death so that I could live;
Because of You Lord, my path is certain,
Because of this new life that You give.
Because of His great gift of salvation,
Because of Him from sin I am free;
Pathway to glory stretches before us,
Jesus my Saviour has rescued me.
Because of You I walk in the light now,
Walking beside You, I take Your hand;
Because of Your great gift of redemption,
My life of service waits Your command.
Because of His great gift of salvation,
Because of Him from sin I am free;
Pathway to glory stretches before us,
Jesus my Saviour has rescued me.
© 2011 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

Some More Great Christian Quotes

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
-T.S. Eliot

"Real gold isn't afraid of fire..." - Anonymous

"You can't preach it like it is if you don't believe it like it was."
- Vance Havner

"When I pastored a country church, a farmer didn't like the sermons I preached on hell. He said, 'Preach about the meek and lowly Jesus.' I said, 'That's where I got my information about hell.'"
 - Vance Havner

"Tell the Israelites, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.'"

- Jehovah

"The victorious Christian neither exalts nor downgrades himself. His interests have shifted from self to Christ. What he is or is not no longer concerns him. He believes that he has been crucified with Christ and he is not willing either to praise or deprecate such a man."

- A.W. Tozer

Thursday, April 11, 2013

A new 'Hymn for Today' : "Let All the Earth"


Let All the Earth . L.M.
Tune: Melcombe
Let all the earth, in joyful song,
Sing praises to our Lord and King;
Let all the peoples of the world
To Him their gifts and tributes bring.
Sing out with full and joyful heart,
As through His gates you enter in.
Know that our Lord Himself is God,
And praise Him in your thanksgiving.
In gladness, serve Him now with praise,
Sing of His might both near and far;
Fit temples for His holy fire,
For He has made us who we are.
We are His people and His sheep,
According to His holy Word;
So now sing joyfully to Him,
Our Shepherd of the fold, our Lord.
Now we in joyful songs of praise,
With full thanksgiving in our heart,
Will worship Him, the Three-in-One,
And seek the way to play our part.
Let all the earth, in joyous song,
In gladness, serve Him now with praise;
Sing out with full and joyful heart:
And walk for ever in His ways.
© Colin Gordon-Farleigh, 2006

A New Hymn for Today: "Great Redeemer"


Great Redeemer  65 65 3
TUNE: God is Good
You’re our Saviour, Jesus,
You’re our gracious Lord;
You’re the great Redeemer, 
You’re the Living Word;
You’re our Lord.
He came down to save us,
Sent by God above;
He’s the great Redeemer,
He’s the blesséd dove;
He’s our Lord.
One day He is coming
Back to earth again;
He’s the great Redeemer,
Who will come to reign;
He’s our Lord.
Lord, we will be waiting,
Waiting for Your call;
You’re the great Redeemer,
You are Lord of all,
You’re our Lord.
You have won the vic’try,
Over death and grave;
You’re the great Redeemer,
Who came down to save;
You’re our Lord.
Jesus, we will give You,
All our love and praise,
You’re the great Redeemer,
Joyful songs we raise,
You’re our Lord.
© 2011 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

North Korea: The real question is "Rockets or Food?"

Photo: Please SHARE! Learn more by clicking this link: www.heavensfamily.org/north-korea
     The real question for North Koreans is whether to accept the warmongering of Kim Jong Un who feels that the cost of one rocket launch test is of greater value to his country than feeding 80% of the population.
     Of course, when the main source of employment is in the armed forces, I guess that they need to do something with their time, or otherwise they might one day wake up and smell the roses and overthrow the despotic rule that the people are subjected to.
     Sometimes the news reports about North Korea must distress you and frustrate you as to how anyone could help to alleviate the suffering of the people, at least in part. Well there is one way you could help. Visit www.HeavensFamily.org/north-korea today to find out.

'Hymn for Today' : "There is Joy"



Here is a lively 'Hymn for Today' which I am sure you will enjoy singing. Why not add it to your worship service in church or in the School Assembly. You really do get such a feeling of joy in your heart as you sing it. This hymn was recorded by Cantoris on their album 'There is Joy' which is available from all good digital download sites such as iTunes, CD Baby and Amazon.

There is Joy
TUNE: There is Joy 
 . 
There is joy in my heart
When I hear the Saviour’s name,
He’s made a powerful diff’rence in my life!
Since I let Him in,
He’s forgiven all my sin;
Now there’s joy, yes, there’s joy, in my heart!
     There is joy, there is joy,
     There is joy in my heart!
     Since I let Him in,
     He’s forgiven all my sin;
     Now there’s joy, yes, there’s joy, in my heart!

There is joy in my soul,
When I praise the Saviour’s name,
He’s made a powerful diff’rence to my hope!
Now He’s made me whole,
Cleansed and purified my soul;
There is joy, purest joy, in my soul!
     There is joy, there is joy . . .

There is joy in the world,
When we hear the Saviour’s name,
He’s made a powerful diff’rence to the world!
Royal anthems raise,
As we sing our songs of praise;
For there’s joy, yes there’s joy, in the world!
     There is joy, there is joy . . .
© 2006 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh