My Thoughts on the recent Paris Terrorist Attacks, based on "The Quran and the Siege of Paris (David Wood)" via YouTube

It has been a week since Paris was hit twice within the same calendar year. This recent attack during a concert and at a cafe would make many think that this was random, but far from it. With France leading the way in airstrikes on ISIS in Raqqa, Syria, it was more of a revenge attack. Though history shows that the French seem to be rather resilient, but it seems that everyone forgets who ISIS is, who the terrorists were in the recent shooting/bombing in Paris -- devout followers of Mohammad the "prophet". In the video below, David Wood explains why the terrorists did what they did.



Now with ISIS threatening to repeat its actions in Washington, DC, and NYC (my home city), I would like to say that those the NYPD states that they have no "creditable threats", please still be careful. An attack can happened without the police knowing anything.

Yet Another "Free Palestine" Protest

I seem to have the amazing luck of running into these "Free Palestine" protests in Times Square. I ran into one last year while meeting up with a friend for a prayer night at her church downtown and I happened to walk towards Times Sq to take the train. Lo, and behold, Friday, Sept 18th, I run into another one on the intersection of 41st St & 7th Ave. I chose not to engage in debate, nor ask questions with my large, 10th anniversary CUFI Summit tote bag. I just took some footage and went on my way.

Now, my question is, where's all the anti-ISIS protests? Where are all the demonstrations against persecution of Christians? Oh, but everyone is A-OK with throwing Israel under the bus for nothing once in a while. But it's not like this is a first for Israel. Anti-semitic people like these have been trampling on her flag ever since Israel was reunified in May of 1948. To Israel, vile acts like are just another day in the life of being God's chosen people & His holy land.

If you're still on the fence as to who's right, in your research, be sure the facts are verified.

At the same time, us Christians have to love ALL people as Jesus does.

CNN: Fort Hood victims to be awarded Purple Hearts

I couldn't help but to rejoice I was when I randomly say this headline. I happened to see it at work and did my best to contain my joy.

For those who don't know about the Fort Hood shootings in 2009, here's some cliff notes:

• Army psychiatrist Nidal Hassan opened fire on the base, killing XX people
• Soon after the attacks, President Obama dismissed it as "work place violence" when Hassan was shouting ALLAHU AKBAR while shooting. 
• Hassan's business card read "Soldier of Allah"

There were a number of other glaring clues that the attack was, indeed, Islamic-driven, not just "work place violence".

All in all, I'm just happy that these brave soldiers finally received what they deserved. I salute them.

Below is an excerpt from the CNN story:

(CNN) -- The U.S. Army will begin awarding Purple Hearts to those killed or wounded in the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. 

Secretary of the Army John McHugh announced the decision in a statement Friday, calling the honor "an appropriate recognition of their service and sacrifice."
The Army will also award the civilian equivalent of the Purple Heart, the Defense of Freedom Medal, to non-military victims. 

"The Purple Heart's strict eligibility criteria had prevented us from awarding it to victims of the horrific attack at Fort Hood," McHugh said, but noted that recent legislation has allowed them to move forward in recognizing the victims. 

The decision was made possible by an amendment to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), which expanded eligibility for the Purple Heart to include troops killed in an attack where "the individual or entity was in communication with the foreign terrorist organization before the attack," and where "the attack was inspired or motivated by the foreign terrorist organization."
"It's long past time to call the Fort Hood attack what it was: radical Islamic terrorism," Cruz said in a statement in December, after the NDAA was passed. "And, this recognition for Fort Hood terrorist victims is overdue. The victims and their families deserve our prayers and support, and this legislation rightly honors them for defending our nation in the face of a heinous act of terror."

Test All Spirits

The saying goes that “you can’t believe everything you hear” and “things aren’t always what they seem”. Those two phrases cannot be truer today. There's much deception in this world. Even worse, there's deception within the Church. With so many Christian denominations, which one is right? Granted, no single church congregation is perfect, for we are all human at the end of the day, but there are churches at least strive to do their very best to stand strong in the Lord.

As it says in 1 John 4:1, King James Version, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. With the way the world is today, we cannot be so naïve, especially when it comes to spiritual matters. As aforementioned, within Christianity, there are so many denominations, which one is true? To avoid division, we cannot put the particular denomination that a believer associates with to be above all others. Jesus warned against this when one of His disciples told Him that they forbade someone who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name [Luke 9:49]. 

In Acts 17, while Paul was in ministry, he went to preach in a church of Berea and the congregants were wise in verifying his speech by searching the Scriptures (Old Testament).

As Jesus also did forewarn, that we have to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves [Matthew 10:16] because there are many false prophets out in the world. I’ve come to believe that it’s worse for someone’s heart to be turned away from God but in whatever that person is doing still believes that they’re serving God than for one to be turned away and convert to other religions all together. 

We even have to test what is preached in our own churches. We have to be aware of things like “prosperity gospel” and “replacement theory”. Prosperity gospel is teaching that one just has to believe and tithe a whole lot to “get rich quickly” in a sense, that all of one’s natural needs will be met through faith. The prosperity gospel’s underlining message is that one’s natural needs, namely money/wealth & health, are above worshiping God for who He is; putting natural/earthly blessings above spiritual blessings.

Sadly, I believe that all parties involved in prosperity gospel are victims: the congregation for tithing & offering in order to obtain blessing above having an intimate relationship with the Lord and the “pastors” that teach on this. The congregants are the obvious victims because they are being fed a false doctrine and believing that faith alone will get them rich. The pastors are victims in a spiritual sense. Jesus said that what comes out of a man defiles the man [Matthew 15:20; Mark 7:15] and therefore are defiling themselves and risking eternal damnation. Their preaching of “prosperity” ends up feeding their own and not their sheep. 

We’ll get to replacement theory in another blog.

Now, maybe you’re church isn’t preaching on this but sometimes what you hear in a Sunday morning sermon just doesn’t sit right with your spirit. Don’t be afraid to do some biblical research on it or even ask the preacher on it.

The Truth about Repentence

What is repentence? Repentence is asking to be forgiven of your sins; it's coming to terms with them and true repentence resutls in NEVER going back to that sin. People would often ask for forgiveness, and are forgivene, but then would fall again. That doesn't happen with true repentence, which results in newness of life (Acts 11:18). It's the goodness of God that leads us to that repentence (Romans 2:4), since He is just a God of love & mercy.

Though repentence is a New Testament doctrine, the best Old Testament expample us Psalm 51, where David repents for his ilicit relation with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of his best generals, Those events can be read in 2 Samual 11.

Being Thankful

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving isn't about turkey, stuffing, or food coma. We should be grateful for the food we have, but that's not the focus. We should just be thankful for what we have, no matter how little it may be. Let's not only be thankful for our materials things, but also for the fact that we have life, that we have salvation through Jesus! Salvation through Jesus Christ alone is the most important thing to be grateful for.

When we pray to the LORD our God, we have to enter His presence with thanksgiving (Ps. 100:4). Praise Him in every situation as well (1 Thess. 5:18). And don't just be thankful at the end of Nov, but everyday be thankful for His grace & mercy, which is new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23). Take some time out everyday to thank Him for life, for love. It can be a simple prayer of thanks or it can be a song. The first song in the Bible was the Israelites praising YHWH for delivering them from the bondage of Egypt (Ex. 15). It was sung literally after the waters closed upon Pharaoh and his army. They simply couldn't help themselves after receiving this type of salvation. That was a foreshadowing of the salvation Christ would bring to the people of Israel. We were once oppressed and now we had been delivered from that oppression. What's not to be thankful for?

One WTC Opened for Business

Well, the Freedom Tower, aka “One World Trade Center” opened for business on Nov 3rd with its first tenants being publishing giant Condé Nast. A few days before its opening, I kept repeating in my mind “conde nast” or “conde nash”, never hearing that name before. A day or two after 1WTC’s opening, I realized why I was hearing “conde nast” over and over again.

It also reminded of something I heard from God, or what I believed to be the Lord, earlier this year when I was in downtown Manhattan, while I was looking at the tower, that it would fall again. This was one of the few times that I would gaze at it and not see a plane coming at it. It scared me at first because I wanted to be like Gideon and confirm what I heard. But, somehow, I knew deep down that something will bad will happen to that building and i would be around to see it ever since it was reported that 1WTC was opened for business.

That “freedom” tower is a ticking time bomb. To be honest, I wasn’t as traumatized by the events of 9/11, but I feel ever connected to it, like the other 8+ million New Yorkers who lived to remember it.

There’s more to the story of those events and I’m going to find out what, so stay tuned for more details.

And if you’re wondering why I called One World Trade Center a “ticking time bomb”, read pick up a copy of the book The Harbingers by Jonathan Cahn. On top of that, just about two weeks in operation, 1WTC already had some issues: two window washers were rescued from the 68th floor of the building after the scaffolding they were on malfunctioned. The two were each attached to a harness, attached to the platform, which would have killed them had it fallen, according to amNY. Firefighters were able to cut a door-sized hole on the 68th floor, which is still under construction, to bring the two men in, who were eventually treated for hypothermia.