Peter was a fiercely loyal man. Like the other 11 apostles, he left his occupation to follow Jesus for three years, learning from him about the kingdom of heaven. Once he was filled with the Holy Spirit after Pentecost, Peter was a fearless missionary for Christ.
Month: March 2023
Accomplishments of Peter the Apostle
After being invited by Jesus to come, Peter got out of his boat and for a brief few moments walked on water (Matthew 14:28-33). Peter correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah (Matthew 16:16), not through his own knowledge but the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. He was chosen by Jesus to witness the transfiguration. After Pentecost, Peter boldly proclaimed the gospel in Jerusalem, unafraid of arrest and persecution. Most scholars consider Peter the eyewitness source for the Gospel of Mark. He also penned the books 1 Peter and 2 Peter.
Profile of Simon Peter the Apostle, Forgiven After Denying Christ
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Updated on May 06, 2019
Peter the apostle is one of the most prominent characters in the Gospels, a rough and tumble man whose emotions often got him into trouble, and yet he was clearly one of the favorites of Jesus Christ, who loved him for his big heart.
Peter’s true name was Simon. With his brother Andrew, Simon was a follower of John the Baptist. When Andrew introduced Simon to Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus renamed Simon Cephas, an Aramaic word meaning “rock.” The Greek word for rock, “petros,” became this apostle’s new name, Peter. He is the only Peter mentioned in the New Testament.
His aggressiveness made Peter a natural spokesman for the twelve. Often, however, he spoke before he thought, and his words led to embarrassment.
Jesus included Peter in his inner circle when he took Peter, James, and John into the house of Jairus, where Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Mark 5:35-43). Later, Peter was among those same disciples Jesus chose to witness the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9). Those same three saw Jesus’ agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:33-42).
Wife-swapping infiltrates church
THE pull of forbidden pleasures has always been known to be strong, particularly in circles where taboos hold no sway, but some Zimbabwean couples have taken it a notch higher through a new practice of wife-swapping.
BY staff reporter
There is no need to go to Hollywood or to purchase porn movies that sell at $1 for two in Harare’s streets or anywhere else in the cities, for one to watch some weird sex orgies; where one can live out their fantasies with a friend’s wife or husband after a “gentlemen’s agreement”.
Although there are no strings attached, those involved in the swinging lifestyle claim that it helps strengthen bonds of friendship.
As part of the practice, groups of married couples exchange sexual partners on a casual basis, commonly known as wife-swapping or “swinging”, which can, at times, include group sex or such orgies.
In one case, two couples from a Harare church decided to do a swap, but after some time, one of the men decided he wanted his friend’s wife for keeps, and that led to the breakdown of relations between the two families.
The Big Volcano
There was a news story a couple of weeks ago about the buffalo running away from the large caldera* in Yellowstone National Park. Do they know something? There have been several earthquakes in this area through the years, and they’re increasing in frequency in the last few decades.
It turns out that there is, today, one GIGANTIC volcano under Yellowstone National Park. It’s not noticeable too much from the ground because of its size. The walls are miles apart and appear only as distant mountains.
Earthquakes & Volcanoes in Bible Prophecy
Jer. 10:10 “…He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes”
The wrath of God is a scary thing.
In 1 Chronicles 21, God’s wrath was abundantly seen when King David disobeyed God and took a census of Israel. As punishment, God sent a pestilence that killed 70,000 Israeli men in one day! In the future Tribulation we know that God will pour out His wrath on all those who take the Mark of the Beast, as well as on the entire earth.
Rev. 14:9,10 “…If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God…”
Rev. 16:1 And I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth.”
Believers living today in the Church Age, thankfully, have already been judged.
1 Th. 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But until we exit this earth and receive our new containers, we must live on a fallen planet, Satan’s temporary sinful domain. He’s called:
“the god of this world…” 2 Cor 2:4
“the ruler of this world…” John 14:30
NATO to boost troops on high alert sevenfold in response to Russian invasion of Ukraine
NATO will boost its number of troops on high alert by more than sevenfold to over 300,000, the alliance’s secretary-general says, as it prepares to adopt a new stance describing Moscow as a direct threat.
Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine has sparked a major geopolitical shift in the West, prompting once neutral countries Finland and Sweden to apply to join NATO and Ukraine to secure the status of candidate to join the European Union.
“Russia has walked away from the partnership and the dialogue that NATO has tried to establish with Russia for many years,” NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid later this week.
“They have chosen confrontation instead of dialogue. We regret that, but of course then we need to respond to that reality.”
The June 28 to 30 NATO summit comes at a pivotal moment for the alliance after failures in Afghanistan and internal discord during the era of former US president Donald Trump, who threatened to pull Washington out of the alliance.
Ukrainian Seminary President: Almost 400 Baptist Churches in Ukraine Wiped Out by Russian Invasion
Hundreds of Baptist churches in Ukraine have been wiped out since Russia’s invasion of the country began almost six months ago, according to the president of the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary (UBTS).
Yaroslav Pyzh told Baptist Press about “400 Ukrainian Baptist congregations have been lost” since the war began on Feb. 24. It’s not just buildings that have been destroyed, but church leadership and congregations have been broken down.
Pyzh said although volunteers are helping displaced people fix their homes, the real challenge is to rebuild pastoral leadership in war-torn cities.
The Man Who Tried to Cash a Check for $360 Billion
“One last big score” is a common trope in crime movies. A criminal who’s tired of the game, but knows no other way of life. He has no appetite to make it on his own in the real, honest world. And so he pulls one last job with a payoff big enough to set himself up for life so he doesn’t have to become, like, a fish salesman, or whatever people in the real world do.
Which brings us to Charles Ray Fuller, whose “last big score” was also apparently his “first, clumsy score,” kind of the premature ejaculation of bank fraud. One bright spring day, Fuller decided to walk into his local bank and attempt to cash a check for $360 billion.
The bank, curiously, suspected something was up and notified the police. But that’s not the interesting part of this story. The interesting part is what was going through this guy’s head when he walked into that bank? Did he think this small bank had $360 billion in cash on hand? Did he really understand how much money that actually was? He could have tipped the entire planet into recession if he’d pulled this off. But of course the answer is that nothing was going through his head when he tried this. By even daring to consider this stunt, our man Fuller demonstrated a pretty horrendous lack of understanding about how checks, banking, and possibly zeros work.
New intel suggests Russia is prepared to launch an attack before the Olympics end, sources say From CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Katie Bo Lillis, Kylie Atwood and Jim Sciutto
The US and its allies have new intelligence that suggests Russia could launch an attack on Ukraine even before the end of the Olympics, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.
Previous assessments had suggested that Russia was unlikely to move into Ukraine until after the Olympics end on Feb. 20, US officials had told CNN in the past. The revelation of the new intelligence comes as administration officials have dramatically ramped up the urgency of their public warnings related to Ukraine in the past 24 hours.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine “could begin at any time,” including during the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the United States continues “to see very troubling signs of Russian escalation, including new forces arriving at the Ukrainian border.”
Kyiv is among the targets identified in the Russian planning, three sources familiar with the new intelligence tell CNN.
There are ongoing conversations within the administration about declassifying some of that new intelligence, which two US officials said may come later on Friday.
President Biden on Friday morning was set to hold a call with NATO and European allies to discuss the latest intelligence, a White House official told CNN. A European defense official said the North Atlantic Council will be discussing the situation and the new intelligence in a meeting later Friday.
Biden also joined a meeting of his top national security advisers Thursday evening in the White House Situation Room to discuss the crisis, a person familiar with the meeting said.
When asked about new intelligence, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian defense minister said that such warnings have been heard already.
“Again? These statements have already been heard,” Iryna Zolotar, press secretary for Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, told CNN.
CNN’s Alex Marquardt and Mick Krever contributed reporting to this post.
Persecution Live 