The duty of the watchman is to speak truth, sound the alarm, calling attention to things perhaps not readily noticeable.  With this in mind...

Residents in Norway turning to God to find answers and comfort after one of Europe’s worst terrorist attacks in history is an expected reaction to such a tragedy - and indeed it was a tragedy...

"a national tragedy," one bishop told reporters on Saturday.

"Our nation is praying for a praying nation. It is shocking that such a peace-filled country saw such hatred in one man who obviously did not know where his loyalties were and was without a doubt, insane."

America too was brought to its knees after the devastating terror attacks of Sept. 11. Across the country Americans joined together in prayer. Our hearts were warmed as we watched our elected officials join together in praying for this nation.

This 'peace-filled' nation has ranked No. 1 the last five years in life expectancy, literacy, education and standard of living. Norway has the second highest GDP per capita in the world, an unemployment rate below 2 percent, and average hourly wages among the world's highest.

But Norway has also embraced secularism at the expense of its Christian roots. A  survey conducted by Gallup International rated Norway the least religious country in Western Europe.  82.9 percent of the population are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (they are automatically registered at birth and few bother to be unregistered). However, only approximately 10 percent regularly attend church services and identify themselves as being personally Christian.

Oslo, known for the Nobel Peace Prize awards, have awarded such noble of character as Barack Hussein Obama, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, and Yasser Arafat.

I pray, as I did when America bowed her knee to Almighty God on 9/11 that an awakening will occur and Norway will repent and return to God. Time will tell, just as it has for the past ten years in America.

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."  Luke 12:34

Let us indeed pray that the families and friends of those who mourn will be comforted by The Comforter and that many will come to faith in our LORD through this most difficult time - pray there will be a turning from sin and that hearts will be changed. This did not happen in America, perhaps it will be different in Norway. 

Seeds are being planted even now - what fruit they produce remains to be seen.

Police are sifting through the life details of Anders Behring Breivik to find answers as to his motives behind the murders. “Breivik describes himself as a Christian, leaning toward rightwing Christianity.

“He describes himself as a Christian”

We all know that he is no Christian. It’s impossible for a true Christian “tree” to produce this type of wicked fruit. Seeds are being planted with comments such as this; “seeds” instigated by satan through a human heart filled with pain and sorrow, questions and fear.

Severe persecution is coming to believers in the world, the likes of which we have never faced before. How do we know… It's in His Word.

"Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also." John 15:20

"...strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God..." Acts 14:22

During the last three centuries, Americans have enjoyed relative freedom from the occult forces that have tormented many other parts of the world. From the beginning, the pilgrims and a significant number of other believers trusted God and built this nation on the foundation of His Word. Therefore God protected their land. Few were exposed to words and actions that led to the occult.

But times have changed and God's actual truth is rarely heard in public places. We can no longer shut out the well-marketed forces of evil that press into our lives -- even in churches. Therefore, we must prepare for the spiritual warfare ahead.

"There shall not be found among you anyone who... practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.... For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord..." Deuteronomy 18:10-12

Witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, sorcery, spells -- all have found their way into the final Harry Potter movie Deathly Hallows, Harry's Last Battles.

Days before the release of the seventh and final novel in the series, and now the blockbuster movie, youth leaders are being told they could use the popularity of the Potter books and films as a 'launch pad' for exploring Christian themes.

Designed to stir feelings and produce strong emotional responses, a well-planned myth with likeable characters can be far more memorable than the less exciting daily reality -- especially when reinforced through books, toys,  games and movies. Small wonder Harry's fans have been counting the days until their next fantastic journey into Hogwarts' classes on sorcery, divination, potions and spells.

Children identifying with their favorite Harry Potter characters,  learn to see wizards and witches from a popular peer perspective rather than from God's perspective. Christian children can easily learn to conform truth to multicultural ideals and turn God's values upside down - just as did God's people in Old Testament days.

writes one young fan:   "I have been encouraged by my pastor at my CHRISTIAN church to read the Harry Potter books, because even though they have references to magic and sorcery, they can teach us more about the values of Friendship and Bravery than he can.... I am no longer Christian. Somewhere along the way my beliefs changed. Now, I practice Wicca."

"But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward." Jeremiah 7:24

The story of Harry Potter is an allegory: written and packaged to look like fantasy when, in truth, it is a carefully written true description of the training and work of an initiate in an occult order. The author, J. K. Rowling, is very successful in evoking strong sympathy and empathy for Harry in her readers. The books teach situation ethics rather than absolute values of right and wrong that are taught in the scriptures.

suggestions at the bottom of well-distributed Harry Potter magazines read:

"CAST A SPELL, MIX A POTION, TRY A TRICK!

As commentator Berit Kjos says in her movie review, "In a world that despises God's Word and moral guidelines, it's not surprising that a series of books based on witchcraft and wizardry has won the hearts of the people. Occult themes, whether in books, movies, or computer games, have become one of today's most effective tools for social transformation. Even churches are promoting the change. The 'light' side of evil could hardly be more deceptive!"

As God's Word tells us, "the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one." (1 John 5:19) That's reality today! But the consequences for those who believe his lies will be severe:

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness.... Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!" Isaiah 5:2-21

If you are a parent, talk to your children about the dangers of Harry Potter and the occult, read scripture with them, pray with them, pray for them, but please do not take them or allow them to go with their friends to see the movie nor to buy the books and magazines - and explain to them why!  

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

Many thanks goes to Kjos Ministries for their wealth of information on the dangers of Harry Potter.  To read more, please visit their website.

“And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.” Acts 3:10-11

Look at it like this:

a particular evangelist claims to possess power from God to heal people. Okay, so why doesn’t he go to public hospitals or physical rehab facilities and call the sick and the lame out of their beds? If the pretend healer did, can you imagine the amazement that would fall over all the nurses, doctors, workers and other patients? So why don’t the charismatic healers leave the friendly confines of planned meetings in rented auditoriums and go to the hospitals?

Why don’t they? Maybe they don’t because they can’t.

But if they can't and pretend they can ~~ wouldn't they be liars?

But if like Peter they really can but won’t, then “these healers” are heartless and cruel. So their failure to heal in public places like hospitals strikes at the heart of their credibility. In either case, they stand exposed as either liars or loveless.

Why are believers so ready to believe and stand amazed while unbelievers are not amazed by the miracles that faith healers pretend to do?

As in Acts 3:1-11, why are people not “wondering” after the sick and lame who are healed? Perhaps it’s because there’s really nothing happening to wonder about.

edited from article by Pastor Larry DeBruyn

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." I Corinthians 6

[This article from Prophecy News Watch was posted with heaviness of heart. Forgive them LORD they know not what they do].

'Not what one might expect as at least 25 Christian music festivals are held each summer in America, BUT they have never catered to theological liberals ~~ until this year, that is.  The Wild Goose Festival—named after a Celtic symbol for the Holy Spirit—kicked off on 72 wooded acres in eastern North Carolina, not so far from the intellectual hub of Raleigh-Durham.

Instead of Bible studies, there were labyrinth walks. Instead of praise-and-worship music, there was hymn-singing in a beer garden and a bluegrass liturgy presided over by a tattooed female Lutheran minister. Visitors were greeted with buckets of water in which to baptize themselves, and tubs of mud to remind them that “dust thou art”~~Visitors could learn from Tom Prasada-Rao, a singer, how to chant “Om” and “Hallelujah Hare Krishna”, or hear Paul Fromberg, a pastor from San Francisco, talking about his 2005 wedding to another man. “God is changing the church through the bodies of gay men,” he told a packed session on human sexuality. Also under discussion was “religious multiple belonging”—in other words, belonging to a clutch of different faiths at once.

Jay Bakker, son of Jim and Tammy Bakker gave meandering talks on growing up fundamentalist. Frank Schaeffer, who has made a career out of criticizing his evangelical parents Francis and Edith Schaeffer, called the Bible “Bronze-Age mythology” and confessed he had a “conflicted ambivalence” about abortion.

Many mainline Protestants seemed delighted by the festival, and may well latch on to the emergents to shore up their shrinking numbers. Buoyed by their success, Wild Goose’s organizers plan to repeat the festival next year in the same bucolic place.'

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Galatians 6

"Objection is often raised even by some sound in the faith regarding the exposure of error as being entirely negative and of no real edification. Of late, the hue and cry has been against any and all negative teaching. But the brethren who assume this attitude forget that a large part of the New Testament, both of the teaching of our blessed LORD Himself and the writings of the apostles, is made up of this very character of ministry, namely, showing the satanic origin and, therefore, the unsettling results of the propagation of erroneous systems which Peter, in his second epistle, so definitely refers to as "damnable heresies."

Our LORD prophesied, "Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." Within our own day, how many false prophets have risen; and oh, how many are the deceived!

Paul predicted, "I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch." My own observation is that these "grievous wolves," alone and in packs, are not sparing even the most favored flocks. Under shepherds in these "perilous times" will do well to note the apostle's warning:

"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers." It is as important in these days as in Paul's, in fact, it is increasingly important-to expose the many types of false teaching that, on every hand, abound more and more.

We are called upon to "contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints," while we hold the truth in love. The faith means the whole body of revealed truth, and to contend for all of God's truth necessitates some negative-unpopular teaching. The choice is not left with us. Jude said he preferred a different, a pleasanter theme-

"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude 3, 4).

Paul likewise admonishes us to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Ephesians 5:11)

This does not imply harsh treatment of those entrapped by error-quite the opposite. If it be objected that exposure to error necessitates unkind reflection upon others who do not see as we do, our answer is: it has always been the duty of every loyal servant of Jesus the Christ to warn against any teaching that would make Him less precious or cast reflection upon His finished redemptive work and the all-sufficiency of His present service as our great High Priest and Advocate.

Every system of teaching can be judged by what it sets forth as to these fundamental truths of the faith. "What think ye of Christ?" is still the true test of every creed. The Christ of the Bible is certainly not the Christ of any false "-ism." Each of the cults has its hideous caricature of our lovely Lord.

Let us who have been redeemed at the cost of His precious blood be "good soldiers of Jesus the Christ." As the battle against the forces of evil waxes ever more hot, we have need for God-given valor.

There is constant temptation to compromise. "Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach." It is always right to stand firmly for what God has revealed concerning His blessed Son's person and work. The "father of lies" deals in half-truths and specializes in most subtle fallacies concerning the LORD Jesus, our sole and sufficient Savior."

Error is like leaven of which we read, "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Truth mixed with error is equivalent to all error, except that it is more innocent looking and, therefore, more dangerous. God hates such a mixture! Any error, or any truth-and-error mixture, calls for definite exposure and repudiation. To condone such is to be unfaithful to God and His Word and treacherous to imperiled souls for whom Christ died.

Exposing error is most unpopular work. But it is the work of the followers of our LORD.

Dr. Harry Ironside: 1876 - 1951

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians10:3-5

Face-to-face with the Truth, Pontius Pilate asked the ageless question, then walked away. Soon afterward he condemned Truth to death. He didn't know that Truth would live and reign forever!

Truth is now at work in those who know Him -- guiding our paths, renewing our minds, and drawing us closer to Himself. Truth clarifies, purifies, and cuts through the distortions, deceptions, and compromises of the world.

"Clothed with Christ," we are sheltered in Truth. Through Him, we see things as they really are.

Truth is the first piece of God's armor, the part that holds everything else together. I can go no further until I have "put on" Truth through Spirit-given knowledge of His Word. The truth of His will, ways and presence is my protection in every challenge ahead.

Get Ready and Be Prepared.!.

Precious Lord of Truth, I am amazed that you, the mighty King of heaven and earth, would receive me into your holy presence. Please continue to "guide me into all truth," so that I might live each moment in the shelter of Your love. Thank You, my King and my God!.

A Wardrobe from the King/Berit Kjos

A powerful group of Christian Right leaders, dissatisfied with the current GOP presidential field, has agreed that Texas Gov. Rick Perry would be their preferred candidate for the Republican nomination, according to TIME. These influential figures, who include Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Texas activist David Barton, have begun privately urging Perry to launch a bid for the White House. 

Even though Governor Rick Perry’s The Response prayer rally has garnered support from self-proclaimed prophets and apostles like Cindy Jacobs, Mike Bickle, Che Ahn, Doug Stringer, John Benefiel, and Jay Swallow, and now we can add one of the most prominent leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation to the list of endorses: C. Peter Wagner.

If he runs, does Perry have a lock on the conservative Christian vote? Is this 'powerful group of Christian leaders' so liberal in their theology that they will overlook Perry's 'supporters' and endorse him even though it would appear he lacks both discernment and a firm grasp of the truth of Scripture. Do we as a church have such a low opinion of God' Word that we would allow these who know not truth to speak for us, or is the church so illiterate of what scripture says they know not the difference.?.

I like Paul am astonished --

..."that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed." Galatians 1

It is past time we open our eyes and see reality - it is time we take a stand for the WORD of God found in Scripture and not the word heard in the pulpits of most churches, neither should we follow the teachings and prophecies of  the 'self-proclaimed' nor televangelist who spew lies and deception with hand outstretched and a toothy grin.

"I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them." Romans 16:17

"The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel [and I add America] know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac." Hosea 9:7

The world's largest church is one that teaches a New Age theology, denying all the fundamental truths of the Bible. With over 20 million enthusiastic members in the United States who adore their pastor — Oprah Winfrey.

A rags-to-riches sensation, her net worth is now estimated to be more than one billion dollars. A Gallup poll ranked her as the 4th most important woman in the entire history of the world!

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." 2 Timothy 4:3

Oprah Winfrey, the world's most popular and powerful woman, is also the most dangerous. Emerging as New Age High Priestess, she has deceived millions into rejecting God's Word and embracing, instead, a convoluted theology that is straight from the pit of Hell.

Oprah claims to be a Christian and vehemently denies being a New Ager:

"I am not New Age anything, and I resent being called that. I am trying to open a door so that people can see themselves more clearly and perhaps be the light to get to God, whatever they may call that. I don't see spirits in the trees, and I don't sit in a room with crystals."

Referring to God as "whatever" a person "may call that" she asserts that human beings can be "the light" to get to God. Being born again says Oprah is the same as "being connected to the higher Self," adding that when the Bible says, "ask and it shall be given," we are being prompted to seek answers from our "intuitive Self."

"God is not "hung up" on what we believe about Him. "Whatever that force is, it doesn't care what you call it. He doesn't have an ego problem.I believe in the FORCE. I call it God."

"Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father... believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves."
John 14

"...one of the biggest mistakes humans make is to believe that there is only one way. Actually there are many diverse paths leading to what you call God." When one of her audience members disagreed, testifying that she believed Jesus is the only way to God, Oprah lost her temper and shouted, "There couldn't possibly be only one way!" adding she felt that "God cares more about our hearts than He does about what we believe about Jesus."

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 14:6

edited from an article by Dr. David Reagan, Lamb and Lion Ministries

"...Remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” Jude 1