Man cuts off tongue to please Goddess Kali

Jammu, April 11: A jobless devotee was admitted to hospital after he cut off his tongue and offered it to goddess Kali, police said on Wednesday. Doctors stitched the wound but said the man, identified as Suresh Kumar, 24, may not be able to speak again. The incident took place on Tuesday evening when Kumar visited a temple dedicated to Hindu goddess Kali on the outskirts of Jammu, the winter capital of Indian Kashmir. Inside the temple, he cut his tongue off with a knife and gave it to the priest to offer it to the deity. He was immediately rushed to hospital. “I am a true disciple of the goddess and it is my firm belief which has given me the strength to offer my tongue to her,” he wrote on a piece of paper when reporters visited him in hospital. Original Bureau Report here

“Lord God, the Holy Ghost,
In this accepted hour,
As on the day of Pentecost,
Descend in all Thy power.

We meet with one accord,
In our appointed place,
And wait the promise of our Lord,
The Spirit of all grace.

The young, the old inspire
With wisdom from above;
And give us hearts and tongues of fire,
To pray, and praise, and love.”

Now my last word is this. You say that it is unjust of God to choose one and to pass by another. Listen, it is, not. It is not unjust, because God never yet refused salvation to any man who really asked him for salvation, and asked from his heart. God never yet turned away one single sinner that sought him in true repentance.

Oh, if there is a sinner here tonight, prove it for yourself. If there is a sinner here tonight, test it out for yourself. Christ has said, ‘Come unto me, all that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,’ and if you will come to him there is rest for you! Try him right now and see! Put him to the proof right now.

Well but, you say, that contradicts what you have been saying all night. No, it doesn’t, for no sinner will come to him unless he is drawn by God to come. It is his responsibility to come and he will be damned if he does not come. And listen, get this plainly, the sinner will be damned, not because God created him for that purpose, he will be damned because of his own sins. He will receive the just reward of his iniquities, but nevertheless it is the responsibility of the sinner to come, and if he will come there is salvation for him.

You CAN NOT, repeat CAN NOT, make peace with a man with war in his heart (Ps 55:21).

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3 killed in Turkey Bible attack

By BENJAMIN HARVEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

	An injured man lies on the ground outside a publishing house in Malatya, southeastern Turkey, Wednesday, April 18, 2007. Assailants killed three people Wednesday at a publishing house that distributed Bibles, in the latest attack apparently targeting Turkey’s tiny Christian minority. (AP Photo/Burhan Karaduman, Ihlas News Agency)

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Assailants on Wednesday slit the throats of three employees of a publishing house that distributes Bibles, the latest in a series of attacks targeting Turkey’s small Christian minority.

The attack added to concerns in Europe about whether the predominantly Muslim country - which is bidding for EU membership - can protect its religious minorities. It also underlined concerns about rising Turkish nationalism and hostility toward non-Muslims.

The three victims - a German and two Turks - were found with their hands and legs bound and their throats slit at the Zirve publishing house in the central city of Malatya.

Police detained four men, ages 19 to 20, and a fifth suspect was hospitalized with serious injuries after jumping out of a window to try to escape arrest, authorities said. All five were carrying a letter that read: “We five are brothers. We are going to our deaths,” according to the state-run Anatolia news agency.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the attack and said investigators were looking into whether there were other suspects or possible links with terror groups.

“This is savagery,” Erdogan said.

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BEING SENSIBLE THAT I AM UNABLE TO DO ANYTHING WITHOUT GOD’ S HELP, I DO HUMBLY ENTREAT HIM BY HIS GRACE TO ENABLE ME TO KEEP THESE RESOLUTIONS, SO FAR AS THEY ARE AGREEABLE TO HIS WILL, FOR CHRIST’ S SAKE.

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Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.

1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’ s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great soever.

2. Resolved, to be continually endeavoring to find out some new contrivance and invention to promote the aforementioned things.

3. Resolved, if ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.

4. Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can avoid it.

5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

6. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.

7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.

8. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God. July 30.

9. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.

10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.

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In his commentary on Romans 1:18 , Martyn Lloyd Jones makes this challenging observation:

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If you were giving reasons as to why you talk to people about
the gospel, and why you tell them about the gospel, or, if you are
privileged to preach, the reasons why you preach it, I wonder
whether you would start with this - the thing with which this
man begins.

Why is he ready to preach the gospel in Rome or anywhere else?

He does not say it is because he knows that many of them are living defeated lives and that he has got something to tell them that will give them victory.

He does notsay to them, ‘I want to come and preach the gospel to you in Rome because I have had a marvellous experience and I want to tell you about it, in order that you may have the same experience - because you can if you want it; it is there for you. That is not what Paul does. This is the thing that he starts with.

There is no mention here of any experience. He is not talking in terms of their happiness or some particular state of mind, or something that might appeal to them, as certain possibilities do - but this staggering, amazing thing, the wrath of God! and he puts it first; it is the thing he says at once. Here is the motive for evangelism; here is the thing that urged and drove this man: ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. . .’

The Apostle is interested, in the first place, in men’s relationship to God, in their standing in the sight of God, in their eternal destiny face to face with God. In other words, the gospel that was preached by the Apostle Paul was never man-centred; it was always and invariably God-centered.

He starts with the wrath of God, not with the needs of people as such, not with the things that were worrying them, not with the unhappiness, and so on. He does not mention these things. Instead he speaks of the wrath of God!

The joyful assurance that God is at the head of all things.

We are debtors to mercy alone.

The superficiality of modern evangelism lies not in the result of an over-emphasis on justification, it is because it does not preach the law, the depth of sin and the wonder and greatness of the holiness of God.

Many people ‘choke’ at the mention of something like ‘the law of God’ - that is because they have no true understanding of the concept.

Think of it this way: The law of God is simply the laws that govern God’s universe. If you are not aware of them, then you are not aware that you are a law breaker. in this case, ignorance is certainly not bliss! It is because of this ‘lawlessness’ that we are judged sinners and are in need of a Saviour.

And in that concept alone lies the beauty of the work of Christ.

The gospel today is being preached in terms of the offer of a friend and a helper the ‘I am a friend of God’ groupies.
The characteristic of biblical evangelism, and evangelism that has a lasting effect, is that the majesty and glory of God is put first, instead of some benefit provided for man.

Such preaching does not treat sin merely as some kind of sickness but as an affront to God, as lawlessness and its great concern is that men should see themselves in relation to the glory of God.

Much of what we see and hear on the Christian Entertainment Networks gives lip service to regeneration (being born again) but it does not really believe in it. True preaching shows the complete helplessness of man and regards the humbling of man as the main part of its work. If that is left out, the true glory of salvation cannot begin to be measured.

We just floated the new website for the church, getting great feedback.

www.clctx.org