Monday, May 30th, in the year of our Lord, 2016.
By Mark Robinette
A tornado and heavy rains hit central Texas on late Thursday and early Friday, causing severe damage, flooding, and flight cancellations. 153 homes were damaged by an EF-1 tornado that struck the city of Bryan. 53 of these homes sustained major damage. Thankfully, no injuries were reported. God be praised! Heavy thunderstorms caused flooding and halted all flights coming into and leaving Bush International Airport for nearly two hours.
On Friday, Rep. Rick Allen, a Georgia Republican, created quite a stir on Capitol Hill when he pulled out an anti-homosexuality Bible passage and began reading in order to shame fellow Republicans who voted to ban contracts absent of homosexual so-called equal rights protection. Many responded with disgust and walked out of the meeting.
In Sao Paolo, Brazil, nearly half a million Christians took part last week in what organizers called the largest Christian event in the world. The Reborn in Christ Church held its 24th annual March for Jesus. A three-mile-wide swarm of people followed trucks with stages and sound equipment, singing and praising God in celebration of their freedom to worship.
Church Job Fairs is an organization helping churches since 2014 to minister to their communities by holding job recruitment events. Nearly 10,000 have attended 60 Church Job Fairs, which also provide opportunities to share the Gospel. Organization President Gerhard Kramer told The World View more about the project: “This is an opportunity basically to meet a tangible need, to meet people where they are. And so, by opening the doors of a church and providing an opportunity for them to find a job, and ultimately introduce the fact that there’s hope in Jesus and to make an introduction to that local church as an outreach.”
A World War II-era, single-seat fighter plane crashed in the Hudson River Friday evening just two miles from the George Washington Bridge in New York City. The pilot, 56-year-old William Gordon of Key West, Florida, was killed. Gordon was flying a P-47 Thunderbolt, part of a trio of these historic planes, in preparations to take part in the Jones Beach Air Show on Saturday on Long Island, where the planes were originally built.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Romania and Poland that they are in the potential crosshairs of Russian rockets because they are hosting parts of the new U.S. missile defense shield. Putin said that his government has repeatedly warned it would have to retaliate if the missile defense shield is put into place. Another part of the shield is getting ready to be implemented in Poland. In a joint news conference in Athens with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Putin said, “We will be forced to carry out certain measures to ensure our security.”
On Saturday, at a top-secret naval facility, the U.S. military unveiled and demonstrated a new super-powered weapon for which officials said there was little or no defense. The rail gun, which some are calling a battlefield meteorite, is an electromagnetic supergun that fires a 25-pound projectile 4,500 miles per hour through seven steel plates, leaving a 5-inch hole. Because it requires neither gunpowder nor explosives, and powered by electromagnetic rails, officials say the rail gun will transform military strategy, keeping the U.S. ahead of advancing Russian and Chinese weaponry.
Today is Memorial Day in America. Today we remember those who gave their lives for our freedom. For many, today will be just another day in a three-day weekend. The Unknowns, a documentary that released today nationwide, offers a reminder that the national holiday is much more than time off from work. Producer Ethan Morse said, “We wanted to show the general public the behind-the-scenes of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier so they could get a better appreciation of why they even have the day off.” Unknowns follows the training of the sentinels at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier monument at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Morse added, “Our country was built on sacrifice, everyone says freedom is not free, but Tomb Guards live that saying every night and day to honor our nations fallen and missing heroes.”
Galatians 5 teaches us that freedom is our calling and that true freedom is that God has freed us from sin so that we, by love, can serve one another.
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