Rhonda Ballance

Explosion rocks Syria’s Aleppo as residents return

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By Associated Press December 24 at 6:14 AM BEIRUT — Syrian state TV says an explosion rocked eastern Aleppo as some residents were returning to their homes after the government assumed full control of the city earlier this week. It says the explosion on Saturday was caused by a device left inside a school by Syrian rebels, who withdrew from their last remaining enclave under a cease-fire deal after more than four years of fighting. A correspondent for Lebanon’s Hezbollah-run Al-Manar TV was reporting live from the area when the blast sounded in the background, sending a huge cloud of …

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Antagonism Toward Christmas

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Some people scorn Christ’s birth because they don’t want anyone else ruling their life. Matthew 2:12-18 (KJV) 12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. 13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14 When he arose, he took the young …

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“The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” Isaiah 40:5

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We anticipate the happy day when the whole world shall be converted to Christ; when the gods of the heathen shall be cast to the moles and the bats; when Romanism shall be exploded, and the crescent of Mohammed shall wane, never again to cast its baleful rays upon the nations; when kings shall bow down before the Prince of Peace, and all nations shall call their Redeemer blessed. Some despair of this. They look upon the world as a vessel breaking up and going to pieces, never to float again. We know that the world and all that is …

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CHRISTMAS: A TIME FOR GIVING

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Christmas is known as a time of giving—and it started with the first. Luke 2:1-20 (KJV) 2 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. 2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage …

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Names of Jesus: Immanuel

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“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23) It defies logic that the eternal, Son of God stepped down off His Heavenly throne and became the Son of Man, entering our world as a helpless infant. He became flesh and dwelt among us to save us from our sins and allow us to become children of God and dwell with Him forever. (Psalm 23:6) He is Immanuel, God with us. He is with us always, (Matthew 28:20) He will never leave us …

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Jesus Christ: The Word Become Flesh, The Last Adam

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There was the first Adam, who sinned, and through whom the Adam race was ruined forever. But Jesus became The Last Adam. (I Cor. 15:45) The meaning of Jesus as The Last Adam is two-fold. First, through His sinless life, He became the LAST Adam in the sense of being the fullness of God’s mind and intent for humanity — He fully glorified God as a man. Thus, after Him, there needed to be no other. But secondly, Jesus was The Last Adam through His death — on the Cross He brought the Adam race to an end through death …

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Israel’s Right To The Promised Land

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Both Israel and the Church are the works of God in progress. Both fail in their stewardship assignments apart from Him. We can learn from Israel’s fall, 1 Cor. 10, and take heed lest we fall; see also the warning against being puffed up in Romans 11. Israel failed under the Mosaic Law and needed the freedom provided in Romans 7, to be set free from the Law that could never save or sanctify them. Free to marry another, the very Lawgiver Who alone fulfilled the Law. When He makes His New Covenant of Jeremiah 30-31 with Israel, His Law …

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Netanyahu: ‘Obama Colluded Against Israel’ at Security Council

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Israel rejects anti-settlement motion out of hand, will work with incoming U.S. administration to ‘negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution,’ Prime Minister’s Bureau says in statement. Barak Ravid Dec 23, 2016 11:39 PM LIVE UPDATES No veto: UN Security Council adopts anti-settlement resolution; U.S. abstains Trump on Security council vote: ‘Things will be different after Jan. 20’ Israel rejects the UN Security Council’s anti-settlement resolution out of hand and has no intention of abiding by it, the Prime Minister’s Bureau said late Friday night. After the vote, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli ambassadors in New Zealand and Senegal for …

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Prime Minister’s Office statement:

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Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms. At a time when the Security Council does nothing to stop the slaughter of half a million people in Syria, it disgracefully gangs up on the one true democracy in the Middle East, Israel, and calls the Western Wall “occupied territory.” The Obama administration not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes. Israel looks forward to working with President-elect Trump and with all our friends in Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to negate …

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IS scored ‘opportunistic’ wins in Syria as Aleppo fell

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AFP on December 24, 2016, 12:37 am Paris (AFP) – The Syrian regime’s all-out offensive to recapture Aleppo enabled the Islamic State group to regain territory elsewhere, including the historic city of Palmyra, and has dimmed prospects of defeating the jihadists, experts say. “The resources deployed (by Damascus and its allies) to retake Aleppo have allowed IS to claim a series of opportunistic victories” in Syria, said Charles Lister of the US think-tank Middle East Institute. During the assault by Syrian, Russian and Iranian forces on rebels in eastern Aleppo, IS jihadists recaptured the historic city of Palmyra on December …

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Sound Doctrine

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Reflections   The reason that sound doctrine is essential is not merely because it rightly represents the Bible. It does. But the real reason sound doctrine is essential is that it rightly represents God Himself. In scripture, doctrine is not merely right or wrong theology. Rather, it is ERROR or the TRUTH. False doctrine means bondage. But bondage to what? Not merely bondage to the false teaching. Rather, it is bondage to, “another Jesus,” and to a God who doesn’t exist. My false doctrine will keep me in bondage to the false God it creates — but will also keep …

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WHO IS THIS JESUS?

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There is no middle ground when it comes to Jesus: He is either a fraud, or He is Lord Matthew 16:13-16 (KJV) 13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Throughout …

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