Tortured for Five Years: Venezuelan Anglican Bishop Freed After Toenails Pulled, Chest Burned by Guards Venezuela has released Anglican Bishop Dr. Jylman Red Jurado Farfán from Rodeo III Prison in Miranda State after more than five years behind bars — a captivity marked, he says, by brutal torture at the hands of prison guards. He was one of 81 prisoners freed on August 14, according to the UK-based human rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Authorities arrested Bishop Jurado Farfán on July 30, 2021, after summoning him under false pretenses. He had been called in to explain an academic project — a leadership and civic values program — that he had been developing. He was subsequently charged with terrorism, criminal association and conspiracy, with authorities accusing his social ministry work of being an attempt to destabilize the state. Prior to his arrest, the bishop led an active social ministry providing free legal assistance to political prisoners and running community soup kitchens. The judicial process against him was marred by serious irregularities, including his case file being withheld for nearly ten months, and his trial being suspended after almost two years of hearings without any conclusive evidence presented. Concerns for his welfare heightened this past June, when he reported serious health issues including atypical pneumonia, intercostal neuritis, and gastrointestinal bleeding. During his time in custody, he says guards pulled out his toenails and burned an open wound on his chest with electricity. Following his release, the bishop offered a statement of gratitude and faith. "My beloved brothers and sisters in the unity of the body of Christ, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, my fraternal hugs; and I bless God for the feeling and the desire that God placed in your hearts so that this liberation would be possible, where the Lord broke the chains of oppression, of fear, of torture, and gave us physical freedom," he said. Bishop Jurado Farfán serves in the Archdiocese of Venezuela of the Holy Spirit, part of the independent Latin American Anglican Church, based in Caracas — a body with no affiliation to the Church of England or the global Anglican Communion. CSW's Director of Advocacy, Anna Lee Stangl, condemned the treatment he endured and called on Venezuela to end its harassment of religious leaders. #JylmanJuradoFarfan #Venezuela #ChristianPersecution #ReligiousFreedom #AnglicanChurch #FreedomFromTyranny #ChristianMessenger #ProphecyNews

Present Truth # 6 Prophecy of World Events. The Great World Empires. What the future holds has always been a matter of deep interest to world leaders and their subjects. Proud monarchs cherished the ambition to expand their kingdom to the uttermost ends of the world and to establish security for their kingdoms forever. To this end they devoted all their energies by heavily fortifying cities and raising huge armies. When, to all human probability, it appeared that they had attained their goal, their kingdom was often overthrown and followed by another. What does the future hold? Does the rise and fall of great world empires happen by chance or do they all form part of a great plan? If so, what will the outcome be? God’s foreseeing eye reveals the future; history establishes the certainty of it. A World Ruler Troubled Nebuchadnezzar, the great and ambitious king of ancient Babylon longed to know what would come to pass in the future. One night he had a remarkable dream. His mind was deeply impressed, but when he awoke he found it impossible to recall the dream. His wise men, the magicians, astrologers and soothsayers were unable to tell the king what he had dreamed, and because they claimed to have supernatural power, the king was angered at their inability to tell the dream, and ordered them to be executed. Among the wise men at the court of Babylon was a young man named Daniel, and his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. These four young men had been chosen from the Jewish exiles, to be educated at the king’s court. When he heard of the death decree and the reason for it, Daniel begged the king for an extension of time, so that he and his friends could pray to God to reveal to him the dream and the interpretation of it. This request was granted and the four young men, with strong faith in God’s ability to answer them, prayed together. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16. It is not surprising that the answer came immediately. Read Daniel 2:1-30. The Dream Revealed Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar the dream he could not recall: “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” Daniel 2:31-35. The king had been listening with close attention to every particular and knew that it was the very dream which had so troubled him. His mind was thus prepared to favorably receive the interpretation. Daniel declared: “. . . there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. . . . This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.” Daniel 2:28, 36. The Dream Interpreted 1. The Head of Gold Daniel proceeded with the interpretation: “Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.” Daniel 2:37, 38. Babylon was the golden kingdom of a golden age. The city of Babylon was referred to as “the golden city,” Isaiah 14:4. It towered to a height of splendor never reached by any of its later rivals. This beautiful city was sixty miles in circumference, with solid gates of brass, its walls were approximately 120 meters high and 30 meters thick. Its magnificently terraced hanging gardens, its temples and palaces were called “The glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency.” Never before or since, has the earth seen a city like it, or has there been an equal. The images’ head of gold was a fit representation of the earth’s greatest city, Babylon. “No capital in the world has been the centre of so much power, wealth, and culture for a period so vast.” (History of Babylonia and Assyria, Volume 1, page 397). After the death of Nebuchadnezzar, its greatest Monarch, Babylonia declined and eventually passed away under weaker rulers. During the reign of king Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, Cyrus the Persian, invaded Babylon. Belshazzar gave a feast and the whole city joined in the drunken revelry. While the party was in progress, Cyrus temporarily diverted the water of the river Euphrates which flowed through the city, and marched with his soldiers along the river bed, under the river gates and onto the drunken city and took the Babylonians by surprise in 538 B.C. This feast of Belshazzar is described in the fifth chapter of Daniel; and the scene closes with the simple record, “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain, and Darius the Median took the kingdom.” 2. The Breast and Arms of Silver “And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee . . . ” Daniel 2:39. The Medes and Persians succeeded Babylon. But in what way was Medo-Persia inferior to the preceding kingdom? Not in power, for it was Babylon’s conqueror. Not in territory, for it was the most extensive empire that ever existed. It was inferior in wealth and magnificence. Under the rulership of king Cyrus, the seventy years of the Jewish exile came to a close and they were permitted to return to Jerusalem and to build their temple. Two hundred years later Greece was rising to prominence, emerging as the next world empire. 3. The Belly and Thighs of Brass “. . . and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.” Daniel 2:39. With unparalleled speed, Alexander the Great, ruler of Greece, led his armies in conquest. At the Battle of Arbela in 331 B.C., Darius III, King of Persia, was completely vanquished. Alexander was given to excessive drinking and lowest passions. Having conquered the world, his time was wasted in intemperate revelry. This proved his downfall and at the early age of thirty-two he died in a drunken orgy in the year 323 B.C. Because of ambitious leaders, his kingdom was soon divided under four of his generals. The kingdom’s greatness was short-lived, and the divisions fulfilled other prophetic expectations. Rome conquered the Syrian division of the Greek Empire in 190 B.C., the Macedonian division in 168 B.C., and Egypt surrendered to Rome in the same year. 4. The Legs of Iron The iron kingdom of Rome is the fourth empire that ruled the world. Gibbon wrote: “The arms of the Republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the ocean; and the images of gold, silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations or their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome.” (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 38, paragraph one, “General Observations.”) In the time of Christ, the Roman Empire included all of Southern Europe, France, England, the greater part of Holland, Switzerland, the Southern part of Germany, Hungary, Turkey, and Greece as well as extensive possessions in Africa and Asia. “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.” Luke 2:1. The first taxing of the world, enforced by the decrees of Rome, shows the expanse of this Roman Empire. How could this mighty and stable empire disappear from the earth? It seemed well nigh impossible from human observation. But a further scene from the prophetic vision was to take place. 5. Feet of Iron and Clay “And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.” Daniel 2:41, 42. Unlike the previous empires, Rome was not overthrown in battle by a successive nation. Rome weakened internally as the people lived in luxury and experienced the degeneracy of self-content and intemperance. The territory which made up the official Roman kingdom lay west of Greece, which was represented by the legs of iron. By fragmentation, this territory was divided into ten independent kingdoms, represented by the ten toes of the image. Some retained the strength of the original iron kingdom, and some were weak, as symbolized by the clay. This division took place between the years A.D. 351 and A.D. 476. The ten tribes were: the Lombards, Franks, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians, Suevi, Heruli, Vandals, Alemanni and Saxons. Later prophecies, given in chapters eight and nine of Daniel revealed that three of these kingdoms were to be uprooted (destroyed) by another power. This has proved true, but the remaining nations are still traceable in the nations of Europe today as Italy, France, England, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Germany. Although the prophecy shows Christ’s coming as the next event, other prophecies indicate intervening developments. These will be discussed in future lessons. “And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” Daniel 2:43. For centuries the nations of Europe have endeavored to be united again under a central government. Neither by force, nor by diplomacy have men and women succeeded in foraging the iron and clay together. Wars have been fought but to no avail. Marriages formed to unite the nations under one ruler. All monarchies of Europe are related to each other through intermarriage, but the division still stands, as the word of God foretold. The prophecy says, “they shall not cleave one to another.” Charlemagne tried to bring Europe under one kingdom, so did Charles V, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Wilhelm, Hitler, and the European Common Market. Although they have appeared to succeed for a time, there has been and will not be a permanent cohesion. What Is the Next Event? 1. The Stone Cut Out Without Hands “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.” Daniel 2:44, 45. Here is the climax of this great prophecy. The final act in the drama of the world empires is the establishment of the kingdom of God. This is certain! Just as the previous symbols were all exactly fulfilled in the course of history, so we know that this final part will also come to pass. Daniel said: “The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.” We are instructed to study the historic fulfillment of Bible prophecy and to be assured of their truth: “Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.” Isaiah 34:16. It is in the days of the last kingdoms of iron and clay, that the kingdom of Christ will come. Christ will return, not as the Lamb of God, but as King of kings, as a mighty conqueror. His kingdom does not depend on human support, it is the kingdom of Heaven, a stone cut out without hands. His kingdom, unlike the human kingdoms, is everlasting and shall stand forever. Jesus will soon return, but before He does He seeks first to establish His kingdom in the hearts of men. Dear friend, will you allow the Prince of Peace to rule your heart now, so that when He comes you may inherit the Kingdom of Heaven? .

I Am the Lord That Healeth Thee (November 11, 1922) We have in this precious Word a real basis for the truth of healing. In this scripture God gives very definite instructions to the sick. If you are sick, your part is to call for the elders of the church; it is their part to anoint and pray for you in faith, and then the whole situation rests with the Lord. When you have been anointed and prayed for, you can rest assured that the Lord will raise you up. It is the Word of God. I believe that we all can see that the church cannot play with this business. If any turn away from these clear instructions they are in a place of tremendous danger. Those who refuse to obey do so to their unspeakable loss. James tells us in connection with this, " .. .if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death ... " (James 5:19,20). Many turn away from the Lord like King Asa, who sought the physicians in his sickness and consequently died, and I take it that this passage means that if one induces another to turn back to the Lord, he will save such from death and God will forgive a multitude of sins that they have committed. This scripture can also have a large application on the line of salvation. If you turn away from any part of God's truth, the enemy will certainly get an advantage over you. Does the Lord meet those who look to Him for healing and obey the instructions set forth in James? Most assuredly. Let me tell you a story to show how He will undertake for the most extreme case. One day I had been visiting the sick, and was with a friend of mine, an architect, when I saw a young man from his office coming down the road in a car holding in his hand a telegram. It contained a very urgent request that we go immediately and pray for a man who was dying. We went off in an auto as fast as possible and in about an hour and a half reached a large house in the country where the man who was dying resided. There were two staircases in that house, and it was extremely convenient, for the doctors could go up and down one, and my friend and I could go up and down the other, and so we had no occasion to meet one another. I found on arrival that it was a case of this sort. The man's body had been broken, he was ruptured, and his bowels had been punctured in two places. The discharge from the bowels had formed abscesses and blood poisoning had set in. The man's face had turned green. Two doctors were in attendance, but they saw that the case was beyond their power. They had telegraphed to London for a great specialist, and, when we arrived, they were at the railway station awaiting his arrival. The man was very near death and could not speak. I said to his wife, "If you desire, we will anoint and pray for him." She said, "That is why I sent for you." I anointed him in the name of the Lord and asked the Lord to raise him up. Apparently there was no change. God often hides what He does. From day to day we find that God is doing wonderful things, and we receive reports of healings that have taken place that we heard nothing about at the time of our meetings. Only last night a woman came into the meeting suffering terribly. Her whole arm was filled with poison, and her blood was so poisoned that it was certain to bring her to her death. We rebuked the thing, and she was here this morning and told us that she was without pain and had slept all night, a thing she had not done for two months. To God be all the praise. You will find He will do this kind of thing all along. As soon as we anointed and prayed for this brother we went down the back staircase and the three doctors came up the front staircase. As we arrived downstairs, I said to my friend who had come with me, "Friend, let me have hold of your hands." We held each other's hands, and I said to him, "Look into my face and let us agree together according to Matthew18:19that this man should be brought out of this death." We laid the whole matter before God, and said, "Father, we believe." Then the conflict began. The wife came down to us and said, "The doctors have got all their instruments out and they are about to operate." I cried, "What? Look here, he's your husband, and I tell you this, if those men operate on him, he will die. Go back and tell them you cannot allow it." She went back to the doctors and said, "Give me ten minutes." They said, "We can't afford to, the man is dying and it is your husband's only chance." She said, "I want ten minutes, and you don't touch his body until I have had them." They went downstairs by one staircase and we went up by the other. I said to the woman, "This man is your husband, and he cannot speak for himself. It is now the time for you to put your whole trust in God and prove Him wholly true. You can save him from a thousand doctors. You must stand with God and for God in this critical hour." After that, we came down and the doctors went up. The wife faced those three doctors and said, "You shan't touch this man's body. He is my husband. I am sure that if you operate on him he will die, but he will live if you don't touch him." Suddenly the man in the bed spoke. "God has done it," he said. They rolled back the bed clothes and the doctors examined him, and the abscesses were cut clear away. The nurse cleaned the place where they had been. The doctors could see the bowels still open and they said to the wife, "We know that you have great faith, and we can see that a miracle has taken place. But you must let us unite these broken parts and put in silver tubes, and we know that your husband will be all right after that, and it need not interfere with your faith at all." She said to them, "God has done the first thing and He can do the rest. No man shall touch him now." And God healed the whole thing. And that man is well and strong today. I can give his name and address to any who want it. Do you ask by what power this was done? I would answer in the words of Peter, " ... his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong ... " (Acts3:16). The anointing was done in the name of the Lord. And it is written, "The Lord shall raise him up." And He provides the double cure; even if sin has been the cause of the sickness, His Word declares, "If he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven." You ask, "What is faith?" Faith is the principle of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit, who inspired the Word, is called the Spirit of Truth, and, as we receive with meekness the engrafted Word, faith springs up in our heart - faith in the sacrifice of Calvary; faith in the shed blood of Jesus; faith in the fact that He took our weakness upon Himself, has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains, and that He is our life today. God has chosen us to help one another. We dare not be independent. He brings us to a place where we submit ourselves to one another. If we refuse to do this, we get away from the Word of God and out of the place of faith. I have been in this place once and I trust I shall never be there again. I went one time to a meeting. I was very, very sick, and I got worse and worse. I knew the perfect will of God was for me to humble myself and ask the elders to pray for me. I put it off and the meeting finished. I went home without being anointed and prayed with, and everyone in the house caught the thing I was suffering with. My boys did not know anything else but to trust the Lord as the family Physician, and my youngest boy, George, cried out from the attic, "Dadda, come." I cried, "I cannot come. The whole thing is from me. I shall have to repent and ask the Lord to forgive me." I made up my mind to humble myself before the whole church. Then I rushed to the attic and laid my hands on my boy in the name of Jesus. I placed my hands on his head and the pain left and went lower down; he cried again, "Put your hands still lower." At last the pain went right down to the feet and as I placed my hand on the feet he was completely delivered. Some evil power had evidently gotten hold and as I laid my hands on the different parts of the body it left. (We have to see the difference between anointing the sick and casting out demons.) God will always be gracious when we humble ourselves before Him and come to a place of brokenness of spirit. I was at a place one time ministering to a sick woman, and she said, "I'm very sick. I become all right for an hour, and then I have another attack." I saw that it was an evil power that was attacking her, and I learned something in that hour that I had never learned before. As I moved my hand down her body in the name of the Lord that evil power seemed to move just ahead of my hands and as I moved them down further and further the evil power went right out of her body and never returned. I was in Havre in France and the power of God was being mightily manifested. A Greek named Felix attended the meeting and become very zealous for God. He was very anxious to get all the Catholics he could to the meeting in order that they should see that God was graciously visiting France. He found a certain bedridden woman who was fixed in a certain position and could not move, and he told her about the Lord healing at the meetings and that he would get me to come if she wished. She said, "My husband is a Catholic and he would never allow anyone who was not a Catholic to see me." She asked her husband to allow me to come and told him what Felix had told her about the power of God working in our midst. He said, "I will have no Protestant enter my house." She said, "You know that the doctors cannot help me, and the priests cannot help, won't you let this man of God pray for me?" He finally consented and I went to the house. The simplicity of this woman and her childlike faith was beautiful to see. I showed her my oil bottle and said to her, "Here is oil. It is a symbol of the Holy Ghost. When that comes upon you, the Holy Ghost will begin to work, and the Lord will raise you up." And God did something the moment the oil fell upon her. I looked toward the window and I saw Jesus. (I have seen Him often. There is no painting that is a bit like Him; no artist can ever depict the beauty of my lovely Lord.) The woman felt the power of God in her body and cried, "I'm free, my hands are free, my shoulders are free, and oh, I see Jesus! I'm free! I'm free!" The vision vanished and the woman sat up in bed. Her legs were still bound, and I said to her, "I'll put my hands over your legs and you will be free entirely." And as I put my hands on those legs covered with bed clothes, I looked and saw the Lord again. She saw Him too and cried, "He's there again. I'm free! I'm free!" She rose from her bed and walked round the room praising God, and we were all in tears as we saw His wonderful works. The Lord shall raise them up when conditions are met. When I was a young man I always loved the fellowship of old men, and was always careful to hear what they had to say. I had a friend, an old Baptist minister who was a wonderful preacher. I spent much of my time with him. One day he came to me and said, "My wife is dying." I said, "Brother Clark, why don't you believe God? God can raise her up if you will only believe Him." He asked me to come to his house, and I looked for someone to go with me. I went to a certain rich man who was very zealous for God, and spent much money in opening up rescue missions, and I asked him to go with me. He said, "Never you mind me. You go yourself, but I don't take to this kind of business." Then I thought of a man who could pray by the hour. When he was on his knees he could go round the world three times and come out at the same place. I asked him to go with me and said to him, "You'll have a real chance this time. Keep at it, and quit when you're through." (Some go on longer after they are through.) Brother Nichols, for that was his name, went with me and started praying. He asked the Lord to comfort the husband in his great bereavement and prayed for the orphans and a lot more on this line. I cried, "Oh, my God, stop this man." But there was no stopping him and he went on praying and there was not a particle of faith in anything he uttered. He did stop at last, and I said, "Brother Clark, it's now turn to pray." He started, "Lord, answer the prayer of my brother and comfort me in this great bereavement and sorrow. Prepare me to face this great trial." I cried out, "My God, stop this man." The whole atmosphere was being charged with unbelief. I had a glass bottle full of oil and I went up to the woman and poured the whole lot on her in the name of Jesus. Suddenly Jesus appeared, standing at the foot of the bed. He smiled and vanished. The woman stood up, perfectly healed, and she is a strong woman today. We have a big God. We have a wonderful Jesus. We have a glorious Comforter. God's canopy is over you and will cover you at all times, preserving you from evil. Under His wings shalt thou trust. The Word of God is living and powerful and in its treasures you will find eternal life. If you dare trust this wonderful Lord, the Lord of life, you will find in Him everything you need. So many are tampering with drugs, quacks, pills and plasters. Clear them all out and believe God. It is sufficient to believe God. You will find that if you dare trust Him, He will never fail. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up." Do you trust Him/ He is worthy to be trusted. I was one time asked to go to Weston-super-mare, a seaside resort in the West of England. I learned from a telegram that a man had lost his reason and had become a raving maniac, and they wanted me to go to pray for him. I arrived at the place, and the wife said to me, "Will you sleep with my husband!" I agreed, and in the middle of the night an evil power laid hold of him. It was awful. I put my hand on his head and his hair was like a lot of sticks. God gave deliverance - a temporary deliverance. At 6 o'clock the next morning, I felt that it was necessary that I should get out of that house for a short time. The man saw me going and cried out, "If you leave me, there is no hope." But I felt that I had to go. As I went out I saw a woman with a Salvation Army bonnet on and I knew that she was going to their seven o'clock prayer meeting. I said to the Captain who was in charge of the meeting, when I saw he was about to give out a hymn, "Captain, don't sing. Let's get to prayer." He agreed, and I prayed my heart out, and then I grabbed my hat and rushed out of the hall. They all thought they had a madman in their prayer meeting that morning. I went down to the end of the parade, and there was the man I had spent the night with, rushing down toward the sea, without a particle of clothing on, about to drown himself. I cried, "In the name ofJesus, come out of him." The man fell full length on the ground and that evil power went out of him never to return. His wife came rushing after him, and the husband was restored to her in a perfect mental condition. There are evil powers, but Jesus is greater than all evil powers. There are tremendous diseases, but Jesus is healer. There is no case too hard for Him. The Lion ofJudah shall break every chain. He came to relieve the oppressed and to set the captive free. He came to bring redemption, to make us as perfect as man was before the fall. People want to know how to be kept by the power of God. Every position of grace into which you are led - forgiveness, healing, deliverance of any kind - will be contested by Satan. He will contend for your body. When you are saved, Satan will come round and say, "See, you are not saved." The devil is a liar. If he says you are not saved, it is a sure sign that you are. You will remember the story of the man who was swept and garnished. The evil power had been swept out of him. But the man remained in a stationary position. If the Lord heals you, you dare not remain in a stationary position. The evil spirit came back to that man and found the house swept, and took seven others worse than himself, and the last stage of that man was worse than the first. Be sure and get filled with God. Get an Occupier. Be filled with the Spirit. God has a million ways of undertaking for those who go to Him for help. He has deliverance for every captive. He loves you so much that He even says, "Before they call, I will answer." Don't turn Him away. Published in The Pentecostal Evangel Free Downloads at www.teleiosministries.com

He walked into Beirut alone, unarmed, trusting men he had no reason to trust, because four hostages needed someone brave enough to try. Terry Waite had already secured the release of hostages in Iran and Libya, so when the Church of England needed an envoy to negotiate in Lebanon, he didn't hesitate. In January 1987, he arrived in Beirut believing he'd been promised safe passage to visit ailing captives. Instead, his captors broke their word and seized him. What followed was almost unthinkable. Terry spent 1,763 days in captivity, the first four years entirely in solitary confinement, chained to a wall, denied books, denied contact, denied any certainty he'd ever see home again. Most men would have been consumed by despair. Terry wasn't. He composed poetry in his head, held onto his faith, and quietly resolved that bitterness would not be the thing that defined him. When he finally walked free in November 1991, church bells rang out across Britain in celebration. He could have spent his remaining years angry at what was taken from him. Instead, he chose forgiveness, dedicating his life to charity work and supporting former hostages who understood, better than anyone, what he had endured. That's not just courage. That's true British grit.

St. Gregory the Great St. Gregory was born in Rome about the year 540 A.D. and his birth name was Gregorius. His father was one Gordianus, a wealthy senator and mother Silvia. His father later renounced the world and became one of the seven deacons of Rome. Emperor Justin appointed Gregory as the Chief Magistrate of Rome in the year 574 A.D. He built six monasteries in Sicily and founded a seventh one in his own home at Rome. He worked as ambassador of the Pope Pelagius-II in the Imperial Court in Constantinople. After the death of Pope Pelagius-II St. Gregory was elected Pope unanimously by the clergy and other people on September 9, 590. The major policy of his pontificate was preaching catholic faith and elimination of all deviations from catholic faith. He sent missions, often called Gregorian Missions to evangelize the pagan Anglo-Saxons of England. He was very simple and always used the words "servant of the servants of God" as the papal title in official documents. England people regarded St. Gregory as the source of their conversion. He wrote about 850 letters during his pontificate and also wrote a book called "Pastoral Care" explaining the duties and qualities of Bishops. His papacy ended by his death on March 12, 604. In the Middle Ages St. Gregory was respected and revered as "the father of Christian worship". He was respected as a saint immediately after his death by the general populace. He is the patron of teachers, students, musicians and singers. #Catholic #Christian #believer #trust #followjesus #teacher #musician #student #singer #world #peace #worship

The Story Behind the Hymns. THE STORY BEHIND "THE DAY THOU GAVEST, LORD, IS ENDED" “The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended” was written by English hymn writer John Ellerton in 1870. Ellerton was serving as a clergyman in England when he was asked to write a hymn for the first Sunday evening service at a new church. Drawing inspiration from Psalm 19:4–6, particularly the picture of the sun moving across the heavens, Ellerton wrote a hymn about the passing of the day and the unending worship of God. As evening falls in one part of the world, morning is beginning somewhere else. The hymn therefore presents the Christian Church as a worldwide family whose praise of God never truly stops. The hymn became closely associated with evening worship and later with significant national and royal occasions in Britain. Its enduring appeal lies in its simple but powerful message: our earthly day may come to an end, but God’s presence and the worship of His people continue. Its closing thought remains especially memorable: “The sun that bids us rest is waking Our brethren ’neath the western sky.” More than 150 years after it was written, the hymn continues to remind worshippers that while darkness may settle over one horizon, another part of the world is already seeing the light.

Smith Wigglesworth (1859–1947) was an English Pentecostal evangelist whose ministry became known for its uncompromising emphasis on faith, divine healing, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Born into poverty in Yorkshire, England, he worked as a plumber before entering full-time ministry. In 1907, Wigglesworth experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, an encounter that transformed his preaching and launched a ministry that eventually reached numerous nations. He continued preaching Christ and praying for the sick until his death in 1947, becoming one of the most influential healing evangelists of the early Pentecostal movement. #moveofgod #godsgenerals #revival #greatawakening #endtimerevivals

The Story Behind the Hymns. THE STORY BEHIND "O JESUS, I HAVE PROMISED" “O Jesus, I Have Promised” was written by English hymn writer John Ernest Bode (1816–1874), an Anglican clergyman and scholar. Bode wrote the hymn in 1868 for the confirmation service of his own children at Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire, England. The hymn grew out of a deeply personal moment. Bode’s children were publicly affirming their Christian faith and promising to remain faithful to Christ. He wrote the words to express the seriousness of that commitment, not simply as a promise made during confirmation, but as a lifelong decision to follow Jesus. The opening words, “O Jesus, I have promised to serve Thee to the end,” immediately establish the hymn’s central message: faithful Christian service. The following verses recognise that keeping such a promise is not always easy. Temptations, distractions and the pressures of life can weaken a believer, which is why the hymn repeatedly turns to Jesus for strength and guidance. Its most familiar lines include the prayer: “ O Jesus, Thou hast promised To all who follow Thee, That where Thou art in glory, There shall Thy servant be.” The hymn became widely known in churches and schools and has remained a beloved hymn of commitment, especially at confirmation services, because of its direct and personal language. “O Jesus, I Have Promised” continues to speak across generations because its message is simple but demanding: to follow Christ faithfully, to resist the distractions of the world, and to depend on Him for the strength to remain true to the promise.

He was one of colonial America's most celebrated preachers. His most significant ministry was teaching enslaved people to read using hymns as textbooks. Samuel Davies was born in 1723 in Delaware and became one of the most significant Presbyterian voices in colonial Virginia — a man of genuine brilliance who trained Patrick Henry in oratory, served as president of what would become Princeton University, and was one of the primary architects of evangelical revivalism in the American South before the Revolution. He is remembered for these things. He is not remembered for what he considered among his most important work. From the time Davies arrived in Hanover County, Virginia in the late 1740s, he was deeply concerned for the spiritual welfare of the enslaved people in the communities where he ministered. He began preaching to enslaved men and women specifically, holding services for them, and quickly realized that a major barrier to their engagement with Scripture was illiteracy — deliberately enforced by a slave system that understood reading as a form of power and therefore kept it from those it intended to control. Davies decided to teach them to read. And he chose hymns as his primary textbook. He wrote to John Wesley in England — who had his own complicated relationship with the question of slavery — and requested that Wesley send him hymnbooks specifically for distribution to his enslaved congregation. Wesley complied. Davies distributed hundreds of copies. The logic was simple and elegant: the enslaved men and women already had the hymns in their mouths from hearing them sung. Teaching them to decode the written words of songs they already knew connected the unfamiliar marks on the page to sounds and meanings already present in their minds. Davies later wrote with genuine emotion about what he witnessed — people who had been kept from literacy as a matter of law and policy treating their hymnbooks as treasures, some sleeping with them, some carrying them everywhere. Davies is remembered. They are not. The hymns that taught them to read are still being sung. #SamuelDavies #ChurchHistory #LesserKnownHistory #Spirituals

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