Kameel Majdali's Road Ahead

  Afghanistan maybe half-way around the world - and seemingly in another planet - the fact is that it matters. Responsible citizens needs to know and then respond accordingly. After twenty years of war, engagement, and ‘nation-building,’ America and its allies are withdrawing from Afghanistan. We were told that now is the time. Intelligence agencies said it would take eighteen months for Kabul to fall to the Taliban. Only in July 2021, Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Afghan security forces had the capacity to sufficiently defend themselves. They had twenty years of training and tens of billions of dollars worth of high quality US weaponry. They had two air bases in Bagram and Kandahar. Joe Biden said that the Afghan army had 300,000 troops, armed with high quality US equipment versus 75,000 Taliban. ’ There is going to be no circumstance in which you are going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghani

  What’s Happening in Canada? Part 02 Churches on Fire - Literally In a time where we are seeking the Lord for revival and reformation, there are literal fires happening in churches of Canada - ones that burn down buildings and threaten life. First, there was the jailing of pastors in the province of Alberta: Artur Pawlowski, Tim Stephens, and James Coates (Pawlowski has been subject to ‘contempt of court’ charges and vigilante harassment). Their crime: holding church services during Covid restrictions, even though essential businesses stayed open and were crowded. Following this, came a spate of church fires. As of this writing, around 50 churches in Canada have been vandalised and ten completely torched. Most disheartening are the arson fires of migrant churches. St. George Coptic Church in Surrey, British Columbia, and Calgary Vietnamese Alliance Church, Alberta, were burned. St. George serves 500 families and feeds the homeless. There was a failed attempt to burn it a few days

    What a difference a few months can make. In the first half of 2021, there has been changes of government in the United States and Israel, and Iran has a new president. This part of the world, once dominated by great empires, then slumbering as a quiet backwater, has come front and centre in international attention. IRAN: Let’s take a moment and focus on Iran, the world’s leading Shia Muslim country (the Shia represent 15% of global Islam and Sunnis 85%). This proud ancient nation has hegemonic ambitions in the region. Its means of gaining power is to make a ‘Shia crescent’ from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. In one sense, it has already succeeded: four countries, to various decrees, are under Iranian oversight, including Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. The latter two countries are on the Mediterranean. Ultimately, Iran wants to export their revolution to the Sunni Arab nations. Ebrahim Raisi is the newly-inaugurated president of Iran. His critics call him a ‘hardline

    INTRODUCTION TO THE       GOSPEL OF MARK   It was the first of the four gospels to be written; it is also the shortest. Yet the Gospel of Mark is an indispensable account of the life, ministry, and death of Jesus the Messiah. It is very action packed; indeed, Jesus is rightly seen as a hard-working, active Messiah who preaches to the poor, heals the sick, casts out devils, raises the dead. As the Gospel of Matthew initially reached out to the Jewish people, with a great emphasis on fulfilled prophecy, Mark targeted the Romans - who respected power and action rather than Greek-style philosophising. GREEK NAME OF MARK Kata Markon - According to Mark. ‘ AUTHOR OF MARK ‘Mark’ may have been his Roman surname, since he was known as Yohannan or ‘John Mark.’ He was from Jerusalem and his mother Mary had a large house where believers met for prayer and fellowship. Mark may have been the young man in who followed Jesus to Gethsemane with a bed sheet wrapped around his body. Once

  The Eighth Commandment is so central to living a God-honoring life. It simply tells not to steal. Yet, stealing is practiced more and more, by the poor, the powerful, and those in-between. Theft is now on an industrial scale and uses variety of methods. Covetousness can lead to stealing (we will learn more about this in the Tenth Commandment); defrauding people of what is rightly their’s is also stealing. Stealing does not merely involve the tangible; theft of intellectual property is just as real as taking any three-dimensional object. Large governments can cast an envious eye on private property wondering how to extract more revenue to pay for pet projects or a growing bureaucracy. While the Bible does accept taxation as an accepted practice of human government (give unto Caesar what is Caesar, Christ said in Matthew 22:21), there is a reason tax-collectors were despised in His day; they took more than they required and kept the difference. That’s why a penitent Zacchaeus offered