Matthew 24:42-44
"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day 
Major Steps for Cuba
Cuba's new President Raul Castro has met a senior Vatican official for his first diplomatic talks since taking over on Sunday. President Castro, former leader Fidel Castro's brother, met Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone in Havana. Cardinal Bertone said he told the Cuban leader the Catholic Church was worried about Cuba's political prisoners. Raul had been acting president since Fidel had major emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006.
Fidel Castro stepped down last week after nearly half a century in charge.
Raul Castro broke from wearing his usual military uniform, and instead was seen in a blue business suit. After their closed-door meeting, Cardinal Bertone said with the "utmost respect for the sovereignty of the country and its citizens, I expressed to President Raul Castro the Church's worries for prisoners and their families". Cuban television said the two men "reviewed the status of relations between the Cuban state and the Holy See and the Catholic Church in Cuba" and also "discussed issues of multilateral and international interest".
Earlier, the Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican's number two official, said Cuban officials "promised me more openness in the print press and the radio - and in some exceptional cases, in television as well". Cardinal Bertone said he wanted to improve relations between the Church and Cuba and between Cuba and the world. During his six-day visit, Cardinal Bertone called the US embargo against the island nation "ethically unacceptable".
Fidel Castro stepped down last week after nearly half a century in charge.
Raul Castro broke from wearing his usual military uniform, and instead was seen in a blue business suit. After their closed-door meeting, Cardinal Bertone said with the "utmost respect for the sovereignty of the country and its citizens, I expressed to President Raul Castro the Church's worries for prisoners and their families". Cuban television said the two men "reviewed the status of relations between the Cuban state and the Holy See and the Catholic Church in Cuba" and also "discussed issues of multilateral and international interest".
Earlier, the Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican's number two official, said Cuban officials "promised me more openness in the print press and the radio - and in some exceptional cases, in television as well". Cardinal Bertone said he wanted to improve relations between the Church and Cuba and between Cuba and the world. During his six-day visit, Cardinal Bertone called the US embargo against the island nation "ethically unacceptable".
It's time to start going to church when.....
LONDON (Reuters) - A British man celebrated his 60th birthday in unexpected style at the weekend when a 50 pence ($1) bet on 
Fred Craggs, from Yorkshire in northern England, was not even aware of his win when he walked into a branch of the William Hill betting agency to see how he had done with his accumulator bet.
When he was informed of his good fortune he was said to have turned rather pale and muttered that he had better go home to tell his wife.
His coup was selecting eight winners running at various courses around the country -- starting with one called "Isn't That Lucky" and finishing with "A Dream Come True" -- at odds of 2,000,000 to one.
"This is the most amazing bet ever placed since betting shops were made legal in 1961," William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said on Monday.
Hudson Taylor - Platforms
All our difficulties are only platforms for the manifestation of His grace, power, and love.
Hudson Taylor
Ministries - Sex Workers need help from Christians
A Christian outreach for sex workers has told of its struggle to support women on the streets of London in a bid to raise awareness among the Christian community of the plight of sex workers in the capital.
Working in partnership with local organisations, Door of Hope offers refreshments, contraception and a listening ear to sex workers in the hope of building relationships with the women they encounter on the streets.
Debbie Shearing from Door of Hope told Premier's Woman to Woman show, "We are committed to long-term involvement in the lives of individuals caught up in prostitution and their families.
"We build relationships with the women we meet, getting to know them as a whole person. It is often through these encounters that they gain the confidence to access daytime services and make positive changes in their lives."
Door of Hope outreach teams are situated in areas between the City and the East End known for prostitution. The areas tend to be blighted by high unemployment, with many people living on low incomes or below the poverty, Shearing said.
“Poor education, poverty and domestic violence impact on families so severely as to cause both personal and family dysfunction,” she said. “All too often, those involved in street sex work become trapped in cycles of drug and alcohol abuse.
"Consequently, they are marginalised, isolated and discriminated against by their communities and families - they are robbed of traditional support networks, and their choices are limited even further," Shearing told Woman to Woman.
While Door of Hope regularly supports sex workers through their outreach programme, they also liaise with healthcare clinics, often accompanying sex workers to appointments, assist in re-housing women, referring them to employment training and supporting those suffering from domestic violence.
"It is tempting to regard street sex work as a faceless, insurmountable problem,” said Shearing. “Door of Hope challenges these common perceptions: each sex worker is an individual with needs, desires and aspirations.
“Each person has been shaped by their past and deserves the opportunity to make decisions about their future."
Working in partnership with local organisations, Door of Hope offers refreshments, contraception and a listening ear to sex workers in the hope of building relationships with the women they encounter on the streets.
Debbie Shearing from Door of Hope told Premier's Woman to Woman show, "We are committed to long-term involvement in the lives of individuals caught up in prostitution and their families.
"We build relationships with the women we meet, getting to know them as a whole person. It is often through these encounters that they gain the confidence to access daytime services and make positive changes in their lives."
Door of Hope outreach teams are situated in areas between the City and the East End known for prostitution. The areas tend to be blighted by high unemployment, with many people living on low incomes or below the poverty, Shearing said.
“Poor education, poverty and domestic violence impact on families so severely as to cause both personal and family dysfunction,” she said. “All too often, those involved in street sex work become trapped in cycles of drug and alcohol abuse.
"Consequently, they are marginalised, isolated and discriminated against by their communities and families - they are robbed of traditional support networks, and their choices are limited even further," Shearing told Woman to Woman.
While Door of Hope regularly supports sex workers through their outreach programme, they also liaise with healthcare clinics, often accompanying sex workers to appointments, assist in re-housing women, referring them to employment training and supporting those suffering from domestic violence.
"It is tempting to regard street sex work as a faceless, insurmountable problem,” said Shearing. “Door of Hope challenges these common perceptions: each sex worker is an individual with needs, desires and aspirations.
“Each person has been shaped by their past and deserves the opportunity to make decisions about their future."
1 John 4:4
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
B.B. Warfield - Object of Faith
It is never on account of its formal nature as a psychic act that faith is conceived in Scripture 
to be saving. It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or nature of faith, but in the object of faith.
B.B. Warfield
to be saving. It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or nature of faith, but in the object of faith.B.B. Warfield
John R W Stott
We have the means to evangelize our country; but they are slumbering in the pews of our churches. ... John R. W. Stott
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13
Romans 6:11-14 - Grace
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
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First Church In Qatar
DOHA -- A bitter debate has broken out in the tiny, oil-rich Gulf state of Qatar over construction of the Muslim country's first Christian church, set to open next month in time for Easter.
Critics have branded the concept as "repulsive" while supporters said building places of worship for other religions is a right guaranteed by Islam.
One former minister insisted there should have been a public referendum.
"The cross should not be raised in the sky of Qatar, nor should bells toll in Doha," wrote columnist Lahdan bin Issa al-Muhanadi in the Doha daily Al-Arab -- adding an apology in case the concept upset any readers in this country of 900,000, of whom only 200,000 are native Qataris.
The former dean of the sharia (Islamic law) school at Qatar University, Abdul Hamid al-Ansari, disagreed, saying having "places of worship for various religions is a fundamental human right guaranteed by Islam."
Ansari has written several newspaper articles welcoming the Roman Catholic Church in Doha, which is called St. Mary's and will be inaugurated on March 15 by Vatican envoy Cardinal Ivan Dias.
Four other Christian denominations are also planning to build churches in Qatar, whose ruling family and most of its small native population adheres to a strict rigorous doctrine of Islam known as Wahhabism.
Once St. Mary's opens, neighbor Saudi Arabia, which also practices Wahhabism, will be the only Arab nation in the Gulf that bans churches.
Gas-wealthy Qatar has opened up since current ruler and staunch US ally Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani seized control and ousted his father in a 1995 palace coup.
Qatar's leaders have even hosted Jewish rabbis and Christian clerics alongside Muslim religious scholars at annual inter-faith forums.
But Ansari sees the old influence in the current opposition. He attributes it to "a fanatic culture resulting from religious teaching (stipulating) hatred for the other and from social norms that denied non-Muslims their rights on the basis of old political and security considerations that have become obsolete."
St. Mary's parish priest, Father Tomasito Veneracion, a Filipino, stressed in comments to the daily Al-Raya that the church would be "merely a place for collective prayer."
It would not have crosses outside the building or serve as a platform for proselytizing, he said, adding that it would finally provide a place of worship for those who up to now were forced to practice religious rituals at home.
It would be open in time for the solemn Easter holy day, which this year falls on March 23.
For other Christians, construction of an Anglican church will begin in May, according to Qatar's Anglican priest Canon William Schwarz.
Building has already begun on a Greek Orthodox Church and another for Copts.
The Vatican website estimates about 100,000 Qatar residents are Christian. Most are Indians, Filipinos, Lebanese and Western nationals who, despite praying in private, have celebrated Christmas publicly for about a decade.
The debate meanwhile has spilled into the letters pages of Doha's dailies.
Engineer Rashed al-Subaie, in a letter to Al-Watan, agreed Christians should be allowed to practice their faith but should do so "in line with public morals without being given licenses to set up places of worship."
Christians should "worship their God in their homes," not publicly, he wrote.
Lawyer and former justice minister Najib al-Nuaimi also objected to building churches in Qatar on "legal and social" grounds.
"Qatar is a Muslim -- not secular -- state, as per its constitution. There should have been a referendum on the building of these churches in order to ensure they are socially accepted," he told Agence France-Presse.
But Ansari hit back at those citing Islamic texts to justify their rejection, notably Muhanadi who has quoted the Prophet Mohammed saying "no two religions will come together in the Arabian peninsula."
"This does not mean that churches should be banned in Qatar because [Islamic] religious scholars believe it applies to Hijaz -- specifically Mecca and Medina," Islam's two holiest cities in Saudi Arabia, Ansari said.
"Let's all welcome the presence of churches in Qatar as a demonstration of Islamic tolerance and human brotherhood," he said.
Agence France-PresseFirst Posted 12:59:00 02/19/2008
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