News From The Front – December 2005

Dear praying friends,

Let me first update you on some matters that you have been praying about. My niece Heather underwent a scan after her 6 chemo sessions finished and she was told that the cancer is now in remission for which we praise God. She is hoping perhaps to start work early in the New Year [DV]. Her condition will be closely and regularly monitored. Please pray on for her physical AND spiritual needs. For those who received details of the French Court Case involving our brother in Christ, Axel, a verdict is expected in early December [see blue enclosure] – again do please pray on that he will be released back to his family.

Again I would earnestly covet your prayers for what is shaping up to be a very busy first 4 months of 2006 [DV]. Please pray that many will attend and be helped by the seminars on Islam [see pages 3-4] and also through the special meetings involving Pastor Gary Gilley [see pages 7-10].

Next year [DV] will also herald for me one of those ‘landmark’ birthdays so please do pray that the Lord will graciously enable me to continue “with patience the race that is set before me” [Hebrews 12:1]. Margaret and I thank you for all your love and kindness at this the end of yet another year.

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Christianity, Islam and British Politics – Clifford

  • Christianity, Islam and British Politics 
  • A lecture given at the UK Conservatism Conference
  • Oxford Brookes University, Saturday, 26 November 2005
  • Dr Alan C. Clifford
  • BA, MLitt, PhD

A glut of highly significant secular and religious autumn anniversaries provides a stimulating context for my subject. Using more broadly the now-universal convention of identifying momentous events like New York’s ‘9/11’, Madrid’s ‘3/11’ and London’s ‘7/7’, I cite first some famous secular examples from more distant history. First, we may recall ‘10/14’, the Battle of Hastings, the last of four major invasions of the British Isles in a millennium by ‘Europeans’ – 1066 and all that, of course! Then, more positively in this bicentenary year, there’s ‘10/21’ when ‘Europe’ was on the receiving end of Lord Nelson’s decisive broadsides at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Not until 1940 was this country seriously threatened again by a foreign power. I pass by ‘10/25’ in 1415. Agincourt, Henry V and the savage nationalism of the Hundred Years War warrant national shame rather than pride. Indeed, driven by the power-hungry Plantagenets, the whole era has something of an ‘Iraq War whiff’ about it! Another noted ‘10/25’ was of course the distant Crimean Battle of Balaclava in 1854. Inglorious for the British High Command, the heroism of ‘the six hundred’ is justly celebrated. Stepping into November, and closer to home, we rightly remember annually the enormous costly sacrifice represented by ‘11/11’, the Armistice of 1918, when the four-year horror of the First World War came to an end.

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The perverted ‘preaching’ of Rowan Williams

On Tuesday 1st November 2005 a service of remembrance was held in St Paul’s Cathedral in London in memory of those who died when Islamic suicide bombers detonated their devices in four locations in London on 7th July 2005.

In the course of the service, a ‘sermon’ was ‘preached’ by the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. The following is a transcript of a section of what he said –

‘The last few months have seen many people trying to respond to this widespread fear, trying to calm and reassure us. One reaction is through security provisions and new legislation [TV camera focuses on Prime Minister, Tony Blair]; another has been in the powerful and consistent response of all our faith communities [TV camera focuses on 6 young people representing Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism who will later each light a wick in a large communal ‘candle of hope’]. As it happens, today’s commemoration falls at a time when several of us are marking [Muslim ‘Eid’ and Hindu ‘D’wali’] or approaching [‘Christian Christmas’] very significant festivals in our religious calendars. So we face the tragedy together today, drawing on our most important resources.

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News From The Front – September 2005

Dear praying friends,

This September marks the 15th anniversary of the founding of ‘Take Heed’ Ministries and the 14th anniversary of the first ‘broadsheet’ issue of News From The Front. In that first issue I wrote ‘It is a source of great encouragement to my wife Margaret and me to know that people are praying very specifically for the ministry of “Take Heed”’. Today we are still heartened to know that many people, including quite a number who received that first issue, are still prayerfully supporting us. Many too, along with others who have ‘enlisted’ over the years, have faithfully and generously supported the work and again we return our grateful thanks to all.

In the first issue I referred to several leaflets that we were publishing on the subjects of ‘The Hare Krishnas’ and ‘The Jehovah’s Witnesses’. As you will read in the separate enclosure with this newsletter we are hoping to publish a leaflet for distribution amongst Muslim neighbours who desperately need to be informed of the true Christian view of Islam and be presented with the true Christian Gospel. We covet very much your prayerful and practical support for this venture and if you can make use of these leaflets then please ask for a supply and pray for opportunities to use them as the Lord leads. Please also pray on for my niece Heather nearing the end of her chemotherapy sessions.

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News From The Front – June 2005

Dear praying friends,

I want to thank the many who contacted me to inquire how I was physically in the wake of the ‘roof space fall’ that I referred to in my opening letter of the March 2005 NEWS FROM THE FRONT. I did for a period of time experience some pain and discomfort in my back and shoulders caused by bruised/damaged muscles pressing on nerves but to all who prayed I am pleased to report that following 6 sessions of physiotherapy the problems have been put right so we give thanks to the Lord for His kindness and healing. I want now to bring a very special prayer request to your attention. In 2003 my wife Margaret and I attended the wedding of my niece Heather who lives in Canada. Heather is in her early thirties and following recent necessary and urgent surgery she has been diagnosed as having a particular form of cancer. She is scheduled to have 6 sessions of ‘strong’ chemotherapy – the first 3 being on 24 May, 14 June and 5 July [DV]. I would be most grateful if you would remember Heather in your prayers – praying both for her physical well being and also for her spiritual well being – she would not profess to be a believer, nor would her husband Dave whom I would also ask you to remember. Please pray also that the Lord might move in the midst of these difficult circumstances in the lives of their wider family circles.

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BBC 1 Newsround’s ‘ISLAM WEEK’

Earlier this year BBC 1 Children’s Television had a special week of programmes called ‘ISLAM WEEK’ that were broadcast on the children’s news programme called NEWSROUND. I had sent a number of emails to the BBC information office but eventually there was ‘silence’ on the part of the BBC so I then emailed the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson on 27 April and herewith is the email I sent him and subsequent emails that have been exchanged.

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THE DEATH OF JOHN PAUL II, THE POPE OF ROME

Drawing Aside the Purple Curtain

The Papal System Today: an Analysis of the News

THE DEATH OF JOHN PAUL II, THE POPE OF ROME

by Shaun Willcock

This past weekend – Saturday, April 2, 2005 – the pope of Rome, John Paul II, died and passed into eternity. For over a quarter of a century, this man reigned as pope in the Vatican – Satan’s Seat. He was the leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics. The turbulent years of the 1980s and 1990s are in so many ways dominated by the words and works of John Paul II. He presided over the world’s most iniquitous religion, Satan’s masterpiece itself, guiding it through some of its greatest setbacks and some of its greatest triumphs (for itself, that is).

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The Accomplishments of John Paul II by Richard Bennett

“No other world figure has commanded the admiration he has enjoyed as the globe-trotting (over 1/2 million miles) Pope. His kindly smile and fatherly wave have made the ‘Pope Mobile’ a legend. Although they might disagree with his theology, both Catholics and Protestants have joined in the accolades of praise for this man. …Billy Graham has extolled Pope John Paul, ‘as the conscience of the whole Christian world.’”[1] Continue reading →

Belfast Beware – Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn are coming here shortly

It was during the second half of 2004 that I felt led of the Lord to invite someone to come to Belfast to speak on the topic of ‘GOD [channel] TV: helpful or Harmful’. Initially a speaker and series of meetings were provisionally planned for the end of January 2005 but the Lord over-ruled in both instances [the speaker and timing] and so now this topic is to be addressed by Alan Morrison in a series of meetings planned for 2nd-19th April [DV].

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