By The Comedy Bus | INO Records/Premier Productions | $ each

The Comedy Bus series offers two new DVDs featuring some of today’s top Christian comedians who perform clean stand-up from a Christian perspective.

Laugh Tracks features Kristy Byers’ take on being single, while Dave & Brian musically explore young love and heartbreak through the lens of pop culture. Canadian Leland Klassen offers funny observations about our northern neighbors, and Gordon Douglas uses the differences between men and women for his material. Rounding out this DVD are Robert G. Lee, Mike Williams and Bean & Bailey.

Second dose Cracked Up showcases Paul Aldrich and his take on old TV theme songs. Kenn Kington jokes about having too many choices today. And Kelly Sisney admits to being afraid of the parking crew at her megachurch. Dave & Brian, Gordon Douglas and Leland Klassen also return.

These comedians offer laughs in a family- and faith-friendly format—and the kids won’t even have to leave the room. Fans of clean stand-up can also see these comedians during The Comedy Tour this fall. For more information visit .

Click here to purchase Laugh Tracks. Click here to purchase Cracked Up.

The attorney for a runaway teen who claims her Muslim parents threatened to kill her for converting to Christianity claimed in court documents Monday that the Ohio mosque the girl’s family attends has ties to Islamic terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida.

Orlando attorney John Stemberger said Rifqa Bary should be put in state custody because she is in “clear and present danger” from the Noor Islamic Cultural Center near Columbus. He said the mosque hosted extremist speakers and supported a Muslim scholar with ties to the militant group Hamas.

“The problem is not Islam; the problem is the Noor Center,” Stemberger said Monday. “Because this is a unique mosque, that has unique beliefs and is extremely dangerous.”

In his filing, Stemberger claims the mosque’s leader, Hany Saqr, is a former leader at Omar Ibn El-Khattab Mosque in Columbus. Between 2003 and 2007, federal authorities charged three men who attended the Omar mosque with terrorist-related crimes.

In a 35-page filing, Stemberger alleged that Saqr was listed in the 1992 phone directory that ties him to the Muslim Brotherhood, which the attorney said is “responsible for birthing virtually every terrorist organization in the world, including al-Qaida.”

Saqr denied Stemberger’s claims. He told the Associated Press (AP) that he led prayers at the Omar mosque as a student years ago but was never appointed full time.

He also said he did not know the Bary family personally but refuted claims that his mosque would support killing someone who converted from Islam.

“Changing the religion is something pretty natural and normal in this country,” Saqr told the AP, adding that the mosque has invited atheist, Christian and Jewish speakers in the three years since it opened.

“At our center we know that people accept Islam, some people accept Christianity, some people accept Judaism,” Saqr said. “Based on our religion we think that there’s no compulsion to religion. Everybody has the right to choose whatever religion he wants to.”

Bary said she accepted Christ in November 2005 at the Korean United Methodist Church in Columbus but kept her faith hidden from her parents out of fear.

In court documents, she said that in 2007 her father found a copy of The Purpose-Driven Life she had hidden in her bedroom. She said he had a “serious talk” with her “about the importance of retaining the Islamic blood line” in her family but she did not tell him of her conversion.

In June of this year she says her father confronted her about whether she had converted to Christianity and been baptized after he received numerous e-mails and phone calls from Noor Center leaders who told him he needed to “deal with this matter immediately.”

“In a fit of anger that I had never seen before in my life, he picked up my laptop, waved it over my head as if to strike me with it and said: ‘If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me! You are no longer my daughter,'” Bary said according to a court document. “I continued to remain silent and then he said to me even more angry than before: ‘I will kill you! Tell me the truth!'”

She said her mother confronted her on July 17 about another Christian book she found in Bary’s bedroom. She said her mother had spoken with her father and was very upset “and almost grieving and told me I was going to have to be sent back to Sri Lanka to be dealt with.”

Bary ran away to Florida two days later and lived with charismatic pastors Blake and Beverly Lorenz for nearly three weeks before being placed in an Orlando foster home. She met the couple through a prayer group on Facebook.

The couple denies claims that they lured Bary to Florida and say she contacted them after leaving Ohio. Blake Lorenz said he reported Bary to police after he learned she was listed as a missing person.

Mohamad and Aysha Bary say they never threatened to harm their daughter. Their attorneys allege the teen may have been brainwashed by the Florida pastors.

Although the case has been widely publicized, Stemberger said he still believes Bary could be harmed if she returned to her parents. “There is no question in my mind that if she is sent back to Ohio, it is only a matter of time before she slips away in the night,” he said.

Stemberger wants Bary to maintain her “stable placement” in an Orlando foster home, where a Florida Circuit judge ordered her to remain while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates her claims and the alleged threat posed by her family’s ties to the Noor Center.

A hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Orlando.

Editor’s Note: The following message is the most recent posted on Barbara Yoder’s new blog, which you can find at . The original title of the word is “We Are Contending.”

We are in a season of contending. We must contend past the deception that has tried to mislead us. Deception blinds us from seeing what the real issue is, and hope deferred feeds deception. It feeds the faithless, half-empty-glass syndrome. I believe we are coming out of a season in which hope deferred seemed to abound.

Deception is part of the resistance that we have to overcome. It causes us to think, There are all kinds of reasons I can’t break through this: “God doesn’t care.” “It’s too hard.” “I can’t do it.” “What did I do wrong?”

Deception tells us, “God hasn’t come through before, so why would He now? And if He cares so much, why have things been so difficult during this season—and why has it hung around for two years? Why did God let this or that happen? He must not care.” On and on the voice speaks.

But it is not the voice.

There is perhaps more resistance to break through in this season than we’ve experienced in our lifetimes. We are facing new powers, new principalities. We are facing at a beginning level demonic structures similar to those that resist believers in Africa and India daily.

God is building our faith. He has allowed this level of opposition to break us into a new level of faith. What is it that has overcome the world? Even our faith (see 1 John 5:4). So our faith is being developed to an all-new level in this hour. It is becoming a faith that will stand and break through because it believes God’s promises (see v. 5).

The Israelites overcame through faith and patience. Patience isn’t lying back on the couch and taking it easy. The word “patience” in the Greek is hupomone. Patience allows us to see something through to the end, to hang on to what God has promised and see it through to fulfillment. It is a stance such as a bulldog would take—one that causes us to sink our teeth into the promise and hold on until it is ours (see Heb 6:9-12).

Press past the resistance. Resistance is the sense that you are not getting anywhere in your praying. It tells you it is too hard to break through. Resistance feels as if you are going up against a thick, solid granite wall that won’t give.

But God!

Keep praying until you get through that resistance. Then pray to receive the fullness of what God is saying and what He longs to do.

Pressing into revelation is essential in this hour if we are to break into all the things God has been promising—the miraculous, wealth transfer, the harvest, a new level of the deliverance mantle and so on. There is an awakening waiting on the other side of breakthrough.

It is a time to pray in tongues as never before, “building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 20, NKJV). Praying in tongues not only opens a window of revelation; it also builds bold faith. Let God lead you in your praying in tongues. Pray radically; pray through. The other side of the resistance is amazing, powerful, glorious! It is the breaking out of heaven all around us!

Come on, you can do it! Pray all the way through. And if you can’t get there by yourself, grab one of your friends who knows how to pray and together take courage, be bold and go for it. The resistance can be so daunting we can’t get through it by ourselves. Go today, grab someone and pray, pray, pray—get to the other side.

We are in a war for the new to break out, and a war is comprised of many battles. You will have to pray not just once or twice but many times until the war is won. Each prayer time represents a battle. We will battle until we win the war.

“And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4).

About the author: Barbara J. Yoder is the founder and senior pastor of Shekinah Christian Church () in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is known for her cutting-edge apostolic and prophetic breakthrough ministry. She travels nationally and internationally ministering in churches, conferences and seminars. Yoder is the author of several books, including Taking on Goliath (Charisma House). To order a copy of the book, click here.

Prophetic Insight is a weekly bulletin offering timely and relevant messages for the body of Christ from recognized prophetic voices. It is prepared by Maureen Eha, features editor for Charisma magazine. You can follow her on Twitter at MaureenEha. And please spread the good news by sending this e-newsletter to your friends and encouraging them to subscribe.

2 Corinthians 5:12-21 My middle son, Ron, was in Bogota, Colombia on a mission journey. He went with a team into a drug dealing area called the Cartuge. His team visited a drug rehabilitation center there where criminals were learning about Jesus and being born again. When Ron entered the center he felt impressed by the Holy Spirit to offer to wash the feet of these men. Many of them did not know the story of Jesus’ washing the feet of His disciples, so Ron read it to them. After the reading of the Scripture, the foot washing began.

Each team member knelt with a bowl of water and towel to minister to the man they felt the Holy Spirit wanted them to minister to on that day. One on the team members named Dave had just put on a brand-new pair of socks that morning. When Dave removed the socks from the man he was ministering to, he heard the Holy Spirit say, “Give him your socks.” As soon as he finished praying for this man, Dave took off his socks and said, “I want you to have these. They are a gift to you.” The man picked up his filthy socks and handed them to Dave. He said, “I want you to have my socks. They are a gift to you.” Dave hesitated for a moment and then put this man’s stinky socks on his feet and said, “Thank you.”

What a great demonstration of exactly what happened on the cross. Our reading today says, “That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (vv. 19-21).

On the cross Jesus was willing to wear our filthy socks of sin so that we could have the clean socks of His righteousness. He dressed us in His robe of righteousness. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Because of this divine exchange we can live a new, clean spotless life!! What an exchange!!

Lord, often I feel I have nothing to give You, and then You remind me I can always give You my own sins. When I do this by confessing my sins, You give me the gift of cleanness of heart and mind. Help me to never wear the dirty socks of sin by refusing to confess my sins so not only can You forgive me, but also cleanse me of all unrighteousness.

READ: Job 40:1-42:17; 2 Corinthians 5:12-21; Psalm 45:1-17; Proverbs 22:14

Do you want to finish school without being thousands of dollars in debt? Check out these tips for graduating with no debt.

1. Stretch out your school experience. “It’s not uncommon to see students take five to six years to complete an undergraduate program,” says Marian Huffman, Lee University’s associate director of financial aid. “It could be a combination of academic rigor as well as financial burden.”

2. Take off-hour courses. Some schools offer tuition reduction for classes taken during off-peak hours.

3. Consider advance-placement credits or credits from a less expensive institution. Students may earn college credits by taking college courses or advance-placement exams while still in high school. First- and second-year college students can also take College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests for course credit. Transferring qualified and approved credits from a community college or another less expensive institution to a more prestigious college or university can add up to big savings.

4. Shop for tuition. Compare out-of-state versus in-state tuition rates at various institutions. Lower tuition does not necessarily mean an inferior quality of education.

5. Seek school discounts. Colleges often offer discounts for employees, military personnel, siblings attending the same college and children of ministers and missionaries.

6. Continue living at home while attending school. Although students may prefer to live in the dorm or share an off-campus apartment with friends, they can save money by living at home with their parents.

7. Create a college savings plan in advance. Some states offer 529 college savings programs, which allow tax-free deductions to create a college savings that can be used at any college in the United States, or prepaid tuition plans, where residents buy a contract or bonds at a fixed price, based on the rates of college tuition today.

8. Buy textbooks overseas. Just like prescription drugs are cheaper in Canada, English-language college textbooks from countries such as England, Australia, New Zealand and Canada are cheaper than their American counterparts.

Efforts started by Christians after 9/11 to aid and comfort New York continue to bring hope to the city today.

For most residents of New York City it was difficult, even excruciating, to pick up the pieces of their lives after Islamic terrorists crashed two commercial airliners into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.

Thousands of New Yorkers died that day. For weeks after the worst attack on U.S. soil, family members anxiously awaited word from authorities saying that their loved ones had been found. For many, the call never came.

“We were a broken city, with broken lives,” recalls Amy Williams, a Queens resident.

The attack opened a door for the body of Christ to respond to the grief by meeting physical and spiritual needs. And today leaders say 9/11 continues to affect the spiritual climate in the city.

“Churches and organizations have been collaborating and working together in ways that we didn’t do before,” says Mac Pier of Concerts of Prayer Greater New York. “It’s had a definite effect on us.”

He says much of the collaboration has resulted in considerable growth, especially among immigrant churches in the city. Faith Bible Church is one. It is a thriving immigrant ministry with locations in suburban Flushing and other areas across the city. It also has planted foreign churches, in Taiwan, South Africa, England and China.

Pastor Greg Woo says fear drove people to the church. “Initially they came because they were afraid and had a sense of uncertainty,” he told Charisma. “Sept. 11 wasn’t just something we saw on TV. We could look out the window and see the smoke in the skyline.”

But he credits the substantial growth in his church to the ministry’s commitment to core values such as evangelism, community outreach, and leadership training among pastors and seminary students.

“We have 900 to 1,000 members because two immigrant Christians passed out fliers on the streets of Flushing,” he says. “Yes, people came to church after 9/11, but we focused on fulfilling our values, and that is what really made people join and turn to Jesus.”

Many churches responded to 9/11 with community outreaches in the months after the attack and today continue to schedule prayer gatherings in conjunction with citywide events. On Sept. 20, more than 20,000 people are expected to participate in Prayer in the Square, a one-hour event sponsored by pastor David Wilkerson’s Times Square Church.

In a Web posting dated March 7, Wilkerson said “earth-shattering calamity” would hit New York City and surrounding areas as a result of God’s judgment on “America and the nations.”

“For 10 years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut,” he said. “Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires—such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.”

Wilkerson is “a person of integrity and accuracy with God’s Word,” Billy Wilson, executive director of International Center for Spiritual Renewal, told Charisma in response to the warning. “Time will tell” if the prophecy is true, he said.

“God’s judgment on America can still be avoided if the church will respond with humility and repentance. The fate of the nation is in the hands of those who are called by His name,” says Wilson, a co-organizer of Cry Out America—a prayer initiative that calls for Christians in all 50 states to gather at their county courthouses on September 11 to pray for spiritual renewal in the U.S.

Wilson said churches have an opportunity to be a tangible witness in their communities and should reach out to people with the gospel.

“If judgment is impending, then the opportunity for evangelism and ministry to the broken will be greater than ever. God is calling us to awaken our hearts to purity, intercession, preparation and evangelism for what could be the greatest harvest in America’s history.”