Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday Israel and its Western backers “cannot do a … thing to stop Iran’s nuclear work.”

In a televised speech at an Iranian uranium conversion plant in Isfahan, Ahmadinejad rejected the “illegal” censure of his nation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He said the agency was “under pressure from a few superficially powerful countries.”

The IAEA passed a resolution Friday denouncing Iran for constructing a secret enrichment plant near the city of Qom. Tehran responded by announcing plans to build 10 more uranium enrichment sites.

Ahmadinejad said Iran would enrich its uranium to higher levels despite international calls to halt its enrichment activities. He also said international sanctions would be ineffective. “Aggressors will regret their action as soon as they put their finger on the trigger,” he said.

“Iran’s nuclear issue has been resolved… [and] there is no need for [more] talks,”Ahmadinejad said. He added that Tehran is “not obliged to inform the International Atomic Energy Agency about our plans to build nuclear sites unless the technology is imported. Friendly relations with the [IAEA] are over.”

The German news journal Der Spiegel reported that Iranian scientists are believed to have successfully simulated the detonation of a nuclear warhead, one of the most technologically challenging problems it would face in developing a nuclear weapon.

Experts believe it could take Iran as little as a year to acquire the expertise and a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium to build a real nuclear warhead.

The same paper also cites intelligence reports as warning that a restructuring has been ordered within the Iranian Defense Ministry, which is an indication that the department responsible for Tehran’s military nuclear program is under government pressure to push ahead with its activities.

Janes Defense Weekly reported on Wednesday that it has satellite images that prove that construction activity at the site near Qom has increased since the enrichment facility was exposed in October.

Iranian officials have said they would like to have the plant up and running by early 2011.

[Source: International Christian Embassy Jerusalem; ]

Christians have long made pilgrimages to the ancient Village of Cana where Jesus performed His first miracle. More recently, couples have begun visiting the Franciscan Wedding Church to get married or renew their marriage vows.

Jesus performed His first miracle, turning water into wine at a wedding, thereby validating and blessing the covenant of marriage.

Father Garret Edmunds, a pilgrimage leader to the Holy Land, points out that Jesus’ primary reason for being there was for the wedding.

“He was there to celebrate marriage with his friends. Jesus is anxious to bless marriage.”
That concept is not lost on Christians.

Israel’s Ministry of Tourism reports that annually 200,000 tourists visit the city, many are couples from a variety of nations and churches who want to renew their vows at the Wedding Church.

While on their first tour of the Holy Land earlier this year, Nancy and Joe Karabinus had a spur-of-the-moment opportunity to renew their vows at Cana. And the year was significant: their 50th wedding anniversary was just a couple months later on Oct. 10.

“We thought it was an awesome experience and would recommend it to any couple because of the history and the sacramental value of the occasion and the location,” Joe tells Travelujah, “Nancy and I are Catholic and are very aware of the sacramental significance of Cana as Jesus’ first miracle.”

God’s blessing on marriage is inherent in the land, said one of the nuns who serves at the church.

“Here in the place where Jesus came to bless the couple, there is something more significant,” the nun tells Travelujah. “For couples, we explain, when you got married you received the blessing of God from the sacrament. Now, here you will receive a double blessing because this is the very place Jesus walked and He himself blessed the place and the couple.”

In the lower Galilee near Nazareth, Cana is now an Arab Israeli town where local Christian couples wed in either of the two churches. Ruins indicate that it was a Jewish town during the time of Jesus and then had a Christian presence from the fifth century. The Franciscans have been there since 1641 and began building the present Wedding Church in 1879. Beside it is the Greek Orthodox Church, St. George, built in 1886.

Getting married at the church requires official documentation if it is being done through the Catholic Church. If you are not Catholic you must bring your own pastor to perform the ceremony. The fee is $200 for the church and $200 for flowers. For renewals, it is recommended to reserve in advance. Vow renewal is free, but you may receive a certificate afterward for a small donation.

Ohioan David Lohnes said he plans to renew his marriage vows when he and his wife come to Israel in 2011.

“With Cana being the location where Mary asked Jesus to help the wedding party it has great meaning to us as Catholics,” he said. “As sinners we are always looking for opportunities to obtain grace from God, and renewing our sacramental wedding vows at Cana is another opportunity for us to have God’s graces poured out on our marriage.”

Joe Karabinus said the marriage vow renewal and his visit to Israel was life changing. “Having been there, our reading of the sacred scriptures has never been the same.”

is the only Christian social network focused on travel to the Holy Land. It is a vibrant online community offering high quality Christian content, user and expert blogs, travel tours and planning services for people interested in connecting to the land.

1 John 4:1-21 The whole counsel of God’s Word exhorts us not to judge others. However, we can give the love test to others. The Bible says you shall know them by their fruits. The fruit of the Spirit is love. John talks about the love test. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us” (vv. 11-12).

When we see someone who does not walk in love, we can rest assured that person does not know God because God is love. Every day I pray, “Lord, help me to love as You love.” His love is gentle, kind, longsuffering, full of faith, joyful, peaceful, patient and self-controlled.

No human being is capable of having love like this, but this love can flow through us if we daily abide in the love of Jesus and His Word. We have to admit honestly to God that without Him we can do nothing; especially we cannot love. He is love (true love), and only as we submit ourselves daily to Him for a fresh infilling of His love will we be able to even begin to love as He loves. The Bible tells us that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We must depend upon the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Jesus daily and to perfect within us the love of Christ. Once we receive a fresh infilling of His Spirit daily, we have to make sure we do not leak. How can we do this? Ephesians 5:18-21 shares the answer. “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God” (KJV).

The above exhortation does not seem to be a tall order. On the contrary, it is quite doable, and if we sing and speak to ourselves in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and make melody in our hearts, we will be filled not only with the Spirit, but also with His love, peace and joy.

Today, when you are stopped at a traffic light, try singing some of your favorite hymns aloud. The moment you awaken in the morning, read and sing some of the psalms. If you do this faithfully, you will be able to pass the love test. Remember, always it is the love of Jesus within you, not your own love, that will make an impact on others.

Lord, I give You thanks for Your Word that says You will perfect Your love within me. I submit myself to Your Spirit of love today.

READ: Daniel 11:36-12:13; 1 John 4:1-21; Psalm 123:1-4; Proverbs 29:2-4

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A former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan is now an ordained minister in one of the nation’s largest African-American denominations.

Johnny Lee Clary was ordained a minister in the 6 million-member Church of God in Christ (COGIC) on Saturday during a service led by Bishop George McKinney, pastor of St. Stephen’s Cathedral Church of God in Christ in San Diego and a member of COGIC’s 12-member general board.

Clary, who is based in Oklahoma, will serve as an evangelist under McKinney’s oversight, and his ministry will emphasize racial reconciliation.

“Bishop McKinney and I both felt like racial reconciliation was needed now more than ever,” said Clary, who befriended McKinney in the early 1990s when the two spoke during a Promise Keepers event. “We feel like it makes a huge statement that the former national imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan would join the Church of God in Christ and reach out with the Church of God in Christ to bring racial reconciliation to America.”

“We want to take this back to where it was when William Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival was happening, when blacks and whites were together,” added Clary, who preached at St. Stephen’s on Sunday. “This is what’s needed for this nation now to overcome racism.”

After joining the Ku Klux Klan during his teens, Clary eventually became leader of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. But he grew increasingly dissatisfied and eventually resigned from his post. With two failed marriages, no friends and little money, Clary says he turned to the God he’d been introduced to as a child and accepted Christ in 1990.

Since then he has shared his story on talk shows including The Phil Donahue Show, Geraldo, The 700 Club and Sally Jesse Raphael, and he preaches in churches in the U.S. and Australia.

“I know the answer to racial reconciliation, and that’s Jesus Christ,” he said. “They all come to me, even secular people are saying, ‘What changed you?’ I tell them, ‘The only thing that changed me was the Word of God.’ Because when I accepted Christ … I had to get my mind renewed, and that was through God’s Word.”

Both Clary and McKinney say the church has an opportunity to address racism, which they say did not disappear with the election of the nation’s first African-American president.

Clary notes that white supremacist groups saw an upsurge in interest after President Obama was elected, with many of the organizations using nationalist labels to draw not only racists but also those who are fearful of the president’s policies.

McKinney says failing urban schools and the disproportionate percentage of minorities in prison are also reflective of ongoing racism in the nation. “There continues to be tremendous strongholds of racist activity in the U.S., and the church has the responsibility, I believe, to be salt and light in this situation,” McKinney said. “So the church has an awesome responsibility to speak truth in every area, every arena of life.”

During the civil rights era, many white evangelical leaders didn’t see the fight for racial equality as their cause and did not get involved, McKinney says. He doesn’t want history to repeat itself today when he says Christians are needed to fight not only for racial equality but also to preserve traditional marriage and end abortion, which he said is impacting black communities disproportionately and becoming “a kind of genocide.”

“It’s all the way through the Bible, that the children of God are to be advocates for justice and practitioners of love and forgiveness and mercy,” McKinney said. “But somehow we didn’t get that on our agenda, and we allowed the whole [civil rights] era to pass without many of those who were leaders in the evangelical church becoming involved at all. They stood on the sidelines.

“I hope that that doesn’t happen again because we still have some serious fights, and we need all the people of good will, all of God’s people. … So we need Johnny Lee Clary and we need all the people who at one time were on the wrong side of the fence to come on and help us with the fight for righteousness [and] holiness.”

McKinney said churches will remain largely segregated until they become welcoming to everyone—”the homeless, the aliens, to anybody who has a hunger for God.”

Clary agrees. “I’m interested in seeing the church portrayed the way the first church was in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost,” Clary said. “When the Holy Spirit came, all races were gathered together under heaven. Also in Revelation 7:9 … every race was there gathered before the throne in front of the Lamb in heaven. People … better learn to get along down here on earth or they won’t be able to get along up in heaven.”

A former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan is now an
ordained minister in one of the nation’s largest African-American
denominations.

Johnny Lee Clary was ordained a minister in the 6 million-member Church of
God in Christ (COGIC) on Saturday during a service led by Bishop George
McKinney, pastor of St. Stephen’s Cathedral Church of God in Christ in San
Diego and a member of COGIC’s 12-member general board.

Clary, who is based in Oklahoma, will serve as an evangelist
under McKinney’s oversight, and his ministry will emphasize racial
reconciliation.

“Bishop McKinney and I both felt like racial reconciliation
was needed now more than ever,” said Clary, who befriended McKinney in the
early 1990s when the two spoke during a Promise Keepers event. “We feel like it
makes a huge statement that the former national imperial wizard of the Ku Klux
Klan would join the Church of God in Christ and reach out with the Church of
God in Christ to bring racial reconciliation to America.”

“We want to take this back to where it was when William
Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival was happening, when blacks and whites were
together,” added Clary, who preached at St. Stephen’s on Sunday. “This is what’s needed for this nation now to overcome
racism.”

After joining the Ku Klux Klan during his teens, Clary
eventually became leader of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. But he grew
increasingly dissatisfied and eventually resigned from his post. With two
failed marriages, no friends and little money, Clary says he turned to the God
he’d been introduced to as a child and accepted Christ in 1990.

Since then he has shared his story on talk shows including The
Phil Donahue Show, Geraldo, The 700 Club and Sally Jesse
Raphael, and he preaches in churches in the U.S. and Australia.

“I know the answer to racial reconciliation, and that’s
Jesus Christ,” he said. “They all come to me, even secular people are saying,
‘What changed you?’ I tell them, ‘The only thing that changed me was the Word
of God.’ Because when I accepted Christ … I had to get my mind renewed, and
that was through God’s Word.”

Both Clary and McKinney say the church has an opportunity to
address racism, which they say did not disappear with the election of the
nation’s first African-American president.

Clary notes that white supremacist groups saw an upsurge in
interest after President Obama was elected, with many of the organizations
using nationalist labels to draw not only racists but also those who are
fearful of the president’s policies.

McKinney says failing urban schools and the disproportionate
percentage of minorities in prison are also reflective of ongoing racism in the
nation. “There continues to be tremendous strongholds of racist activity in the
U.S., and the church has the responsibility, I believe, to be salt and light in
this situation,” McKinney said. “So the church has an awesome responsibility to
speak truth in every area, every arena of life.”

During the civil rights era, many white evangelical leaders
didn’t see the fight for racial equality as their cause and did not get
involved, McKinney says. He doesn’t want history to repeat itself today when he
says Christians are needed to fight not only for racial equality but also to
preserve traditional marriage and end abortion, which he said is impacting
black communities disproportionately and becoming “a kind of genocide.”

“It’s all the way through the Bible, that the children of
God are to be advocates for justice and practitioners of love and forgiveness
and mercy,” McKinney said. “But somehow we didn’t get that on our agenda, and
we allowed the whole [civil rights] era to pass without many of those who were
leaders in the evangelical church becoming involved at all. They stood on the
sidelines.

“I hope that that doesn’t happen again because we still have
some serious fights, and we need all the people of good will, all of God’s
people. … So we need Johnny Lee Clary and we need all the people who at one time
were on the wrong side of the fence to come on and help us with the fight for
righteousness [and] holiness.”

McKinney said churches will remain largely segregated until
they become welcoming to everyone—”the homeless, the aliens, to anybody who has
a hunger for God.”

Clary agrees. “I’m interested in seeing the church portrayed
the way the first church was in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost,” Clary said.
“When the Holy Spirit came, all races were gathered together under heaven. Also
in Revelation 7:9 … every race was there gathered before the throne in front of
the Lamb in heaven. People … better learn to get along down here on earth or
they won’t be able to get along up in heaven.”

Amighty oak tree began as a small acorn. A baby started as a small embryo. A river began as a few small drops of water that trickled into a ravine. You may be standing in a place where your life, your finances or your healing appear to be small. Yet, the seed of increase is within your situation.

I read the story of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s determination to work his body so that his mind would function well. His father told him, “You have the mind, but you have not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should. You must make the body.” Roosevelt began exercising everyday. He worked out with weights, hiked, ice-skated, hunted, rowed, boxed and rode horseback. He worked his mind through reading about people who were fearless and those he admired.

Roosevelt knew that he possessed a sickly and puny body. He also knew that he could start where he was with something small. He could turn his status in life into something big and powerful if he would continue to press forward all the time. Roosevelt could not merely dream of something big for his life. He had to act on what he possessed.

Years later, after many major accomplishments in his life, Roosevelt died. At the time of his death they discovered a book under his pillow. He was faithful to continue in his pursuit as long as there was breath in his body. You can do the same thing. Take another look at the small thing in your life, your ministry or your business. What can you begin to do today? What can you do everyday that can result in increase? You were destined for increase. Begin a new habit today by acting rather than merely dreaming. Watch your small thing become big.

1 John 3:7-24 During my lifetime, there was a movement that many coined as “name it and claim it.” Many preachers and teachers were saying you could have anything you asked God for—all you had to do was believe and claim it by faith. It is true that even Jesus says whatever you pray about, believe that you have it and you will receive it. However, one must read this promise in context. Jesus also shares that for this to come to pass in our lives, we must fulfill a condition. That condition is to abide in Him and allow His love and Word to abide in us. Jesus tells us we must keep his commandments. He says, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you-.-.-.- This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:7, 12-13, KJV).

In our reading today John again gives the major condition for answered prayer. “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment” (v. 23).

All of us want to see our prayers answered. Our prayers will all be answered if we pray according to God’s will. John in another letter shares that if we pray anything according to God’s will, He hears us, and we have the petitions we require of Him. Do you realize one of the main reasons for unanswered prayer is that we are not praying according to God’s will?

What is God’s will? His will is simply that we love Him with all our hearts and keep His commandment to love one another. I have yet to see a bitter, unforgiving, jealous, prideful person receive answers to his prayers. Why? God never even hears his prayers. When we pray with unforgiveness in our hearts, God cannot forgive us, and our prayers fall to the ground. There is one prayer, however, that God always hears. That prayer is the prayer of repentance. Is there any unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, jealousy or lack of love in your heart today? Confess it to God, and He will not only forgive you, but He also will cleanse you of all unrighteousness. After you are cleansed, daily abide in His Word and in His love, and you will begin to see God answer your prayers because God will pray through you the prayers that are according to His will.

Lord, I realize today You hear my heart before You hear my prayers. Cleanse my heart so my prayers will soar into Your throne room.

READ: Daniel 11:1-34; 1 John 3:7-24; Psalm 122:1-9; Proverbs 29:1    

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The New York state Senate rejected a bill Wednesday that would have legalized same-sex marriage.

In a 38-24 vote, lawmakers struck down a gay marriage bill that had been pushed by Gov. David Patterson. No Republicans supported the measure. But even with a one-seat majority, Democrats still did not have enough votes to pass the measure.

Democratic state Sen. Ruban Da­az Sr., a Pentecostal pastor in the Bronx, has been a strident opponent of the gay marriage bill, arguing that marriage should be the union of one man and one woman. In May, he participated in a rally protesting Patterson’s moves to push gay marriage. The event reportedly drew some 10,000 people.

“Not only the evangelicals, not only the Jews, not only the Muslims, not only the Catholics, but also the people oppose it,” Daaz said before Wednesday’s vote, the New York Times reported.

Five states have legalized gay marriage, all of them through legislation or court ruling.

The New York State Assembly approved the gay marriage legislation shortly after midnight on Wednesday, the Times reported, and Patterson had said he would immediately sign the measure if it made it to his desk.

Voters in Maine and California repealed their states’ gay marriage laws through referendum. But New York does not have a referendum process that allows voters to overturn an act of the Legislature. All 31 states that have voted on the issue have banned gay marriage.

Da­az told Charisma in May that he would block moves to legalize gay marriage in his state even if the bill were reintroduced every year. “I’m a preacher. I’m not only a state senator,” he said. “I would not vote for that.”

The vote was an answer to prayer, said Tom Stiles, director of church relations for New Yorkers Family Research Foundation, which is affiliated with New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom, a group that lobbied against the bill.

“We’re very thankful,” Stiles said. “This is not about hating anybody. It’s about preserving marriage as we know it.”

He said the traditional marriage supporters would have to fight the same battle next year, when Democrats who opposed the measure will likely face a tough re-election battle.

“They’re looking at the elections, and they’ll target the Democratic senators who voted against the bill,” Stiles said of gay marriage supporters. “Christians need to be praying for those men and women.”

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A Christian marriage counselor in London who lost his job for refusing to provide sex therapy to gay couples lost a discrimination lawsuit on appeal.

Gary McFarlane, 48, was fired from Relate, a marriage counseling service in Bristol, England, in 2008 after refusing to help same-sex couples improve their sex lives because it violated his Christian beliefs.

Photo: Christian Legal Centre

McFarlane, an attorney and part-time counselor, did not object to other Relate counselors offering sex advice to same-sex couples but asked not to be assigned to such cases as a matter of conscience, said the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), which represents McFarlane.

McFarlane, a former elder of a large multicultural church in Bristol, claimed he was unfairly dismissed and was a victim of religious discrimination in violation of the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003.

He took Relate to the Employment Tribunal, which ruled that he had been wrongfully dismissed but not a victim of religious discrimination. He then appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, but his case was dismissed Monday.

“This decision is a stark warning to people of conscience in this nation that as a result of 12 years of Labour rule, the British establishment no longer values the democratic rights of its citizens to hold conscience as a matter of principle,” McFarlane said in a statement. “Society is the worse for not allowing people of conscience to exercise legitimate rights.”

CLC director Andrea Minichiello Williams said the ruling goes against all notions of religious conscience protection and common sense.

“The seriously worrying underlying point in this case, which the court has refused to accept, is that for religious belief to be protected it is necessary to uphold the right to manifest that belief,” she said. “The effect of this judgment is to rule out any expression of deeply held conscience, even when the expression is limited to a very reasonable, practicable and sensible request to be assigned work such that worker and client are best served and that the work is tenable for the worker.”

“Time and time again in British Courts we see that freedom of religion, Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, offers no protection whatsoever to Christians and other people of faith with a conscience,” she added.

Claire Tyler, Relate’s chief executive, said the appeal ruling validates her organization’s commitment to equal access of services.

“Relate’s trusted service … relies on making sure that all members of society, regardless of their gender, age, race, religion, sexual orientation or relationship status, are able to access respectful and professional counseling and sex therapy,” she said, according to BBC News.

“Relate is committed to supporting all religious beliefs working within Relate,” she added. “However, our primary consideration is to our clients who often need complex advice and assistance.”

Williams said McFarlane would appeal the decision. “We will take this as far as is necessary, even if we have to go all the way to the Supreme Court and then Europe,” she said. “We will press on until justice prevails.”

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A New Jersey State Prison inmate has won back the right to preach to his fellow prisoners.

Howard Thompson Jr., an ordained Pentecostal minister, had been prohibited from preaching in 2007 when prison officials banned inmates from preaching, even when supervised by prison staff.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on Thompson’s behalf last year, arguing that the ban was unconstitutional. On Monday, the group announced that it reached a settlement with prison officials that allows Thompson to preach at weekly worship services and to teach Bible study classes.

“The decision by prison officials in New Jersey to allow Mr. Thompson to resume practicing his faith is a welcome acknowledgement that religious freedom in this country extends to all,” said Daniel Mach, director of litigation for the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “The ban on prisoner preaching was clearly at odds with the law and the American value of religious liberty, and this decision was long overdue.”

Thompson, who was convicted of murder in 1985 and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, has been active in the prison’s Christian community since his incarceration in 1986. Ordained in 2000, he preached at Sunday services, taught Bible studies and founded the prison choir. Then two years ago, prison officials issued a blanket ban on such preaching by prisoners.

The ACLU said the prison’s chaplaincy staff actively supported and encouraged Thompson’s ministry work, believing he was a positive influence on other inmates.

Thompson said the ban kept him from fulfilling his ministry calling, which he had done “honestly, effectively and without any incident for years.”

“All I have ever wanted was to have my religious rights restored so that I could continue working with men who want to renew their lives through the study and practice of their faith,” Thompson said.

The settlement does not allow Thompson to lead services, but permits him to preach with the consent of a prison chaplain or approved volunteer. It also requires him to provide an outline of his sermon or Bible study lesson to the chaplain or volunteer in advance for review and approval.

If approval is denied, Thompson must be given a written explanation of the reason.