7.9 Mwp - PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION

31 Aug 2012 12:47:34 UTC
31 Aug 2012 20:47:34 near epicenter
31 Aug 2012 07:47:34 standard time in your timezone

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000cc5m#summary

6.6 Mwb - Greenland Region

30 Aug 2012 13:43:24 UTC
30 Aug 2012 12:43:24 near epicenter
30 Aug 2012 08:43:24 standard time in your timezone

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000cb69#summary

SoCal Quakes May Last Weeks

DNN:

Damage assessment was under way Monday in Southern California's Imperial County, a day after hundreds of earthquakes shook homes and businesses, officials said.

Injuries were reported but there had been no reports of deaths.

Some families were displaced the Los Angeles Times reported.

Quakes up to 5.5-magnitude struck, the California Emergency Management Agency said.

Scientists said residents of Imperial, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties could be affected by additional earthquakes. The agency said seismic swarms could continue over the next several weeks.

http://www.disasternews.net/news/article.php?articleid=5032

Quake Swarm Strikes California

More than 210 earthquakes hit state of California on Sunday with the strongest measured 5.5. The earthquakes were felt as far away as San Diego, Temecula and San Clemente. The first quake occurred about three miles northwest of Brawley, registered as magnitude 3.8 temblor. It was followed by a swarm of quakes in the same area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The earthquakes are occurring on a northeast striking fault zone located about 6 km north of the northwest end of the mapped Imperial Valley fault. This is within the area called the Brawley Seismic Zone. The BSZ extends from the northern end of the Imperial fault to the southern end of the San Andreas fault. It has been characterized by swarms that have occurred in the 1930s, the 1960s, and 1970s. The last significant swarm before this one occurred in 2005 along the south shore of the Salton Sea, with the largest event of M5.1. In 1981 there was swarm-like activity called the Westmoreland sequence, with a largest event of M 5.8, which occurred 8 km to the northwest of to days activity. Some of the aftershocks of the Mw6.4 1979 earthquake occurred in the same general area.


http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2012/08/27/swarm-earthquakes-rattled-southern-california/

7.4 Mwp - OFF COAST OF CENTRAL AMERICA

7.4 Mwp
Date-Time
27 Aug 2012 04:37:23 UTC
26 Aug 2012 22:37:23 near epicenter
26 Aug 2012 23:37:23 standard time in your timezone

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000c7yw#summary

6.4 Mwp - MOLUCCA SEA

26 Aug 2012 15:05:35 UTC
26 Aug 2012 23:05:35 near epicenter
26 Aug 2012 10:05:35 standard time in your timezone

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000c76x#summary

QUEENSHIP OF MARY

From Christian Research Network

http://christianresearchnetwork.org/2012/08/25/christians-condemn-idolatrous-queenship-of-mary-observance-emphasize-need-for-evangelism/

CHRISTIANS CONDEMN IDOLATROUS ‘QUEENSHIP OF MARY’ OBSERVANCE, EMPHASIZE NEED FOR EVANGELISM

POSTED BY MARSHA WEST ∙ 25 AUGUST 2012

The Christian News Network reports:

Christians nationwide are expressing concerns following Wednesday’s Catholic observance of the Feast of the Queenship of Mary — one of a number of holidays on the liturgical calendar — and are emphasizing the need for evangelism.

Read here:

http://christiannews.net/christians-condemn-idolatrous-queenship-of-mary-observance-emphasize-need-for-evangelism/

Stand With Apprising Ministries

Apprising Ministries continues in our labors along the Internet Front to track church trends for you and to expose various kinds of important issues and spiritual monkey business afoot. For example, Joel Osteen Has Influenced Steven Furtick Longer Than You May Know and Homosexuality And Jonathan Merritt.

We’re blessed here at AM to be among the few online apologetics and discernment ministries (OADM) pioneering a mission field Jesus is raising up for a time like this. Straight up: you need to know that  it’s actually way worse out there than we can even keep you aware of right now.

Unfortunately, evangelical leaders were unable to discern the time in which they now live; so, rather than standing up against this New Downgrade, they apparently have decided to join it. Seriously, there’s all kinds pious talk today, as well as praise for people like Charles Spurgeon,

However, as this New Downgrade spreads rapidly, I’ve yet to see a Spurgeon arise among them. If those whom the Lord allowed leadership status and high profile ministries more thoroughly covered these things in the church visible, then you’d have never even heard of someone like Ken Silva.

Ministries like this appreciate people who are concerned with various issues within the church visible and who take the time to send us names, topics, and links on the Net for us to look into. The truth is, we in legitimate OADM don’t scour the Internet looking for problems; rather, they are sent to us.

You are more than welcome to continue to do so; and please don’t grow discouraged if we don’t immediately get to it. Often these things kind of fit together like a bad jigsaw puzzle, where we can’t add a particular piece until the others finally fall in place. Make sense.

Along this same line, I get many emails a day and  at this time I’m still well behind. Some of them may have been buried in the email avalanche I’m working my way through. I do read all that I get and try and respond as quickly as I can. Please feel free to resend if I’ve not gotten back to you lately. 

I would also ask that you keep in mind AM is currently in a really bad slump as far as donations go. We do have a surplus designed to carry us through times like this but this slow summer season was worse than usual and we’re rather concerned because we really are eating up a whole lot more of that surplus than last year.

Perhaps you’ve been blessed through the work here and maybe you might consider helping to support this labor in the Lord. Please know that at this time a gift of any amount—whether one time or on a regular basis—goes a long way toward helping to keep AM available to serve the church in this growing apostasy.

The Lord knows, I hate talking about this subject. That aside, if you’d like to donate via PayPal you may click here; or you can make your checks/money orders payable to Connecticut River Baptist Church with Apprising Ministries in the memo and send them to:

Connecticut River Baptist Church
P.O. Box 340
Claremont, NH 03743

May the Lord richly bless you for standing with us through these years and reward you for your ongoing kindness to me in my work here at Apprising Ministries. In Jesus’ name, amen. Soli Deo gloria!

Further reading

• APPRISING MINISTRIES EFFECT
• T.D. JAKES AND SUPPORT FOR APPRISING MINISTRIES
• APPRISING MINISTRIES, RANDY ROBERTS POTTS, AND YOUR SUPPORT

Tim Tebow Responds To Casting of Stones

TIM TEBOW RESPONDS TO JESUS POSE ACCUSATION

From Apprising Ministries:

It seems clear that GQ did secure the right to use it. Today I’m told by a source who claims to know Tim Tebow that the photographer was taking pictures of him as he did his warmup for practice.

They say that Tebow wasn’t actually posing as Jesus at all; but rather, he was simply stretching. Since I personally never used a stretch like that for my players in warmup I wouldn’t recognize it as such.

Now, according to Tim Tebow himself, he doesn’t actually remember exactly what he was doing that day six years ago but insists that he was “absolutely not” trying to do a crucifixion pose:

“Honestly, I didn’t even know until — actually probably most of [you] knew that I was on there before I knew, so it kind of was a shocker for me,” Tebow said in comments to the media, which were transcribed and distributed by the team.

“It was something that I think I did maybe six years ago in college.  Honestly the first time I heard [it] was when we were in the cafeteria and it was on ESPN.  That’s when I found out, so it was kind of a shocker to me as well.”

It’s hardly obvious that the photos are outdated; the most controversial image appears to have Tebow in a crucifix pose, with the color dulled to the point where it creates the impression that the pants are Jet green and not Gator blue.

“Was I trying to do anything as far as the crucifix?” Tebow said.  “Absolutely not.  I mean, I don’t know — it was six years ago, I don’t even remember what I was doing, but I wasn’t trying to do anything like that though.” (source)

Blood Red French Lake

August 10, 2012 – FRANCE – It might look like a scene from a horror film but this is the breathtaking natural phenomenon which has met tourists at a popular French beauty spot. The stunning scenes in Camargue, southern France, may look very dramatic but are actually thought to be caused by the high levels of salt within the water. The bizarre sight was captured by photographer, Sam Dobson, from Moscow in Russia. With every small branch encrusted with salt crystals and all flora encased in white and set against the dark red background, the pictures could have been taken from the stills of a science fiction film. Mr Dobson said: ‘Every small branch is covered with crystals and with the red water as a background it looks like something extra-terrestrial.’ –Daily Mail

6.2 Mwp - NEAR N COAST OF NEW GUINEA, PNG.

6.2 Mwp - NEAR N COAST OF NEW GUINEA, PNG.

Magnitude 6.2 Mwp
Date-Time
19 Aug 2012 22:41:50 UTC
20 Aug 2012 08:41:50 near epicenter
19 Aug 2012 17:41:50 standard time in your timezone
Location 4.849S 144.583E
Depth 77 km
Distances
115 km (72 miles) NNE (19 degrees) of Mount Hagen, New Guinea, PNG
145 km (90 miles) WNW (288 degrees) of Madang, New Guinea, PNG

One Million Fish Killed by Texas Red Tide

RSOE EDIS


Wildlife officials estimate nearly a million fish have been killed in Southeast Texas by the algae bloom known as red tide. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department offered the estimate after a flyover Thursday in the Galveston area. Tens of thousands of dead fish began washing up on beaches last weekend. Water samples collected Monday confirmed the red tide at various sites in Galveston Bay. Wildlife experts Thursday assessed about 20 miles of beach shoreline, including Bolivar (BAW'-luh-vuhr) Peninsula, Galveston and Surfside. Monitoring continues in areas adjacent to the confirmed red tide outbreak. Parts of Galveston Bay have been closed to shellfish harvesting because of the algae bloom, which can cause respiratory problems.

6.6 Mwp - SULAWESI, INDONESIA

18 Aug 2012 09:41:54 UTC
18 Aug 2012 17:41:54 near epicenter
18 Aug 2012 04:41:54 standard time in your timezone
Location 1.346S 120.104E
Depth 20 km

Distances
56 km (35 miles) SSE (152 degrees) of Palu, Sulawesi, Indonesia
364 km (226 miles) E (92 degrees) of Balikpapan, Kalimantan, Indonesia

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000c2hh

The Silence of the Pulpits on the Slaughter of Lambs

If you are even slightly awake about the world news today, it is no surprise that Christians are being killed, raped and brutalized throughout the Islamic world. However, there is a place where you can go and escape the dreadful and relentless details of Christian annihilation by Islam. You can just go to church. For example, this week in Nigeria Christians were killed. Nothing out of the ordinary, indeed in the world of Christian persecution, this is routine.

And so the response to the murder of Christians is found in nearly every church is …wait for it…, complete silence—not a mention or reference to it or the brutality against Christians that happens almost every day in the Islamic world. This is not a passive silence, because if you try to change it, you will fail. The silence is an active, working conspiracy that goes throughout nearly all of Christendom.

Take a simple example: prayer for the persecuted. From a Christian perspective, this falls under the heading of obvious. Try taking the idea of prayer for the routinely murdered Christians in Nigeria or Egypt to ministers, boards and any part of the structure of the church and see how far you will get. You will get rejection with a myriad of lame and evasive excuses, since they fear to recognize the suffering of Christians around the world. If you acknowledge the suffering, you might ask the question: why are these Christians suffering? Ah, there is the rub. The suffering is caused by Muslim jihadists who are following the Islamic doctrine of jihad against the Christian as found in Koran, Sira and Hadith. Islam is the cause of suffering of Christians, as well as Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists.

...It is ironic that the Wall Street Journal, a FINANCIAL newspaper, has run an article about the silence in the pulpit concerning the suffering of Christians. We live in a time of moral inversion when Christian leaders are chastised for their moral bankruptcy by money men. It is supposed to be the other way around.

Actually, there are few religious leaders left in America. Instead we have chief-executive-officers who manage a 501 c 3 institution that has meetings on Sunday. In too many cases, Christianity has devolved into an hour’s meeting that is supposed to make you feel good for a week.

Read the rest here

http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/the-silence-of-the-pulpits/

M7.7 - 158km ENE of Poronaysk, Russia 2012-08-14 02:59:42 UTC

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000bz29#summary

14 Aug 2012 02:59:42 UTC
14 Aug 2012 12:59:42 near epicenter
13 Aug 2012 21:59:42 standard time in your timezone
Location 49.796N 145.113E
Depth 625 km
Distances
160 km (100 miles) ENE (66 degrees) of Poronaysk, Russia
361 km (225 miles) NNE (28 degrees) of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia
445 km (277 miles) SSE (160 degrees) of Okha, Russia
1630 km (1013 miles) NNE (14 degrees) of TOKYO, Japan

Venezuela as Iranian terror route into US worries officials

Houston Chronicle

WASHINGTON - Ever since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck a deal with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez for weekly air service between the nations' capitals, American officials have worried that Iranian-backed terrorists could reach to the rim of Latin America, pick up fake Venezuelan passports and sneak into the United States.

Now, with growing talk of a pre-emptive Israeli attack to slow Iran's suspected nuclear arms program, Iran has threatened that it would retaliate across the globe. And its easy access to the Western Hemisphere has the U.S. particularly concerned.

The commercial service between Tehran and Caracas by Iran Air and Conviasa Air Venezuela, including a stop in Damascus, Syria, is so secretive that there's confusion among intelligence agencies about whether the flights are continuing. Israel believes they are; the U.S. isn't so sure.
Nevertheless, American fears are elevated.

"Some Iranian officials - probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei - have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime," James Clapper, director of National Intelligence, warned the Senate Intelligence Committee in his latest threat assessment.

If that attack comes, experts see it being staged by Iranian operatives who have entered the U.S. through Latin America.

Pastor Rick Warren Deletes Tweet Supporting Chick-Fil-A Action

 Editor's note:  The reporter seems to be pro-homosexual, yet recognizes the classic purpose driven flip-flop...

Huffington Post


On Wednesday, August 1st, Pastor Rick Warren tweeted out a report about a conversation he says he had with Chick-Fil-A owner Dan Cathy in which it's claimed that the fast food chain "set a world record" during the day. His tweet was referring to actions by right-wing religious communities who called upon their congregations to buy food from Chick-Fil-A to show their support for his comments against equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

During an interview with the Ken Coleman Show, Mr. Cathy reportedly said those advocating for same-sex marriage will in turn bring "God's judgment" upon the United States. He has also defended the millions of dollars his corporations has donated to so-called "family ministries" that fight against the legal recognition of same-sex marriages.

However, on Thursday, August 2nd, a review of Pastor Warren's Twitter timeline revealed that he appears to have deleted the tweet referenced above. Ironically, the tweet immediately following where the Chick-Fil-A related tweet should be is one that says: "Your past is past. It can't hurt you unless you let it." If this is the case, one must wonder why Pastor Warren felt the need to delete the tweet supporting the politicized, anti-equality stance of Chick-Fil-A and its owner.

See also:  

Rick Warren Washes His Hands of SoulForce But Saddleback Sets The Table

Life on Mars - NASA's Holy Grail

In the last week, little has captivated people more than Mars. Since last Sunday, images and news have been pouring out of NASA about Curiosity, the rover that will spend the next two years exploring the red planet, sampling geology and looking for evidence of microbial life.


Read the rest at PC World.


See also:  Curiosity to Begin Climb Up Mount Sharp --"Some Form of Life was Once Likely"

HT:  Raiders News Network

6.3 Mwp - XINJIANG-XIZANG BORDER REGION

12 Aug 2012 10:47:06 UTC
12 Aug 2012 18:47:06 near epicenter
12 Aug 2012 05:47:06 standard time in your timezone

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000bv81#summary

2012-08-11 12:34:35 (Mwp 6.3) NORTHWESTERN IRAN 38.3 46.8 (58c6d)

2012-08-11 12:34:35 (Mwp 6.3) NORTHWESTERN IRAN 38.3 46.8 (58c6d)

6.2 Mwp - NORTHWESTERN IRAN

6.2 Mwp - NORTHWESTERN IRAN

Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude 6.2 Mwp
Date-Time
11 Aug 2012 12:23:17 UTC
11 Aug 2012 15:53:17 near epicenter
11 Aug 2012 07:23:17 standard time in your timezone
Location 38.378N 46.873E
Depth 9 km
Distances
60 km (37 miles) ENE (57 degrees) of Tabriz, Iran
125 km (78 miles) W (277 degrees) of Ardabil, Iran
156 km (97 miles) SSE (148 degrees) of Angeghakot, Armenia
286 km (178 miles) SE (134 degrees) of YEREVAN, Armenia
Location Uncertainty Horizontal: 14.0 km; Vertical 4.1 km
Parameters Nph = 194; Dmin = 269.5 km; Rmss = 1.37 seconds; Gp = 39°
M-type = Mwp; Version = A

6.2 Mwp - FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS

10 Aug 2012 18:37:44 UTC
10 Aug 2012 10:37:44 near epicenter
10 Aug 2012 13:37:44 standard time in your timezone
Location 52.695N 167.469W

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000buag#summary

Attacks on Christians Sharpen with Government Collusion

by Khaled Abu Toameh
August 10, 2012 at 5:00 am

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3268/egypt-attacks-on-christians

If Muslim fanatics cannot tolerate moderate and secular Muslims, why should they be expected to accept those who belong to other faiths?

As all eyes were turned this week toward Sinai, where Muslim fundamentalists killed 16 Egyptian border guards while they were having the Ramadan fast-breaking meal, Christian families were being forced out of their homes in the village of Dahshur, 40 kilometers south of Giza.

Hundreds of Christians fled their homes after being attacked by their Muslim neighbors, who also targeted a church and Christian-owned businesses in the village.

The anti-Christian violence was described as the worst since Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi was elected as president in June.

But Morsi did not find time this week to visit Dahshur to see for himself how hundreds of helpless Christians were being forced out of their homes.

Instead, he and his security and military commanders rushed to Sinai as soon as they heard about the massacre that was perpetrated against the border guards.

The Egyptian authorities did not even hesitate to use heavy weapons against the Muslim terrorists in Sinai. For the first time since the signing of the peace treaty with Israel, Egypt sent military helicopters and armored vehicles to attack the terrorists in Sinai.

But when it comes to dealing with Muslim terrorists who have been targeting Christians in a number of villages and cities throughout Egypt over the past few months, the Egyptian authorities have endorsed a lenient approach. In fact, the authorities, according to human rights activists, have chosen to turn a blind eye to the plight of the 14-million strong Christian community.

Even worse, the Egyptian government seems to be completely out of touch with reality concerning the dangers facing the Christians. Morsi, for example, has denied that the violence was sectarian, claiming it was an "isolated incident that was blown out of proportion."