1. According to Click 2 Houston, The eldest son of a slain Houston priest was arrested in Mississippi and is the prime suspect in the brutal murders of his father, mother and their 5-year-old son. Isaac Tiharihondi was taken into custody around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday in Jackson, Mississippi, by FBI agents. Jackson police said he was arrested at the Diamond Motel on Highway 80. Tiharihondi, 19, is now charged with two counts of capital murder. He remains in custody in Raymond, Mississippi, awaiting extradition back to Harris County. Crime scene investigators spent nearly two days at a west Houston apartment where Israel Ahim-bisi-bwe, his wife, Dorcus, and their young son, Israel Jr., were found dead Monday. Church members went to the apartment to check on the family after they failed to show up for services at the Redeemer Episcopal Church Sunday. Court documents state the three bodies were found covered with blankets and towels in a rear bathroom of the apartment, with the child in the bathtub. Investigators said the pastor and his wife were beaten to death with a bat, lamp and hammer. The boy suffered stab wounds to his neck and back.
2. According to Irish Examiner, Islamic State militants are selling abducted Iraqi children at markets as sex slaves, and killing other youths, including by crucifixion or burying them alive, according to a UN watchdog. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said, Iraqi boys under 18 are increasingly being used by the militant group as suicide bombers, bomb makers, informants or human shields to protect facilities against US-led air strikes. Committee expert Renate Winter told a news briefing, “We are really deeply concerned at torture and murder of those children, especially those belonging to minorities, but not only from minorities. The scope of the problem is huge.”
3. According to ACLJ, President Obama spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast today about American Pastor Saeed Abedini, imprisoned for his Christian faith in Iran, and the need to bring him home. He talked about his recent meeting with Pastor Saeed’s wife, Naghmeh, and their two young children. He described how he promised Pastor Saeed’s family that “our country has not forgotten Brother Saeed” and that “we are doing everything we can to bring him home.” Then he talked about receiving what he called “an extraordinary letter” from Pastor Saeed himself, and read from that letter in his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. He concluded by promising to “keep up this work for Pastor Abedini and all those around the world who are unjustly held or persecuted because of their faith.”
4. According to Reuters, Jordan’s King Abdullah vowed a “relentless” war against the Islamic State on their own territory in response to a video published by the hard-line group showing a captured Jordanian air force pilot being burned alive in a cage. He said, “We are waging this war to protect our faith, our values and human principles and our war for their sake will be relentless and will hit them in their own ground.” U.S. officials said on Wednesday that the United Arab Emirates had withdrawn from flying air strikes in the U.S.-led coalition campaign against Islamic State after the Jordanian pilot’s plane went down over Syria in December.
5. According to CBS Los Angeles, The senior pastor of a prominent Los Angeles church is at the center of a growing controversy after he purportedly compared police officers to the Ku Klux Klan in a recent sermon. Pastor J. Edgar Boyd of the First AME Church delivered the sermon in mid-January with special zeal, trying to rouse his congregation to get involved in issues like police violence. Boyd is seen in video from the Jan. 18 sermon stating: “Today, lynchings still occur but in a different form. The Klansmen today do not raid in the night raids with robes on and hoods on. But what they do is put a blue uniform on and a gold badge and take a baton or a police weapon, and they come at the least time we expect them and they take the lives of our young black men and young brown men. They take their lives long before they’re able to learn what God has in store for them in life.” When the video started circulated online, though, some officers and deputies felt they were all being condemned as KKK members. Mayor Eric Garcetti, whose office says he expressed his strong opposition to the statement in a conversation with Boyd, did attend last Sunday’s service and made a direct statement about it when he spoke to the congregation.
6. According to BBC, Pope Francis is due to become the first ever pontiff to speak before the US Congress, lawmakers in Washington have announced. The head of the Catholic Church will make his speech on September 24th. House Speaker John Boehner said, “That day his holiness will be the first pope in our history to address a joint session of Congress.” President Obama said, “I am very much looking forward to welcoming Pope Francis to the United States.” Around one in three members of Congress are Catholic, as are both the House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, and Republican Mr Boehner. The trip is expected to include a White House meeting with President Obama.
7. According to The Associated Press, The police in New Delhi detained hundreds of Christian protesters on Thursday as they prepared to march to the home minister’s residence to demand that the government investigate recent attacks against churches. The protest came after a mysterious fire gutted a church in New Delhi, the capital, and several other churches were vandalized over the past two months. The protesters blame Hindu hard-liners for the attacks. The police said the protesters were detained because demonstrations are banned in the neighborhood where the minister, Rajnath Singh, lives. Church leaders have expressed disappointment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not spoken out against the attacks.
8. According to AFP, Federal police dismantled an Islamic State group recruiting network in Canada, by arresting a Canadian with ties to ISIS for allegedly helping others join the jihadists. International warrants were also issued through Interpol for the arrest of two other men, including a Canadian reportedly killed in Syria, for joining the banned terror group and encouraging others to follow suit. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said, “This network was involved in recruiting individuals for terrorism purposes and in sending them into Syria and Iraq for the benefit of this terrorist group.”
9. According to The Associated Press, A swarm of earthquakes has shaken parts of Alfalfa County in northern Oklahoma. The U.S. Geological Survey says four earthquakes have been recorded around Cherokee and Helena since late Wednesday, including a magnitude 4.3 quake about five miles east-northeast of Cherokee at 9:08 a.m. Thursday. Alfalfa County Sheriff’s Department office manager Amanda Kutz says the earthquake damaged parts of the courthouse in Cherokee. The USGS says three other earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 2.9 to 3.8 have been recorded in Alfalfa County since about 10 p.m. Wednesday.
10. According to Reuters, A fire at a warehouse in China has killed at least 17 people, state news agency Xinhua said on Friday, the latest disaster in a country with a poor record on work safety. The fire broke out at on Thursday afternoon on the fourth floor of a small wholesale market in Huidong county in the southern province of Guangdong. It took more than six hours for firefighters to bring the blaze under control, Xinhua added. It did not provide further details.
As you go throughout this day, keep this word in mind: Proverbs 21:21 says, “Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.”
Pat Riley said, “If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges.”
God loves you. He always has and He always will. He loves you so much that the Bible says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, why don’t you get to know Him today. Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose by the power of God for you. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will. Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Thanks so much for listening. May God bless your day.
