BELFAST MIRACLE

Back from the dead?

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I have mentioned before the Florida Outpouring currently ongoing at Lakelands in the U.S.A. ( see :THE FLORIDA REVIVAL ) under the ministry of Canadian Todd Bentley. One of the features of these meetings is the amount of Christians who have travelled from other countries to take ‘the fire’ back to their own place and this piece from the Belfast News Letter (a secular newspaper) shows how believers are operating in the miraculous far from the place of the Revivals origin. Bentley always said that this would be a media revival and he regularly invites the glare of media spotlight to investigate the ‘miracles’ ,offering before and after medical reports to authenticate them. Already he has appeared on Fox News with Jeraldo Rivera where the medical reports to back up the miraculous claims were sought by the sceptical reporter, since that interview the documentation has been forwarded.Here is the full story from the News Letter including the original headline… ~ GOSh.~

Teenager 'back from the dead' after crash

AN ELIM Church in Belfast is claiming that a teenager came "back from the dead" after a serious car crash.
The case is being linked into an international Pentecostalist healing phenomenon, which began in Florida.Dozens of people are now flocking nightly to services at the church in Tigers Bay, north Belfast.Members say that 18-year-old Andrew Duffin was dead for 16 minutes on a hospital operating table, but revived after his father, who is a Christian, sent out a prayer appeal through American preacher Todd Bentley.But last night other observers voiced a note of caution and a Presbyterian minister who has worked in divine healing said that while miracles can happen, he had not personally witnessed any on that scale.The 18-year-old was seriously injured when the car he was travelling in smashed into a wall along the Newtownbreda Road at around 5am on Saturday, May 3.He says he was unaware he was being carried in a stolen car and was left to die in the backseat after the driver and front seat passenger ran off.Andrew said: "I was taken to the Royal Victoria hospital. I have only been told this, of course, as I remember nothing. I had been drinking for a few hours before the crash."I know now that my bowel was ruptured and I was filled with poison but the hospital did not operate on me until the Sunday."When I was taken to theatre the doctors opened me up and I had a heart attack. The doctors then told me I died for 16 minutes on the table."I had a heart attack, my lungs collapsed, my kidneys stopped and then my organs all stopped I was told. They had given up on me."The first thing I remember is the feeling of sinking into black. I suppose that was me dying. Then I remember hearing one of the doctors saying 'he is alive'."He said: "I was in hospital a total of six weeks. I am now totally healed, have no brain injury which is pretty unheard of for what I have come through."Andrew admitted he had not believed in God."I am not a Christian nor a church-goer but I do believe this is a miracle. I know it was God who saved me."I am going to change my life now this has happened because I have been given a second chance."Last night the Rev Stephen Williamson from Ballywillan Presbyterian Church – who once worked in divine healing – said he did not want to comment specifically on Andrew's injuries because he had no personal knowledge of it.He said: "Miracles can happen. No miracles on that scale have happened in my experience. But I have contacts all around the world who report incredible things happening. If you read through the New Testament amazing things were happening and God has not changed but what may have changed along the way is our expectation."Even the fact we are talking about a miracle it is something out of the ordinary. Not the normal way that God would work. It is something beyond our understanding whether it happened medically or spiritually."To say that God cannot do that would be wrong because that limits what God is.
We believe that God is all powerful and therefore quite capable of bringing something back from the dead but it is not something that happens normally.”Last night, a spokeswoman from the Royal Victoria Hospital said: “We can confirm this man was a recent patient in intensive care.” She declined to comment on his injuries.

The Belfast News Letter

THINKING IT OUT !

The philosopher takes a coffee-break

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SARTRE'S COFFEE

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The French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre was sitting in a cafe when a waitress approached him: "Can I get you something to drink, Monsieur Sartre?"
Sartre replied, "Yes, I'd like a cup of coffee with sugar, but no cream".
Nodding agreement, the waitress walked off to fill the order and Sartre returned to working. A few minutes later, however, the waitress returned and said, "I'm
sorry, Monsieur Sartre, we are all out of cream -- how about with no milk?"

FACING THE MUSIC !

O.K. NOW, SIT UP !

BRAINY ?

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It’s that time of year again when the summer holiday season is nigh upon us and those hazy lazy days are rolling out before us. With the bodies bristling under scorching sunshine (fingers crossed!) and the brain in mortal danger of atrophy from lack of activity, we have compiled this stash of mind benders to keep you in intellectual ship-shape! Also participating in this exercise shows solidarity with all those poor beleaguered students sitting their Leaving Certs around now.The answers will be revealed in a future blog in a week or two…so get to it. ~GOSh.~






<< This picture should reveal a man playing a saxophone and a young woman!


1. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him?



Say the words aloud and then the colour as fast as you can, you willprobably fluff a few words as your brain strains to alternate between its left and right side! >>

2. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and grey when you throw it away?


3 Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?



4. This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out.




Apparently there are nine people concealed in this picture...spot six and your average get all nine and open up your own private-eye service! >>

In Christ Alone Worship Video with Lyrics

This stirring hymn from the pens of Keith Getty and Stuart Townend lifts the heart and refreshes the spirit. Sit back and enjoy !

FAITH

It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed

you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows

and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with

such big branches that the birds of the air

can perch in its shade.”. (Mark 4:30-33)

,

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from... THE ANCIENT SAGE

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Thou canst not prove the Nameless, O my son,

Nor canst thou prove the world thou movest in,

Thou canst not prove that thou art body alone,

Nor canst thou prove that thou art spirit alone,

Nor canst thou prove that thou art both in one:

Thou canst not prove thou art immortal, no

Nor yet that thou art mortal—nay my son,
Thou canst not prove that I, who speak with thee,

Am not thyself in converse with thyself,

For nothing worthy proving can be proven,

Nor yet disproven: wherefore thou be wise,

Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt,

And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith

She reels not in the storm of warring words,

She brightens at the clash of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’,

She sees the Best that glimmers thro’ the Worst,

She feels the Sun is hid but for a night,

She spies the summer thro’ the winter bud,

She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls,

She hears the lark within the songless egg,

She finds the fountain where they wail’d ‘Mirage’!

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Alfred Lord Tennyson

A TOWER OF SONG

Onstage in Dublin

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LEONARD ON LISBON

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The living legend that is Leonard Cohen played a couple of concerts in Dublin recently to packed and appreciative crowds. At 73 the master wordsmith and purveyor of smooth tunes regaled the audiences with his finely honed songs and wry humour. At the end of one of the concerts the following topical comment was uttered to a delighted audience by the one with the 'golden voice'...

"You had a vote on Europe during the week".

The crowd cheers.

"Congratulations to you Ireland.

Still bewildering the world".