CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY
A free service of Jesus Christ is Lord Ministries
News selected and edited by Ray Mossholder
TOP SIX NEWS STORIES Saturday afternoon, March 8, 2014
Airplane vanishes in mid–air. Russia warns it will strike America back. The name of Jesus stirs debate. Rand Paul wins important Republican poll. Spelling bee was stifling. Morning will come early tomorrow.
These are the five top stories to this hour:
Terrorism now suspected: Search and rescue crews from several countries were scrambling today to locate a Malaysia Airlines plane with 239 people aboard, including three Americans, that disappeared after losing contact with air traffic control on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The airline said the Boeing 777-200 “lost contact” with Subang Air Traffic Control at 2:40 a.m., two hours into the flight. The plane had been expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 this morning. Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said there was no indication that the pilots had sent a distress signal, suggesting that whatever happened to the plane occurred quickly and possibly catastrophically. Two passengers on the plan have now been discovered to have used stolen passports.
Russia threatens America with retaliation: Russia has again warned the United States that any sanctions imposed on Moscow over its response to the crisis in Ukraine would “boomerang” back on the United States, as U.S. officials continued to explore ways to resolve the standoff diplomatically. In a telephone conversation with Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that U.S. sanctions could “backfire” and urged the U.S. not to take “hasty, poorly thought-out steps that could harm Russian-U.S. Relations. Sanctions…would inevitably hit the United States like a boomerang.”
There is mighty power in the name of Jesus:A chaplain’s prayer invoking the name of Jesus to open council meetings in a northeast Ohio city is stirring debate over separation of church and state. For years it was traditional to begin Cuyahoga Falls council meetings with quotes, poems or a moment of silence. That changed after councilman Terry Mader was appointed council chaplain in January and began ending his prayer with the phrase, “In Jesus’ name, we pray.” Some residents are asking for a general invocation that doesn’t single out a particular religion while others are urging the council to keep the chaplain’s prayer as is. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled prayers before public meetings are constitutional but is currently weighing a challenge involving mainly Christian prayers.
Rand Paul wins Republican straw poll: Kentucky GOP Libertarian Senator Rand Paul has won the CPAC straw poll Saturday for potential 2016 presidential candidates, taking first place for the second straight year. The first term senator won 31 percent of the vote, ahead of second-place finisher Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz who took 11 percent. They were among a crowded field of hopefuls on the ballot at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference gathering in suburban Maryland. “I am grateful to all the attendees who stood with me,” Paul said afterward. “Together we will fight for what is right. Thank you and onwards to victory.” The results are considered a key indicator of what conservative voters are thinking and how they might vote in 2016. The third-place finisher was Dr. Ben Carson, with 11 percent. He was followed by New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie, 9 percent; Wisconsin GOP. Gov. Scott Walker, 7 percent; former Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Rick Santorum, and Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, at 6 percent. Rubio finished second last year. CPAC officials said 25 potential candidates were on the ballot and that roughly 2,000 people who attended the event voted.
Exhausting spelling bee is finally over: A marathon spelling bee finally has a conclusion — after nearly 100 rounds and two weeks of anticipation. A seventh-grader and fifth-grader exhausted the Jackson County spelling bee’s initial word list February 22, forcing another day of competition. Today the seventh-grader was declared the winner after his opponent stumbled on “stifling” in the 28th round. Kush Sharma, who attends a Kansas City charter school, accurately spelled “definition” in the next round to claim the title and move on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May. Sharma and Hoffman were the last two standing last month after 19 rounds. It took them several hours and an additional 47 rounds to force break the spell.
Remember to set your clock back one hour tonight: Your clock should go backwards tonight. Daylight savings time will have arrived. Before you go to bed, reset all the clocks and watches in your house and the clock in your car to 60 minutes earlier. It’s also a good time to put new batteries in warning devices such as smoke detectors and hazard warning radios. The time change is not observed by Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas. Daylight saving time ends November 2.
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Most human troubles come from the fact that humans have too much time on their hands and not enough time on their knees
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CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY – TOP SIX NEWS STORIES THROUGH MIDAFTERNOON March 8, 2014