By Jan Markell   |  www.olivetreeviews.org Church issues are the most frequent inquiry I get here at Olive Tree Ministries. Other leaders tell me the same. What has happened in the last 30-40 years? Many people visit church after church only to walk away disheartened. Others are lifetime members of a church and have seen changes that left it unrecognizable — spiritually […]

State Farm on Tuesday agreed to pay $250 million to settle a suit alleging it secretly worked to help elect an Illinois high court justice in order to overturn a billion-dollar judgment against it. The deal, which was preliminary by U.S. District Judge David Herndon from the bench, ends some 20 years of litigation on the same day trial was set to […]

What were you doing 62 years ago today? Today is one of those days that lives forever in my mind – like my birthday – Pearl Harbor Day – Sept 11th – and other memorable dates. As I was waking up I was thinking of where I was 62 years ago.  I was sitting with my fianc`e, his brother and […]

By: Tara Copp   |   Military Times Blackwater founder Erik Prince thinks the time is right to try a new approach in Afghanistan, one that he says will reduce war spending to a sliver of its current levels, get most troops home and eliminate Pakistan’s influence on U.S. policy there: Let him run it. In an exclusive interview with Military Times, Prince shared […]

An unidentified gunman on Wednesday shot and killed a Philippines mayor accused by President Rodrigo Duterte of involvement in the illegal drug trade. Mariano Blanco, the mayor of the town of Ronda in Cebu province, died after being shot in his office building. Provincial police said they could not immediately identify a suspect or motive. The killing came five months […]

The U.S. trade deficit grew in July for the second month in a row, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The import-export gaps with China and the European Union reached record levels despite President Trump’s effort to use tariffs and renegotiated trade agreements to pressure trading partners into giving the U.S. more favorable terms. The Commerce Department said the overall deficit […]

Hurricane Florence, the first major hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic season, churned toward the U.S. but remained far out in the Atlantic on Wednesday. The storm reached Category 4 status on Wednesday, with top sustained winds of 130 miles per hour, but it weakened overnight, with its top winds decreasing to 115 mph. It could hit the East Coast next […]

Dick Durbin (D-IL): “Why [are these protests] happening for the first time in the history of this committee? … You are the nominee of President Donald John Trump.” “Judges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests; they […]

For some, it’s almost unthinkable. Who’d want to be free from Medicare? Perhaps those who realize that Medicare is almost bankrupt, that by law they can’t pay cash to get the care Medicare denies unless an ‘Advance Beneficiary Notice’ was signed, and that terms like “privatizing Medicare” (narrow-network health plans) and “negotiating drug prices” (drug formularies) are simply code words for rationing care. […]

The new Democrat Party: Another old white guy was defeated by a younger female socialist of color. There’s a trend in the Democrat Party illustrated by yet another primary upset Tuesday, when 10-term Demo Rep. Mike Capuano of Boston was defeated by Ayanna Pressley. Like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 57-42 defeat of 10-term Rep. Joe Crowley, the number four House Democrat, in June, the […]

The PTV magazine is one that I subscribe to in hard copy.  Each issue has great articles but this one REALLY struck me and I have to share it with all of you.  You can go to the web site to see the other articles at https://ptvtoday.com/articles/ – all are worthwhile – and some of you may be inclined to […]

By Daniel J. Mitchell  |  Mises Institute The Washington Post opines this is nothing but “government bashing,” but this chart from my former colleague Chris Edwards should be more than enough evidence to show that federal bureaucrats have a big advantage over workers in the economy’s productive sector. And there is plenty of additional evidence that federal employment is very attractive. For instance, it’s just about impossible to […]

Dear Praying Friends, Dr. Kenyn Cureton (bio) leads FRC’s nationwide ministry to pastors and churches. A pastor for 20 years and a New Testament scholar, Dr. Cureton’s passion is to study, preach, and teach American history from the perspective of Divine Providence. Here is an excerpt from his 366-day devotional Lost Episodes in American History: On November 10, 1864, Abraham […]

Did you know Assyria was the world’s first empire? It was located in what is today Syria and Iraq. It was mentioned by name in the Book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 14: “And the name of the third river is Hiddekel (Tigris): that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria.” Around the year 2371 BC, as related […]

September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 116 days remaining until the end of the year. Holidays Christian feast days: Begga Chagnoald Gondulphus of Metz September 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Armed Forces Day (São Tomé and Príncipe) Defence Day or Army Day (Pakistan) Flag Day (Bonaire) Independence Day, […]

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church. – Ephesians 5:25  Early in their marriage, the well- known preacher W. E. Sangster (1900-1960) told his wife, “I can’t be a good husband and a good minister. I am going to be a good minister.” Sangster was in demand as a preacher and lecturer and was often away […]