Parents need to awake, and purify their souls by practicing the truth in their home life. When we reach the standard that the Lord would have us reach, worldlings will regard Seventh-day Adventists as odd, singular, straight-laced extremists. “We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.” RH January 9,  1894, par. 10

JULIA FRANKEL

Mon, May 26, 2025 at 1:40 PM GMT+35 min read

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APTOPIX Israel Palestinians

Israelis wave national flags during a march marking Jerusalem Day, an Israeli holiday celebrating the capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, in Jerusalem’s Old City, Monday, May 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

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JERUSALEM (AP) — Chanting “Death to Arabs” and singing “May your village burn,” groups of young Israeli Jews made their way through Muslim neighborhoods of Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday during an annual march marking Israel’s conquest of the eastern part of the city.

We were ourselves refreshed by the Spirit of the Lord. That night I dreamed that I was in Battle Creek looking out from the side glass at the door and saw a company marching up to the house, two and two. They looked stern and determined. I knew them well and turned to open the parlor door to receive them, but thought I would look again. The scene was changed. The company now presented the appearance of a Catholic procession. One bore in his hand a cross, another a reed. And as they approached, the one carrying a reed made a circle around the house, saying three times: “This house is proscribed. The goods must be confiscated. They have spoken against our holy order.” Terror seized me, and I ran through the house, out of the north door, and found myself in the midst of a company, some of whom I knew, but I dared not speak a word to them for fear of being betrayed. I tried to seek a retired spot where I might weep and pray without meeting eager, inquisitive eyes wherever I turned. I repeated frequently: “If I could only understand this! If they will tell me what I have said or what I have done!” 1T 577.2

Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.Acts 13 : 46

The sins of Babylon will be laid open. The fearful results of a union of Church and State, the inroads of Spiritualism, the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power,—all will be unmasked. By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred. Thousands upon thousands have never listened to words like these. In amazement they hear the testimony that Babylon is the church, fallen because of her errors and sins, because of her rejection of the truth sent to her from Heaven. The people go to their former teachers with the eager inquiry, Are these things so? The ministers present fables, prophesy smooth things, to soothe their fears, and quiet the awakened  conscience.  4SP 424.1

I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.John 5 : 43

Palestinian shopkeepers closed early and police lined the alleys ahead of the march that often becomes a rowdy and sometimes violent procession of ultranationalist Jews. A police officer raised his arms in celebration at one point, hugging a marcher. It was blazing hot, with temperatures hitting 98 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) in late afternoon.

Police kept a close watch as demonstrators jumped, danced and sang.

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Hours earlier, a small group of protesters, including an Israeli member of parliament, stormed a compound in east Jerusalem belonging to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.Acts 17 : 5

The march commemorates Jerusalem Day, which marks Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war. The event threatened to inflame tensions that are rife in the city after nearly 600 days of war in Gaza.

Papists, Protestants, and worldlings will … see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium.25
“The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:10. When the reasoning of philosophy has banished the fear of God’s judgments; when religious teachers are pointing forward to long ages of peace and prosperity, and the world are absorbed in their rounds of business and pleasure, planting and building, feasting and merrymaking, rejecting God’s warnings and mocking His messengers—then it is that sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape. 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Mar 260.2 – Mar 260.3

Pope Francis Common Home Game : “This is our home, 🏡 this is our state,”

Jerusalem lies at the heart of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Each sees the city as a key part of their national and religious identity. It is one of the most intractable issues of the conflict and is often a flashpoint.

But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.Galatians 4 : 26, While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.2 Corinthians 4 : 18

Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its eternal, undivided capital. Its annexation of east Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. Palestinians want an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

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Last year’s procession, during the first year of the war in Gaza, saw ultranationalist Israelis attack a Palestinian journalist in the Old City and call for violence against Palestinians. Four years ago, the march helped set off an 11-day war in Gaza.

There are many in the church who at heart belong to the world, but God calls upon those who claim to believe the advanced truth, to rise above the present attitude of the popular churches of today. Where is the self-denial, where is the cross-bearing that Christ has said should characterize his followers?  RH January 9,  1894, par. 10

Tour buses carrying young ultranationalist Jews lined up near entrances to the Old City, bringing hundreds from outside Jerusalem, including settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

After this year’s march ended, Arab shopkeepers darted outside to begin scrubbing their shops, now covered with stickers reading “Gaza is ours.”

Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.Micah 2 : 10

“Dance of Flags,”!

Police, who called the procession the “Dance of Flags,” said they had detained a number of people and “acted swiftly to prevent violence, confrontations and provocations.”

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Speaking in an east Jerusalem archaeological park located in a Palestinian neighborhood, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to “preserve a united, whole Jerusalem, and the sovereignty of Israel.” He said the government was encouraging foreign embassies to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and investing billions of shekels in the city’s development.

Volunteers from the pro-peace organization Standing Together and the Free Jerusalem collective, which works with Palestinians in Jerusalem, tried to position themselves between the marchers and residents to prevent violence.

One shopkeeper swept the floor after marchers tipped over his bale of bay leaves. A group of young Jewish Israelis followed a Palestinian woman through the streets, calling her “charmouta” — Arabic for “whore.”

“This is our home, this is our state,” one protester shouted at a Palestinian woman.

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“Go away from here!” she responded, in Hebrew.

Increased Jewish visits to a flashpoint holy site

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the country’s police force, visited a hilltop compound holy to Jews and Muslims, where Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are located. One Israeli lawmaker, Yitzhak Kroizer, could be seen praying.

Perceived encroachments by Jews on the site have set off widespread violence on a number of occasions going back decades. Hamas accused Israel of “desecrating” the site when it launched its Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

“We are marking a holiday for Jerusalem,” Ben-Gvir said, accompanied by other lawmakers and a rabbi. “There are truly many Jews flooding the Temple Mount. How nice to see that.”

The work of Sabbath reform to be accomplished in the last days is foretold in the prophecy of Isaiah: “Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice; for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.” “The sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer.” [Isaiah 56:1, 2, 6, 7.]
These words apply in the Christian age, as is shown by the context: “The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.” [Isaiah 56:8.] Here is foreshadowed the gathering in of the Gentiles by the gospel. And upon those who then honor the Sabbath, a blessing is pronounced. Thus the obligation of the fourth commandment extends past the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, to the time when his servants should preach to all nations the message of glad tidings. GC88 451.1 – GC88 451.2

Beyadenu, an activist group that encourages Jewish visits to the site, said dozens of people had ascended to the compound draped in the Israeli flag, and had prayed there.

Since Israel captured the site in 1967, a tenuous understanding between Israeli and Muslim religious authorities at the compound has allowed Jews — who revere the site as the Temple Mount, the location of the biblical temples — to visit but not pray there.

Ben-Gvir said he is changing that status quo. Palestinians say it has long been eroding because of an increase in Jewish visits.

“Today, thank God, it is possible to pray on the Temple Mount,” Ben-Gvir said, according to a statement from his office.

[21] Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. [22] Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. [23] But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. [24] God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.John 4 : 21-24

The prime minister’s office said there has been no change to the status quo. Police said Monday’s march would not enter the site.

Jerusalem Day march has been dominated by young nationalist and religious Israelis.

For many in Israel, Jerusalem Day is a joyous occasion that marks a moment of redemption in their country’s history, when access to the key Jewish holy site of the Western Wall was restored and the city was unified. But in recent years, the Jerusalem Day march has been dominated by young nationalist and religious Israelis.

Protesters storm U.N. compound in Jerusalem

UNRWA West Bank coordinator Roland Friedrich said around a dozen Israeli protesters, including Yulia Malinovsky, one of the legislators behind an Israeli law that banned UNRWA, forcefully entered the compound, climbing its main gate in view of Israeli police.

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Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.Psalm 60 : 4, In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.Ephesians 2 : 22, Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.
Zechariah 8 : 3

Edom’s housing minister examine how to “rebuild Walls of Jerusalem!”

Protesters held a banner calling for the compound to be turned into an Israeli settlement. Israel’s housing minister said last year he had instructed the ministry to “examine how to return the area to the state of Israel and utilize it for housing.”

Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.Malachi 1 : 4, Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.Matthew 23 : 38 

Israel has accused the agency, the biggest aid provider in Gaza, of being infiltrated by Hamas, allegations the U.N. has denied.

The prophet thus points out the ordinance which has been forsaken: “Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” [Isaiah 58:12, 13.] This prophecy also applies in our time. The breach was made in the law of God when the Sabbath was changed by the Romish power. But the time has come for that divine institution to be restored. The breach is to be repaired, and the foundation of many generations to be raised up. GC88 452.3

There was no immediate comment from Israeli police.

The compound has stood mainly empty since the end of January, after UNRWA asked staff not to work from there, fearing for their safety. The U.N. says it has not vacated the compound and that it is protected under international law.

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Christ had given precious gems of truth, but men had bound them up in the rubbish of superstition and error. He had imparted to them the words of life, but they did not live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He saw that the world could not find the word of God, for it was hidden by the traditions of men. He came to place before the world the relative importance of heaven and earth, and put truth in its own place.  RH February 18,  1890, par. 3

WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY

Tue, May 27, 2025 at 8:23 AM GMT+34 min read

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Mideast Wars Gaza Eating from Garbage

In a sign of growing desperation, Islam Abu Taeima, a 40-year-old mother of five, grabs a piece of bread from a pile of garbage in Gaza City, Sunday, May 25, 2025.(AP Photo/(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — With flies buzzing all around them, the woman and her daughter picked through the pile of garbage bags for scraps of food at the foot of a destroyed building in Gaza City. She found a small pile of cooked rice, a few scraps of bread, a box with some smears of white cheese still inside.

I hope you will regard this as a most precious opportunity to <pray and> counsel together; and if the injunction of the apostle to esteem others better than ourselves is carefully heeded, then you can in humility of mind, with the spirit of Christ, search the Scriptures carefully to see what is truth. The truth can lose nothing by close investigation. Let the Word of God speak for itself; let it be its own interpreter, and the truth will shine like precious gems amid the rubbish 5LtMs, Lt 20, 1888, par. 1

Islam Abu Taeima picked soggy bits from a piece of bread and put the dry part in her sack. She will take what she found back to the school where she and hundreds of other families live, boil it and serve it to her five children, she said.

“We’re dying of hunger,” she said. “If we don’t eat, we’ll die.”

Christ was the originator of all the ancient gems of truth. Through the work of the enemy these truths had been displaced. They had been disconnected from their true position and placed in the framework of error. Christ’s work was to re-adjust and establish the precious gems in the framework of truth. The principles of truth which had been given by Himself to bless the world had, through Satan’s agency, been buried and had apparently become extinct. Christ rescued them from the rubbish of error, gave them a new, vital force, and commanded them to shine as precious jewels and stand fast forever. Christ Himself could use any of these old truths without borrowing the smallest particle for He had originated them all. He had cast them into the minds and thoughts of each generation, and when He came to our world, He re-arranged and vitalized the truths which had become dead, making them more forcible for the benefit of future generations. It was Jesus Christ who had the power of rescuing the truths from the rubbish and again giving them to the world with more than their original freshness and power. 6LtMs, Ms 25, 1890, par. 10

Her rummaging for food is a new sign of the depths of desperation being reached in Gaza, where the population of some 2.3 million has been pushed toward famine by Israel’s nearly three-month blockade. The entry of a small amount of aid in the past week has done almost nothing to ease the situation.

There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.Isaiah 24 : 11, But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.Luke 5 : 38, And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:Ephesians 6 : 17

Before the war, it was rare to see anyone searching through garbage for anything, despite the widespread poverty in the Gaza Strip.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.Ephesians 6 : 12

We have an infinite Redeemer, and how precious are the gems of truth that testify to this in God’s Word. But these precious jewels have been buried beneath a mass of rubbish, of tradition, and heresies, which Satan himself has originated. His schemes are working with a strange power upon human minds to eclipse the value of Christ to those who believe in Him. The enemy of God and man has cast a spell over those who profess to be the followers of Christ until of many it can be said, They know not the time of their visitation. 6LtMs, Ms 21, 1890, par. 10

Since Israel launched its military campaign decimating the strip after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, it has been common to see children searching through growing, stinking piles of uncollected garbage for wood or plastic to burn in their family’s cooking fire or for anything worth selling — but not for food. For food, they might search through the rubble of damaged buildings, hoping for abandoned canned goods.

But Abu Taeima says she has no options left. She and her 9-year-old daughter Waed wander around Gaza City, looking for leftovers discarded in the trash.

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“This is our life day to day,” she said. “If we don’t gather anything, then we don’t eat.”

Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.Exodus 16 : 26

It’s still not common, but now people picking food from trash are occasionally seen. Some come out after dark because of the shame.

The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.John 3 : 2, And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.Luke 2 : 8 

“I feel sorry for myself because I’m educated and despite that I’m eating from the trash,” said Abu Taeima, who has a bachelor’s degree in English from Al-Quds Open University in Gaza.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?John 3 : 10

Oh, what a lesson is this wonderful story of Bethlehem! How it rebukes our unbelief, our pride and self-sufficiency. How it warns us to beware, lest by our criminal indifference we also fail to discern the signs of the times, and therefore know not the day of our visitation.
It was not alone upon the hills of Judea, not among the lowly shepherds only, that angels found the watchers for Messiah’s coming. In the land of the heathen also were those that looked for Him; they were wise men, rich and noble, the philosophers of the East. Students of nature, the Magi had seen God in His handiwork. From the Hebrew Scriptures they had learned of the Star to arise out of Jacob, and with eager desire they awaited His coming, who should be not only the “Consolation of Israel,” but a “Light to lighten the Gentiles,” and “for salvation unto the ends of the earth.” Luke 2:25, 32; Acts 13:47. They were seekers for light, and light from the throne of God illumined the path for their feet. While the priests and rabbis of Jerusalem, the appointed guardians and expounders of the truth, were shrouded in darkness, the Heaven-sent star guided these Gentile strangers to the birthplace of the newborn King.
It is “unto them that look for Him” that Christ is to “appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Hebrews 9:28. Like the tidings of the Saviour’s birth, the message of the second advent was not committed to the religious leaders of the people. They had failed to preserve their connection with God, and had refused light from heaven; therefore they were not of the number described by the apostle Paul: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” 1 Thessalonians 5:4, 5. GC 315.1 – GC 315.3

the main U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and the biggest employer in Gaza.

Her family struggled to get by even before the war, she said. Abu Taeima has worked for a short time in the past as a secretary for UNRWA, the main U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and the biggest employer in Gaza. She also worked as a reader for blind people. Her husband worked briefly as a security guard for UNRWA. He was wounded in the 2021 war between Hamas and Israel and has been unable to work since.

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Israel cut off all food, medicine and other supplies to Gaza on March 2. It said the blockade and its subsequent resumption of the war aimed to pressure Hamas to release the hostages it still holds. But warnings of famine have stoked international criticism of Israel.

“As the controversy extends into new fields, and the minds of the people are called to God’s downtrodden law, Satan is astir. The power attending the message will only madden those who oppose it. The clergy will put forth almost superhuman efforts to shut away the light, lest it should shine upon their flocks. By every means at their command they will endeavor to suppress the discussion of these vital questions. The church appeals to the strong arm of civil power, and in this work papists and Protestants unite. As the movement for Sunday enforcement becomes more bold and decided, the law will be invoked against commandment-keepers. They will be threatened with fines and imprisonment, and some will be offered positions of influence and other rewards and advantages as inducements to renounce their faith…. Conscientious obedience to the Word of God will be treated as rebellion.” RH April 27,  1911, par. 20

Aid trucks were looted or because of Israeli military restrictions on aid workers’ movements

It allowed several hundred trucks into Gaza last week. But much of it hasn’t reached the population, either aid trucks were looted or because of Israeli military restrictions on aid workers’ movements, especially in northern Gaza, according to the U.N. Aid groups say the amount of supplies allowed in is nowhere near enough to meet mounting needs.

Abu Taeima and her family fled their home in the Shati refugee camp on the northern side of Gaza City in November 2023. At the time she and one of her children were wounded in a tank shelling, she said.

They first headed to the strip’s southernmost city of Rafah where they sheltered in a tent

They first headed to the strip’s southernmost city of Rafah where they sheltered in a tent for five months. They then moved to the central town of Deir al-Balah a year ago when Israel first invaded Rafah.

And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.Acts 8 : 26

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During a two-month ceasefire that began in January, they went back to Shati, but their landlord refused to let them back into their apartment because they couldn’t pay rent, she said.

And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;Matthew 24 : 49

Several schools-turned-shelters in Gaza City at first refused to receive them because they were designated for people who fled towns in northern Gaza. Only when she threatened to set herself and her family on fire did one school give them a space, she said.

Charity kitchens, run out of food!

Abu Taeima said her family can’t afford anything in the market, where prices have skyrocketed for the little food that remains on sale. She said she has tried going to charity kitchens, but every time they run out of food before she gets any. Such kitchens, producing free meals, have become the last source of food for many in Gaza, and giant crowds flood them every day, pushing and shoving to get a meal.

No one is going to be generous with you!

“People are struggling, and no one is going to be generous with you,” she said. “So collecting from the trash is better.”

And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.Acts 16 : 9

The risk of catching disease isn’t at the top of her list of worries.

Extremists? :Starvation is the biggest disease!

“Starvation is the biggest disease,” she said.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:Amos 8 : 11

___

Magdy reported from Cairo.

[18] And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion? and he said unto them, If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle. [19] And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them,….. [20] But Samson’s wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.

Judges 14 : 18-20

Nidal al-Mughrabi

Sun, May 25, 2025 at 12:57 PM GMT+32 min read

281

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli military strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including a senior rescue service official and a journalist, local health authorities said.

The latest deaths in the Israeli campaign resulted from separate Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the south, Jabalia in the north and Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.

When the Pharisees afterward questioned Him concerning the lawfulness of divorce, Jesus pointed His hearers back to the marriage institution as ordained at creation. “Because of the hardness of your hearts,” He said, Moses “suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.” Matthew 19:8. He referred them to the blessed days of Eden, when God pronounced all things “very good.” Then marriage and the Sabbath had their origin, twin institutions for the glory of God in the benefit of humanity. Then, as the Creator joined the hands of the holy pair in wedlock, saying, A man shall “leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one” (Genesis 2:24), He enunciated the law of marriage for all the children of Adam to the close of time. That which the Eternal Father Himself had pronounced good was the law of highest blessing and development for man. MB 63.2

In Jabalia, they said local journalist Hassan Majdi Abu Warda and several family members were killed by an airstrike that hit his house earlier on Sunday.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.Ephesians 6 : 10

No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.Mark 3 : 27

Another airstrike in Nuseirat killed Ashraf Abu Nar, a senior official in the territory’s civil emergency service, and his wife in their house, medics added.

[14] There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: [15] Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. [16] Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.Ecclesiastes 9 : 14-16

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said that Abu Warda’s death raised the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 2023 to 220.

WAR OF WORDS : My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.Psalm 119 : 139

Israel’s military said in a statement that chief of staff Eyal Zamir visited troops in Khan Younis on Sunday, telling them that “this is not an endless war” and that Hamas has lost most of its assets, including its command and control.

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“We will deploy every tool at our disposal to bring the hostages home, dismantle Hamas and dismantle its rule,” Zamir was cited as saying.

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.John 8 : 32

The statement did not address Sunday’s strikes.

Later on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC said in a statement that two of its staff – Ibrahim Eid and Ahmad Abu Hilal – had been killed in a strike on a house in Khan Younis on Saturday.

“Their killing points to the intolerable civilian death toll in Gaza. The ICRC reiterates its urgent call for a ceasefire and for the respect and protection of civilians, including medical, humanitarian relief, and civil defence personnel,” the ICRC statement added.

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In a separate statement, the Gaza media office said Israeli forces were in control of 77% of the Gaza Strip, either through ground forces or evacuation orders and bombardments that keep residents away from their homes.

As the controversy extends into new fields and the minds of the people are called to God’s downtrodden law, Satan is astir. The power attending the message will only madden those who oppose it. The clergy will put forth almost superhuman efforts to shut away the light lest it should shine upon their flocks. By every means at their command they will endeavor to suppress the discussion of these vital questions. The church appeals to the strong arm of civil power, and, in this work, papists and Protestants unite. As the movement for Sunday enforcement becomes more bold and decided, the law will be invoked against commandment keepers. They will be threatened with fines and imprisonment, and some will be offered positions of influence, and other rewards and advantages, as inducements to renounce their faith. But their steadfast answer is: “Show us from the word of God our error”—the same plea that was made by Luther under similar circumstances. Those who are arraigned before the courts make a strong vindication of the truth, and some who hear them are led to take their stand to keep all the commandments of God. Thus light will be brought before thousands who otherwise would know nothing of these truths.
Conscientious obedience to the word of God will be treated as rebellion.  GC 607.1 – GC 608.1

The armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said in separate statements on Sunday that fighters carried out several ambushes and attacks using bombs and anti-tank rockets against Israeli forces operating in several areas across Gaza.

On Friday the Israeli military said it had conducted more strikes in Gaza overnight, hitting 75 targets including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers.

Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas militants’ cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people by Israeli tallies with 251 hostages abducted into Gaza.

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The conflict has killed more than 53,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip. Aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by David Goodman and Hugh Lawson)